NBC journalists pay tribute to Tim Russert.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Whereas; The Press, the Fourth Estate, is the gatekeeper of Truth in our country. If the Press does not report it, it effectively never happened as far as the all important reaction of the citizenry is concerned. Where the Press shines it's light, freedom follows.

Whereas; The Press during the Bush Administration has not only blinded its own light in regards to scandalous crimes, it has on far too many occasions, such as the lead up to the Iraq Occupation and on Domestic Spying, and in the latest instance of the Military Analysts scandal, actually aided and abetted in the criminal acts and despicable propaganda activities of the Bush Administration.

This week Joe Klein wrote a post that did not attempt to hide his disdain for his critics. While he showed a willingness to outline his reporting process and address concerns raised in his comments, he did so in an extremely defensive, thin-skinned and condescending tone. He also made the following memorably clueless assertion: "Tell me where I've been misled by my sources." His commenters quickly pointed out his factually challenged reporting on the FISA debate. They also brought up a number of other great points (Jay Rosen and Jay Ackroyd in particular), and if you don't go through all of them let's just say it is safe to be skeptical of the whole environment elite media operates in.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing









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The story of Sibel Edmonds is a remarkable example of how the executive branch has succeeded (so far) in stifling voices it doesn't want heard, and a potentially damning indictment of the media outlets that seem to be cooperating. If you haven't heard of her don't feel too badly - she hasn't gotten the kind of attention reserved for, say, Michael Bloomberg's latest inscrutable indication on whether or not he'll run for President. Her story was initially publicized by 60 Minutes in August 2004 and a year later in Vanity Fair. Edmonds was a translator at the FBI's language division, and the 60 Minutes piece reported on potentially large levels of incompetence, corruption and security breaches there. The Vanity Fair piece elaborates on it considerably, even expanding the corruption angle to the highest levels of Congress.

Joe Klein's meltdown over the past ten days or so has rightly been focused on his uncritically passing along partisan lies. By itself it's a huge ethical breach. Corrections have been tumbling out like clowns from a car. For as important as that issue alone is, there are two more issues raised by this episode: What media outlets regard as of primary importance and what their employees consider to be mainstream.

Today, I came across quite an interesting editorial over at the Philadelphia Inquirer - warning of the "dangers" of citizen journalism. Not surprisingly, it was written by someone who's part of the industry.

By John Steppling

Thomas Paine's Corner

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=270

You know, one of the things that has been interesting about our long dialogue here is that you are *there* and I am *not*. I forget, I think, what it must be like to live in the middle of the madness, of the vast necropolis of the mighty empire. Someone asked me recently if I didn’t miss the US, and in particular Los Angeles (my birthplace). I thought about it and said, “no, I don’t”. And it’s true, I don’t. I miss small things of the culture; Mexican food, good Bar B Q, and of course a lot of my old friends. But I DO NOT miss anything else. Burroughs once said, many many years ago, that whenever he left the US he felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders.

By Patrice Greanville

Thomas Paine's Corner

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=250

There’s a widespread assumption in leftwing circles that increasing concentration of media ownership is, ipso facto, the main if not sole culprit for the appalling performance of mainstream journalism in our time. Surely there’s a lot to decry, but is media consolidation and deregulation the cause for this calamity? And if the American media have indeed fallen from grace, as it is claimed, where in time do we locate this mythical “golden period” when the media establishment did measure up to its social mandate?

This time it's the media spin that I'm struck by. I noticed this lovely, twisted little quotation in a Yahoo featured AP article about Iran, about Iran's announcement that it is producing a weapons system, what it calls a smart bomb:

(Defense Minister)

Najjar was more aggressive, saying the bomb "remarkably increases Iran's defense capabilities."

The Spiral of SUCKcess in "Mainstream" News Media

by James Craven

Intro

When "news" is a commodity (an object for sale and profit) then news, along with the producers and the reporters of it, all must be bought and "sold" like any other commodities--like Cornflakes.