Why Bloggers...Why Now?

Hey Media....

You have fallen down on the job. You know it, and now you know that WE know you know it .

You flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, and ....there appears to be a parachute "malfunction"..Happy Landings, Icarus

........

For decades media had Carte Blanche to report on whatever they chose, and for the most part did it fairly well. I'm sure that when FDR was putting together the New Deal, there was a lot of media attention to the pros and cons of the programs he planned. I know that during the Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon/Ford/Carter/Reagan/Bush1/Clinton years, there was no shortage of critical press. They understood that it was their JOB to report on important legislation.

Presidents are not supposed to "like" the coverage they get. It is what it is. Administrations have always tried to divert attention from their failings and trumpet their successes, but it's the DUTY of the press to call equal attention to both.

The stakes are very high, and the public is starting to realize that this might be our "last stand" against a government run amok. Instead of having the press standing by as "the fly on the wall" recording what is happening, they have become little more than megaphones for the politik-speak coming from the White House.

The real irony here is that as things have gotten ever more serious, the press has turned tail and run the other direction. They insist on force feeding us celebrity drivel, as China "eats our lunch". We just have to study, in depth, the make up of the Jackson jury while jobs are leaking from our country like water through a sieve. Brad & Jen's break-up is "top of the hour news...every hour" while we rarely hear an up to date accounting of our war dead. Our lopsided practically militant legislature is dismantling our long held safety nets but we see smiling anchors bemused by the antics of water skiing squirrels, and skydiving Grandpas.

Instead of deliberate reporting and follow-up on important issues of our day, we are "treated" to pseudo-journo-spokes-folks who delight in telling us about THEIR lives and the books THEY have written. Whole "networks" are devoted to "news", and yet they seem to interview each other as often as they report the news.

That brings up a whole other point. Experts? Experts used to be just that. They did not serve up a political agenda with their science. The so-called experts who are foisted in our faces day in and out are little more than Think Tank Hacks who have sold out to the right wing machine. They are as believable as the tobacco executives who repeated one after another "I do not believe that nicotine is addictive". For a price, these experts will say whatever they are paid to say. We know it, and we are tired of the lack of diversity of thought.

Bloggers are just ordinary people who are tired of being lied to, and who are ashamed and embarrassed for our "media folks". For the most part, the on-air "talent" are people who had the advantage of a good education, are well paid, and should know better. It's like seeing the guy from school who got a PHD working at Walmart.

We also "get it". We recognize the "code words" used in reporting the few news stories that get reported. We are ashamed of you because you are letting us down daily, hourly. You are our last hope for spreading truth and unvarnished facts, and yet you are usually first in line with lies, half truths and White House fax transcriptions.

Before you accuse the LEFT of being poor sports, I might remind you that "the left" controls NOTHING, and hasn't for a long time, so the "liberal bias" crap just does not pass the "smells like shit" test. Truth HAS no bias.

Our so-called media jumped on the war wagon with breathtaking gusto, never questioning the obviously bogus information, and yet had the guts to "be offended" when ordinary people started to take you all to task. You are our "last man".. We count on YOU to tell us what's going on. Sure, you all looked "cute" in your "war outfits", and it probably was great fun to race through the desert on tanks. You grabbed every lifeline the government tossed you as the reasons for war proved as solid as blobs of mercury. WE knew from Day One, minus 5 that the whole war was phony, and we are holding you responsible for a great part of the resulting carnage.

There was a window of opportunity when real reporting could have prevented the whole thing, and exposed the mess. We saw how you all enjoyed watching Colin Powell doing linguistic gymnastics at the UN, while the whole world laughed at us. Our media stuck their fingers in their ears and chanted la-la-la-la. You could not be bothered with mere facts.. The swooshy graphics were all ready.. the logos designed, and the measurements for your "war costumes" were already at the tailors.

and now we have arrived somehow, at Gannon/Guckert/Jeff/James/Cannon/Bulldog/BoyWonder.. whatever-the-hell he calls himself today. Get a grip people.. It's NOT about the sex (although he flaunted it).. It;s about the LYING... (Now where have we heard that canard?) and it's about the LACK OF SECURITY at the White House, and the EASY ACCESS that a male prostitute could get, and yet legitimate news people have difficulty getting.

We are spending billions of dollars on Homeland Security, and yet our own White House seems relatively INSECURE.

The Blogosphere is being covered now, out of obvious desperation on your part, but you are covering it in your usual dimwitted way. Turn the microscope around. You should be focused on:

Why can ordinary citizens with a computer be able to dig up facts that are unknown to people with degrees in journalism?

Why is the general public MORE aware of the undercurrents of stories than the mainstream press?

Why are bloggers meticulously careful in the sourcing of their material, providing voluminous links, while "real journalists" are the ones "just making stuff up" and claiming "confidentiality" when they get caught?

What's it TO you if real people have opinions too? Are OUR opinions less valid because we are the consumers of news, instead of the ones asking the "non-questions".?

Why are the relatively FEW opportunities afforded journalists WASTED with inane "questions"? I don't care what he eats, how fast he bikes, how many armadillos he fed Barney, or any of the other crap you guys ask him.

In case you have not noticed, we have some serious issues , and they deserve your full attention. If you cannot do it, please find someone else to do your job.

We have "moved on"..

Extremely well put.


MDN

Kicking for sanity

Great rant!!

does pose a National Security Risk to the Sanctity of Family Values. Further intense scrutiny is required by the MSM. (sarcasm off)

outlets! I would love to send as a LTTE (w/credits to you & a pump for DU attached, of course!). Would you mind? This is a beauty. It says it all so much better than I could ever attempt (on my best day).

on edit: nominated!

:)

I usually print this stuff out and send it snail mail:)

and other websites usually pick it up too :)

Feel free to use it.

you can credit J.Higgins

Please allow me to submit a couple of poems on this
subject

Post Mortem on the Fourth Estate
R.I.P. American Free Press

Mass media
Monopolizing minds
Manufacturing the times,
Mythmaking, muckraking
Fear Snaking into living rooms
throughout the land.

The world shudders,
as Mega phonics
of War ring hollow
in the terrorized air.
The lowdown on
the showdown,
Countdown to war.

The Press commits
Mass suicide
rising long enough
to Slaughter America
just in time for
Armageddon.

Punish the Press,
Poodles that they are;
For putting their
Pathetically
Privileged little lives
over really truthful reporting.

In the pocket of
the president
and still too
exhausted from
'Clinton fatigue'
to crawl out.

Lazy,lying
Polling pundits,
Would rather ramble
about numbers than
listen to people.

The People,
half of whom
they have betrayed;
and the other half
Watch Fox.

:)

And to you, nice essay.

now we just have to figure out how to get the media folks to read it. Guess we better sneak into the stack of WH briefing papers - otherwise they will miss it.

Hide it in plain sight. Bastards!

That was great. this should get sent to all the 'news' outlets! (not without your permission though)

excellent post.

edited to say: I read the thread now and see your permission listed, I will send it to the Bee! Forward like mad DU!

... I call 'em 'Infotainers', and the Think Tank Fucks I call 'Thunks'.

:kick: ass post SoCalDem!

J Higgens, you did an excellent job on articulating many people's frustration with the media.

I nominated your posting for inclusion as a "greatest."

I also submitted it to CNN and Lou Dobbs (I believe Lou Dobbs to be mostly exempt from your criticisms, but I do believe that he might pass it along, too -- IF he even reads his email.

and even though he is a conservative, and his show "used to be" called Moneyline, he's smart enough to realize that when you chop down all the trees, the firewoood is gone, and sooner or later you're gonna freeze to death..

the middle class (trees) is in great danger, and Lou's at least holding the congressional and senatorial feet to the fire...while we still have some firewood..

Middle class people are not easily replaced.. ...

:kick:
and "voted" for

life"

My take on NPR... :(

Nature abhors a void. That's why Blogs exist. Good job, SoCalDem.

You write it like your ass was on fire and your hair was about to catch. You've said everything I've been trying to get at for years in one great post!

P R O P S

:yourock:
dbt

And a big Hallelujah!!!

Very well done !!!

the MSM. Just needs a tiny bit of editing...(It's about the LYING).

:yourock:

I attended a lecture by Bob Schiffer when he was promoting his new book back in the fall of 2004. It was such a contrast when he showed old clips of "Meet the Press" when journalists actually researched their stories and asked tough questions compared to fawning coverage of "fearless leader". Schiffer spent ten minutes talking about how W would have been remembered as a great hero if he had found WMDs. The fact that he didn't was just a little problem but wasn't it great how W is now liberating the people of Iraq. As I listened to this, I thought that Schiffer was mentored by Murrow who had the courage to take on McCarthy when the rest of the media was too afraid too. Murrow would have been greatly disappointed in the spineless lapdogs that pass for reporters today.

Maybe another Murrow will rise out of the bloggers because he (or she) is nowhere to be found in today's Amprav.

You have summed up my feelings exactly!

lol...

Who constantly point out that they are not necessarily experts or journalists need support of a real information and research network that is not only lacking in the major league Corporate Pravda, but replaced by a a fraudulent idol with the face of an idiot.

It is too easy to scrape up the nuggets of truth left abandoned by the media. Sometimes even the worst troll pundit casually picks up and discards important facts.

The other limitation is the luxury of talking to mainly sane listeners, a niche group that shouldn't be a "liberal" niche as Air America pitches itself.

Relentless bald facts need to be promulgated so this lurching, shooting fish in a barrel, counterpoint in the alternate media gets sharper teeth and a voice that sinks into the mainstream.

Unable to do their jobs, the "news" people feel threatened by "bloggers" whom not lot long ago they dismissed except for respecting the brutal intimidation of the RW propaganda Internet like Drudge. The net does the "news" the MSM edits the "olds".

I would like to see a real international CIA open source open book information sunshine service coming of age soon. They have a very hard time spinning away a big dose of hard truth. Drown them. Then as far as opinions and spreading the "news" and beating the Americans about the ears with the truth it will be in full force not the occasional issue score that emerges from the forced niche.

How long did that take you to write? :evilgrin:

I am in awe at your writing abilities.

Occasionally I have sudden "word attacks" in the wee hours of the morning..:)

My parents told me that when I was little, I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, wake them up and ask if I could color..

I have no artistic talent now, so coloring books in the middle of the night, must have been because I could not read or write then:)

:thumbsup:

PLEASE GET THIS PUBLISHED SOMEWHERE!!!

I think we can see that at least some of the MSM realizes the threat that the bloggers are. They know they haven't been doing their job. The others are just terrifed that they are going to lose their cushy little gig now that it's being pointed out that in their current state, we don't need them. I've had my fill of propaganda, thanks.

You've summed up the anger that most of us have felt toward the mainstream media. Outstanding!

"Bloggers are just ordinary people"

I think many of them are extraordinary people, pursuing and publishing the TRUTH, usually without payment (or much praise).

the 'why now' part is easy. BECAUSE WE CAN. BECAUSE WE MUST. the so-called "MSM" is, CNN (Certainly Not News)

a little snip from The Question W Revue:

THE MEDIA MONTAGE

To the tune of “That’s Entertainment” (All)

THE WELL WHERE A BABY JUST FELL
OR A STAR WHO JUST TOTALED HER CAR
OR A CAD, FAMOUS FOR BEING BAD
THAT’S INFOTAINMENT!

To the tune of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" (Miles/Sue)

KOBE AND MARTHA
MICHAEL AND JANET'S
SUDDENLY TELEVISED BOOB...
TWENTY-FOUR-SEVEN AND WHAT DO WE SEE?
CERTAINLY NOTHING LIKE
CERTAINLY NOTHING LIKE
CERTAINLY NOTHING LIKE...NEWS!

To the tune of "Put On A Happy Face” (All)

TWO SOLDIERS DEAD IN MOSUL
WE THINK THAT'S HAPPY NEWS
A DOZEN CIVILIANS DEAD TOO
WE THINK THAT'S HAPPY NEWS!

INSIPID TWITS WITH PERKY TITS AND TEETH
ON EVERY DIAL
WE'LL TURN YOU ON AND
TERRIFY YOU WITH THE SAME SMILE

that we lack the backing of the Gigantic, moneyed news cartel. A guy, who by day is a high school gym teacher, could also have made himself an 'expert' on Social Security...or a stay at home Mom with 2 years of college and no "on air" time, could have made herself into an 'expert' on middle eastern issues.

All it takes is an intense interest and following up on that interest. All knowledge is NOT in a campus classroom, bought and paid for by a rich Daddy. "Ordinary" people, who are not paid big media-bucks can, and DO have great ideas, and often "hit" more than they "miss".

I think the "press" folks, hear hoofbeats in the distance, and they are just now looking up and scanning the horizon.. It might not be long now :)

right to the heart of the manipulative media.

An argument that arises is should journalists be credentialed or certified like doctors, lawyers and accountants to protect the public? As the media has not shown a propensity to be courageous, thoughtful or skeptical while using the public airwaves and the constitution correctly should the media prove that they have the requisite skills to do the job?

Your essay is worthy of the public and for the public. "A change is gone come..."

Absolutely not.
The reason doctors, lawyers and accountants have to be certified is their profession is a skill, not an art.
Journalists, true, have to have certain skill of craft (inverted pyramid, the ability to turn on a computer and type), but the art is the ability to write so everyone can understand, write without bias and ask questions that provoke thought.
I know why you'd like to see certification, but those professions you listed all require a measured skill. Journalism is generally an arts degree, not a science degree.
And, in all honesty, the average journalist does not make enough money to withstand the constant governmental barrage of certification. Journalists, on average, make about $5,000 less than teachers. That might be why the best and brightest either turn into whores or leave the profession, entirely (as I did).
The best way to change journalism is to do what we're doing - challenge facts and thoughts and opinions. Point out the flaws.
However, if we're ever going to change it, completely, we have to get back the Fairness Doctrine and force the conservatives to compete with liberals and moderates again.

the internet has free TV all over the place. www.TV4all.com has over 850 channels worldwide. Real news. Real music. Cancel your cable people. Save $50 bucks a month and quit supporting the war machine.

:kick:

Great post, SoCalDem. My family has watched the Today Show from the beginning of it. It is just tradition to have it on while we drink our coffee and get ready for the day. I am losing my patience and saving electricity by not having the TV on anymore. I can't stand it.

Katie was interviewing Dan Bartlett today about Bush's Europe visit but then she asked him about the tapes. I'd like to play poker with this guy because he'd never be able to bluff. As he explained that the tapes are out there now so there is nothing they can do (Oooh, poor betrayed Georgie who knew Wead was taking notes and had recorded him before--Geez!), he had the biggest damn smile on his face. It was so obvious the WH is tickled about how the traditional media picked up on these tapes just like they planned.

Grabbed remote and clicked OFF.

Thank you!

Superb.

The MSM needs this down their throats!

America has been lied to, over and over by the media. America has been fed pablum, over and over by the media. We are sick of it and we will find a way to get the truth out in the open!

Muckrakers unite!

and also, I would add: we are to TV what TV was for Yellow Journalism.

does a very good job of delineating the problems and where we have gone. I was so happy this week that in 2 polls; I could answer that I do not watch tv news or read American newspapers. I read several European papers daily & listen to radio on the internet. I don't know if my answer will get anyone's attention but I felt like I was telling someone what I really think about the state of our media.

:thumbsup:

To bad the MSM won't listen. Still under mega-corporation control...

A comment on right wing blogs - the few I've checked out often don't have anywhere for comments. The ones that allow comments don't get many comments. That's what's great about lefty blogs - grass roots feedback and comments. When I see a blog that doesn't have comments, I suspect it's unchallenged propaganda straight from the top.

That's about it. I'm speechless that Helen Thomas was relegated to the back of the room, but that Gannon character (and it was literally a character) got to fire softballs from further up. :wtf:

I look at the newspapers and television news and I see a whole lot of fluff coming from all directions. It's downright ominous if this is any indicator of where our knowledge of current events is leading us- Jacko more important than, say, Plame; the latest fad diet more important than not finding WMDs in Iraq.

Fluff, fluff, fluff, consume, consume, consume. Print and broadcast media is dying, and it's apparently been left to we who are willing to do it sans pay.

This will be a book someday. "The Rise and Fall of the Mainstream Media" or some such.

same level as the Jerry Springer Show. The big media stars are dimming. Sadly, as they lose viewers and revenue they will be even more tempted to sensationalize the unsensational and not want to bore us with the facts. Thank God for the Internets.

Other than a possible tone down for the people with delicate ears with the "smells like shit" test, it's perfect



Member SoCalDem fan club :loveya:

With a big nod to the infamous DU, of course! :-)

http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/73250

F*CK the media! We ARE the media!

of the free press in this sad, sick nation.

I'm trying to form a DU Group on this topic and would love for other people with more experience in the area to take up the fight:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=109x18717

It should be posted on the bulletin board of every newsroom. Anyone who calls themselves a journalist should "get" this. The media has let us down - BIG time - and we're not going to take it anymore. If mass media is to continue (i.e. if big profits are going to keep rolling into corporations from advertising), YOU'VE GOT TO TELL THE TRUTH AS IT IS, NOT AS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WISHES - PERHAPS ORDERS - YOU TO BELIEVE IT IS!!

Now, can we all borrow this, edit, and send it to our local newspaper editors? Or should we suggest the our local papers carry this as a guest editorial? You'd have to provide real name info, though.

Thanks.

:)

I was raised believing lieing is wrong. And I sure have been lied to a lot the last 4 plus years. Shall we say my eyes have glassed over.

nailed it and them to the wall
best piece I've read in a while.

"...Why are bloggers meticulously careful in the sourcing of their material, providing voluminous links, while "real journalists" are the ones "just making stuff up" and claiming "confidentiality" when they get caught?..."

This is the most enraging aspect of the press's attack on the credibility on blogger journalists. How dare they accuse liberal bloggers of being sensationalist and partisan, when they are nowhere near as precise, careful, and in depth as the blogs. Mainstream so-called journalists are merely railing at their impending irrelevance. It's best to not even engage them in this matter, because they aren't capable of taking the criticism, it seems.

I can relate to it, because a similar situation exists here in Oz,
where Rupert Murdoch controls 70% of the press (which incidentally,
is now against the law, because he is a foreign national, and there
are strict limits on how much of our press he can legally own - like
about 20%, but hey, it's Rupert, so who's keeping score?). Similarly,
our radio is full of right-wing shock jocks who wield power that is
in opposite ratio to their brain cells, and of course, commercial TV
dominates our screens.

But let's not forget who really gives these people the power they
have - the great mass of people out there who are too lazy to do a
little thinking for themselves or to sit down at their computers and
google a few websites that might give them a different slant. Or
if they don't own a computer, are far too lazy and/or complacent to
walk to their local library to look up a book or two on politics.
These people are happy to have somebody else fill the vacuums in
their minds with puerile rubbish rather than figure things out for
themselves, who seem incapable of reasoning even as far as making
the deduction that many of these radio hosts are so busy ranting
and pushing their own agenda that they're alarmingly short on facts.
And if they ever timed a commercial news program, they might realise
that a half-hour segment is likely to consists of at least 12
minutes of commercial time, and the same amount of time devoted to
man-bites-dog or kitten-up-tree stories, leaving about 6 minutes for
real news after greetings and station IDs. Which doesn't leave
any time for in-depth analysis - but who wants that?

The proliferation of trivia and commercials in our daily news may
well be part of the plot - just a variation of the old Roman bread-
and-circuses trick. Keep people's attention spans short, dress up
rubbish in glitter and gloss, and they'll be too hypnotised to ask
any real questions. But just try telling that to your neighbours -
they don't want to know, they'd rather live in their rose-colored
little world and trust others to do their thinking for them. They've
been well and truly brainwashed, and they like it, thank you very
much.

Most of these people AREN'T trained journalists. Hannity? Nope. O'Reilly. Nope. And I'm sure a fair share of the others were former beauty queens or jocks.

The real journalists are at your hometown newspaper, slugging it out with city council for less than $25,000 a year and 60-hour work weeks.

But, in as far as your rant and sentiment go, I completely agree. Let's put the "journal" back in "journalist."

We are instead "treated" to "The Inland Empire" version of a Cox Papers rag.. Hometown news does not exist either.:(

When i was a kid, we lived in a twon of less than 20K, and we had FOUR local radio stations, TWO separate newspapers (a morning and an afternoon), and a fledgling (and awful) local TV station..

But then, we did not have "swooshes" and ladies dipped in vats of lip gloss..:)

I've seen a decline in newspaper reporting as a result of one of the TWO hometown papers failing, but to have a town that large without even ONE?
GASP!
But, as one of "them, there local yokel reporters" (as I was for 12 years), I can tell you, I never made over $18,000 a year. I had to go into public relations/marketing to have decent hours and OK pay when I got my divorce and had to raise a kid alone.

I also live in Southern Cal...The only nationally publicated newspaper we have is the L.A. Times... and need I say since the death of the Examiner and the Herald, the L.A. Times has become somewhat of a joke. Very, very sad as can be documentated in their being part of the Gary Webb witch-hunt. Which was really nothing more than jealousy and Bush political pressure.

Local news we can only get from Los Angeles, so if something is going on in our town, you better know someone who knows someone, because that's the only way we'll find out about it.,

and fox-news and the only ones on it.

but this definitely goes beyond the teeVee and our papers of record FAILED as well.

we have attacked a country that was cooperating with us FULLY. up against the wall and striped searched! before we even gave the order to ATTACK yet MOST M$MH's did not have a problem with that, to our ETERNAL shame :puke:

peace

very well said SoCalDem, thank you. :toast:

the main stream media whores are done... just like MS is getting their a$$ kicked by open-source which the INTERNET is BUILT upon.

thank GORE he 'invented' the INTERNETs :bounce:

Bravo.

Thanks for your post which is sharply focused on the pressing needs for the press
to act responsibly and do the work they're paid to do.

I nominate you man, go ask some real questions. Even if they don't answer, I just want to see their faces as they cut to commercial.

:wow:

:toast: SPOT ON!

Let me add one more line to it:

"Why can ordinary citizens with a computer and an open mind be able to write stuff that are way beyond people with degrees in journalism?"

Keep up the good work! :-)

An excellent assessment of just this can be found in Amy Goodman's online free documentary here...http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/media_war_256.rm&proto=rtsp
INDEPENDENT MEDIA IN A TIME OF WAR:
For dial up connections, go to the main page...http://www.democracynow.org/static/IMIATOW.shtml

Every talking head should have a copy of this!