“A Rosetta Stone of Jaundiced Journalism”
On Wednesday’s edition of his nightly news program, Keith Olbermann referred to Fox News as "a Rosetta Stone of jaundiced journalism" (in front of a mock Fox graphic that reads "Faux News Channel") among reports that the network sent directives to their staff to "be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress." Olbermann went on to report that, according to the Columbia Journalism Review, hours after the memo was issued a Fox News host, Martha MacCallum, reported that there were ". . . reports of cheering in the streets on the behalf of the supporters of the insurgency in Iraq, that they’re very pleased with the way things are going here and also with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld."
Was I the only one who didn’t get the memo that "liberal media" = bad, but conservative scripting and talking points issued under the guise of 'news' = good? Am I alone?
Looking back, Dan Rather was shown the gate after the whole Killian memo scandal right before the 2004 Presidential Election. For those who don’t remember, CBS ran a story in September 2004 about then-Lt. George W. Bush receiving preferential treatment to get into the National Guard and then failing to meet certain requirements when he was accepted. The basic thrust of the report was to show Bush used his connections to get into the Guard solely as a way of getting out of being shipped to Vietnam. Dan Rather, a then-CBS correspondent, interviewed people and presented documents purporting to back up these claims, but ran into a little trouble when he went to authenticate them. Rather interviewed the secretary, Marian Carr Knox, for Bush's commanding officer (Lt. Col. Jerry Killian) who detailed Bush’s performance problems.
Most people remember this part of the interview:
RATHER: So with these memos, you know that you didn't type them.
KNOX: I know that I didn't type them
and...
RATHER: Few, if any, things that I ask you about will be more important than this point: you say you didn't type these memos, definitely you didn't type these memos.
KNOX: Not these particular ones.
This became the big scandal. Dan Rather lied about President Bush as part of a left-wing smear campaign against his military record, cried the Right. What they, and seemingly most other people, left out were the following parts of the interview:
RATHER: So with these memos, you know that you didn't type them.
KNOX: I know that I didn't type them; however, the information in those is correct.
and...
RATHER: Did you type ones like this?
KNOX: Yes.
RATHER: Containing the same or identical information?
KNOX: The same information, yes.
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec04/cbs_9-16.html)
So I know it's not Free-For-All Fridays, but I have to ask you from a non-partisan point of view, what's worse journalism: producing documents that have clearly been touched up in a word processor program but contain the same information as the originals, or what Fox News did with this memo?
The long and short of my opinion is that while touching up a document seems disingenuous, the Fox memorandum is at best poor journalism and at worst outright propaganda. It's one thing to tell your reporters who's covering which stories, but it's a completely different thing for anyone to manufacture news stories for the purposes of scaring your audience, advancing an agenda, and demonizing your political opponents.
And to top it all off, Fox News released a statement yesterday saying "Fox News Senior Vice President John Moody stands by his editorial note." I think it's easy to dismiss this as another example of Fox News being Fox News, but at what point does there come any accountability at all? Is anybody at all as frustrated as I am? Bueller? Bueller??
Or does my frustration come out as whining? You know, that kind of "Mooooom! I want Skiiiitllllllllessssss" from the little brat in the shopping cart in front of you at the grocery store whose mother thinks the best way to parent the kid is to ignore him and leave the rest of us to deal with his little tantrum because she's too busy doing her new age let-the-child-express-himself-in-whatever-creative-outlet-they-desire-to-help-foster-their-development garbage but doesn’t have the common sense to realize the kid is nothing more than a little monster who needs to be told 'no' once in a while and I'm sure it's no surprise here that she lacks the common decency to get in the regular line when she’s got a cart full of groceries and the sign clearly says "10 Items or Less" which means you’re stuck behind her when all you want to do is buy a gallon of milk and a pack of Skittles that the demon spawn has been trying to snatch out of your hands for the last 15 minutes becau.....
...............................
....I think I blacked out for a second. I should probably go.
Was I the only one who didn’t get the memo that "liberal media" = bad, but conservative scripting and talking points issued under the guise of 'news' = good? Am I alone?
Looking back, Dan Rather was shown the gate after the whole Killian memo scandal right before the 2004 Presidential Election. For those who don’t remember, CBS ran a story in September 2004 about then-Lt. George W. Bush receiving preferential treatment to get into the National Guard and then failing to meet certain requirements when he was accepted. The basic thrust of the report was to show Bush used his connections to get into the Guard solely as a way of getting out of being shipped to Vietnam. Dan Rather, a then-CBS correspondent, interviewed people and presented documents purporting to back up these claims, but ran into a little trouble when he went to authenticate them. Rather interviewed the secretary, Marian Carr Knox, for Bush's commanding officer (Lt. Col. Jerry Killian) who detailed Bush’s performance problems.
Most people remember this part of the interview:
RATHER: So with these memos, you know that you didn't type them.
KNOX: I know that I didn't type them
and...
RATHER: Few, if any, things that I ask you about will be more important than this point: you say you didn't type these memos, definitely you didn't type these memos.
KNOX: Not these particular ones.
This became the big scandal. Dan Rather lied about President Bush as part of a left-wing smear campaign against his military record, cried the Right. What they, and seemingly most other people, left out were the following parts of the interview:
RATHER: So with these memos, you know that you didn't type them.
KNOX: I know that I didn't type them; however, the information in those is correct.
and...
RATHER: Did you type ones like this?
KNOX: Yes.
RATHER: Containing the same or identical information?
KNOX: The same information, yes.
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec04/cbs_9-16.html)
So I know it's not Free-For-All Fridays, but I have to ask you from a non-partisan point of view, what's worse journalism: producing documents that have clearly been touched up in a word processor program but contain the same information as the originals, or what Fox News did with this memo?
The long and short of my opinion is that while touching up a document seems disingenuous, the Fox memorandum is at best poor journalism and at worst outright propaganda. It's one thing to tell your reporters who's covering which stories, but it's a completely different thing for anyone to manufacture news stories for the purposes of scaring your audience, advancing an agenda, and demonizing your political opponents.
And to top it all off, Fox News released a statement yesterday saying "Fox News Senior Vice President John Moody stands by his editorial note." I think it's easy to dismiss this as another example of Fox News being Fox News, but at what point does there come any accountability at all? Is anybody at all as frustrated as I am? Bueller? Bueller??
Or does my frustration come out as whining? You know, that kind of "Mooooom! I want Skiiiitllllllllessssss" from the little brat in the shopping cart in front of you at the grocery store whose mother thinks the best way to parent the kid is to ignore him and leave the rest of us to deal with his little tantrum because she's too busy doing her new age let-the-child-express-himself-in-whatever-creative-outlet-they-desire-to-help-foster-their-development garbage but doesn’t have the common sense to realize the kid is nothing more than a little monster who needs to be told 'no' once in a while and I'm sure it's no surprise here that she lacks the common decency to get in the regular line when she’s got a cart full of groceries and the sign clearly says "10 Items or Less" which means you’re stuck behind her when all you want to do is buy a gallon of milk and a pack of Skittles that the demon spawn has been trying to snatch out of your hands for the last 15 minutes becau.....
...............................
....I think I blacked out for a second. I should probably go.