The 'Media' Party is Over - (Rare balanced column by liberal Howard Fineman!)

MSNBC.COM ^ | JANUARY 11, 2005 | HOWARD FINEMAN

[CHARLITE]

WASHINGTON - A political party is dying before our eyes — and I don't mean the Democrats. I'm talking about the "mainstream media," which is being destroyed by the opposition (or worse, the casual disdain) of George Bush's Republican Party; by competition from other news outlets (led by the internet and Fox's canny Roger Ailes); and by its own fraying journalistic standards. At the height of its power, the AMMP (the American Mainstream Media Party) helped validate the civil rights movement, end a war and oust a power-mad president. But all that is ancient history.

Now the AMMP is reeling, and not just from the humiliation of CBS News.

In this situation, the last thing the AMMP needed was to aim wildly at the president — and not only miss, but be seen as having a political motivation in attacking in the first place. Were Dan Rather and Mary Mapes after the truth or victory when they broadcast their egregiously sloppy story about Bush's National Guard Service? The moment it made air it began to fall apart, and eventually was shredded by factions within the AMMP itself, conservative national outlets and by the new opposition party that is emerging: The Blogger Nation. It's hard to know now who, if anyone, in the "media" has any credibility.

And, as Walter Cronkite would say, that's the way it is.

[CHARLITE]

Quote:

"Some Republicans learned how to manipulate the AMMP, especially its growing obsession with personalities — and its desire to be regarded as even-handed. The objective wasn't to win the AMMP's approval, but to isolate it by uncoupling its longterm relationship with the Democrats. At least that's what happened in the Monica Lewinsky Years: The party that had nominated him in 1992 had eventually impeached him, thanks in good part to information supplied by GOP investigators.

I generally don't like, or agree with much that Howard Fineman has to say, but here, in this one, he's in top form. He doesn't appear to me to be partisan at all, and for a liberal (which he is), he has done a great job with this subject. He takes a few swings and jabs at "my" president, but it's within bounds of what I can tolerate.

Char

[FreeKeys]

"Sept. 9, 2004, will be remembered as a paradigm-shifting day in media history.  That was the day the 'blogosphere' took down CBS News"  -- James Pinkerton, Newsday, Sept. 14, 2004, quoted at: "Observations on Journalists," HERE.

[Pikamax]

agree, I am shocked that Fineman wrote this.

[NutCrackerBoy]

The appearance of this MSM "obituary," unusually perceptive for a liberal columnist, is significant. We had been seeing denial. However, the liberal myth in it is up to the hips.

[Ksnavely]

Looks like a certain Journalist has been listening to Rush, hehe.

[dannyboy72]

I think Fineman nailed it when he called the Mainstream Media a political party. That's exactly what it is and exactly why they are toast. Republicans and "The Blogger Nation" has pulled the cloak of awe off the dirty beast and now we see them for what they are.

They pushed too far and now they're done.

[dk/coro]

Char, I admire your magnanimity; however, IMHO, Fineman is STILL a most self-assured lib, who must have had a rare pang of conscience to do this reasonably balanced piece.

Either that, or he sees the handwriting on the wall; and wants to be seen as a "new breed" in a subtle, but still transparent attempt to burnish his own image within the hierarchy of the the pathetic rag -- Newsweek.

[o_zarkman44]

I believe the MS media has rediscovered the necessity for truth and accuracy in their presentations. That is because the outlets that have featured the truth or allowed both sides of an issue to debate on air have had considerable success in the otherwise dwindling newscast sponsorship pie. They know that the American people do not tolerate lies and deception. That is one value that hasn't disappeared like the MSM had counted on.

[tkathy]

Rather and Mapes did enormous harm to the whole MSM. And the MSM's stonewalling of the whole thing did even more harm. IMO the MSM will never recover from this.

[weegee]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

Hackers must have submitted this column for him...

That or administered some truth serum.

[Fenris6]

As much as I bitch re MSM bias, I should pause and give credit where its due:

Nice work Fineman.

[Owl558]

"The appearance of this MSM "obituary," unusually perceptive for a liberal columnist, is significant."

Agreed, in a whining, crybaby, 5-year-old kind of way. Fineman's actually believes the MSM's mythology about itself - A mythology that so many of us have realized is a lie. It makes him look silly.

[potlatch]

Ping.

[rmh47]

This is ridiculous. Fineman is way off the mark. This can't be right because we all know there is no liberal bias in the mainstream news media. We know this because they keep telling us it is so.

[MJY1288]

All Howard Fineman is doing.... is coming to grips with reality.

The mainstream media and print media will be a thing of the past in 5 years or less. Cable news will be the standard and it will be held to account by those of us in the cyber world.

I personally have not watched an ABC, CBS or NBC newscast for at least 7 years. I get the Washington Times delivered to my Business and rarely read it because I already did the night before, online :-)

As we witness this impending decline of the MSM, we will see the left lash out like never before. Mainstream America will abandon the radical left and the democrat party will implode because the radicals make up their base.

We need to be careful not ton drift too far to the right or we will share the same fate. We need to stick to a core set of beliefs and not let the death of the left go to our heads. We cannot ignore the fact that the vast majority of Americans are moderates and in order to change the direction of the ship of state is done slowly, otherwise we will make waves much too big.

We need to take this country back the same way we lost it.... One step at a time

[weegee]

The left doesn't respect the media because they want coverage to the left of NPR.

The right doesn't respect the media because they know the liberal bias inherent in newsrooms that have a style guide that includes phrasing like "pro-choice/anti-abortion".

Younger audiences don't respect the media because they want more entertainment than talking heads (too stuffy).

Older audiences don't respect the media because their old news anchors are all retiring (no one to come on the scene since Cronkite has been "the most trusted man in America") and the short attention span soundbites of modern reporting are designed for younger viewers (who'd rather watch The Daily Show).

This is not to stereotype everyone in these categories but much like the Democrat party, the news media seeks a coalition of special interest groups with conflicting positions. The more they try to woo one group, the more they lose/irritate the others.

[weegee]

Newspapers contain news that is 8-36 hours minimum old when it hit the street/porch and it just gets older by the minute.

Nightly news broadcasts don't offer much in the way of "breaking news", they rely more on headlines and some canned "closer look" stories.

Headline news updates reports as new details become known.

Regular CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox have enough "talk shows" that it would be hard to qualify them as "news" channels.

If audiences turn to 24 hour news channels for the LATEST report on the news rather than a 5:30/6:30PM CST/EST nightly broadcast, there will be no audience for the "shared experience" news broadcast.

As it is, the only time I tune in the nightly news now is to watch the spin on particular news items; I already know the story I just want to see how it is covered.

[ntnychik]

He lost me at "power-mad president." As I recall, Nixon had issues with treasonous behavior during wartime.

[Nita Nupress]

Here's another one:

How citizen reporters get the news out first
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1318968/posts

[Southack]

"the AMMP was founded in good measure (and ironically enough) by CBS. Old folks may remember the moment: Walter Cronkite stepped from behind the podium of presumed objectivity to become an outright foe of the war in Vietnam. Later, he and CBS's star White House reporter, Dan Rather, went to painstaking lengths to make Watergate understandable to viewers..."

Oh please...lets not forget that it was CBS that broadcast the "White House memo" that was supposed to detail each step of the Ellsberg burglary (he was the leaker of the Pentagon Papers, what "WaterGate" was all about in the first place). That memo, on White House letterhead, told the Plumbers everything from when to hit the shrink's office to which filing cabinet to search.

Now lets just pause for a moment and ask ourselves, Who among us today would believe that President Nixon told his secretary to type up, on official White House letterhead, a memo detailing how his Plumbers should burglarize that office to obtain Ellsberg's psychiatrist's records?!

Today, after CBS has been busted with forged Bush National Guard memos, that old "White House memo" purportedly from Nixon himself just doesn't pass the smell test.

CBS, did you forge WaterGate, too?