| Topic Name: |
Newsweek/The Bigger story |
| Message Name: |
no. you are: |
| Date Posted: |
05/17/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
The Newsweek fiasco and the White House/talk radio flame war is symptomatic of a bigger paradigm that affects all of us as Americans and an journalists.
Since 9/11, this administration with it's conservative base, (with Fox News and talk radio as it's media arm) has successfully cowed the mainstream media.
Afraid of appearing unpatriotic, they failed to stingently challenge the lead up to the war in Iraq. By buying into the embedded journalist strategy they became cheerleaders during the war itself. And they still are too intimidated to forcefully address the aftermath of the Iraq war, the starvation of the Afghanistan war, or the terrible way the US Militay in general or soldiers and their familes are being used.
Where's the anaysis, where's the audit on what it cost us econonomically, politically (on an international basis) and psychologically?
With Newsweek now cowed by one sloppy effort, who will look under the next rock? |
| Message: |
You're expecting cable news to do this? Pardon me while I have a aneurism from laughing too hard.
The "News" business has no interest in offending anyone, investigating anyone, doing any research, reporting or even any questioning.
You're right: the administration took advantage of the perfect storm .. 9/11, combined with a lock-step, bullying cable channel that couldn't have done more effective work if Riefenstahl and Goebbels were doing the programming.
The brilliance of FOX is and was that it gets out front of stories, and demonizes the messengers and obscures the story.
It's not hard to do:
You're a "muckraking" journalist:
Pick a story or an issue from the litany of crimes this administration has committed .. repeat it out loud ... and wait to get labelled a liberal ... a pessimist .. an obstructionist .. a do-nothing ... a turn-coat .. Godless/God-hating .. a traitor.
By the time you get around to the idea of defending yourself for doing your job, you'll have forgotten what the hell it was you were reporting on in the first place.
You'd think that there would be plenty of news organizations that a) could recognize and negate those tactics .. and b) gladly pick up the warclub and fight fire with fire.
But no ... spineless turds that most of them are: they'd rather turn tail ... stick their heads in the sand ... and go throw up countlessly endless hours of idiocy like runaway bride.
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