Posted on 04/19/2006 6:25:27 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
The Pulitzer awards reflect discontent (Of course discontent with President Bush means that it is okay to give Pulitzer Prizes to a newspaper which lied about the NSA non story while breaking National Security Laws.)
Commentary: By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Apr 19, 2006
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Many awards presentations are accused of being out of touch with the public or even appearing to be popularity contests. But I contend that many of the Pulitzer Prizes, handed out on Monday, accurately reflected the nation's growing discontent with President Bush.
In particular, the awards presented to reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times (NYTNew York Times Company as well as editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution could be called a reflection of Bush's declining national approval rating.
Cited for national reporting, Risen and Lichtblau broke the news of the administration's wiretapping program. Priest, winning in the beat-reporting category, was commended for stories about secret prisons and the government's counterterrorism efforts. Luckovich wittily skewered the administration's policies on many occasions.
The wiretapping story seems like the most compelling one of all. It has dominated the Washington talk shows for months and triggered a slew of fascinating sub-plots. The administration has contended that it needed to counter the threat of domestic terrorism while critics have said the program was a blow to civil liberties and reduced individuals' privacy. Awards are like children -- editors, like parents, say publicly that they love them all equally. But I wouldn't be surprised if this one especially pleased the Times hierarchy.
If anything, the Pulitzer vindicates the Times as a hard-hitting and public-spirited news operation. Originally, Times' critics blasted the paper for sitting on the Risen-Lichtblau story, insisting that the newspaper appeared to be timid in the face of the Bush administration's pressure tactics. Some Bush supporters, meanwhile, promptly took the opposite point of view and concluded that the Times had committed a traitorous act by publishing the stories. Considering that this sort of intense red-blue states warfare has been going on since (at least) the 2004 presidential campaigns, it wasn't a surprise that the Times' reporting would further polarize the nation. But that kind of parlor talk should be a secondary point today. For now, the Pulitzer selection committee deserves a big thumbs-up for getting it right this year.
(article excerpted from this point as it goes into other areas.)
How about MSMWOES a keyword.
If we restricted it to financial woes, circulation woes and stock market woes, it would be a great key word.
I wasn't sending a wake up call, I never fully wake up until 10 am Pacific Time.
Ernest at the Beach, when I first started posting on FR taught me the importance of key words to indexing important stories.
You have done a great job of indexing these threads/stories. I just don't have skills nor patience to do that job. So I like the to find key words to use.
So what do you think of MSM Woes as a short key word?
PS: ABB has done a great job finding and posting these stories of MSM Woes. When I wake up in California and stumble into my office to start my computer, ABB has been working at least 3 hours posting these great articles of MSM Woes.
Wasn't great that the Pulizters were bought out!
Now the company that bought them out is having severe financial problems. When one buys a turkey vulture, it will never become a beautiful turkey.
Now that I said that ............ Katherine, take just a little off please........... and where's the picture of you on that lovely horse????
;-)
Point taken. (Unless I misunderstand your point. :) ) Perhaps my passion to return journalism to its freewheeling days of the 1700s makes me appear envious. LOL. OTOH my gate/gatekeeper metaphor makes me feel like a genuine Central Valley Christian Zionist while capturing the change of biblical proportions now taking place in the centuries old newsprint business IMHO. Probably too much information. ROTFL.
Thanks for the update on the St. Louis Post, didn't realize they were in financial difficulties. Hope there is not a buy-back provision.
Don't live in STL any longer, but will always be a CARDNIAL FAN.
Hoping this turkey gets its goose cooked.
Spatula? Nah, Mason's trowel..............(ducking for cover)........
Lee Enterprises bought them out last year. Now Lee is having a lot of financial problems as the buyout is not bringing in big bucks.
It may take me a lifetime to fully recover from my St Louis Post Dispatch brainwashing.
That's quite a seat she's got there.
I hear you!
Rinse daily with heavy dose of Free Republic. If brain does not immediately respond, repeat cycle.
Sounds great to me. Between the four of us we can probably get her done right. At any rate I promise to do my part. :)
Regarding keywords - they certainly add a useful orthogonality to FR. FR review also provides a useful index. Unfortunately FR RSS overwhelms me with too many new threads popping up every minute - hundreds of new threads during the course of a day. My proclivity for forming political opinion within the context of FR demands better search options. FWIW FReepers who use Firefox may find Rollyo's search bar useful.
Thanks, I will put in MSMWOES as a key word into the appropriate threads as I work through them and future ones.
I don't know much about RSS. Fortunately my older son and one of my nephews, who know how much I use FR and a few other sites warned me to never "plug it in". So I just ignore the red/orange RSS icon when pops up.
Hard to the Port side or to the left for the land lubbers.
What other sites do you like ?
You could start a MSMWOES ping list ?
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