Consciousness about Mainstream Media Growing

[Admiral Loinpresser]

http://larryville.com/forum/index.cgi?frames=n;read=14643

This is a commentary on the below-referenced article about the decline of American journalism:
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I applaud the sentiment but question the historical perspective of the article entitled In Memoriam: the Television News Media (1950 - 2005), by Nancy Greggs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/05/25_memoriam.html

To borrow from the famous phrase of Mark Twain, rumors of the demise of the media are greatly understated. Apparently Ms. Greggs has never read dailyhowler.com or any of the work by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons concerning the media scandals of the ‘90s, especially the unprofessional, disingenuous reportage concerning Bill Clinton and Al Gore. I would change the title bio period to read “1950-1999.”

I believe the day the American press died was October 27, 1999. More on that shortly. But first, I think Greggs omits recounting the downward spiral of the press as it occurred in the ‘80s when journalists decided that the politics of personal destruction was A-OK when a prominent Democratic presidential candidate such as Gary Hart was concerned. They felt free to lurk outside windows to detect sexual activity and to make Donna Rice an unwilling participant in their passion play.

Have you ever heard someone in the press (in precisely the terminology of GOP operatives) refer to the “scandals” in the Clinton administration? When was the last (or first) time you ever heard of the “scandals” of the George W. Bush administration? If your experience is like mine, you have often heard the press speak of “scandals” in the plural with respect to Clinton, but never the use of the word, even in the singular, with respect to Bush.

News flash: There was only ONE scandal in the Clinton White House, namely his erstwhile girlfriend, Monica. So-called FileGate, TravelGate, etc., were laughable as scandals where the Clintons were concerned. Whitewater was indeed a scandal but the perpetrator or “evil-doer” if you prefer, was The New York Times with aiders and abettors such as the Washington Post. Nightline was another Fifth Columnist, trashing Hillary Clinton with trumped up material:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h051498_1.shtml

The war on Bill Clinton, waged by the GOP with collaboration from the mainstream press is well documented. Fools for Scandal, by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason details and documents why the mainstream press is no longer credible on political matters.

Finally there is one of the most egregious episodes in journalistic history: the two year war on Gore, as documented exhaustively in the archives at dailyhowler.com. The press hated (hates?) Gore, perhaps more passionately than even Bill Clinton and the coverage in the 2000 cycle was certainly the worst in several generations. It was so false and distorted that it is hard to engage in hyperbole when characterizing journalists’ behavior in that cycle.

Excellent resources recounting the spin, distortions and lies of the mainstream media are found at:

1. The Press vs. Al Gore, Eric Boehlert

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=14976&cf2=1

2. He’s No Pinocchio, Robert Parry,

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0004.parry.html

3. Gore Media Coverage—Playing Hardball, Jane Hall,

http://archives.cjr.org/year/00/3/hall.asp

For some research data on quantitative coverage differences between Gore and Bush, see:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh122002.shtml

Finally, how did I choose the date given above as the fatality date for the American press? For perhaps the only time in American history the press corps publicly booed a major party candidate, as recounted at TDH, cited below:

Seven weeks after the Dartmouth debate, Salon’s Jake Tapper described the same conduct. Appearing on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, he replied to a question about “liberal bias:”

TAPPER: Well, I can tell you that the only media bias I have detected in terms of a group media bias was, at the first debate between Bill Bradley and Al Gore, there was hissing for Gore in the media room up at Dartmouth College. The reporters were hissing Gore, and that’s the only time I’ve ever heard the press room boo or hiss any candidate of any party at any event.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh121802.shtml

So I think Nancy Greggs is basically right about the status of the American press. But to say that the first sign of trouble arose at the first inaugural of George W. Bush is grossly misleading:

"We started noticing the symptoms on Inauguration Day, January 2001," explained a long-time friend. "

Anyone who accepts that statement should, in my view, read Fools for Scandal and a random selection from the archives of dailyhowler.com and then reconsider.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/05/25_memoriam.html