A Jay Rosen piece which is too good to excerpt, but I will anyway. Quoting Chris Hitchens:
But when Rosen interrupted to reject this as part of
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.
Nothing worth doing is easy.
The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.
Only Democrats have agency, apparently.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.
The unpunished coup was a training exercise.
Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.
You cannot love your country only when you win.
Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.
Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?
Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.
The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.
Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.
Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.
If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!
The revolution will be supervised.
Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!
Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?
The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.
ray
“quit excusing rioters,”
This is the one that is going to make a lot of heads explode on the left. Do you really expect it to acceptable for the MSM to question why millions of Muslims rioted all over the Middle & Far East for such a trivial thing–even if it had been true?
FWIW, when I was listening to the WLS-AM morning talk show when they discussed this, the first three callers all sid variations of the smae thing: “These riots merely demonstrate that these are irrational people.”
“stop attacking the media for reporting legitimate torture cases”
Which legitimate torture cases has the MSM reported? Has the US army been cutting off ears or hands?
CaseyL
The AP has a story up: US and Iraqi forces have launched a new offensive in Baghdad.
Think about that one: An offensive. In Baghdad. Not Fallujah, not Najaf or Mosel or some border town. But in the *capital of Iraq.*
The AP story goes on to note that insurgent attacks have killed over 550 people in the last month.
550 people dead in one month.
The story doesn’t say how many of those 550 were US soldiers. But we do know we passed the 1600 US dead milestone last week. And, if you look at a per-month listing of US casualties since this misbegotten war began, you’ll see that the number of US dead for the first 4 months of 2005 is higher than it was in the first 4 months of 2004 – and 2004’s total casualties were twice what they were in 2003. All since Bush put on his fighter pilot costume and posed on the deck of a battleship under the banner “Mission Accomplished.”
Last January, Bush said his victory in November meant the American people had validated his Iraq policy. I’d like to know what his policy in Iraq actually *is.*
Last month he said we were “making really good progress in Iraq.” I’d like to know what his notion of “really good progress” actually *is.*
It’s funny that pro-Bush commentators on TV and on the blogs are making a big todo over how the Newsweek story “proves” that the news media are anti-Bush.
It’s funny because the news media are hardly covering, hardly even mentioning, the war in Iraq. We get body counts, a few sentences on Sunni and Shia’ political wrangling… but nothing about what it means that the insurgency (which the WH keeps saying is on its last legs) is killing people by the hundreds every month, in attacks that are increasingly sophisticated and coordinated. Nothing about the fact that we can’t even secure a major highway. Nothing about what it means that assassination of Iraqi government officials has become routine.
We hear absolutely nothing – not from the WH, not from the news media, not from anyone – about what the US strategy in Iraq is, what the next Great Victory milestone will be… and above all, we hear not a word about when our troops will be able to leave Iraq.
If you think the media is anti-Bush, then please explain this vast, indifferent silence.
KC
The media harsh on Bush, really? I don’t think I’ve experienced such a hat-in-hand media ever in my life. I mean, weird John.
John Cole
I dont know if I would say harsh.
Petty and mean-spirited, yes. Critical and harsh? No.
TJ Jackson
But do they have an agenda? Too bad you missed the Newsweek Japan edition, sound the trumpets, “Is America Dead?” Diatribe by Newsweek follows trashing US.
Harsh no, sane no.
KC
I’ll definitely go with that. Unfortunately, “petty and mean-spirited” garbage is a large part of what our media, especially as it concerns our wonderful cable “news” channels, traffics in.
Veeshir
I used the line”Newsweak lied, people died”.
It was sarcasm. I didn’t really mean they lied, it just made me laugh to turn the left’s lame little catch-phrase back on them.
As for going after Clinton, the MSM are the ones who made it “all about sex”. They had to cover the scandals, but they put the spin that it was just the GOP going after Clinton for sex.
If the press had really gone after Clinton, there would have been more than one story about Al Gore’s secret deal with Chernomyrdin in which he broke a law he, Gore, had sponsored as a senator, more stories about fund-raising scandals, more stories about…
The press hates the GOP. Piling on them is always good. If they were even superficially fair that would be another thing, but their default position is to blame America.
syn
What is up with the fact that Newsweek publishes ‘America is dead’ anti-American covers in foreign countries while the US audience is presented with pictures of Hollywood Oscar contenders?
So, MSM indoctrinates the rest of the world into believing America is dead while at the same time indoctrinates Americans into worshipping the world’s greatest bottom-feeders.
John, you cannot be serious about defending any aspect of MSM. (by the way, I fit the category of liberalhawk!)
Mr Furious
Read the Weisberg piece that Rosen links to. Puts a nice bit of persepctive on all of this.
TJ Jackson
Syn:
Apparently Newsweek relies on the fact that few Americans can read Japanese much less get a chance to look at their international editions. Exactly why sdo they publish such tripe? Guess we’ll hear more about the media is balanced and it never changes its coverage spin.
Want to bet if a Republican was diddling interns in the Oval Office we’d hear about it 24-7 till doomsday.
But the media doesn’t alter its coverage according to administrations. Yeah tell that to Nixon.
jcricket
Kudos John on the balanced and well-thought-out arguments about media criticism and the proper role of the media during war.
I want to bring up another example of what happens when the Army covers up the facts to make the war seem more “appealing” to the public: Real parents never get the truth of how their son died.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050523/ts_nm/afghan_usa_tillman_dc
I still think Pat Tillman is a hero, but the media has a duty to report if they know that the Army is lying about something.
For the media to ignore facts is to abdicate their central duty.
Kimmitt
Want to bet if a Republican was diddling interns in the Oval Office we’d hear about it 24-7 till doomsday.
Dude, there’s a gay hooker who has had multiple undocumented visits to the White House. Bush could do a dead girl or a live boy on the White House lawn during a diplomatic conference, and the press would laud his steely resolve.
TJ Jackson
Kimmit:
Must you inflict your personnal fantasies on us? I suggest you seek help quickly.
Kimmitt
Dude, I’m not the one getting hot and bothered over the opportunity to torture me some hajis.
TJ Jackson
Kimmit
Dude, I’m not the one getting hot and bothered over the opportunity to torture me some Americans.
Jim O'Sullivan
I’m flattered you selected my comment as emblematic of the blogosphere, and your criticism makes a valid point. But, I thing you took me, and therefore, those denizens of the blogoshere I seem to exemplify, too literally. The headline of my blog entry, for example, placed the word “lied” in quotes. I thought it an obvious reference to the careless use of the word “lied” about the President in wartime by anti-Bush forces (and that is exactly what they are), as well as a reference to the question of the responsibilities of the press during wartime. We’re a long way from Ernie Pyle-type coverage of war. The wuestion we’re asking is whether we’ve come too far. If I was thought to be saying that the definition of the word “lie” should now be expanded because of its misuse by those anti-
Bush forces, I was misunderstood
John Cole
Oh, Jim- I wasn;t singling you out, I was just using the wuote from Jay because it echoed what hundreds/thousands of bloggers had written.
No hard feelings.