Posted on 02/24/2010 9:40:29 AM PST by GOP_Raider
Many of us on the right like to claim that the Old Media is just an arm of the Democrat Party. Of course some of that on our part is bombast, but incidents like this tend to make conservative’s complaints seem more like right-on-target truth than over-the-top complaining.
On February 23, ABC TV Channel 7, WTRF News (Wheeling, West Virginia/ Steubenville, Ohio), posted on its website what was originally credited as a story written by reporter Bob Westfall. Unfortunately, though, this posting was only posing as a news story as it was nothing but a word-for-word re-posting of Democrat Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown’s latest press release. There was little to no difference between Brown’s press release and the “story” as posted on the ABC 7 news site.
Ping!
Printing press releases nearly verbatim happens all the time in small-city newsrooms. It’s nothing devious — just plain laziness combined with time/column inches to fill.
Oops!
Is this in your area?
I can tell you from personal experience that just about all journalism majors in that era (1979-81) as well as their related majors (notably English, writing) were hard-core lefties. Not only that, they were for the most part lazy and spent most of their week figuring out how they were going to get drunk or laid for the weekend.
It is hardly surprising that they would take a DNC news release and run it as a story. The most surprising part of such an episode is that they would take the time to rewrite it slightly to pass it off as original.
True, but it needs to be credited as a press release.
I noticed a similar event last week in my local paper, the Fredericksburg VA Free Lance - Star. The story was essentially the claims of Democrats about a Republican. Not a press release, but it read as if the reporter simply called up the Democrat source, then regurgitated whatever he had to say.
For the most part, you’re right. As someone who has worked in really small markets such as the one Huston mentioned, it’s not too uncommon to see things like this happen-—but mostly from kids that are younger than I am that suffer from naivete more than anything.
So far, Obama's great ideas are putting the tax payer's on the hook for unemployment benefits extensions that could go on through eternity!!!
btw, Sherrod Brown is a despicable Marxist. Posting his press releases as news is a very grave error.
This news station should be inundated with e-mails and calls.
Half of the "Rush" misquotes you'll find printed are Media Matters smears printed as "news".
What’s all the fuss? ABCCBSNBCCNNNYTimesLATimes, etc have been doing this for years.
/sarc
Not really. It’s a bit north of us. We get our news out of Charleston & Huntington WV.
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