Athenae, So Called Liberal Media

Support for News Culture

A tale of two Romenesko-featured stories that make me want to say fuck it, spend the day on the beach, and hope a magic dolphin arises from the waters and carries me off to FUCKING DROWN.

First, if we don’t all uncritically love newspapers, our only other choice is some total douchemook:

A note to the notably angry, sarcastic American, the “snarlygaster”
who, in letters to this columnist or in postings on baltimoresun.com
talk forums, expresses glee at the troubles of the U.S. newspaper
industry and the hope that the nation’s dailies disappear:

Be careful what you wish for. You may end up with Andrew Breitbart.

[snip]

Daily newspapers make mistakes. They usually deal with the basic facts
of stories — the title someone once held, the name of a suspect in a
criminal matter — and corrections appear in print every day. Newspapers
have had some reporters and columnists who made stuff up (years ago, aWashington Post reporter won a Pulitzer for a fabricated story) or copied the work of others. Those people were all fired.

Had any producer at a local TV station, network or cable newsroom
cobbled together a video like the one Mr. Breitbart posted of Ms.
Sherrod, that producer would be among the nation’s unemployed today.

At least until CNN, Fox or the Washington Post picked them up as regular commentators because of their unerring instinct for igniting firestorms of controversy and getting people talking about phenomenony phenomenal things! Fingers! On the pulse of stuff! Oh, sure, they’d spend a few minutes in the wilderness, but really:

Miller will be an on-air analyst and will write for Fox’s Web site.
“She has a very impressive resumé,” says Senior Vice President John
Moody. “We’ve all had stories that didn’t come out exactly as we had
hoped. It’s certainly something she’s going to be associated with for
all time, and there’s not much anyone can do about that, but we want to
make use of the tremendous expertise she brings on a lot of other
issues. . . . She has explained herself and she has nothing to
apologize for.”

From the Sun story:

Only with public support of a news culture grounded in the fundamentals
of journalism — solid reporting, fair and informed analysis, respect
for the truth and the public good — does this democracy survive.
Settling for less means settling for Andrew Breitbart.

Yeah, about that news culture of decency and truth being ruined by all us unwashed Internet assholes:

The court-appointed examiner inTribune Co.‘s
Chapter 11 bankruptcy case determined that the company’s 2007 leveraged
buyout was “marred” by the “dishonesty and lack of candor” of its
then-senior management and that the deal rendered the media
conglomerate insolvent from the moment the two-step transaction closed.

So our only other choice is Andrew Breitbart?

Is death an option?

A.

—–

6 thoughts on “Support for News Culture”

  1. You kind of want to tell this guy that without, you know, people who call themselves journalists, Breitbart would have been confined to FOX News.

    Had any producer at a local TV station, network or cable newsroom cobbled together a video like the one Mr. Breitbart posted of Ms. Sherrod, that producer would be among the nation’s unemployed today.

    Did any of the outlets who fell hook, line, and sinker for Breitbart’s flaming turd fire anyone over it? Anyone?
    Didn’t think so. STFU, moron.

  2. This is just a random thought but it seems like there’s a parallel with Democrats saying “support us or you’ll end up with REPUBLICANS!” as their Big Inspiring Message for November.
    You know – give us a reason to like you, OK? Dont just try to scare us with how bad the alternatives are.

  3. Someone the other day told me that I should not reveal to myself to the real corporate world because then I would be associated with Andrew O’Keefe and Breitbart because they are bloggers and they have a bad rep. Sigh.
    It’s all about consequences and lack their of. Who can apply consequences to misuse of a video with the intent to deceive? Well one person could be breitbart.com! According to their TOS they should not have run that video.
    I think it would be great fun to have Breitbart himself be sued by breitbart.com’s TOS for violating them.
    The TOS talks about the various kinds of stories you aren’t supposed to put up, including the whole defamation thing.

  4. Newspapers have had some reporters and columnists who made stuff up (years ago, a Washington Post reporter won a Pulitzer for a fabricated story) or copied the work of others. Those people were all fired.
    Remind me of Queen Of All Iraq Judy Fucking Miller was she fired? Or just allowed to gracefully exit with an early “retirement” so she could carry on, reputation intact, as a Fox News contributor and honored Manhattan Institute fellow?

  5. Dan, I was thinking the same thing. The saying used to be “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” Now it’s “Don’t let the good be the enemy of the mediocre.” Sooner than we think it’ll be “Don’t let the mediocre be the enemy of the awful.”

  6. I can’t help but see a double standard here too. Dan Rather was consumed in flames for apparently being a little over eager to get a story on the air. After several decades of dedicated journalism, one of the few people who stood up to Richard Nixon, all it took was one false memo and he was gone, never to be seen as relevant again by the right or the left. Breitbart not so much. I know he isn’t a mainstream news anchor but still he is being celebrated as a right wing hero for producing fake videos.

Comments are closed.