[Jim Robinson]

"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?"

Yes, Cokie, I see your point. We private citizens should just sit down and shut up and let the truth telling professionals of the left stream media decide what's fit to print.

By the way, Free Republic is not a newspaper. We did not write the story in question, nor did we "pick it up," or vouch for its accuracy. We are a noncommercial discussion forum open to the general public. Apparently, the story in question was a press release that a member of the general public posted to FR in 1994 for discussion purposes. And it languished in the backwater archives of FR until some dimwitted, but sharp-eyed left stream reporter "discovered" it via google. Doubt it had any influence on the raging Barak Hussein Obama was born a Muslim rumor whatsoever.

However, as it turns out, our young Barak Hussein really was born to a Muslim and raised in his early years as a Muslim. It's in all the papers. Must be true.

[choirboy]

Without "media mediation," without the persistent truth-telling, fact-checking efforts of well-trained professionals, falsehoods can flourish.

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa! Ah, Cookie, your are a riot!

One word, Cookie: Dan Rather!

[dbwz]

Accountability? ACCOUNTABILITY? This Marxist hack has the unmitigated GALL to question ACCOUNTABILITY after all the crap her profession has pulled?

The not-so-subtle messages flying about throughout this campaign are really getting to the point of scary.

[Terry Mross]

“The old model where professional journalists”.....and there in lies the problem. There are no more pro journalist out there.

[Swiss]

Well if Cokie happens to read this maybe I can enlighten her. You see Cokie I am studying accounting and taking an auditing class right now.

No way in hell would a CPA firm have an auditor audit the books of a company he or she has a personal interest. Yet the so called non partisan press such as yourself has hired new journalists from various Democratic Party relationships. Such as Chris Matthews or Tim Russert working for Democratic congressmen or yourself being the daughter of a major Democrat.

You see Cokie I have no problem of it being fair if you was a weatherperson or did stories on sports. But no way you can be unbiased about politics.

And another thing, as an accountant no way in hell could I turn in numbers and when questioned where I got them I could claim “unnamed sources”. No public news story should be allowed to use unnamed sources. The temptation to lie is too great.

Also from everything I have seen or heard that the professional ethics thought to the Journalism students isn’t really ethical. I suggest that the profession brings in military or the AICPA to suggest real ethics for journalism.

Hope you read this and think seriously about this Cokie. I am sure Jim Robinson wouldn’t object if you want to get a Freeper handle and post replies to this thread.

[LouD]

without the persistent truth-telling, fact-checking efforts of well-trained professionals, falsehoods can flourish.

Do they mean fact-checking professionals like Dan Rather, or his producers at CBS?

[hinckley buzzard]

Without "media mediation," without the persistent truth-telling, fact-checking efforts of well-trained professionals, falsehoods can flourish.

Tell it to Dan Rather and that Mapes b*tch, you stupid whore. I recall Cokie Roberts back in 1995, snorting and snarking at the republican plan to cut taxes and balance the budget. She was such a well-trained professional that she all but guffawed on the air. She was wrong too, of course.

[bray]

Just filling the massive Vaccume Kookie, just filling the vaccume. After all Achmed said he was Mooselip on your show?

Pray for W, McCuda and Our Troops

[truthluva]

So this is all Al Gore’s fault? He is the inventor of the internet ya know.

[dr_who]

The press’s number one enemy these days is its readership. I say that because, unlike a lot of subscribers, freepers post and peruse their crap on a daily basis, and we don't like what we see any more than the ex-readership that threatens the livelihood of Cokie and her clique. If the press in this country was really doing its job, it wouldn't have such a cozy, incestuous relationship with the entrenched elite in Washington. And they would be less eager to chase red herrings, substitute real news for what they call “analysis”, and vilify people who put their own beliefs --including the ones outlined in the first amendment-- to practice. Cokie Roberts is a hypocrite and a fraud.

[DBrow]

“However, as it turns out, our young Barak Hussein really was born to a Muslim and raised in his early years as a Muslim.”

It’s in his autobiography too. He was born as a man to a Muslim father and had Koranic instruction in school, though he got caught “making faces” during his Islamic instruction.

My fear is that this Christian man, Barack Hussain Obama, will be viewed by the Muslim world as a murtad fitri.

Beyond that, somewhere I have Cokie Robert’s essay on why public radio is dead because now there are Republicans on the board of directors, and how could they possibly be neutral?

[Amelia]

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."

One of my African-American students insists that Obama is a Muslim...and I don't know where the student got this information, but I'm pretty certain that this particular student does not frequent any political websites...

[longtermmemmory]

I do not see cokie robers screaming for licensing of journalists to cover the journalistic malpractice over the last year.

The MSM is upset FR is a successful blockade runner.

[exhaustedmomma]

I notice there is a comment section on the link website, following the article. Guess the "pro's" are "catching onto" the democratization process of information. (Aristotle defined this democratic ideal as rule by the people. He didn't mention anything about gate keepers. (Per Cokie: "...journalists who can sort through those voices and help voters decide who can be trusted, and who cannot."))

In the Age of the Internet, "steering out the truth" is still an essential part of democracy.
Which is why Free Republic and such outlets are "wildly" popular. MSM is, for the most part, no more than a biased mouthpiece for a select agenda. Places like FR are a "niche" where true democratization is allowed to process in the hands of the people... for the people... and by the people. Without the fettering of yellow journalism. Ummm, Cokie, those journalist back then fought the "truth", just like you professional modern day journalist of the MSM. They didn't win then, and you won't win now.

Pssst... Cokie: How in the name of Sam Hill did those pilgrim's and pioneers of this great country manage without "media mediation", without you professionals filtering the information for them?

Your candidate, Cokie, doesn't have the experience to lead. Print the proof in that.