Posted on 02/25/2008 7:50:19 PM PST by jazusamo
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
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
BTTT
(Speaking of Dan Rather...)
Bloggers and talk radio shot that one down.
Buckhead BUMP!
Citizen journalist BUMP!
BUMP-TO-THE-TRUTH!
FR busted that one wide open! :) (Buckwheat, I think?) And Inc Pen did this:
I could go for that.
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.
I agree with the subtext that ‘reliable news’ never existed.
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.
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.
Rather and the memo were busted by a FReeper......I remember that day very well.
“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!
LOL! You’re so right about that and the next eight months will be lots of fun!
Hey! Nice Home Page, too. I just clicked through your name and I must say that it’s super-duper! :)
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