As the media and politicians explore three stories — Benghazi, the IRS targeting of conservative groups, and the DOJ’s seizure of AP phone records — Ryan Lizza points out something very important, that these scandals really only have two results: a media feeding frenzy and convenient political posturing. Actual solutions have no part to play …
Category Archive: Media Monitor
Apr 22 2013
Torture and the New York Times
Andrew Sullivan has for years rightly blasted the New York Times for refusing to use the word ‘torture’ when describing what the Bush administration did to detainees. Now Bill Keller of the Times attempts to defend that reluctance. I say ‘attempts’ because he fails miserably. Bizarrely, he admits that it clearly was torture even though …
Mar 06 2013
Conservative Bloggers Paid PR Agents for Malaysia
The conservative media and blogosphere has been hit with a scandal after a federal filing revealed that the government of Malaysia had paid hundred of thousands of dollars out to several of them to write good things about them on major online media outlets like Red State and the National Review Online.
Feb 26 2013
Greenwald Blasts NBC for Hiring Obama Advisers
Glenn Greenwald has an absolutely scathing column about NBC hiring former Obama advisers David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs as contributors and what this says about the sad state of our sycophantic media. While noting that there are exceptions — Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow are sometimes highly critical of the Obama administration — he points …
Feb 16 2013
Really, Washington Post?
The Washington Post actually reported on Tuesday that Sarah Palin was joining the Al Jazeera America network to host a new show. Their source? The Daily Currant, an Onion-style parody site. They now issued a correction and removed this paragraph from the original article:
Feb 05 2013
Breaking News: This Is An Exclusive Blog Post
Michael Moynihan writes about a journalistic practice that annoys the hell out of me too, the overuse of terms like “exclusive” and “breaking news” to promote usually mundane and non-exclusive stories. It’s especially ridiculous when a news outlet refers to an “exclusive interview” of someone who has been making the rounds of all the big …
Jan 08 2013
Al Jazeera Buys Current TV; Cue the Outrage
I don’t get Current TV on my cable and I’ve never actually seen the channel, but I’m happy to hear that Al Jazeera bought the network and I hope we get it soon. The wingnuts are, of course, throwing a fit about it. Here’s Pam Geller’s unhinged reaction:
Jan 05 2013
A Reporter’s Wasted Time
For some weird reason, Politico thinks that what Jose Canseco says about the fiscal cliff deal is news. It makes me feel bad for Patrick Gavin, the reporter who had to write about it. If I was a reporter for a news outlet and the editor told me to cover Jose Canseco’s tweets, I’d be …
Dec 24 2012
The Media Hack List is Out
I like Alex Pareene’s annual list of media hacks. I like it because it’s as objective as such analyses can be, going after hacks on the right and the left, and because it also rightly goes after those middle-of-the-road, play-it-straight beltway analysts who can be relied on to say next to nothing and pretend it’s …
Dec 05 2012
The Liberal Media and False Dichotomies
Politico has an article that details the allegedly terrible choice faced by liberals in the media now that Obama has been reelected. Should they keep being a mindless attack dog or should they start going after Obama on the many ways he has failed, or even betrayed, a progressive agenda?
Dec 04 2012
Time to Mainstream the Factchecking
2012 was the year that websites devoted to factchecking politicians truly came into their own, though they actually started a few years ago. Some people are calling for more of that sort of thing, but Brendan Nyhan correctly points out that if journalists did their jobs, they wouldn’t be necessary:
Aug 30 2012
Should the Media Even Cover the Conventions?
Jeff Jarvis asks a question that may seem shocking at first, but I think he has a point: Should the media even bother to cover the two major party conventions? They’re great entertainment for political junkies who still retain some measure of idealism, but they’re really just 4-day infomercials.
Apr 27 2012
The Myth of the Liberal Media
A new Pew survey of news coverage during the primary season found that President Obama has gotten the least positive coverage of the major party presidential candidates. The two candidates that got the most? Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.
Dec 12 2011
OMG! NBC Is Committing Journalism!
The Worldnutdaily has their usual bit of empty mudslinging at what should be a very welcome development, the fact that NBC is now going to work with ProPublica to produce news content for their networks. And the criticism is based on no substance all, only the fact that ProPublica gets funding from — gasp! — …
Sep 02 2011
Norah O’Donnell Hearts White House Correspondents
Norah O’Donnell, who recently left NBC to become the chief White House correspondent for CBS News, thinks she’s joining a very exclusive club: Cognizant of her potential path, O’Donnell has embraced the opportunity to make her mark on the political media sphere. “Brian Williams had that job, Dan Rather held that job,” she says. “The …
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