tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post4041372553065356374..comments2024-03-28T16:26:28.642-05:00Comments on driftglass: Memo to Journalists: Stop Sucking at Journalism driftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-46798686848028033662016-05-15T15:30:06.816-05:002016-05-15T15:30:06.816-05:00I think we need to distinguish between the serious...I think we need to distinguish between the serious print news media (including their online presence) and TV news media and the wing nut welfare propaganda outlets. I have two Pulitzer Prize winning journalist brothers (Dallas Morning News and Reuters) and both are serious journalists who produce useful and informed stories. The overwhelming majority of TV news media people are not journalists at all regardless of their nominal training. Most of them don't write their own copy and they are given corporately guided "news slants" of the day and talking points. The wing nut welfare people exist purely for entertainment purposes since no one reads them except shut-ins and mouth breathers. Jimbohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13891331049535299222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-18276060103005288642016-05-13T16:34:24.626-05:002016-05-13T16:34:24.626-05:00Medhi Hasan does a masterful job of preparation an...Medhi Hasan does a masterful job of preparation and should be the standard bearer of how to ask a follow up question. "We report, you decide" isn't working. How about "we ask until you answer or we will ask you to leave." Where the hell are my red slippers Toto?John Livingstonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04572663414755405939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-18730884424596603972016-05-13T13:52:12.110-05:002016-05-13T13:52:12.110-05:00"let's not forget that the media, especia..."let's not forget that the media, especially TV needs a horse race"<br /><br />No they don't. They need conservatism and nothing more. If Trump is up 15 points in August, the media will do absolutely nothing to create a "horse race".<br /><br />The media doesn't care about ratings at all. They lose viewers and make no moves to change that. The media cares only about conservatism.steevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12620735494191381865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-46597706506212879522016-05-13T13:14:43.151-05:002016-05-13T13:14:43.151-05:00To Gene - I agree. There's been reports - not...To Gene - I agree. There's been reports - not quite substantiated - that Trump started out, perhaps not quite as a lark, but mainly to shake things up. Well, fair enough on that score. But when egomaniacal Trump discovered that he could get literally million$ of dollar$ of utterly FREE advertising, why the EFF shouldn't Trump take it to the limit? I mean, in HIS shoes, I'd probably do the same damn thing. So thanks a bazillion US media for being so frickin' "fair and balanced." And that applies not just to Fox but (warning: redundancy ahead): ALL OF THEM, Katie. <br /><br />Yeah, I blame the Oligarch owned US media for the current Trump disaster. And frankly, absolutely none of them has changed their stance or approach. It's all a horse race to them. What do the Oligarchs care? If Trump wins? So what? They'll make DEALS with Trump - you can bank on that - and come out ahead. If the proles suffer? GOOD! If the nation continues to slide into disaster? Who CARES??? The Oligarchs'll just move somewhere else. <br />RUKiddinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14057702539722165035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-49256560190829558262016-05-13T12:27:19.757-05:002016-05-13T12:27:19.757-05:00While others leave comments better than I could, l...While others leave comments better than I could, let's not forget that the media, especially TV needs a horse race. They need it to keep score and swap "He said this. What's your response?" for finding the truth. I believe that Trump started out as a lark. When he found out the tail could wag the dog...well, you know the rest.Gene Obertohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03521444791272594982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-44716141741497631592016-05-13T12:24:44.321-05:002016-05-13T12:24:44.321-05:00What is this journalist person of whom you speak? ...What is this journalist person of whom you speak? I know not what you are describing. All I read/hear/see are stenographers, at best, scrawling scribblers, drooling dribblers, sycophantic suck ups at worst. <br /><br />True Journalism got the hatchet job around the time of Nixon - all things currently nefarious can pretty much lead right back to his perfidious doorstep. Too much reality, too many real facts reported on from Viet Nam caused the veil to drop from too many citizens' eyes, and real protest happened, and not just by the dirty f*cking hippies. Even the "greatest generation" was out there until they were dutifully shamed back into being the "Silent Generation."<br /><br />Now, I surmise (no proof or links), that rightwing "think" tanks cough out their hairball talking points, which are dutifully distributed far and wide. I just about choked last week when I heard a partial money-grubbing clip from National Propaganda Radio adjuring us hapless proles - ya know, the crème de la crème of the riff raff - about how "objective" they are. Oh yeah: go f*ck yourselves. Objective, my azz. Just the other day, they breathlessly informed the elite "thinking" proles about how Bernie Sanders' budget plans would send this nation into 10 gazillion dollars of MASSIVE DEBT within about 30 seconds of him getting elected. Yeah - that's REAL journalistic "integrity" and "objectivity" and "fact-yness" on display there, that is... and sad to say, Nat'l Propaganda Radio IS probably "better" than nearly anything else.<br /><br />I'd say the decline has been ongoing since Nixon and has hastened quite a bit since Bill Bloody Kristol thought that inflicting Tundra Trash Palin on us was a f*cking YOOOOGELY great idea. Remember how everyone flung softballs at that grifting deadbeat f*cking doofus, and many, including Katie Couric, were TRASHED for being "mean" to the Snowbilly. Frankly, that was the apex, and so-called "jouralmalism" has just skidded on downhill since then.<br /><br />I don't own a tv, but I hear that Scarborough got a drubbing for how he lobs softballs or love fests with Trump. No one really really questions Trump, and yet on "objective" NPR there's incessant breathless "reporting" on Trump AS IF this grifting bankrupt Oligarch has a leg to stand on. Mostly NPR has had a black out curtain on Sanders - so objective! - but when they finally say something about Sanders, it's usually just plan f*cking wrong... and wrong in a way to paint a bad picture, of course.<br /><br />The USA media SUCKS, SUCKS BIG. It's quite simply THE WORST. And these days, it's not just Fox and Rush Limbaugh. It's "All of THEM, Katie." <br /><br />They should all be run out of town on a rail and be tarred and feathered. ALL OF THEM, Katie.RUKiddinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14057702539722165035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-41002270755708663502016-05-13T07:16:22.963-05:002016-05-13T07:16:22.963-05:00Journalists, as a whole, can't challenge their...Journalists, as a whole, can't challenge their interviewees on the facts because the journalists themselves are totally ignorant of what the facts are. They have abdicated the role of "knowing what the hell is going on" utterly.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02948571774423709195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-31337228122319604672016-05-13T07:06:27.618-05:002016-05-13T07:06:27.618-05:00Au contraire, there is intense follow-up on storie...Au contraire, there is intense follow-up on stories such as Vince Foster, Monica Lewinsky, Benghazi, the email server...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02753739198386729717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-84364531671450187002016-05-13T06:10:04.777-05:002016-05-13T06:10:04.777-05:00Atrios, and you, have described it more eloquently...<a href="http://www.eschatonblog.com/2016/05/think-pieces-about-meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.html" rel="nofollow">Atrios, and you, have described it more eloquently than I could.</a>Lit3Bolthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10407681812425172672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-7119312628731986132016-05-13T06:08:49.977-05:002016-05-13T06:08:49.977-05:00As someone who graduated from a university with a ...As someone who graduated from a university with a bachelors degree in journalism, who earned a D in Reporting 101 and a B in Journalism Ethics (and an A in photography, I could have gone that route shame on me) and ended up a librarian, I share the horror of watching my once-promised profession consume itself as it ignores fact-checking, objective reporting, proper research, and open pursuit of "access" over accuracy. There's no self-respect, only self-worship. It's not helping.<br /><br />After the 2012 elections, Ta-Nehisi Coates called for the retirement of nearly every major Talking Head on the channels. I agreed with him. We're dealing with a generation of media glory hounds with unprincipled agendas who are twenty years behind and six-figure payrolls out of touch with the real world.Paul Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-91000386849493388312016-05-13T02:29:46.379-05:002016-05-13T02:29:46.379-05:00Hear, hear!Hear, hear!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02503636986268540986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-11474802558334926892016-05-13T00:52:41.502-05:002016-05-13T00:52:41.502-05:00Your reference to them being insulated & out-o...Your reference to them being insulated & out-of-touch is spot-on. An acquantaince of mine from college got hired at the NYT in the early '90s and very quickly (over the course of two or three years) became an attender of parties, airy-dismisser of the homeless, and non-returner of phone calls. Oh, and name dropper.<br /><br />In psychiatry we call having a clue "reality testing" but once you start believing your own PR you're lost down the rabbit hole.RMShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09867250362484348421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-72895500834940647992016-05-12T23:45:00.845-05:002016-05-12T23:45:00.845-05:00I did like it at the WHCA dinner when the presiden... I did like it at the WHCA dinner when the president asked the press if they were proud of their Trump coverage.<br /><br /> But Driftglass, if they don't suck at journalism, what can they suck? Oh wait... I seem to be saying that a lot lately.<br /><br /> -Doug in Oaklanddinthebeasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12941071534250216503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-22679423722388155572016-05-12T22:04:03.622-05:002016-05-12T22:04:03.622-05:00I would submit that they "continue to be paid...I would submit that they "continue to be paid unholy sums of money for being an embarrassing public failure at doing their job" because neither they nor the people who pay them those unholy sums of money see their job as anything to do with journalism. <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Swinton" rel="nofollow">John Swinton</a> described their job, as they and their paymasters see it, in 1883:<br /><br /><i>The business of a New York journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to villify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same — his salary. You know this, and I know it; and what foolery to be toasting an "Independent Press"! We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.</i>Neo Tuxedohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15455041641080873400noreply@blogger.com