Monthly Archives: February 2009

Indie Reporting Bucks Big Papers' 'Bottom-Line Interests'

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Jeff Cohen journalism student Christopher Lisee has a blog post (myxomatosis, 2/27/09) with video of an independent reporter's question to University of Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun. Asked to justify his being the "highest-paid state employee" during "a $2 billion … Continue reading →

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NewsHour's Economics-Free Economics Reporting

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Calling a PBS NewsHour budget plan segment by Judy Woodruff "a primer on how to conduct an interview relying almost solely on Republican talking points," Brad Jacobson (Media Bloodhound, 2/27/09) says her "first question isn't necessarily a Republican talking point, … Continue reading →

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Fox Leads Immigration 'Race to the Bottom'

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Immigrant rights advocate and independent journalist Roberto Lovato is worried (Huffington Post, 2/26/09) that Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Department Detective Aaron Douglas "deals with the world's media more than most" when flacking for Joe Arpaio–"America's Toughest Sheriff"–"Though he is a … Continue reading →

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Addressing the Roots of Media Racism

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

In his online column (2/26/09) for the Maynard Institute, Journal-isms, Richard Prince reports on those who see the New York Post's recent cartoon of a chimpanzee shot-dead–so that now "they'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus … Continue reading →

Posted in Race | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Nothing Personal About CBS's Affinity for the G.O.P.

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Isabel Macdonald

Ira Forman set off a furor in the blogosphere this week when he reported that CBS's pick for senior VP of communications, Jeff Ballabon, had once suggested "that Democrats are inherently bad people." (Forman–who is the executive director of the … Continue reading →

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Sean Hannity, Bad American

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Steve Rendall

Sean Hannity is a great American. You can hear it every day on his national radio show, where the standard caller greeting to the host is, "Sean, youâ┚¬Ã¢”ž¢re a great American!" The catchphrase is so well-known, it's been commercialized! And … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism, Politics | Tagged , | 7 Comments

L.A. Times on the 'Controversial' Budget

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Peter Hart

Today's L.A. Times report (2/26/09) on the White House budget includes this curious warning: The document–which included broad goals and few line items–laid down controversial markers on almost every major issue facing the country. Among the immediate budget winners are … Continue reading →

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Low Power FM Radio to the Rescue

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Lamenting the fact that "commercial radio stations everywhere have been swallowed up by a handful of giant corporations, playlists have shrunk and local and independent acts have been drowned out," Free Press activist Timothy Karr (MediaCitizen, 2/26/09) also lets us … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Business | Tagged , | 2 Comments

NYT Slams Gore for Relying on NYT

Posted on 02/27/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Think Progress blogger Matthew Yglesias (2/25/09) hits the Washington Post for "standing behind the claim that up is down if George Will says that is"–and then spreads some of the blame around: Meanwhile, one of the Post's main competitors in … Continue reading →

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Newspapers Still Profitable; Wall Street Still Greedy

Posted on 02/26/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

Media writer Nat Ives (AdvertisingAge.com, 2/23/09) throws some cold water on overheated reportage of "all the apocalyptic news about newspapers": Even as they take blow after blow from recession and digital media, newspapers themselves still earn decent profits…. "Not a … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Business | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

ABC Finds Funny Animals, Foodstuffs in Spending Bill

Posted on 02/26/2009 by Jim Naureckas

You'd think that reporting on federal budget bills costing billions of dollars would be difficult. But it's easy, really: All you have to do is remember that budget items involving animals or unusual foods are funny. ABC's Jonathan Karl has … Continue reading →

Posted in Economy, Politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Obama, Redistributionist in Chief

Posted on 02/26/2009 by Peter Hart

BarackObama unveiled plans to extend one lower- to middle-class tax credit, allow the Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy to expire as scheduled, and raise revenue from a cap-and-trade emissions plan. Today's New York Times (2/26/09) described the proposals … Continue reading →

Posted in Media Criticism | 3 Comments

Salacious Journalism: An Inside View

Posted on 02/25/2009 by Gabriel Voiles

While "TV news executives would like us to forget this whole bizarre episode," FAIR founder and former Fox News talking head Jeff Cohen looks back (Huffington Post, 2/22/09) at the shameful media circus that was Chandra Levy's disappearance. "As I … Continue reading →

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Challenging George Will's Reign of Climate Error

Posted on 02/25/2009 by Isabel Macdonald

After eight years of George W. Bush's rule, popular disapproval of policies that had come to be regarded as grave mistakes–from the invasion of Iraq to the response to the economic crisis–drove the Republicans from power. Unfortunately, the media system … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Media Criticism | Tagged , | 3 Comments

AP's Obama 'Fact-Check' Does Not Meet the 'Gotcha' Threshold

Posted on 02/25/2009 by Jim Naureckas

This AP "fact check" (2/24/09) of President Barack Obama's speech is, as usual, a sad effort. You really need to have some threshold for calling "gotcha," and some of these–maybe all of these–really don't measure up. Obama says, "Regulations were … Continue reading →

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