David Carr at the NYT opines on the cancellationof the Washington Post salon fiasco. He comments that the upstart beltway Politico has caught

the paper on a fundamental lapse in the wall between church and state.

As if there was really any question that our mainstream media wasn't composed entirely of whores--although a whore might be insulted by the comparison, let there be no remaining doubts:

The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

With the newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said this morning that he was "appalled" by the plan and said the newsroom will not participate.

"It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase," Brauchli told The Post’s media reporter, Howard Kurtz. The proposal "promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post."

I'm speechless.

Glenn Greenwald |June 22

Anyone who believes that NPR is a "liberal" media outlet -- and anyone who wants to understand the decay of American journalism -- should read this column by NPR's Ombudsman, Alicia C. Shepard, as she explains and justifies why NPR bars the use of the word "torture" to describe what the Bush administration did. Responding to what she calls "a slew of emails challenging NPR's policy of using the words 'harsh interrogation tactics' or 'enhanced interrogation techniques' to describe the treatment of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration," Shepard hauls out every trite and misleading bit of journalistic conventional wisdom to dismiss listeners' concerns and defend NPR's Orwellian practice (as I noted recently when writing about The New York Times' refusal to use the word "torture," NPR's compulsive use of Bush euphemisms has been a constant complaint of the excellent blog NPR Check).

Let's just take her claims one by one, because they're so instructive:

Read the rest here.

I would really like to ask all bloggers to take a look at this letter from a local 'indigenous' activist here on SXM giving a warning to bloggers. This Leopold James has been taken to task or criticized in blogs on our local site SXM Private Eye in the past. He doesn't like it.

Anyway, it's been blogged about by my friend LH and we would really like to hear some support and thoughts from the blogging world on this matter.

Caribdude

Fear, Threats and Intimidation - SXM PE

Kathlyn Stone | Minneapolis, MN | May 31

Flesh & Stone - Gallup's "pro-life" poll deserves greater scrutiny.

The strategically timed release of a poll showing a sudden 10-point flip in American views on abortion should raise a few eyebrows.

Gallup’s press release claimed, "More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time."

I must bring your attention to the profound musings of one Glenn Beck.

I think this is the problem. First they came for the banks. I wasn't a banker, I didn't really care. I didn't stand up and say anything. Then they came for the AIG executives. Then they came for the car companies. Until it gets down to you. Most people don't see -- they are coming for you at some point! You're on the list! Everybody's on the list. You may not be rich -- as currently defined.

Beck, Cavuto promote militia-movement 'constitutionalist' theories on Fox

Paul Sheehan writes in the SMH - Several teenagers at an elite Sydney girls school are coming to terms with the full magnitude of their public betrayal via the internet. Where to begin? One has had her genitalia discussed in anatomical detail. Another has had her face likened to a koala's. A third has learnt that her circle of friends is not friendly at all: "She thinks she's best friends with lots of people but they actually hate her."

With several print newspapers already dead in recent months, others failing or under financial threat and a crass crowd of brash, disrespectful online journalists attracting millions of readers, the jut-jawed senator from Massachusetts John Kerry is worried about the future of said journalism.

Why is it his business? some might ask.

Well, for one thing, as a youngster Kerry delivered the Washington Star. That newspaper died. As an adult Democratic candidate for president five years ago, Kerry got some rough treatment from opponents and journalists both on- and offline. His campaign died. Does anyone see a pattern here?

But the contemporary reason for Kerry's journalism concern is that he chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet (SCSOCTATI). Which is probably a big deal somewhere. (See below Kerry talking with an apparent politics blogger.)

Except for celebrity nudity and public confessions of marital infidelity by elected people, few things are guaranteed to attract media attention more than discussions about itself. It's self-fulfilling. The press corps must be important if it's getting so much coverage from itself. more :) at LA Times

Andrew Clark | New York

The Guardian - Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul

Rupert ­Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a ­"malfunctioning" business model.

Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said.

Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, he replied: "We're absolutely looking at that." Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over."

In the last few days, reports appeared about how the Pulitzer committee awarded their prestigious prize to topics like the luxury bordello scandals involving elected officials, Thomas Jefferson’s various mistresses, and international sex trafficking, among others.

No doubt these subjects are important and sizzle in the public mind, yet something feels missing—a shoe lace untied, a hole worn through a pocket by a house key, or that war lasting more than 7 years now.

The Pulitzer committee grants awards for socially redeeming art, beautiful music, or fine writing that pierces the veil of deception in high places. Plenty of journalists and writers have accomplished this on the subject of Operation Iraqi Freedom, focusing not on the sizzling sex scandals but on the more primitive forms of brutality and rape in the chaos of a destroyed country.

IWPR - New generation of Serbian journalists grapples with ethics and challenges of tackling dark side of their country’s recent history. By Jasna Jankovic in Belgrade

Whether in times of war or not, a journalist should always serve the public interest, the truth and universal human values.

Although views on certain issues may differ, I do not see how the rape of a woman or the murder of an infant can be viewed as anything other than a crime. The same goes for covering up atrocities or, even worse, glorifying such acts as patriotic.

Those who love their nation must face themselves and their compatriots with the truth in order to overcome it and become better and stronge

I'm referring to the tube-viral performance of Susan Boyle this week on Britain's Got Talent.

You can see it here on Chickadee's diary: http://agonist.org/chickadee/20090415/introducing_susan_boyle#new

As that tape began, I wondered why Simon Cowell and the other judges were rolling their eyes and giving each other questioning looks before Susan Boyle even began singing. They don't do impolite smirking with other contestants, even the fat, homely ones. Yes, indeed, Susan Boyle was older, frumpy, ungainly - a typical British housewife from a Monty Python set, even if she made it clear she was a spinster (and a virgin at that, which was such an odd thing to admit on national television that I began to wonder if she wasn't deliberately presenting this image of innocence and purity).

Do individual experts whose stock market forecasting records are good (bad) attract (lose) attention?

there is no relationship between the forecasting accuracy of and the attention paid to stock market gurus

CXO Advisory blog

This probably applies in many other fields too.

[PoliticsinMinnesota.com - I wrote this up for work] One major dynamic of political action these days is the constant battle of perception over whether a given demonstration or political organization is really an authentic "grassroots" wildfire rising up from the people. As one local tea party supporter put it to PIM, this is really a "liberty movement," not a partisan movement, but are political opportunists of every stripe trying to reshape perceptions?

The first argument from detractors is often a claim that their opponents are really getting played or co-opted by a fake grassroots "astroturfing" operation staged by "the usual suspects," namely public relations firms, think tanks and the other institutional infrastructures dedicated to propagating ideas and influencing policy.

News publishers easily could block Google's spiders with a simple text file. But then their stories would not appear on Google News or in its search engine. You don't hear news publishers talk about this because that's the last thing they want.

Circulation is falling -- more than 10% between 2004 and 2008 alone

1910, there were 2,600 daily newspapers in the United States, the vast majority independently owned and operated. By 1990, there were 1,600 papers nationwide, largely under corporate control and overseen by 15 chief executive officers.

For years, papers cleared 40% margins

Charles Blow, New York Times:

Lately I’ve been consuming as much conservative media as possible (interspersed with shots of Pepto-Bismol) to get a better sense of the mind and mood of the right. My read: They’re apocalyptic. They feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their “leaders” seem to be trying to mold them into militias.

At first, it was entertaining — just harmless, hotheaded expostulation. Of course, there were the garbled facts, twisted logic and veiled hate speech. But what did I expect, fair and balanced? It was like walking through an ideological house of mirrors. The distortions can be mildly amusing at first, but if I stay too long it makes me sick.

Oliver Burkeman | Washington | Mar 18

The Guardian - Nancy Pelosi argues US anti-trust laws should be relaxed to keep news organisations viable

Ailing American newspapers should be given leniency under competition laws so that they can find ways to remain viable and pursue their vital democratic role, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has argued.

In a letter to Eric Holder, the US attorney general, Pelosi argues that anti-trust laws should not prevent rival regional newspapers from exploring mergers and consolidations - a move that might also help clear the path to allowing national news organisations to collaborate on charging for their online content.

"We must ensure that our policies enable news organisations to survive and to engage in the newsgathering and analysis that the American people expect," writes Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat whose letter focuses on the fate of the San Francisco Chronicle. Its owner Hearst, which announced the closure of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's print version this week, has said it will be forced to sell or close the loss-making Chronicle if major savings cannot be rapidly achieved.

Supporters of a paid model for online news content argue that a relaxation of anti-trust laws could be the industry's saving grace. It would enable organisations such as the New York Times, CNN.com and the Associated Press to collaborate, imposing a uniform pricing system simultaneously and acting as one to demand fees from aggregators such as Google News and Yahoo, which profit from their journalism.

Another bailout coming? Just what we need more consolidation of the news...

Seattle | March 17

AP - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska's gold fields, will print its final edition Tuesday.

Seattle becomes the second major city to lose a newspaper this year, following Denver, as many U.S. dailies face uncertain futures, battered by quickly declining ad revenue in the age of the Internet and a teetering economy.

"Round and round this goes, with the people committed to saving newspapers demanding to know 'If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?' To which the answer is: Nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke."

Clay Shirky offers a provocative analysis of the end of newspapers in
"Newspapers and Thinking About the Unthinkable"

Hat tip to Clif Figallo for this one.

A marvelous essay on the dangers of living a character: Rush Limbaugh destroying the national conversation. - Beau Weaver's blog "Drunks and Indians", February 1, 2009

Rush Limbaugh is getting a lot of promotional help these days, though he does not need it, from the preposterous suggestion that he is the new head of the Republican party. This makes about as much sense as suggesting that Kieffer Sutherland should head the CIA. You do know that Jack Bauer is just a character on a television show, right? Just as Rush Limbaugh is a character invented by a radio deejay who had to reinvent himself as a talk show host many years ago.

The Republican party is imploding around the black hole of Rush Limbaugh's ego, and it was completely predictable. This is the inevitable endgame of a party that based its appeal on a fifty-year campaign of demonizing anybody outside of the extreme fringes of its own membership.

There used to be real moderates among Republicans. They are now gone, purged. There used to be fiscal conservatives. They were pushed out by BushCo's greedy corporatists. Today all that is left is those that chant the mindless mantras of Limbaugh: Free markets! Tax cuts! America knows best! They are zombie puppets, utterly disconnected from the most obvious realities. Rush himself proudly dubbed them "dittoheads," some call them Rushbots. Point is, none dare disagree with any little thing Rush says, lest they be cast out of the tight little circle of the faithful.

Unbelievable. I'm a cynical swine and a cheerful warrior, but even I have a limit.

Mish wants to reduce government salaries.

It's time to roll back the salaries of all elected and appointed government officials at every level including local, state, and federal. It would be nice to see this happen voluntarily instead of by force.

Why do I read this gold-fetishizing Austrian nutbar again?

It turns out that there may be more to the story then originally met the eye, according to (yes, really) Playboy magazine.

Excerpt:

“How did a minor-league TV figure, whose contract with CNBC is due this summer, get so quickly launched into a nationwide rightwing blog sensation? Why were there so many sites and organizations online and live within minutes or hours after his rant, leading to a nationwide protest just a week after his rant?

"What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s “tea party” rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine, from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called “astroturfing”) to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that’s because it was.

Yinka Adegoke | New York | February 26

Reuters - Cablevision Systems Corp plans to charge online readers of its Newsday newspaper, a move that would make it one of the first large U.S. papers to reverse a trend toward free Web readership.

Newsday, which covers the New York suburb of Long Island, was bought by Cablevision in a $650 million deal last May that was widely criticized on Wall Street as a puzzling move into a troubled newspaper market.

But Cablevision Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said the cable TV company was aware of the difficulties faced by the traditional newspaper business. "Our goal was and is to use our electronic network assets and subscriber relationships to transform the way news is distributed," he said on a conference call with analysts.

Rachel Oswald | Feb 25

Raw Story - Journalists, so concerned with being accused of having a liberal agenda, will at times overreact by self-censoring themselves, resulting in more favorable coverage of Republicans, a new analysis of television coverage finds.

A book by two Indiana University professors details their study of the three broadcast networks' -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- presidential campaign coverage from 1992 to 2004. According to the analysis, the coverage favored Republican candidates in each election.

"We don't think this is journalists conspiring to favor Republicans. We think they're just so beat up and tired of being accused of a liberal bias that they unknowingly give Republicans the benefit in coverage," said Maria Elizabeth Grabe, an associate professor at IU, who along with Associate Professor Erik Bucy, wrote Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections. "It's self-censorship that journalists might be imposing on themselves."

what a crock of sh*t