Newscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling,finally start snarling

[Turn CO Blue]

The Rebellion of the Talking Heads
Newscasters, sick of official lies and stonewalling, finally start snarling.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, at 2:36 PM PT

(snippet)
In the last couple of days, many of the broadcasters reporting from the bowl-shaped toxic waste dump that was once the city of New Orleans have stopped playing the role of wind-swept wet men facing down a big storm to become public advocates for the poor, the displaced, the starving, the dying, and the dead.

Last night, CNN's Anderson Cooper abandoned the old persona to throttle Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., in a live interview.

(snippet)
Several readers directed me to CNN reporter Miles O'Brien's hard-boiled interview with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in which he repeatedly invited the governor to agree with him that the federal government had "dropped the ball." When Barbour demurred on this and other points of culpability, O'Brien came back at him without the politesse reporters usually extend to dissembling pols.

I recall Andrea Mitchell all but editorializing on NBC the other night about Congress taking its sweet time to reconvene and pass a hurricane-relief bill … Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith chasing after a mute police officer down the New Orleans freeway overpass and asking in outrage when the stranded would get help … and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough in Biloxi transforming himself into the voice of the disenfranchised to put in a good word for the looters...

(snippet)
This morning the discontent spread to the anchor booth at CNN, as Wonkette notes, when Soledad O'Brien openly mocked FEMA in an interview with its director, Michael Brown...
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More at Link <http://slate.msn.com/id/2125581/device/html40/workarea/3/?nav=ais>DEFINITELY

A MUST-READ - The media may not be dead, as we thought. PERHAPS WE CAN KEEP THIS DISENSION IN THE REPORTER RANKS REVVED UP?

[opihimoimoi]

1. Brown the Clown and Bush the Tush will be raked over live volcano for this

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Long pig. . .yum yum. Pass me the yams and the poi.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Plausible]

2. I think the Rethugs are re-taking corporate news again today

I had to turn it off, was so disgustingly kiss rethug ass.

NBC news did an excellent job last night.

But, how long do we really think real news will be allowed to happen?

[koopie57]

6. write them, e-mail them

tell them what you think. I did. You too.

[Turn CO Blue]

7. But these reporters...the ones who were angry and crying

I am hoping they can't/won't go back to the way they were. They're "snarky" now, and I bet it felt good.

[Dem Agog]

3. write these notable journalists and THANK them...

i send thanks to andersonc ooper and cafferty on cnn today...

[rodeodance]

4. and now we have Geraldo--the calvery is here (bushco gets credit)

[Turn CO Blue]

8. Even Geraldo was frustrated - screaming and weeping at one point.

He was losing his voice. I'm no fan, but you know he was taking risks on Fox being so critical of the way things were being handled. Shep Smith had totally gone renegade.

[rodeodance]

10. yes, i know--but I see him back in "fox' mode again today.

[Turn CO Blue]

11. Remember 25 years ago, when Geraldo was sort of interesting?

What happened to THAT Geraldo? Oh well.

I'm sure they were all threatened with losing their jobs. If I were in the situation, I'd rather lose my job (hell, I'd rather have my teeth pulled out one at a time with a rusty pair of pliers than work for Faux News), but these guys LOVE to be on TV with a microphone. They'd never give it up for principles for fear of it's being their last gig.

[MADem]

5. We need to PRAISE them, and tell them to keep it up

...and we want to hear them bitching about EVERYTHING, not just NOLA.

Enough is enough!!!! We CAN handle the truth!!!

[Heman]

12. How can Alaska help ?

But hold on a minute. Just this month, the federal government managed to find $286.4 billion for a highway bill that provides countless Washington D.C. giveaways to states that don't need the help. Among the celebrated goodies: a dust control project for Arkansas roads and a warehouse on the Erie Canal.

Nobody, however, made out on the highway bill quite like the state of Alaska and its ravenous political class. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, bragged to his constituents that the transportation bill (which Young loves so much he named it after his wife) was "stuffed like a turkey" with handouts for his state, and he was not exaggerating. The $721 million in tundra spending includes: a $2 23 million "bridge to "nowhere," connecting the 8,900-person town of Ketchikan to an airport on Gravina Island, whose population is 50; a $200 million bridge connecting Anchorage to a rural port so insignificant even the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce tried to block the project; and $15 million in seed money for a 68-mile, $284 million access road to Juneau. (This last one is opposed by not only the Environmental Protection Agency but a majority of the area's residents.)

http://www.reason.com/links/links090205.shtml