Posted on 03/10/2006 5:29:59 PM PST by huac
"Under the Law of Media Oscillation, the only safe prediction is that a static, unchanging political narrative is impossible. Stuff happens in war and politics. And when it doesn't the media will half-consciously rearrange all the atoms of emphasis and particles of story choice to make it seem so." - Jonathan Alter
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2005/04/24/fea09.html
(Excerpt) Read more at sundayobserver.lk ...
The quote (it was in quotations in the ad) is next to a picture of Jonathan Alter, Newsweek senior editor and columnist.
"Stuff happens in war and politics. And when it doesn't the media will half-consciously rearrange all the atoms of emphasis and particles of story choice to make it seem so".
This from the reputable MSM organ which broke the following:
"...The report, in the issue dated May 9, said U.S. military investigators had found that American interrogators at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had flushed a copy of the Koran, the sacred Muslim text, down a toilet...four protesters were killed and more than 60 injured. About a dozen more protesters were killed in the following days when the demonstrations spread across Afghanistan and to Pakistan and other countries..." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/15/AR2005051500605.html
Newsweek lied, people died. No big deal. Just faceless casulties in the MSM jihad against the illegitimate Bush regime.
It was probably a slow news day ( ...Stuff happens in war and politics. And when it doesn't...) . So Newsweek publishes a fake but highly inflammatory piece which happens to to indict the Bush Administration's prosecution of the war on Islamofascism (...the media will half-consciously rearrange all the atoms of emphasis and particles of story choice to MAKE IT SEEM SO").
Alter, senior editor and professional journalist, admits that if the news is not that interesting, Newsweek will "...make it seem so".
I first saw the same ad in the August 18, 2005 home delivery addition. When I checked for the ad in the store edition, it was not included.
The quote, in it's entirety can also be found at:
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:8K9n_oWsoBUJ:hanworks.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_hanworks_archive.html+newsweek+alter+law+oscillation&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
One of their editors said in 2004, that he thought media coverage was worth about 15 points to the democrat candidate.
Fake but true is the new standard
"Stuff happens". Yep, like me NOT buying newsweak, for one.
Alter's what's wrong with the MSM. No integrity, no ethics. No common sense.
I just can't believe that he would so brazenly make this statement. He's telling his readers that he will tell them what they want to hear, regardless of the facts. So much for the professionalism of the MSM.
Newswho???
was Alter involved with the leftist magazine The Nation??
From the not to be forgotten file: It was a Newseweek reporter who invoked the Dan Rather rules to defend Newsweek's buying into the Tawayna Brawley fraud. Writing ~in~ the magazine, he said that it didn't matter that the event did not ~literally~ happen because it was representative of the real situation -- apocryphal, don't you know.
I recall some media oscillation in the viscinity of Bill Clinton's lap back in the '90's. If you know what I mean.
(steely)
Yet the vast majority of people in the country will continue to believe every word they say.
He's certainly not the only crud around the toilet bowl. Howard Fineman of Newsweek, months ago, when the Dan Rather scandal was exposed, wrote a piece in which he warned "those other liberal journalists", [as contrasted against him], that the jig was up, and that the truth embargo would no longer shield them.
The only interesting thing about the piece, was that he thought that by turning on, and ratting out, his fellow charlatans, that he might somehow innoculate himself from the backlash. It worked for the Clintons, and so it must have seemed a clever move to him.
It was a perfect combination of hipocrisy, gutlessness and cowardice.
It also defined for all times the liberal "reporter".
Thanks, now I have something entirely different to write when I respond to one of their frequent
'why-don't-you-subscribe-to-us-again?' mailings.
I would think that they would take the hint - after 7+ years...but no.
I believe that is Eric Alterman you are referring to.
PF
That was Mark Halperin with ABC.com's The Note that wrote that remark in a column. I think he is ABC's chief political analyst.
PF
thanks...
public Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING
Evan Thomas. I think he's right about the slant, but vastly overstates the impact of the Jurassic Media.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
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