The ScreamClick on the pic:
Posted on 06/15/2004 7:56:45 AM PDT by Pikamax
Howard Dean: Scream 'Never Happened'
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/14/2004 3:25:00 PM
Howard Dean said the scream speech "never happened," and that its repetition more than 900 times in the following week showed cable "at its worst" and revealed cable news as a "Murdochized" entertainment medium, not journalism.
The former Vermont governor and presidential candidate calls it part of the "Murdochization," of cable, referring to the growing success of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel. "Not because Murdoch is a right winger, which he is," says Dean, "but because [Fox News Channel head] Roger Ailes is so incredibly good at what he does that the other stations [sic] are starting to copy what Fox does."
Dean told a crowd of broadcasters in Washington Monday morning that all the cable networks showed of the speech following his loss in Iowa was "me at a microphone carrying on. No crowd noise or crowd shot," that would have shown that the crowd was screaming and Dean was trying to make himself heard. None of the pool reporters reported the scream initially, he said. It was only the next day, when their editors saw it, with the noise-canceling mike making Dean stand out, that it became a story. "The speech as it was portrayed in cable television shows 937 times in one week "never happened," he said.
Of course, loads of broadcasters carried the speech too, but Dean suggested they were being driven by the cable news cycle. He told his audience they had better news instincts about what to cover than their national counterparts and should not let the 24-hour news cycle set their agendas for them.
Jim Farley, VP, news and programming, for WTOP(AM) Washington seconded Dean's assessment of the "Scream," saying reporters covering the speech had felt it was proportionate to the crowd and the occasion. "The news media done him wrong," said Farley.
Dean did not lay all the blame for his precipitous fall from front-runner to Monday-morning quarterback on cable news, however, pointing out that he had already lost Iowa and that he did not use the platform of the speech to address a national audience.
Still, Dean had little good to say about the national media, warning local broadcasters that to aspire to a national post was "the path to ruin," saying the national media "doesn't understand its role," and is too into "gotcha" journalism. He says he avoided Tim Russert and Meet the Press for months not because Russert isn't good but because of the "gotcha" fear, which turned out to be prophetic, he said, since Russert's one "bad" question, about troop strengths, came back to bite the cadidate when he finally did appear.
Dean was among the panelists at the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation's Service to America Summit in Washington Monday (B&C is a co-sponsor), where he praised local broadcasters as the "best of the bunch" at reporting the news of interest to their viewers.
He said that although President George W. Bush has been criticized for giving interviews to groups of local station bureau chiefs on the assumption he was looking for softballs, Dean thinks it was a smart move, and not because the questions would be served up on a platter. He told his audience he didn't think they asked softball questions. "I think what he really wanted to do is talk to someone who is really interested in what he has to say and less interested in writing down what they are going to write anyway. "
His advice for local broadcasters: Keep on doing what you are doing, with some caveats, including setting their own agendas, airing more positive news--which he says will help attract the 18-35 audience--and avoiding appearances of partisanship.
He says one local Vermont station owner "writes checks to the Republicans every year. I suggest not doing that," he says, because you want to avoid the perception that you are biased. He drew the analogy of the voting machine maker who wrote a letter saying he would do whatever it takes to get George Bush elected. He's free to do that, says Dean, but if it undermines the public confidence, he probably shouldn't.
As amusing as the Dean scream speech was, it's too bad that his own party had to work to bring him down. The powers that be in the demoncrat party knew that Dean would be dangerous in the campaign because he doesn't fence-sit, play to every possible group, flip-flop, and use euphemisms. He isn't afraid to call himself liberal, but the party doesn't like using that word. I would have liked to see a campaign between Bush and Dean. At least then the demoncratic candidate would have some ideas and principles of his own, misguided as they may be. At least Dean would be interesting.
Remember when Ted Turner predicted he would "squash Rupert Murdoch" like a bug?
Dean says: "His advice for local broadcasters: Keep on doing what you are doing, with some caveats, including setting their own agendas, airing more positive news--which he says will help attract the 18-35 audience--and avoiding appearances of partisanship."
I am sure that many local CBS affiliates might agree with Dean's comment to keep on "setting their own agendas". Certainly most have "agendas".
The ScreamClick on the pic:
Never happened - huh! I watched it on CSPAN. Guess I was dreaming. Who would have thunk it!
So this lunatic is blaming Murdoch? No, it was the DNC that took Dean out, running the Scream over and over again on their favorite channels.
I don't ever remember an ultra-left winger admitting that the media had the ability to misrepresent what it was reporting to the extent that it could effect outcomes. If Screamer Dean really said this, then he will be "recerse" quoted in media critiques from now on.
We know that the left wing media includes/excludes facts every day that effect public perceptions. The neocommunists and kerrorists have always said it was imagination, couldn't happen/didn't happen. Here's Dean claiming it did happen.
Blame the scream/media all he wants but he had already lost that night and his glow was dimming fast.
Little slow on the uptake, huh, Howard? We've been complaining about the alphabet networks fer'evah and you didn't listen. I suppose that now that it's about you that it counts. Dufus.
This is revisionist history. I remember the scream when it happened. I knew then that he went loco.
I wonder if it's possible to turn The Scream into a cell-phone ringtone. If so, I'd download it.
Sorry to hear that never happened, though.
Dan
Agh! RespOnsibility.
The media gave him all the push he could have ever hoped for........so much as to declare him the candidate before a single vote was cast.
He had a nice ride, blew millions upon millions of dollars and has no one to blame but himself.
Dean care to comment on CBS ordering all affiliates to air the klinton interview! That's not exactly being allowed their independence, now is it?
I have to admit, Dean was the funniest to pick on!!!!
hilarious idea!!
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