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News Blights: Re-Branding Edition

Posted by on May 13, 2009 at 3:06 pm. NO Comments :

Item #1: The Republican National Committee is planning to meet in a special session next week. One of the items on their agenda will be a resolution to re-brand the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Socialist Party.” I’d like to go on record as saying that I have no problem with this as long as I can re-brand Republicans as the “National Socialist Party.”

Item #2: Has Sarah Palin signed a deal to write her memoirs? You betcha! And she’s signed with HarperCollins, the publishing arm of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The book will be co-marketed by Harper’s Christian imprint, Zondervan.The publisher says that Palin will work with a collaborator, but Palin’s agent says that every word in the book will be hers. Which begs the question: What’s the collaborator for? Perhaps she’ll need someone to keep an eye on Russia while she’s hammering out her tales of hunting Moose on the tundra – also.

Item #3: Tea Bagger Redux. The Republican Governors Association, led by South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Texas Secessionist Rick Perry, are attempting to launch Tea Party 2.0. However, this one will be strictly phoned in as it is being arranged as a conference call. The organizational role of the GOP should serve to affirm that the Tea Partiers are indeed a partisan operation, but we may want to wait until Fox News comes aboard before final certification.

Item #4: Louisiana Senator David Vitter is also jumping on the Tea Party bandwagon. He is calling for teabaggers to come together again to “Stand up and fight this July 4th, and make Washington, DC listen to you.” Vitter is redirecting considerable resources from his patronage of prostitutes so that he can promote a Tea Party that is sponsored by his reelection committee (Seriously. The website for this project was “Paid for by David Vitter for U.S. Senate”). We’ll see how many people give up their barbecues and fireworks in exchange for an afternoon of teabaggery. It’s brews vs. brewed.

News Blights: The SPINCOM Edition

Posted by on April 27, 2009 at 6:20 pm. NO Comments :

Item 1: The Fox Network has announced that it will not carry President Obama’s press conference on Wednesday, the 100th day of his presidency. ABC, CBS, and NBC have all committed to carrying it. Note that this is the Fox broadcast entertainment network, not the cable news channel, which has declined to air the presser. Still, there is some irony in that Fox has chosen to air an episode of the series “Lie To Me” instead. That’s something with which Fox should be familiar. Note also that the Fox News network has previously declined to air several Obama press affairs, even when the other cable news nets carried them.

Item 2: Newspaper circulation data for the six months ending March 2009, shows that Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post suffered the worst decline (-20.55%) of all of the top 25 papers measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. That does not compare well to the New York Times that declined only 3.55%. The New York Daily News fared worse (-14.26), but still not as bad as the Post. The Wall Street Journal was up a fraction.

Item 3: A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found the nightly newscasts devoting nearly 28 hours to Obama’s presidency in the first 50 days, about twice as much as Bush and Clinton. Of course, they weren’t facing the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression when they entered office. The study went on to report that 58% of the Obama stories on ABC, CBS and NBC, contained some positive elements. That’s a little more than half, so it could be regarded as fair and balanced. But the network that turned that phrase into a logo had only 13% positive analysis. Slanted much?

Item 4: Speaking at the Milken Global Institute Conference, Rupert Murdoch articulated a position that may come as a surprise to many, including the clowns on his news network. As reported in his own Wall Street Journal: “He said complete nationalization of the biggest banks might have been a good thing; it would have allowed the government to break up the banks’ businesses and sell them as smaller entities. That way, ‘there would be no more too big to fail firms,’ he said.” But Glenn Beck said that that way there would be Socialism!?! Rupert’s in big trouble now.

Item 5: Last year the New York Times published a story about the media using retired military analysts that were provided and trained by the Pentagon to speak approvingly about the war in Iraq and other war on terror operations. In addition, some of these allegedly neutral analysts were also on the payroll of defense contractors with vested interests in the war effort. None of these associations were disclosed by the media. Subsequent to the story in the Times, the same media virtually blacked out any reporting on the controversy. Last week the author, David Barstow, won a Pulitzer prize for the article. Guess what? The media somehow failed to report on Barstow’s award, even when reporting on the Pulitzer’s announcement of other winners.

Fox Business Network Is On The Case

Posted by on February 26, 2009 at 3:10 pm. 2 Comments :

Last year the Fox Business Network filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Treasury Department documents related to the Toxic Assets Relief Program. After filing the request, FBN launched an advertising campaign promoting their tireless efforts on behalf of the American people.

I have no problem with the FOIA requests, in fact I support them. They are an important part of a transparent democracy, and news enterprises have always used them to provide a complete picture of what our government is doing on our behalf. They do it in the interests of journalism, not some disingenuous grandstanding as protectors of the people. It is unseemly for a network to puff itself up simply for doing its job. Bloomberg also has FOIA requests pending, but they aren’t banging the drum about it.

Now the puffery is ascending to new highs of absurdity. Fox News executive vice president Kevin Magee is patting himself and his network on the back for being champions of the people. He is engaging in a sustained campaign of self-flattery that he paradoxically says “is not a wild publicity stunt.”

Magee: “One of the ways that we want to differentiate ourselves is to tell our audience that we are trying to protect their interests. We think that’s a wide-open field. CNBC seems to always be the friend of the CEO and that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. It has served them well.”

This statement is a direct contradiction of what his boss said when FBN debuted:

Rupert Murdoch: “…a Fox channel would be ‘more business-friendly than CNBC.’ That channel ‘leap[s] on every scandal, or what they think is a scandal.'”

So it is FBN that has always sought to be “the friend of the CEO.” Now, in the midst of a Wall Street driven economic collapse, they want to pretend that they are the network of the people. What a crock! The truth is, they are engaging in pure self-promotion. FBN has tried to cultivate the image of being a business channel for Main Street, not Wall Street. But from the beginning, that pretense has been as phony as their “Fair and Balanced” sloganeering for Fox News.

On top of all of this, FBN wants to claim as their victory something that is not really a victory and with which they had little to do anyway. Documents referenced in the FOIA request have already begun flowing. Over 1,200 have been released, 300 of which were previously undisclosed. FBN’s attempt to take credit for this is plausible only if you completely forget that President Obama, on his first full day in office, issued an executive order requiring agencies in his administration to cooperate with FOIA requests. This explicitly reversed a Bush executive order that mandated withholding information if at all possible.

Emerging from the secrecy-obsessed world of George W. Bush may feel strange, but FBN should recognize that they haven’t moved any mountains. They are just in a new era of openness that makes news gathering a little easier. It is more than a little pathetic that somebody else loosened the top of the jelly jar and FBN thinks they’ve grown new muscles.

News Blights: January 8, 2009

Posted by on January 8, 2009 at 3:48 pm. NO Comments :

Item 1: The host of MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews, has decided not to join the race for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. In doing so he has resisted a groundswell of support from hard-of-hearing misogynists throughout the state. Some reports suggested that Matthews was only floating the campaign as a means of enhancing his contract negotiations with MSNBC. If so, it worked for MSNBC, because Matthews will be re-signing for less than half of his previous salary.

Item 2: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN, has been chosen by President-elect Barack Obama as the next Surgeon General of the United States. Dr. Gupta is a practicing neurosurgeon and an effective communicator. He is also a shill for pharmaceutical corporations and a critic of universal healthcare. He famously debated Michael Moore on the Larry King Show about the accuracy of the movie Sicko. Now he will be Obama’s spokesperson on matters related to expanding healthcare to the 47 million Americans who are not presently covered.

Item 3: Congressman Mike Pence and Senator Jim DeMint have introduced bills in their respective bodies to prevent the FCC from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. The Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009 has been expressly drafted to prevent something that no one has proposed. In fact, Obama has stated his opposition to re-imposition of the Doctrine. That hasn’t stopped right-wing fear mongers from firing off panicky op-eds and fund raising appeals.

Item 4: Sarah Palin, bless her heart, is still providing more chuckles per pound than any of her contemporaries. She sat down for an interview with a rabidly conservative activist who runs a web site dedicated to insulting Obama supporters. The discussion included a fair bit of whining about her treatment by the press, including her assertion that she wanted to ditch Katie Couric after the first round of talks, but McCain’s strongmen forced her back into the lioness’ den.

Deadline News

Posted by on December 20, 2007 at 12:20 am. 1 Comments :

MPAA rejects Gibney’s ‘Dark’ poster
The MPAA has rejected the poster art for Alex Gibney’s documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side,” which traces the pattern of torture practice from Afghanistan’s Bagram prison to Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay. The reason for the rejection was the hood over the head of a prisoner. Perhaps the MPAA would have preferred if there were no hood so the prisoner’s bruises and expression of abject fear were plain to see?

Does Al-Jazeera belong in the USA?
Political pressure is keeping the network off of American TV. Politicians and pundits should not be answering this question. Cable and satellite companies ought to broadcast AJE free from political pressures; then Americans can watch it and answer for themselves. Unfortunately, politicians are even more afraid of Americans judging things for themselves than they are of Al Jazeera.

CSPAN’s coverage is 51% right wing think tank
A new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research “finds that right-wing think tanks got 51 percent of C-SPAN’s total coverage in 2006, while left-of-center think tanks only got 18 percent of their coverage (a mere 5 percent of which were ‘progressive’ think tanks). CSPAN is becoming almost as fair and balanced as Fox News.

Bill O’Reilly: The Internet is a high-tech “Lord of the Flies”
In this op-ed O’Reilly says that “The Internet is profoundly changing the behavior of American children and stunting their emotional growth.” The author of “Kids Are Americans Too” also says that “kids have always been dumb.” Of course they have. Why should they be any different than O’Reilly and his brand of “American?”

DeadLines

Posted by on September 11, 2007 at 2:42 am. 2 Comments :

nullJustice Dept. against ‘Net neutrality’
The Justice Department on Thursday said AT&T and other Big Telecom are more important than mere citizens. They believe that the industry should have the right to decide what you can and can not access on the Internet.

Democracy, the press at a critical juncture
American democracy is suffering. The natural strain on our political system after more than two centuries is accelerating with the purposeful weakening of the press. This article is one of the best on the subject of media consolidation that I’ve ever read.

Americans Feel Military Is Best at Ending the War
Despite the headline, the real news in this column is that 33 percent of all Americans, including 40 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of Democrats, say Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. That’s just so sad.

Dow Jones chief paves way for job cuts
Despite a promise from Rupert Murdoch that there would be no layoffs if he were to acquire the company, Dow Jones is talking now about layoffs.

Study finds left-wing brain, right-wing brain
Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences.

Rupert’s Attack Dog Gets Bitten, Keeps Barking
The [New York] Post hasn’t won a Pulitzer Prize since 1931 (which was well before Murdoch), a fact that pleases [editor Col] Allan. “Hopefully never!” he exclaims defiantly. “Who would want to win an award that is dished out by the hard left of American journalism? Who’d want that?” Sore loser?

DeadLines

Posted by on August 23, 2007 at 2:05 pm. NO Comments :

Bill O’Reilly’s Trespassing Producer
A Hillsborough sheriff’s deputy issued trespass warnings to O’Reilly Factor producer Jesse Watters, and staff Brian Lyle and Colin Kelly, when they tried to ambush interview Circuit Judge Manuel Lopez. O’Reilly aired Watters harassing the judge but failed to broadcast any of the encounter with the sheriff.

Non-Freedom of Information Act
In a motion filed yesterday, Justice Department lawyers argued that the Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Their reasoning: the office is not an “agency,” by the definition of FOIA. This contradicts the White House’s own web site that says the Office of Administration is subject to FOIA. But it affirms the White House’s commitment to excessive secrecy.

Censorship at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Department administrator, Nicole R. Nason, has adopted a policy that has blocked virtually all of her staff – including the communications office – from providing any information to reporters on the record, which means that it can’t be attributed. What are they trying to hide? Nason, a Bush appointee, must be making her secrecy obsessed boss very happy.

Fox/CBC Democratic presidential debate “postponed”
Fox News and a black political group say they will not hold a Sept. 23 Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, which the leading candidates already were planning to skip. Right, and I canceled my date with Angelina Jolie.

The Road to War: Iraq
On August 27, the National Geographic Channel will air a documentary on the events that led up to the invasion of Iraq. NGC is majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. I don’t want to prejudge this film, but it seems to be populated with interviews of a bunch of Bushies like Andy Card, Richard Armitage, and Mary Matalin. We’ll see where it goes.

DeadLines

Posted by on August 9, 2007 at 12:41 am. NO Comments :

Pro Bloggers to get Journalist Shield.
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would shield journalists (including bloggers) from revealing their sources . However, the bill includes several exceptions regarding terrorism, national security, imminent death, and trade secret leaks. More ominously, it was amended to define “journalist” as someone who receives “financial gain or livelihood” from their work. That would exclude an awful lot of citizen journalists.

News Nets To Allow Use of Presidential Debate Footage
ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN and NPR have all agreed to make their presidential debate footage available for relatively unrestricted use on the Web and elsewhere. Only Fox News still declines to do so. CBS has not yet carried a debate.

News Corp. Plans to Sell Ottaway Newspapers
Rupert Murdoch said today that he plans to sell the Ottaway newspaper group he’ll acquire with the purchase of Dow Jones. That’s probably good news for James Ottaway, who was amongst the most vocal critics of the DJ sale.

Freakonomics To Appear Under the Banner of the New York Times.
The New York Times has announced that they will be hosting the Freakonomics blog. Recall that the authors of Freakonomics had postulated in their book of the same title, that the drop in crime in the 1990’s was due to the availability of abortions post Roe v Wade. In other words, had the women who had those abortions not done so, their children would have grown up to be criminals.

DeadLines

Posted by on June 14, 2007 at 1:43 pm. NO Comments :

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. Just because a public official says it doesn’t mean you need to put it in your story or give his claim equal billing to what you know to be true.”

China Sentences Former Food And Drugs Chief To Death.
Zheng Xiaoyu was found guilty of accepting $852,000 (US) worth of bribes from pharmaceutical companies to expedite the approval of new drugs. How many American lawmakers and lobbyists would be on death row if this policy were in effect here?

Why The L.A. Times Called For Iraq Pullout.
Greg Mitchell at Editor and Publisher has an interesting column on how the L.A. Times went from “reluctantly” endorsing Bush’s escalation in Iraq just last month, to calling for troops to be brought home. Jim Newton, the editorial page editor at the Times, seemed surprised that, “the response from readers has been about 75% positive.” Why that would be surprising is a mystery considering that the war is opposed by about the same percentage of the city’s (and the country’s) residents.

FBI Seeking To Re-create Total Information Awareness.
The massive and intrusive data mining project that was scrapped under fire two years ago is getting a makeover by the FBI. The same FBI that was just found to be unlawfully gathering private information about citizens from Telecom, and other consumer companies.

Jolie Doesn’t Want Fox At Premiere.
Angelina Jolie requested that Fox News not be allowed to attend the premiere of her new movie, “A Mighty Heart.” Fox, upset at not being invited to the party, responds with a long diatribe against Jolie’s past tumultuous relationship with the press. The article kind of justifies her reluctance to accommodate the Fox network in particular and the press in general.

DeadLines

Posted by on April 30, 2007 at 4:21 pm. NO Comments :

News Corpse is undergoing a bit of internal enhancement, i.e. a software upgrade. Posting has been curtailed during this operation, but should resume shortly. Thanks for your patience and here are a few news nuggets to get you by.

New York Times Bows Out of White House Correspondents Dinner
After last weekend’s correspondents’ dinner, The Times decided to end its participation in such events. But even were the dinner to vanish altogether, it remains but a yearly televised snapshot of the overall syndrome. The current White House, weakened as it is, can still establish story lines as fake as ‘Mission Accomplished’ and get a free pass.

Six of the Top 25 American Newspapers Lose Subs
Of the top 10, the Los Angeles Times is the biggest loser with a decline of 4.25%.

John Stossel and Glenn Beck As Global Warming Deniars
This week will see programs by Glenn Beck on CNN Headline News and John Stossel on ABC’s 20/20, that seek to present global warming as either a myth or inconsequential. I’m sure their advertisers at GE and Exxon will be pleased.

Stephanie Miller Begins 3 Day Tryout on MSNBC
Be sure to watch. Then let MSNBC know that you would like to see her in that slot full-time: Letters to MSNBC TV.