Someone please explain to me (without smart aleck answers)...

[HardWorkingDem]

why are so many reporters so bad in this country?

I mean this sincerely. If I were a Whitehouse reporter I would have been frothing at the mouth with anger years ago at the lies and manipulation of the current Whitehouse.

It's like they have no care about people pissing down their backs while trying to tell them it is raining.

But what is it? Do they live a fantasy land where they all wink and nod at each other and do not offend out of fear of missing out on the good parties? Are they just lazy and don't do their homework? Or do they WANT to believe in our government and have faith in our politicians.

Still, I know if a source or politician purposely lied to me once that would be it. But those folks in Washington seem to like it.

[blm]

1. Hmmm....how many news organizations received ANTHRAX?

Plus, Bush's cronies bought up most of the news organizations and news channels long ago to protect Reagan and Poppy Bush.

[Mythsaje]

2. Fear

I think. Fear of losing their jobs, not having access, of anthrax mailings...who knows?

There's a lot behind the scenes we're not privy to, but I have a feeling that more than one reporter isn't happy about the way things are right now.

[rzemanfl]

5. Great minds and all that.... n/t

[rzemanfl]

3. FEAR. n/t

[Racenut20]

4. I saw an interview with Dan Rather a couple of years ago.

He said they were afraid of losing their jobs. Included in theat would be the WH taking their credentials. Corporate Media would be the biggest problem. in 1985 there were over 50 media outlets. Now there are six. My son works for one of them, and he has very little leeway about what he can do or say.

[shraby]

6. I think Rove had them all on a short leash

with threats to their livelihood. Now that Rove is on the defense about Plame, he doesn't have the time to do the daily threats and the press is unleashed. It's payback time in a big way...now everyone is after that scoop like Watergate was, which further puts Rove on the defensive. Enjoy the feeding fest..at last some truth is being written.

edited for slpeling

[sandnsea]

7. self-serving ambition

You'd be surprised at the people who will tolerate lies to advance their own agenda. It's not limited to Pubs, sadly.

[RagAss]

8. I'm not being a smart aleck here but...

it's about fear...of being completely destroyed as a reporter and to be identified as a media friend of the terrorists.....haven't you been watching ????

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

9. All of the above plus

they're afraid of the 'liberal media' crap. The right have been working the refs for years & it's totally paid off.

best

[kentuck]

10. They would not have a job....

Like most of America, they are afraid of being fired...

[Moochy]

11. Self-censorship and He-said she-said reporting

Self-censorship, and a warped sense of he-said she-said reporting.

The idea of fairness in reporting has devolved into the current status quo. It's a bad career move to call a lie a lie, in partisan talking points. That goes for both sides, although we on the left don't have to resort to smear tactics when what the current batch of neo-cons are doing is so obviously and blatantly bad. We merely need to reprint their press releases to expose the right's mendacity.

Also 'political spin' is the cowardly editor's way of calling a lie a lie. As such it is now expected that politicians spin every thing to political advantage. Since the liars are not called as such, the line keeps advancing, as to what is considered a bald-faced lie, to where now there are no lies, just prevarications, misleadings, and unknowing innacuracies.

Since "intent" is always unknowable :eyes: and now is apparently solely the province of editorials.

Hopefully no smartass answers in there :D

[NEDem]

12. Simply put: They like their jobs.

I have a degree in journalism, and like you I'd be 'frothing at the mouth' to take these bastards down, but I'm not currently employed in the journalism field.

If you like your job as a journalist, you do as you're told, cover the stories you are told to and pretty much keep your mouth shut.

Its gotten a lot worse in the last few years, and the era of corporate control of the media has just begun.

[skids]

13. Here's why.

Reporters (other than the big names) are middle class workers.

Most of them are leveraged with a big home mortgage or equity loan.

Most of them don't quit their jobs and get a better one. Either there is no better one, or they don't bother to look, even if they don't like where they work. It's too much hassle -- better to suffer a known inconvenience than to rock the boat.

Most of them have done what most middle class Americans have done: bought lots of crap, and rushed into raising a family too soon without a few years of financial build-up and preparation.

So is it any wonder that they have no power over their own situation?

[fasttense]

14. When brush ran for president in 2000

Time magazine did an article that described the difference between how repukes and Dems treated the press. The repukes provided caviar and champagne, the democrats cheese and crackers. The press was allowed on the big expensive private jets with brush. With the Dems they rode a bus. Repukes initially got their foot in the door by buying up the journalists' gratitude and appreciation. They gave them swanky accommodations and acted as if they were best buds (most times). The press ate it up and willingly turned into mouthpieces for the administration. Then the buying of the media began in earnest once brush had the power. Only recently have journalists realized the swanky accommodations are over (unless you report our talking points as fact). I bet the accommodations Miller has are real swanky. OK, I had to get one smart aleck response in.

But really the press or journalists in general are starting to find out that reporting lies and protecting the liars who pay them may get them in jail.

[laugle]

20. You don't really believe that nonsense,

they sold their integrity to the devil, for food, champagne, and better accomodations. Bush hates the press. Fear and intimidation are the tactics of the Bush gang. Get real!!

[dchill]

15. Remember Scott Ritter?

Any reporter telling the truth about Bush & Co. would instantly become a "whistleblower" in the eyes (and mouths) of the Republican Noise Machine. Their lies are "patriotic": truth is sedition.

[HardWorkingDem]

22. Speaking of Scott Ritter......allegations...

does anyone know of the exact allegations against him and what eventually came of them? I recall it being some sort of sex allegations.

[dchill]

25. Scott Ritter allegations...

ALBANY, New York (CNN) -- Scott Ritter, a former U.S. Marine and U.N. weapons inspector who has been an outspoken critic of a possible war with Iraq, was arrested in 2001 and charged with a misdemeanor after allegedly communicating with an undercover officer posing as a 16-year-old girl, a source close to the investigation has told CNN. Text

More at: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/22/ritter.arrest/

[uppityperson]

16. Follow the money

Who owns the companies? Who controls them? It is not a free media, and small ones that actually do their job of investigating and reporting get shut down, black mailed, bad things happen to them.

[pretzel4gore]

17. it's a class thing...and middle class don't mean smart

crafty yes, sneaky and underhanded, sure, but not that bright and very scaredy cat....also, check out their family story- it seems most news journos are spawn of the police, judicial system or prison guards/petty bourgeois ...or their elders were mediawhores in earlier times (most media have always been whores; most people always quick to mob up on some loser, or jump on some bandwagon, so the present generation of pigmedia just doing what their daddy/mammas did, in the newsmedia or out...defying convention is very unusual in any group of people)
earlier generations were aware of this: standout journalists such as ed murrow, will shirer, even walter cronkite sailed very close to the accepted order, and truly had to risk something to stray from the proper stance...
that's why all free societies instantly produce a counter culture or alternative press, that the law'n'order crowd then blame all the 'chaos' on(!!)

[laugle]

18. The media has been totally intimidated by

the Bush gang, thanks to Rove. But they now smelll blood, and after all, they don't like being muzzled, and the polls show that they no longer are repected and have little credibility left. Also, they can't be to pleased about reporters going to jail to save this lousy, corrupt gang. They are chomping at the bit to get this white house gang! Hopefully, you saw them hounding Scottie boy in last weeks news conference. I believe this was a sign of things to come.

[Pepperbelly]

19. Because Nantucket Manorhouses are EXPENSIVE. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. I also think there's a certain laziness

You have to read A LOT. When people post a link to an article you have read the whole actual article to know if their synopsis is valid or off the mark. You have to read a lot of different sources. Sometimes you have to read three takes on one item to have a sense of completeness. When I yell a fact at a talking head on a Sunday show I am actually horrified that I seem to know something that they don't that is the perfect rejoinder to the comment just made. There is a lot of great journalism out there, both professional and amateur, but much of it doesn't seem to filter to the top talking heads. They are too busy on the cocktail party and book signing circuit.

But everyday, I thank God that my perspective of the world and current events is not limited to my local fishwrap and the MSM. I think journalism is undergoing a renaissance due to the internets and I can't WAIT until that new network gets going.

[HardWorkingDem]

24. Think you are onto something...

I too think think that the internet will have a positive influence on MSM. I'm hoping that it makes the MSM work harder.

But what really, really astounds me is how fast and accurate the reporting is on the internet in comparison to the MSM. There is like a one or two week lag time and it can't be said that that is because of a need for fact checking and verification because the site I go to have yet to have a crisis in credibility.

[leftofthedial]

23. a large percentage are on the CI payroll

another large percentage are in the eimploy of various RW "thinktanks"

another large percentage are just bad, frightened, sheeplike lightweights in over their heads

of the few who remain, most have been threatened or muzzled by their corporate overlords