Why we don't believe you [excellent summary of recent mainstream press malfeasance]

Townhall ^ | August 28, 2006 | Mary Katharine Ham

[John Jorsett]

Today's bloggers are doing the job Editors are paid to do. Makes me wonder if Mitchel and his editor buddies spend the work day hanging out at the "Gay Bar."

The bloggers from the Northern Alliance Radio Network show do a feature called, "The Week in Gate-keeping," which mocks the argument that the mainstream press is superior because it has editors and fact-checkers to keep the mistakes out. It's my favorite part of their show.

[Zechariah_8_13]

The woman reporting from (and paddling in) her boat when 2 guys walk in front of her is one of the best laughs I've had in awhile. I watched it 3 times in a row! Classic.

http://www.righttrack.us/2005/10/14/

[WoofDog123]

"On Friday, the Confederate Yankee blog brought attention to a column Mitchell had written in 2003, in which he confessed to making up news as a young reporter. He had been sent out to do a story on Niagara Falls, and found himself unable to talk to tourists to get quotes. So, he sat on a bench and made the quotes up. He confessed his journalistic sin in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal."

Folks, this is the RULE, not the exception. If it isn't a quote by a public personality with the ability to make a stink, it is a fabrication.

[driftless2]

Lib "journalists" obey the motto that even if some piece of news doesn't fit their preordained view of how things should be, they will print what "should" have happened. Who cares about just printing what really happened, it's what should have happened that counts. So if the facts don't jibe with their prejudices, change the facts.

[6ppc]

See my tag line.

[Paul Ross]

Bump!

[ArGee]

Not to mention Dan Rathergate, CNN's skyhook scandal,exploding pickups and CNN's admission that it didn't report news from Iraq during Hussein's reign to protect their access.

You misspelled a$$es in the above sentence.

Shalom.

[saganite]

LOL!

[AliVeritas]

How could you forget White T-Shirt guy?
http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/media-claimed-white-t-shirt-guy-was-girls-father


Video at bottom of post of his home resplendent with Hez decor.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Rightwing bloggers are predisposed to distrust the media, as are most conservatives. The fauxtographers and defenders like Mitchell are giving us no reason to be encouraged. The mainstream press’ stock is in credibility the naive credulity of the audience. The right course is to answer, quickly and thoroughly, any credible charges against them smear, distort, and obfuscate all charges of tendentiousness, so as to preserve that stock.

The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing . . . It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. - Adam Smith

Half the truth is often a great lie. - Benjamin Franklin

[george76]

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

For me the most outrageous truth about the media came with the abduction and release of the FOX journalists.

What did you hear when they were captured? Their families appealed to the barbarian gangs that they had captured the wrong people, ie the media.

You heard how they were in Gaza to "tell the Palestinian" story, that they sympathized with the "Palestinians" etc. The appeal was that the barbarians had captured their allies.

What's wrong with that? (</sarcasm>)

Obviously that is what they mean by "Fair, balanced, and unafraid." Unafraid of people who aren't dangerous to them, that is . . .

[Grampa Dave]

Makes the hair on my arms and the back of my neck rise up:

[george76]

Pinch is killing his grandfather's paper.

Pinch would have helped Hitler.

He really is a POS.

[beckysueb]

I'm sure there are tons more examples.

The news lady (Soladad O'Brien?) in the canoe durring a northeast flood and 2 workers walked behind her on camera in barely more then ankle deep water.

[PGalt]

Great post, thanks for the ping. Outstanding FReeper comments! BTTT!

[Milhous]

It's always fun to contrast Time's cover treatment of its pet Hitlery:

with Time's cover treatment of people it hates:

[Tench_Coxe]

"fauxtography"

You know, this should have its own entry on Wikipedia.

[Milhous]

Props to jiggyboy for bring the wiki article on journalism sacndals to my attention.

• 1 High-profile journalism scandals
  • 1.1 Walter Duranty, The New York Times (1930s)
  • 1.2 Janet Cooke, Washington Post (1980-1981)
  • 1.3 "Waiting to Explode," Dateline NBC (1992)
  • 1.4 The Oregonian's coverage of the Packwood scandal (1992)
  • 1.5 Bob Wisehart, Sacramento Bee (Mid 1990s)
  • 1.6 Stephen Glass, The New Republic (1998)
  • 1.7 Patricia Smith, The Boston Globe (1998)
  • 1.8 Operation Tailwind, CNN NewsStand (1998)
  • 1.9 Mike Barnicle, The Boston Globe (1998)
  • 1.10 Michael Gallagher (1998)
  • 1.11 Jay Forman, Slate (2001)
  • 1.12 Bob Greene, Chicago Tribune (2002)
  • 1.13 Christopher Newton, Associated Press (2002)
  • 1.14 Houston Chronicle Light Rail Controversy (2002)
  • 1.15 Brian Walski, The Los Angeles Times (2003)
  • 1.16 James Forlong, Sky News (2003)
  • 1.17 CNN coverage of Iraq and Eason Jordan (2003)
  • 1.18 Jayson Blair, The New York Times (2003)
  • 1.19 "Gropegate", The Los Angeles Times (2003)
  • 1.20 Jack Kelley, USA Today (2004)
  • 1.21 Stephen Dunphy, Seattle Times (2004)
  • 1.22 The Oregonian's coverage of the Goldschmidt scandal (2004)
  • 1.23 The Boston Globe's Fake "GI Rape" Photographs(2004)
  • 1.24 The ABC News election memo (2004)
  • 1.25 Mary Mapes, Dan Rather and "Memogate" (2004)
  • 1.26 Eason Jordan, CNN (2005)
  • 1.27 Fake American hostage, Associated Press (2005)
  • 1.28 Eric Slater, Los Angeles Times (2005)
  • 1.29 Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press (2005)
  • 1.30 Barry Schweid, Associated Press (2005)
  • 1.31 Barbara Stewart, The Boston Globe (2005)
  • 1.32 Diana Griego Erwin, Sacramento Bee (2005)
  • 1.33 Chris Cecil, Cartersville Daily News (2005)
  • 1.34 The Daily Egyptian's fake orphan (2005)
  • 1.35 Bush administration journalism scandals (2005)
  • 1.36 Jim Van Vliet, Sacramento Bee (2005)
  • 1.37 Tim Ryan, Honolulu Star-Bulletin (2006)
  • 1.38 Hassan Fattah, New York Times Abu Ghraib photos (2006)
  • 1.39 Michael Hiltzik, The Los Angeles Times (2006)
  • 1.40 Paul Bradley, Richmond Times-Dispatch (2006)
  • 1.41 Philip Chien, Wired News (2006)
  • 1.42 Adnan Hajj, Reuters (2006)

[Milhous]

The bloggers from the Northern Alliance Radio Network show do a feature called, "The Week in Gate-keeping," which mocks the argument that the mainstream press is superior because it has editors and fact-checkers to keep the mistakes out. It's my favorite part of their show.

Gn 22:17 your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies

Anyone With A Modem Can Report On The World

. . .

[Hillary Clinton] said, "We're all going to have to rethink how we deal with the Internet. As exciting as these new developments are, there are a number of serious issues without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function."

Newspaper sale$ decline should be blamed on the Journos

. . .

People who work at journalism full time ought to be able to do a better job of it than people for whom it is a hobby. But that's not going to happen as long as we "professional" journalists ignore stories we don't like and try to hide our mistakes. We think of ourselves as "gatekeepers." But there is not much future in being a gatekeeper when the walls are down.

Study: Web is the No. 1 media - 06/06/2006