“Heavily Doctored” by MTV’s venerable newsreader, Kurt Loder, is an embarrassingly flawed and tendentious attack on Michael Moore’s new documentary “Sicko“. This tediously protracted diatribe is neither a review nor a balanced examination of the important public policy issues raised by the film. The article begins with Loder reciting several of the health care horror [...]
Monthly Archives: June 2007
Jun 30
Murdoch On Murdoch
Time Magazine joins the rush to profile the 21st century’s Minister of Propaganda, Rupert Murdoch. In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Slate, Keith Olbermann, and others have taken turns trying to analyze the man and/or the deal to consume Dow Jones and it’s pearl, the Wall Street Journal. [...]
Jun 29
Moyers On Murdoch
Bill Moyers, perhaps our country’s finest journalist, expounds on the evils of Rupert Murdoch, the Media Mephistopheles. “…Murdoch is no saint; he is to propriety what the Marquis de Sade was to chastity. When it comes to money and power he’s carnivorous: all appetite and no taste. He’ll eat anything in his path. Politicians become [...]
Jun 29
To Catch An Sleaze Monger
“I’m Chris Hanson of NBC News…” With those words the cameramen and production crew slither out of the crevices of the simulated suburban home like cockroaches freed by the dark. The would-be pervert is stunned into either silence or stuttering excuses for having shown up for a sexual encounter with a minor. It’s another gripping [...]
Jun 28
Neil Cavuto Smacked Down By Tommy Chong
The soon-to-be managing editor of the Fox Business Channel, Neil Cavuto, just got his ass whipped by this generation’s premiere stoner. Tommy Chong appeared on Cavuto’s “Your World” to discuss today’s failure of the Immigration bill. Cavuto kept trying to steer Chong into concessions on the economy, but Chong would have none of it. [...]
Jun 28
NewsBusters: Who Ya Gonna Call?
The rightist watchdogs at NewsBusters want to be viewed as the conservative answer to Media Matters. But while the proudly progressive Media Matters still adheres to a strict code of honest analysis, the NewsBlusters trade in ignorance and innuendo. Here’s a sampling from yesterday’s home page posts. In an attempt to “infuriate those still buying [...]
Jun 27
A New Pentagon Papers
A few days ago, I wrote an article warning of the danger of allowing the government and/or media to avert our attention to important matters through the Art of Misdirection. In it I alluded to the compelling notion of some patriotic Americans exposing the crimes of the Bush Administration in the same way that Daniel [...]
Jun 26
Ann Coulter’s Wish For John Edwards
In an appearance on Good Morning America, Ann Coulter described how she had learned from her past mistakes when she spewed messages of hate and discrimination. She is the featured guest tonight on Chris Matthews Hardball. I guess there is just no low too repulsive for these media bottom-feeders. Here’s the video of [...]
Jun 26
Paris Set Free – Media Still Held Hostage
Early Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles Sheriff released Paris Hilton into the wilds of La La Land. She smiled as she strutted from the jail to her limo. It was like a magical stroll down the red carpet to the premiere of her freedom. The only network with sustained coverage of the event was – [...]
Jun 25
Sicko Bumped For Psycho
Larry King Live has canceled an appearance by Michael Moore scheduled for Wednesday and replaced him with Paris Hilton in what will be her first post-jail interview. [I alluded to this briefly in my previous post but I thought it deserved a little elaboration.] This decision by King and his producers is an affirmation of [...]
Jun 25
Sitting Schmuck: Alberto Gonzales Ducks Columnists
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists awarded its “Sitting Duck“ award to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at their annual convention last weekend. “We’re giving the award to Alberto Gonzales, but can’t remember why,” quipped NSNC President Mike Argento, columnist for the York (Pa.) Daily Record. The “honor” is awarded to a person or situation that [...]
Jun 23
The Art Of Misdirection
In the past couple of days, the Bush White House has been frantically contorting itself to explain why they are above the law. Vice-President Dick Cheney claimed that he was not subject to oversight mandated by law because his role as President of the Senate means that he is not a part of the Executive [...]
Jun 22
71% Of Americans Hate America
A few days ago Gallup released a poll showing Congressional approval ratings at an all-time low of 24%. The media ate it up and flooded the zone with stories about the collapse of support for Democrats and their legislative agenda. They juxtaposed this message with another poll showing that the President’s approval had also hit [...]
Jun 22
Journalists And Political Donations
I was going to write a piece on Bill Dedman’s “investigation” for MSNBC of donations to politicians or political organizations, but journalism professor Chris Day did it for me. Thanks, Chris. The MSNBC article failed on so many journalistic grounds. It rested heavily on the notion that there was an overweighting of donations by liberal [...]
Jun 20
Trouble For Murdoch
While I still prefer my own proposal for Dow Jones, there are some new developments that we should keep our eyes on. General Electric (parent of CNBC) is talking with Pearson (parent of Financial Times) about joining to bid for Dow Jones. The deal would allow the Bancrofts to keep a share of the company. [...]
Jun 19
Bob Woodward’s Monumental Task
The Washington Post’s Assistant Managing Editor, Bob Woodward, participated in an online chat yesterday. The very first question challenged him to answer for the failures of the media leading up to the war in Iraq. Rancho Mirage, Calif.: “In light of Watergate, why did the ‘investigative’ branch of the press miss so badly on the [...]
Jun 16
Strange Culture: The Criminalization Of Art
On May 11, 2004, Hope Kurtz died in her sleep of heart failure. The next morning, her husband Steve, an artist and a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, woke up and summoned the police. What followed is the subject of the film “Strange Culture” which was featured yesterday at the [...]
Jun 15
Michael Moore On The Media
Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America to promote his new film “Sicko,” Michael Moore discussed the media’s complicity with the horror that is Iraq: “Had ABC News, NBC News, CBS News been more aggressive in confronting the government with what they were telling us back in 2003 about Iraq, you might have prevented this war,” [...]
Jun 15
Campbell Brown Joins The Dobbs Brigade At CNN
If current reports from Media Bistro (via Drudge ?) are correct, Paula Zahn will shortly be leaving CNN. That’s no big loss as far as I’m concerned. But I do worry about speculation that Campbell Brown will be filling the void. Brown is an NBC reporter who is married to Dan Senor. Senor’s resume overflows [...]
Jun 14
DeadLines
AP Editor Touts Accountability Journalism. The Associated Press’ Online Political Editor, Ron Fournier, wrote a memo to his colleagues advocating what he calls “Accountability Journalism”, but what I call simply “Journalism.” Nonetheless, it is a welcome philosophical shift if the AP lives up to it. Here’s a choice cut: “Don’t give equal weight to spin. [...]
