Posted on 09/07/2002 12:54:07 PM PDT by adam stevens
The public loved us most in November, when flags rippled on the corners of TV screens and from on-camera lapels. Journalists were asking few tough questions regarding civilian bombing casualties and civil liberties, and the American military was rolling to a stunning victory in Afghanistan. Despite the tragedy of Sept. 11, we had a lot of good news to cover, and even pieces on the tragic aspects of the story seemed to forge a common sense of outrage and purpose. The more thorny elements tended to be put aside until a later day.
This spring and summer, that day came. The triumphant story ran its course, and the what-really-happened story began to be covered, with disquieting results. We started to get reports that there were significant civilian casualties, and serious questions began to be raised about the wisdom of an invasion of Iraq. Darkening the news atmosphere further were the stories of Enron Corp., Global Crossing, and the betrayal of shareholders. The market fell. The news from the Middle East had seldom been worse. These past six months have not been a happy time on the news pages.
There was a stretch of time there when surprisingly good things were happening, from an American point of view. A string of military successes surprised us, and that made good news. But the general rule is that "No news is good news" because most good news isn't surprising enough to make the cut. For the simple reason that the construction of a house takes half a year, but it can burn down in the thousandth part of that time.So, has the public simply returned to its pre-9/11 attitude when the press returned to its normal adversarial role as the news itself turned bad? When the lapdog turned back into a watchdog?
The dirty little secret is that the press' "normal role" is adversarial toward the government only when the government protects prosperity and prosperous people. Let the government harass the prosperous and/or claim to help "the poor" at the expense of "the rich, and journalism is a lapdog.Journalists smugly call that "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted." But We-the-people understand that whoever is powerful enough to do those things is himself "powerful" indeed.
Then, try serving the public interest instead of your own agendae.
"And we need the public to understand that while journalism is not often perfect, that doesn't mean that it's calculatedly slanted and biased."
And, if your journalism is not calculatedly slanted and biased, are we to believe, instead, that you're simply incompetent?
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If Jones would just look around him -- and understand what he saw -- he wouldn't be asking these questions.
The Mainstream Media:
IGNORANCE ON PARADE
That is when they started the "spin" the events and to tell us it was really we who were at fault... and he is surprised when we despise the people who tell us this????
"Everyone watches American movies, everyone listens to American pop songs, everyone watches American TV - and everyone hates America." - Mark Steyn, observation on the influence of Oliver Stone and American "propagandists"- after traveling through the Middle East and Europe. AEI: "State of World Cultures" conference, May 8, 2002.
Affirmative Action for the Newsroom bump.
This CLUELESS MORON is actually a DIRECTOR OF THIS ORGANIZATION?????
HEY IDIOT! Journalist are NOT SUPPOSED to FIGHT FOR THINGS- they are supposed to REPORT (TRUTHFULLY WITHOUT BIAS) ON THINGS
The first thing you SH$T FOR BRAINS idiots could do is tell us why you SUCKED UP TO BILL CLINTON for 8 years and ignored CREIDIBLE REPORTS THAT HE RAPED NOT ONE BUT SEVERAL WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just tell us this one thing..... c'mon...try....
Actually, criticism from someone as conservative as I am enhances the reputations of the ones I would criticize.
I'll take your word for it that there are some good ones. But I still maintain that the major amount of influence is in the hands of the really REALLY bad.
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