SOMERBY Book Is Coming, Plus Press Wants Our Help, Won't Do Job

SOMERBY does the whole thing all himself?! Plus, the 2nd and 3rd items, j'ever notice how the press is always righteous in demanding our support for them, yet whenever there's a RAYGUN or a Shrub around they are TOTAL lapdogs?

*******QUOTE*******

Bob Somerby, Media Scourge, Considers His Next Crusade

http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/1/twomey-howler.asp

.... ...his book about the 2000 contest, which is nearly done. There aren’t armies of Somerby readers — the Howler hasn’t the reach of a Daily Kos or an Instapundit — but his readers have the zeal of the converted, ... ....

“Among people who are aware of how badly our media are broken; how shallow and lazy their reporting is, and how completely awash in conservative misinformation it is, I think Somerby is well known and widely read,” says David Brock, the right-wing-turned-left author who founded the Web site Media Matters for America. ....

...He frets about his tone, too, and about income. He doesn’t make any, not from the Howler. Most likely, he says, he’ll be writing shorter columns about the media. But not because there’s less to write. Your press corps wasn’t as bad last fall, ’tis true. But in Somerby’s view, it remained hapless, and worse. “I find their conduct repulsive,” he says.

Somerby, fifty-seven, is the kind of media writer made possible only by the Internet. His major at Harvard, where he had a roommate from Tennessee named Gore, was the always useful subject of philosophy. He became a public school teacher, then a comedian, but never a reporter or editor. Although the Howler often mentions its “entire staff” at “world headquarters,” it’s all just Somerby, who lives alone in a row house in the Bolton Hill neighborhood of Baltimore. Cringing at the marketing necessary to make the Howler a going concern, as some blogs are, Somerby doesn’t have ads, grants, or contributions. He survives on stand-up comedy gigs for corporations and professional organizations. ,,,,



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0501230336jan23,1,724147.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed

.... This is a direct affront to the 1st Amendment right of a free press to report and publish without fear of government intervention. It is certain to create an even chillier atmosphere for reporters trying to do their jobs in the public interest.

Fitzgerald says that his investigation has been sensitive to the 1st Amendment. That's rubbish.

This page strongly supported the appointment of Fitzgerald and has encouraged many of his anti-crime efforts in Chicago. But he's on a dangerous course here. His priorities are askew, and he needs to back off.


http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0501/23/rs.01.html

.... KURTZ: You're saying the press is too respectful of President Bush, even when he's not partying and celebrating his election?

HENNEBERGER (from Newsweek): That's my impression, actually. Yes, I think that...

KURTZ: Why is that?

HENNEBERGER: ... over -- I don't know. I think it's several things. I think that there's something to the idea that because most reporters and producers are -- do tend to be more liberal, we might be bending over backwards to show that we're being fair to the president.

KURTZ: Or responding to critics who say there's liberal bias in media?

HENNEBERGER: Absolutely. I think also the fact that there has been such message discipline, such little access, it's affected the coverage. I think that's worked really well for them. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

great job there. I guess he's burnt out. I liked the CJR piece on him. Yeah, I'll just BET those members of the press Twomey quoted never read the Howler.