Posted on 10/18/2008 11:49:07 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Yada, yada, yada.
~~snip~~
The growing power of rumor is part of a much larger transformation in the way that voters receive information about politics. The old model was a vertical one, where professional journalists delivered their reports to a largely passive audience through television or newspapers. The new model is horizontal, where folks get information from each other and actively pass it on, through e-mail, text messages and viral videos. Everyone is a potential broadcaster.
This "democratization of information" has many benefits - more sources, more perspectives, more choices. In a forum Steve moderated for The International Journal of Press/Politics, Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, offered two examples: the incendiary sermons of Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and Obama's speech on race and religion.
"Millions more people will see and observe and analyze those incidents online than would ever tune into a newscast showing the clips," Jurkowitz said. "So you are dramatically expanding the universe. (And) people can make up their own minds without any kind of media mediation whatsoever."
But there's also a dark side to this horizontal system. Without "media mediation," without the persistent truth-telling, fact-checking efforts of well-trained professionals, falsehoods can flourish.
The "he's an Arab" smear reached so widely that the New York Times devoted a front-page story to its origins. Its conclusion: After the allegations first appeared in 2004, they were picked up by the conservative Web site FreeRepublic.com "and spread steadily as others elaborated on its claims over the years in e-mail messages, Web sites, and books."
Said Danielle Allen, a Princeton professor who has studied the episode: "It's an example of how the Internet has given power to sources we would have never taken seriously at another point in time."
(Excerpt) Read more at metrowestdailynews.com:80 ...
The "he's an Arab" smear reached so widely that the New York Times devoted a front-page story to its origins.
Notice they fail to mention who is an "Arab"..
It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it, because most of the MSM news rooms (broadcast and print) are having to lay off so many people -- because fewer and fewer of the sheeple are watching/reading their tripe.
It defends the concept of "professional journalists" as if they are not propaganda-spewing leftists.
One newspaper editor made a speech the other day and proclaimed it was his newspaper's duty to get Obama elected.
That's "professional journalism" in late 2008.
Thank God for the Internet and talk radio.
The Steve and Cokie Show has amnesia but I recall the “media mediation” in the Alar apple fraud, The Audi automobiles that accelerated on their own as 60 Minutes had an air compressor attached to the transmission, The Great Global Cooling That Wasn't, just to net a few rotten fish from the mainstream.
I would call it A Hall of Shame but the “well-trained professionals” have none.
Many nights, the networks ran exactly the same set of stories, just slightly varying the order. Some of those stories were almost word-for-word on both news casts.I was amazed (sarcasm) that, out of the whole wide world, night after night, those 3 networks could only find almost exactly the same stories to run. [The local news had more variety than the national news did.] That was over 20 years ago. I realized they were all the same, just different letters for identification purposes.
Cokie was the one who said on ABC, “based on the tourists I see, there is a definite mirror shortage in America”. How dare average citizens dress comfortably to view Cokie’s town?
Blighted elite bitch.
Pinging the Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™ list. Y’all need to see this one.
There is no dark side of "Freedom of Speech".
Just feed her whatever she wants to know. She'll do whatever you want in return.
nice rebuttal
btw, your link redirects to something else, can’t find the original article
"Since the Internet will only expand as a source of information, a key question facing democracy is this: How can the Web's enormous advantages be reconciled with a greater sense of accountability?"
The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing . . .Thus, we the people desperately need to pool our skepticism.It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity,
and they very seldom teach it enough. - Adam SmithAnd when we found FreeRepublic.com, we knew we had found the way to do it.
Thanks, Jim!
Oh, and they do. But what does that say about the current crop of "professionals"? Are they poorly trained, or is it that they are just unprofessional?
The reason to ask is that we can see BS from the cheapseats. We have a broader knowledge base in aggregate than any network. And we can freely rely on people whose professionalism in fields other than journalism demands that they get the facts straight. Via forums like this one, we are interconnected.
Pity that all those "professionals" are so busy sucking up to their Socialist overlords they have wasted fine opportunities for Pulitzer Prizes uncovering the dirt on the very ones they protect.
Dan Rather is a good point. We can even go back to Walter C. falsely stating that the communist NVA and their VC allies won TET 68. There is no doubt our nation’s media is bought and paid for, and; these clowns were some of the most liberal college sudents many years ago. There is no doubt in my mind that a conservative professor applying for a job at the majority of our colleges would not be hired.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.