A blogger has broken this story - I had to note that - of an AP Photographer with questionable ties to Iraqi insurgents - among other things. Michelle Malkin asks, Is the AP Staging news?
This comes, of course, on the heals of the WaPo’s frontpage lie and the daily - almost hourly - offenses from the NY Times.
I’d like to read more of Sam Freedman’s take on the superiority and “mediating intelligence” of Bigtime Professional Journalism, but I am frankly all done in. I cannot understand why anyone in the press thinks we should believe a word they write or report. The guardians need guardians - thank God for the new gatekeepers.
The harm and destruction being wrought upon this nation and others by people who have moved far beyond their commission to simply supply the facts of any given story is becoming incalculable - politically, socially, societally, militarily. Our press is out of control, or - more correctly - under the control of something malicious. Without a free and honest press, we are in trouble. And we are without a free and honest press, these days.
Related: Delivering the news with a poisoned rag.
Citizen Journalists cover immigration
Too late, Fitz backtracks and the NY Times Corrects (laughable)
WaPo lines up a frontpage lie
April 13th, 2006 at 9:05 am
I tried to read the windbag Professer Samuel Freedman’s essay, but had to quit. Journalism Professors are as vain, pompous and useless as US Senators.
April 13th, 2006 at 10:48 am
I finished reading it. I respect Professor Freedman because he makes sense, although he writes rather dryly. The money paragraph is towards the end, when he cites NPR (liberal), Bloomberg Business News (conservative) and USA Today (aka McPaper) as improving their coverage and their audience. No single “citizen journalist” is able to get the broad coverage and in-depth reporting that a good newspaper, magazine or radio station can. That’s the crux of the matter, too - the trained professional is worth something when he behaves professionally and uses his training. Frankly, some of the bloggers and videotapers I see online are doing the sensationalist reporting that I loathed in established media.
April 13th, 2006 at 11:51 am
The MSM lack of interest in the translated Saddam documents continues to simply astonish me. Here again, we have a story that could be a “career blockbuster” of a story–but mainstream journalists are not interested because they know taking the story on will get them A. called a “wingnut” etc. in their newsrooms and B. disinvited to lunch, cocktail parties, etc. among the Cool People. Astonishing!!
April 13th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
I think the only effective way to punish this sort of journalistic malpractice is by walking away, and given the layoffs at organizations like the NY Times, it is slowly working.
It is depressing to read the news and realize how we are being snookered, though. I think bloggers from abroad are doing a great service in allowing a less filtered look at the environment and views of those from other countries.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
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April 13th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
“No single “citizen journalist” is able to get the broad coverage and in-depth reporting that a good newspaper, magazine or radio station can.”
Of course they can’t! Most bloggers are doing what they do on their own dime. From their own homes. But what they don’t do is fit every story to the MSM template of the Left. Agenda-driven journalism, like agenda-driven science, has absolutely no value or place in this world. The “braintrust” of modern journalism admits that every human being views the world through their own “lense.” You’ve all heard that answer given many times. But then they turn around and staff their offices with people with a single political point-of-view. Does anyone suspect that any good can come of this?
MOM is right! The only thing people of good conscience can do is shun the people that violated our trust. Stop watching the news! Stop subscribing to their newspapers and magazines! Stop going to movies with a political agenda like “Syriana,” “V for Vendetta,” and “Good Night, Good Luck.”
Check to see which library of films George Soros bought before picking up that DVD.
April 19th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Bloggers can fact check and quickly put a lot of pressure on MSM organizations to correct erroneous information. This is the most wonderful thing about the Internet. Sure, there are abuses, etc. But the fact checking is a revolutionary thing that the MSM never before had to face. Hopefully, it will cause some of them to think twice before jumping on some factoid just to prove their preconceptions correct.