Comments on: The traditional media is dying

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:58:10 +0000

Once again, Glenn Greenwald has exposed the corrupt corporate media for what it is:

Perish the thought that journalists should be adversarial to our political officials, challenge what they say or point out when they’re lying. Instead, their job is merely to pose polite questions, let political officials say what they want in response, and then go home — just as Charlie Gibson said. This is why most establishment journalists will never be convinced that they failed to do their job, no matter how much evidence is presented: because of the understanding they have of what “their job” actually is. If anything, by Gibson’s understanding of what they’re supposed to be doing, they did their job brilliantly, by letting Bush officials go on their shows and — as Cheney aide Cathy Martin said about what happens when they went on Tim Russert — “allow[ing Bush officials] to control the message.”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/28/gibson/

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:58:23 +0000

When Diane Sawyer, reporting on a fluff story about rhe winner of the Lebonese version of “Idol”, followed it up with the remark “Borat would be so proud!”…. yet another network lost my respect, trust and attention.
I think they have way beyond the point of political bias and into the twilight realm of meglamania previouslt pnly experienced by Caligula of Rome. They seem to think that reality bends to fit what they call truth.

By: Ebonmuse

Ebonmuse — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:08:03 +0000

Eunomiac: You should have an option to click through and view Salon’s articles in exchange for watching a brief ad. Or just subscribe to Glenn Greenwald’s blog via RSS, which is what I do.

Erika: Well put! I don’t mind opinions if the person stating them is clear about what their stance is. That’s much better, in my opinion, than the mainstream media’s facade of pretending they don’t have opinions and are just neutrally presenting the facts (cf. “Fair and Balanced”). The political views in effect at the networks exert an enormous influence, both on how stories are presented and on whether a story is covered in the first place.

By: Erika Price

Erika Price — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:34:32 +0000

Yes, blogs and other forms of “new media” generally rank among the most partisan and agenda-driven sources of information available, but why do we assume bias is an undesirable thing? It is bias under the guise of objectivity that harms us, that leads us to conclusions without even realizing it. When we know someone stands on a particular soapbox, we have a much easier time evaluating the merit of their ramblings than if they speak behind a nice, authoritative mahogany podium. Blogs give us a wide array of noisy, imperfect soapboxes to sample and critique with ease, and this works to our own benefit as thoughtful people.

By: YAAB

YAAB — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:40:13 +0000

Interesting observations, but I wonder if the decline in network news viewership represents people turning to other (potentially better) news outlets, or if in fact fewer people are paying attention to the news at all, unless the latest personal drama of Britney and Lindsay counts as news.

By: Eunomiac

Eunomiac — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:51:47 +0000

Great article, as always. I prefer these more uplifting ones

One quibble — the dares-to-be-clicked “shocking blackout of this news story” link leads to a Salon premium sitepass dead-end, at least for me. Can you perhaps update with a better link or more details so we know what you’re referring to?