http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/02/26/abc-finds-funny-animals-foodstuffs-in-spending-bill/ The national media watch group Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:31:47 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/02/26/abc-finds-funny-animals-foodstuffs-in-spending-bill/comment-page-1/#comment-64192 NBC Follows Comedic Code in Earmark Reporting - Fox News Watchdog Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:01:00 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=6381#comment-64192 [...] The earmarks story is a peculiar genre of journalism wherein you focus on how much government spending is directed to legislator-specified projects–generally without pointing out what a tiny fraction of total spending this is, or that without the earmarking this money would be spent anyway, on some project chosen by the executive branch. Then you rattle off a list of earmarked projects, often provided by a partisan source, which are generally chosen not for their inherent wastefulness but for their comedic potential. [...] [...] The earmarks story is a peculiar genre of journalism wherein you focus on how much government spending is directed to legislator-specified projects–generally without pointing out what a tiny fraction of total spending this is, or that without the earmarking this money would be spent anyway, on some project chosen by the executive branch. Then you rattle off a list of earmarked projects, often provided by a partisan source, which are generally chosen not for their inherent wastefulness but for their comedic potential. [...]

]]> http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/02/26/abc-finds-funny-animals-foodstuffs-in-spending-bill/comment-page-1/#comment-64152 FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » NBC Follows Comedic Code in Earmark Reporting Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:38:02 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=6381#comment-64152 [...] The earmarks story is a peculiar genre of journalism wherein you focus on how much government spending is directed to legislator-specified projects--generally without pointing out what a tiny fraction of total spending this is, or that without the earmarking this money would be spent anyway, on some project chosen by the executive branch. Then you rattle off a list of earmarked projects, often provided by a partisan source, which are generally chosen not for their inherent wastefulness but for their comedic potential. [...] [...] The earmarks story is a peculiar genre of journalism wherein you focus on how much government spending is directed to legislator-specified projects--generally without pointing out what a tiny fraction of total spending this is, or that without the earmarking this money would be spent anyway, on some project chosen by the executive branch. Then you rattle off a list of earmarked projects, often provided by a partisan source, which are generally chosen not for their inherent wastefulness but for their comedic potential. [...]

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