Posted on 11/25/2001 11:55:55 AM PST by E.G.C.
HOWDY FREEPERS!!!
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving went O.K. I know ours did. Our guests are on their way back home and now we have an opportunity to share some more observations with you.
The title of this essay is "When Good Journalists Go Bad." Now this is about a story which was borken by internet cyber-journalist Matt Drudge.
Drudge as many of us are well aware was the very first journalist to break the Monica Lewinsky story a couple of years ago. He at one time had a show on Fox News Channel which aired on the weekends. He has a knack for breaking stories which are never touched by the established media.
Recently, he broke the story that FNC's Bill O'Reilly whose O'reilly Factor program is a huge ratings sucess was about to sign a radio contract. There were just a few little things wrong with that story that Drudge forgot to look at.
First off, this deal was in the works long before Rush Limbaugh who O'Reilly wanted to compete with began having hearing problems. Now I will tell you that although I don't neccessarily agree with O'Reilly on everything, he has done some good things in the pursuit of the truth. Recently he held some charities' feet to the fire concerning how they were handling donations, a quest which I'm happy to say yielded some results despite some complaing and moaning from people like George Clooney and many others. I doubt, however whether his radio show would last very long competing with Rush. Rush is still a very popular and very influential radio talk host and will continue to be.
Drduge's report made it look like O'Reilly was doing this to take advantage of Rush's situation which is not exactly true. As I stated eariler, this deal was in the works long before Rush started having these hearing problems. Another problem with this story is that Drudge didn't contact Mr. O'Reilly to ask for comments. He just decided to go ahead and put the story on his website. This IMHO is not very good journalism. These are the kind of tatics used by CNN and the big three networks to advance their own special political agenda. I'm sure the stars in Hollywood must be smiling now.
Well, as a result of this story, Mr. O'Reilly has discontinued his plans for a radio show and has indicated that he will not resume them until he has had a talk with Rush on this. It is very clear that O'Reilly feels very dissed as he should be. As many of you are well aware, we are in a battle with the liberals, moderates & progressives for the minds of the American public and this kind of journalism against one of our own does not help matters at all. Drudge knows better than this and he really needs to change his way of doing things if he's going to expect to win the trust and respect of conservatives all over America.
Here's my guess: O'Reilly got lots of those fake letters the Democrat public relations firms put out to undermine conservatives. (During the Clinton years, this was done by the "war room" -- the creepy little jerks almost wet their pants when they discovered how easy it was to pull phrases off the Internet to make the letters sound more real) Each letter to O'Reilly would be dripping with hate, and sound like it had been written by a conservative.
BUMPING FOR MORE RESPONSES.
Good journalists? I read the words but I do not comprehend.
It would also be a wrong assumption that these three have the same agenda. Rush's agenda is a sort of mainstream conservatism, mixed with making money. Drudge's agenda is making a name for himself by stirring up sh$t so his website gets more hits and he can charge more for advertising. O'Reilly's agenda is more populist than conservative. He draws an audience by finding things he can get outraged about, no matter how trivial. He is today's Howard Beale.
There's room for all three but it would be a mistake to think of them as being on the same "team" or same "side". What conservatives can gain by any of the three is to have a voice that's different from the monolithic left-wing news media that may persuade some that not everything in the world is how it's portrayed by ABCCBSNBCCNN.
A good journalist is one who always checks the facts and talks with those involved in the story he or she is couvering beofre putting it out over the air and on the internet. The problem with Matt Drudge's story was that he did not bother to check out the facts or talk to Bill O'Reilly before putting the story out on his website.
You've got to do these things or you're not going to win the trust of the consumers of your products. This is why CNN and the big three networks, their respective affiliates are experiencing problems with relationships with the consumers of their products. Becuase their respective affiliated entities are not practicing good journalism. They're doing the very same things that drudge did with this report only they're doing it to conservative and christian individuals and groups.
When you as a news organization do ambush and yellow journalism, your affiliates suffer. It's as simple as that.
Regards
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