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Greatest sin in today's media is laziness rather than bias
Contra Costa Times ^ | 9/22/05 | Molly Ivins

Posted on 09/22/2005 9:38:39 PM PDT by Crackingham

What we need in this country -- along with a disaster relief agency -- is a Media Accountability Day. One precious day out of the entire year when everyone in the news media stops reporting on what's wrong with everyone else and devotes a complete 24-hour news cycle to looking at our own failures. How's that for a great idea?

My colleagues, of course, are persuaded that every day is Pick on the Media Day. Every day, the right wing accuses us of liberal bias and the liberals accuse us of right-wing or corporate bias -- so who needs more of this? I have long been persuaded that the news media collectively will be sent to hell not for our sins of commission, but our sins of omission. The real scandal in the media is not bias, it is laziness. Laziness and bad news judgment.

Our failure is what we miss, what we fail to cover, what we let slip by, what we don't give enough attention to -- because, after all, we have to cover Jennifer and Brad, and Scott and Laci, and Whosit who disappeared in Aruba without whom the world can scarce carry on.

Happily, the perfect news peg, as we say in the biz, for Media Accountability Day already exists -- it's Project Censored's annual release of the 10 biggest stories ignored or under-covered by mainstream media. Project Censored is based at Sonoma State University, with both faculty and students involved in its preparation.

Of course, the stories are not actually "censored" by any authority, but they do not receive enough attention to enter the public's consciousness, usually because corporate media tend to under-report stories about corporate misdeeds and government abuses.

The No. 1 pick by Project Censored this year should more than make the media the blink -- it is a much-needed deep whiff of ammonia smelling salts for the comatose: Bush administration moves to eliminate open government.

Gene Roberts, a great news editor, says we tend to miss the stories that seep and creep, the ones whose effects are cumulative, not abrupt.

This administration has drastically changed the rules on Freedom of Information Act requests; has changed laws that restrict public access to federal records, mostly by expanding the national security classification; operates in secret under the USA Patriot Act; and consistently refuses to provide information to Congress and the Government Accountability Office. The cumulative effect is horrifying.

No. 2: Iraq coverage -- faulted for failure to report the results of the two battles for Fallujah and the civilian death toll. The civilian death toll story is hard to get -- accurate numbers nowhere -- but the humanitarian disaster in Fallujah comes with impeccable sources.

No. 3: Distorted election coverage. Faulting the study that caused most of the corporate media to dismiss the discrepancy between exit polls and the vote tally; and the still-contentious question of whether the vote in Ohio needed closer examination.

No. 4: Surveillance society quietly moves in. It's another seep 'n' creep story, where the cumulative effect should send us all shrieking into the streets -- the Patriot Act, the quiet resurrection of the MATRIX program, the REAL ID Act, which passed without debate as an amendment to an emergency spending bill funding troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

No. 5: United States Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia. Oops. Ugh.

No. 6: The Real Oil for Food Scam. The oil-for-food story was rotten with political motives from the beginning -- the right used it to belabor the United Nations. The part that got little attention here was the extent to which we, the United States, were part of the scam. Harper's magazine deserves credit for its December 2004 story, "The UN is Us: Exposing Saddam Hussein's Silent Partner."

No. 7: Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood. That a lot of journalists are getting killed in Iraq is indisputable. I work with the Committee to Protect Journalists and am by no means convinced we are targeted by anyone other than terrorists. However, Project Censored honors stories about military policies that could improve the situation of those journalists who risk their lives.

No. 8: Iraqi Farmers Threatened by Bremer's Mandates. It's part of the untold story of the disastrous effort to make Iraq into a neo-con's free-market dream. Order 81 issued by Paul Bremer "made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to reuse seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law." Iraqi farmers were forced away from traditional methods to a system of patented seeds, where they can't grow crops without paying a licensing fee to an American corporation.

No. 9: Iran's New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency. The effects of Iran's switching from dollars to Euros in oil trading.

No. 10: Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy. A classic case of a story not unreported but under-reported -- a practice so environmentally irresponsible it makes your hair hurt to think about it.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: barkingmoonbat; delusion; ivans; liberalmedia; mediabias; riverinegypt

1 posted on 09/22/2005 9:38:39 PM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham

sorry Molly...it's bias


2 posted on 09/22/2005 9:39:52 PM PDT by wardaddy (I call my wife "woman" sometimes......am I a sexist?)
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To: Crackingham
What a load of Bovine excrement
3 posted on 09/22/2005 9:42:06 PM PDT by MJY1288 (Whenever a Liberal is Speaking on the Senate Floor, Al-Jazeera Breaks in and Covers it LIVE)
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To: Crackingham

Nah, it's pure bias. I see the media working tirelessly like Tazmanian Devils to subvert President Bush and the conservative agenda.


4 posted on 09/22/2005 9:42:38 PM PDT by TheCrusader ("The frenzy of the Mohammedans has devastated the churches of God" -Pope Urban II, 1097AD)
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To: Crackingham

well from the contra commie times says it all...

If these stories are so prevelent where are all these independent bloggers and media wannabes reporting them...

This article is trying to tell me that the Government and Corperate America are single handedly suppressing our right ot know? Jeez


5 posted on 09/22/2005 9:43:23 PM PDT by Americanwolf ("You are stuck on Stupid" --- Louisiana National Guard General Honree)
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To: Crackingham

"What we need in this country -- along with a disaster relief agency -- is a Media Accountability Day"

Ha! How about a Molly accountability day, where she apologizes for all the lies, slanders and smears she put in print?

I recall for example, her dancing on the grave of former Texas Gov John Connally... she's a women with no class and a fried brain.


6 posted on 09/22/2005 9:44:33 PM PDT by WOSG (http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/)
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To: WOSG

There is some truth to what this. Most reporters are happy if you write the story for them. Liberal groups and nonprofits have figured this out. They write like crazy and the reporters just sign it and mail it in.


7 posted on 09/22/2005 9:46:29 PM PDT by stocksthatgoup (Polls = Proof that when the MSM want your opinion they will give it to you.)
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To: Crackingham
No. 11 - Just ahead of the 9-11 commission, Sandy Burger entered the National Archives and accidentally shoved some beyond-top-secet documents into his clothing. These documents were directly related to Bill Clinton's handling of terrorist issues. When he got home, Burger accidentally shredded the documents. The press completely spiked this story.

No. 12 - Air America was caught red-handed stealing nearly a million dollars from poor inner-city children and Alzheimer's patients. The media has conspicuously ignored this story.

8 posted on 09/22/2005 9:50:37 PM PDT by Starve The Beast (I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused)
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To: Crackingham

So the 10 are the Patriot Act, and Iraq ? What a bunch of BS ....


9 posted on 09/22/2005 9:54:54 PM PDT by Deetes (God Bless the Troops and their Families)
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To: Crackingham

Molly is a lying, drunken, commie cow. That's all.


10 posted on 09/22/2005 9:57:47 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Crackingham

The ultimate in media laziness is ONLY writing about President Bush. In order to do that, a person doesn't have to do anything but turn on the TV and read the editorials, and say what everybody else has already said.

What amazes me is that each of them thinks they are the original source -- and that everybody else is plagiarizing them.


11 posted on 09/22/2005 10:00:01 PM PDT by MikeHu
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To: Crackingham

What a shock! Another denigrating tidbit discovered by Crackingham!


12 posted on 09/22/2005 10:01:10 PM PDT by REDWOOD99
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To: WOSG

"........ she's a woman with no class and a fried brain"

.........plus the watery eyes of the dedicated drinker. But to be fair, it must be said she also sports an impressively large brace of buttocks.


13 posted on 09/22/2005 10:15:55 PM PDT by Westerby (The strongest supporters of socialized medicine have never experienced its 'benefits'.)
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To: Crackingham
Media accountability should be a daily project, not a one day a year one. Freedom of the press does not mean freedom to lie, twist, deceive and commit criminal acts like using the media to sway elections.
That is taking away one of the most important rights of the people of the USA, to elect people WE choose to govern, not the people media chooses to serve their agenda.

Sure, have all the freedom of the press you want, but those who misuse that freedom in order to mislead the people should also face the consequences of these crimes. We expect truth, not lies.
14 posted on 09/22/2005 10:25:13 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Crackingham
"One precious day out of the entire year when everyone in the news media stops reporting on what's wrong with everyone else and devotes a complete 24-hour news cycle to looking at our own failures. How's that for a great idea?"

What's laughable is this writer who wants to use the day to stop reporting on whats wrong with everyone else then sabotages her own idea by listing all the things wrong in her mind about BUSH!

The top stories undereported -or not reported at all- don't have anything to do with Bush, they concern the corruption within the democrat party, the crimes of queen Clinton, the complete failures of her gigalo husband, The fraudulant medals claimed by John Kerry, the election fraud committed by the democrats, the traitous acts of the left, the murderous terrorist Islamic movement in Iraq AND around the world who are the real butchers of civillians. The corruption within the UN by elistist leftists, the REAL agenda of those elitist leftists who are trying to destroy this country as we know it, The attack on Christianity, which the entire foundation of the nation is built on, and a thousand other stories the Media purposely hides. As this "journalist" proves, there is no desire for MSM to look at their iwn faults, that was just a trick to get you to read a little further and see her Bush bashing rant.

15 posted on 09/22/2005 10:48:55 PM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Crackingham
Media Accountability Day

A terrific idea, but it needs a bit more specificity and oomph.

How about "Liberal Media Termination with Extreme Prejudice Day"?

16 posted on 09/22/2005 10:49:22 PM PDT by TChad
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To: Crackingham

Methinks he is trying to cop to a lesser charge.


17 posted on 09/23/2005 6:44:43 AM PDT by doberville
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