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Bad times (Thomas Sowell)
Jewish World Review ^ | February 26, 2008 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 02/25/2008 7:50:19 PM PST by jazusamo

The front page of the New York Times has increasingly become the home of editorials disguised as "news" stories. Too often it has become the home of hoaxes.

Going back some years, it was the Tawana Brawley hoax that she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men. Just a couple of years ago, it was the Duke University "rape" hoax that they fell for.

In between there were the various hoaxes of New York Times reporter Jason Blair, who was kept on and promoted until too many people found out what he had been doing and the paper had to let him go.

Last month the New York Times created its own hoax with a long front page article about how war veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were killing people back in the United States because of the stress they had gone through in combat.

That hoax was shot down two days later by the New York Post, which showed that the murder rate among returning war veterans was only one-fifth the murder rate among civilians in the same age brackets.

Undaunted, the New York Times has come up with its latest front-page sensation, the claim that some anonymous people either suspected an affair between Senator John McCain and a female lobbyist or tried to forestall an affair.

But apparently no one actually claimed that they knew there was an affair...

(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial
KEYWORDS: enemedia; hoax; msm; newyorktimes; nytimes; sowell; thomassowell
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To: Carry_Okie
In any newspaper . . . read the editorials for the news and the news for the editorial policy.
Well said!

Of course, the planted axiom in that is that you don't need news that's less than a day or two old - and not even much of that.

The Market for Conservative-Based News


41 posted on 02/26/2008 12:20:27 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The Democratic Party is only a front for the political establishment in America - Big Journalism.)
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To: Gene Eric; Obadiah; Mind-numbed Robot; Zacs Mom; A.Hun; johnny7; The Spirit Of Allegiance; ...
The declining credibility of the New York Times and of other tendentious media is, in one sense, a healthy thing. There has been too much public gullibility that has been cynically exploited by both the media and politicians.
Perfectly true.
In another sense, however, it is a sad day for the country as a whole that there are shrinking sources of reliable news and informed and honest commentary.
Not true.

I put it to you that the definition of subjectivity is believing in your own objectivity. And that it is just plain silly to look for "sources of reliable news and informed and honest commentary" among those who claim to be objective .

It's not as though Big Journalism was unbiased in some long-ago Eden. Journalism as we know it was formed with the advent of the telegraph and the Associated Press in the 1840s. In no time the AP was becoming monopolistic and, to deflect criticism of its role, was claiming to be "objective." And the AP was a government lapdog during the Lincoln Administration, taking government favors and censoring the news at the behest of the government. It may be hard to think of the consequences had it not done so. But for the people who were reading reports from the AP in their newspapers at the time, those newspapers were not "sources of reliable news and informed and honest commentary."

Then of course there was the role of the Hurst papers in fomenting the Spanish America War, and there is the coverup of the role of the Communist Party in the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations. The latter coverup, of course, is still in progress, with the use of the name of a flawed and human but responsible man as a byword for arrogant bullying of the innocent. That is precisely what Sowell is criticizing The New York Times for - but no newspaper or broadcast network calls their actions "McCarthyism." Because ultimately, the newspapers are not independent of each other - they are all part of the Associated Press, and are all thereby co-opted by the "objective journalism" scam.

The Market for Conservative-Based News


42 posted on 02/26/2008 1:20:38 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The Democratic Party is only a front for the political establishment in America - Big Journalism.)
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To: Mamzelle
WW’s wife died? I’m sorry to hear it. But I have to say, in the years I listened to WW subbing for rush, WW often had some rude things to say about his wife. It was one of the things that started me turning off Ww when he filled in for Rush.

It's a shame you didn't "get it" as you were listening. His wife comments were always totally tongue in cheek.
43 posted on 02/26/2008 2:21:21 AM PST by GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco (I love liberals. They taste like chicken.)
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To: jazusamo

44 posted on 02/26/2008 2:32:00 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

BTTT


45 posted on 02/26/2008 2:53:36 AM PST by E.G.C.
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion; Buckhead
Thanks for the ping c_I_c. Good article. UNaccountable print propagandists keep getting away with it. What is the remedy in your opinion (other than not buying the newspaper)?

(Speaking of Dan Rather...)

Bloggers and talk radio shot that one down.

Buckhead BUMP!

Citizen journalist BUMP!

BUMP-TO-THE-TRUTH!

46 posted on 02/26/2008 4:33:51 AM PST by PGalt
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To: jazusamo
"Dan Rather's fake memo about President Bush's National Guard service might have gone unchallenged, and affected an election, back in the old days when the media consisted largely of like-minded colleagues who would not embarrass one of their own."

FR busted that one wide open! :) (Buckwheat, I think?) And Inc Pen did this:

47 posted on 02/26/2008 5:55:35 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: gigster

I could go for that.


48 posted on 02/26/2008 6:19:16 AM PST by nmh (Mike Huckabee the "religious" humanist that pushes socialism! (Clinton/Carter combo))
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Well said, Diana!

There’s no doubt in my mind that fifteen or more years ago Rather’s incredible dishonesty would have gone unchallenged and supported by the vast majority of the media. John Kerry would have been elected president and George Bush would have gone down in history as a shirker.

Of course that was only the culmination of Rather’s dishonesty. I’ll always remember his ambush of General Westmoreland, Rather’s integrity was sadly lacking.

How I wish I would have been here at FR when the Rather, Bush thing was happening.


49 posted on 02/26/2008 8:42:19 AM PST by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

I agree with the subtext that ‘reliable news’ never existed.


50 posted on 02/26/2008 9:24:28 AM PST by Gene Eric
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To: jazusamo
From further on in the text.

In another sense,however,it is a sad day for the country as a whole that there are shrinking sources of reliable news and informed and honest commentary.

I saw where someone had used Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1930) to rebut Islamic prohibition of alcohol recently. He was an American journalist and humourist. He created Dooley. Circa 1898. Dooley was a Chicago/Irish tavern owner, who tended his own bar. Quoth Dooley on the press. (The quote loses something todays modern english).

"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy,'controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish,comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim afterward".

It just caught my eye after the quotation on alcohol. Thought it might give a bit of a chuckle and yet be pertinent on the state of the press yesterday and today.

51 posted on 02/26/2008 10:22:45 AM PST by Peter Libra
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To: GeneralisimoFranciscoFranco
His wife comments were always totally tongue in cheek.

I always looked forward to him talking about his wife...and talking about buying her power tools and stuff for Christmas or anniversary presents.. He always managed to make me laugh.

52 posted on 02/26/2008 10:43:48 AM PST by Hot Tabasco ( Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.)
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To: jazusamo
How I wish I would have been here at FR when the Rather, Bush thing was happening.

Rather and the memo were busted by a FReeper......I remember that day very well.

53 posted on 02/26/2008 10:46:14 AM PST by Hot Tabasco ( Don’t go messing with Smokey Taylor. He just bought a whole bunch of fresh ammo.)
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To: jazusamo

“How I wish I would have been here at FR when the Rather, Bush thing was happening.”

Pardon my French, but the New York Times steps on their d*ck just about every week now...so there’s more fun to come. Stay tuned, LOL!


54 posted on 02/26/2008 4:37:46 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

LOL! You’re so right about that and the next eight months will be lots of fun!


55 posted on 02/26/2008 4:41:46 PM PST by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: jazusamo

Hey! Nice Home Page, too. I just clicked through your name and I must say that it’s super-duper! :)


56 posted on 02/26/2008 4:55:25 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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