Thursday, November 17, 2005

MSM In-Action

In my last post, I posted a link to Rep Murtha's anti-war statement. It just annoys the crap out of me that the only news link to it is from a British newspaper, not a single hit on Google from an American news source.

Maybe Marty Kaplan is right. During the Clinton admin, I just assumed the media was rabidly chasing the story of the day. But watching them during the Bush reign, I am just appalled at their lack of insight, honesty, and objectivity. From the lack of in-depth coverage of the 2000 election (and the total lack of coverage of the electronic voting machine debacle), to the lapdog repetition of the Admin's lines (should that be lies) on Saddam/Iraq/Terrorism, pre-war, to the current (read: TODAY!!!) misrepresentation of Woodward's disclosure and what it means for Libby, they have abdicated their responsibilities to REPORT, not just take dictation.

Yes, I know, the talking head he said/she said debates on ALL the news outlets are more 'entertaining' than one dogged reporter telling us what we don't want to hear, but it's all light, no heat (how do Victoria Toensing and Armstrong Williams qualify to be heard by anyone?) Stop giving us dueling morons and instant polls and viewer emails, and tell us what's happening.

When we've reached the point that the information on (often rabidly) partisan websites/blogs is more info-centric than the news in the media, the media may be very, very sick, if not, as Kaplan argues, dead.

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