[Thud]

I found this on Lucianne.com. Check out the link to the blog opening post quoted here - the original has lots of embedded links, and there is a long follow-up by Mr. Rosen with many useful reader comments.

[rs79bm]

You blod link doesn't work. Please consider excerpting next time.

[counterpunch]

"In our system, the press has the role of..."
Generations of journalists spoke confident sentences like that. The press is a vital check on power. It's quasi Constitutional.

The press, last time I checked, is not elected. They are self-appointed, and their power is purchased.
Each and every one of us whose voices are silenced ask ourselves at one time or another "why don't I have the power to shape the debate?"
And we always come to the same conclusion: "Because I cannot afford to buy the New York Times."

[Southack]

What the press "thinks" at any given time is seldom worth more than a warm pool of spittle.

How to spot press bias?

Here's an easy test: if there is a statement before a question, then the reporter is biased and has an agenda.

What's a "statement" before a question?

Here's an example: "Mr. President, with our troops bogged down on their attack towards Baghdad, and with our economy now sinking with out of control unemployment, and with our homeless now starving from so many government funds being diverted away from shelters, do you now think that it was wrong to unilaterally invade Iraq?"

The question is at the end, long after the "statement" was made. Notice that the biased reporters can't simply ask the question "Do you now think that it was wrong to unilaterally invade Iraq?"

Oh no. They have to first give their political spin on all of the bad in the world, from the most extreme, worst possible angles, and *then* they ask their question.

That's media bias.

We shouldn't be interviewing reporters. Journalists shouldn't be making statements prior to asking press conference questions, and Editorial boards should have as many die-hard Country Music listeners as they have Hip Hop and Madonna fans.

Who, What, Where, When, and How. Not "others think" or "some feel".

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I had a journalism professor in college who pointed out the following:

In the "old days," journalists were people who studied things other than journalism. They were intelligent, well rounded, people who knew about the world. Most of them held jobs outside of journalism for at least part of their lives.

By contrast the "modern" journalist is someone who went to college to be a journalist and that's all they know.

Basically, the modern journalist is a poorly educated "elitist."

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Journalism and its Discontents - Glenn Reynolds
Instapundit.com | 4/25/04 | Glenn Reynolds

[Imal]

The idea that President Bush doesn't start each morning anguishing over the front page of the New York Times is maddening to these people.

What Mr. Rosen and his cronies can't seem to fathom is that our sitting president has decided that he doesn't have time to join in their reindeer games, and prefers to spend his waking hours doing his job, instead.

It's not a sinister or clever thesis, he simply doesn't have time for that nonsense.

Thus the commercial media -- and America's enemies -- find themselves left to speculate and groundlessly editorialize about what the president thinks or is doing, instead of having it handed to them.

God forbid, some of them may have to resort to such drastic measures as trying a little honest reporting for a change.

What is the world coming to...

[q_an_a]

very nice post. thanks for taking the time to post it and in a format easy to read,that is ahrd to do with that much text. THANK YOU.

[SMARTY]

The press is 'married' to the visuals. They detached themselves from the conceptual facts of ideas, history, events, people, etc. a long time ago. Unfortunately, most viewers get all and their only information from the television. With television as one's only source, it all looks 'real' and authentic. However, with a firm frame of reference in the confirmation of history, factual data, and a wide understanding of events and ideas apart from the photographic record, reporting presented by the media can NEVER be seen as complete or final and can NEVER be trusted or valued.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The media has just figured this out??? What did they think Agnew was saying?

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[Mr. K]

not only is it a 'gotcha' press, they did NOT play the same game for Clintoon- so it is only a 'gotcha' press for Republicans

[HammerLane]

Bush to Press: "You're Assuming That You Represent the Public. I Don't Accept That."

---

Mighty big talk for one who couldn't carry a majority of the popular vote. He must be from Texas.

[an amused spectator]

Media Schadenfreude ping - The Bush Thesis: "...reporters, a conniving special interest"

"Further data point: The Bush Thesis. If Auletta's reporting is on, then Bush and his advisors have their own press think, which they are trying out as policy. Reporters do not represent the interests of a broader public. They aren't a pipeline to the people, because people see through the game of Gotcha. The press has forfeited, if it ever had, its quasi official role in the checks and balances of government. Here the Bush Thesis is bold. It says: there is no such role official or otherwise."

On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude/PNMCH ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/

Buckets and buckets of Schade. This article is a full-course meal. Enjoy. ;-)

[Judith Anne]

I really appreciate this post. Very informative, and strategeric. ;-D

[Porterville]

You don't have that kind of muscle any more, so shut the f... up."

Exactly

[Congressman Billybob]

This is a very interesting article. It is not taut, it is repetitious. That is one of the vices of bloggers, who are not constrained by length of articles and who do less editing and reviewing.

However, it contains one gem of an idea. Yes, both the Internet and bloggers SHOULD have a seat at the table. I hereby suggest that Jim Robinson should apply for the issuance of White House Press Corps credentials for FreeRepublic. The worse they can do is say no, but the White House (which has the call) might just see an opportunity and say yes.

JimRob might also suggest that Salon.com ALSO be credentialed at the same time. (We will run rings around Salon, don't you know, in head-to-head competition.) Just a thought.

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Please do it now.

[nightdriver]

"Oh, you're interested in headlines, and you're interested in conflict. You're not interested in having a serious discussion... and exploring things."

Of course, some of this is the fault of the public's infatuation with things like car wrecks on the highway. If the media can just present some sensationalism like scandal or conflict, they sell more TV time and newspapers, so they are subservient to the profit motive as well.

Bush is so very right, though, in that "big media" does not represent the general public at all.

[cyncooper]

Lord love a duck, This is long and wrong.

Bottom line: The press does indeed play "gotcha" with this president.

And as for the assertion that President Bush should assume responsibility for 9/11?! (The author yearns that President Bush would have assumed a "The buck stops here" attitude), what crapola. The president was absolutely correct to point the blame to Al Qaeda.

And to further illustrate the administration is correct and this author is wrong: If that attack had happened on a democrat president's watch, there is no way in hell the press would seek--not investigate just to check facts--but move heaven and earth to prove as a point of fact before they know the facts--to blame him for an attack on our country.

[patriciaruth]

Mr. Rosen likes to hear himself think too much.

[TheLion]

"As a first step out of this trap, journalists need to ask themselves: how did we become so predictable?"

Duh....prostrating themselves before the Democrat machine in this country....for starters!