The MSM is Acting Odder Than Usual

I don’t which came as a bigger shock-that the MSM suddenly discovered minority Tea Party members or that CNN, mid ratings free fall, has discovered that the Tea Party activists are just swell. Michelle Malkin explains the CNN epiphany:


Desperate CNN: Hey, those Tea Party nuts aren’t so bad after all. Please, please tune in!

Don’t expect the “minorities are Tea Ba**gers, too” theme to catch on. First, admitting that Tea Party events are minority friendly contradicts the “Tea Ba**gers are knuckle dragging, robe and pointy hat wearing racists” theme which is so important to those in the media who would rather attack people than discuss ideas. Second, it is taken for granted by “progressives” that blacks and other minority groups owe fealty to the Democratic party. Any minority who supports conservative ideals is immediately stripped of their “authenticity”.

The CNN thing is amusing in a “who ya trying to fool?” way. If CNN thinks that Conservatives in general, or Tea Party activists in particular, will set aside years of being dumped on by the network because of one not completely horrible report they are going to be terribly disappointed.

In any case, both reports are snicker worthy and that in and of itself is a good thing.

Obama Expresses A Willingness To Give Newspapers Taxpayer Money

Via Memeorandum:

According to The Hill, "Obama open to newspaper bailout bill."

The president said he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that
would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure
as nonprofit businesses...

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called "Newspaper
Revitalization Act," that would give outlets tax deals if they were to
restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations. That bill has so far attracted one
cosponsor, Cardin's Maryland colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D).

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had played down the possibility of
government assistance for news organizations, which have been hit by an economic
downturn and dwindling ad revenue.

It seems the way to get taxpayer money these days is to make nice with the Administration. This is certainly true of this country's newspaper industry which has either ignored, downplayed or buried stories critical to the administration. It is highly doubtful that the industry will be more likely to view the administration with a critical eye if the are being propped up by the government.

The Hill quotes Pres. Obama:

"I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all
opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in
context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other
across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding," he said.

I would be more concerned about breaching the wall that is supposed to exist between the government and the press in this country.

Jon Stewart on the ACORN Scandal

Via Memeorandum:

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Kudos to Jon Stewart, who doesn’t sugar-coat the embarrassment at all — to the apparent delight of his audience, who get kudos of their own. How can the national news media ignore the many allegations of corruption at ACORN, which gets millions of dollars in federal funding, and allow a couple of independents with $3,000 and a bad wardrobe scoop them on the undercover story of the year? It’s easy when newsrooms are more concerned with political direction than truth. Stick around to the end, when Stewart zings Michelle Malkin haters.

This is why recent poll respondents named Jon Stewart more trustworthy than Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams. Mainstream news is dead.

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I am relatively new to this blogging so please forgive me I don't always recognize a BIG STORY when I see it. For instance, right now on Memeorandum's 'Top Items' there are currently thirteen headlines, each with several links, that deal with Birthers. Admittedly, my reaction is, so?

I decided to swing by The Sundries Shack to see what all the fuss was about and now it all makes sense:

Dr. Melissa Clouther is exactly right:

The birther issue serves one important purpose: if the whole of the Right can be painted as conspiratorial nutters, then the Left doesn’t have to defend or explain very unpopular policies like Cap-n-Trade, Card Check and Health Care.

So, this a contrived issue, a red herring, meant to distract the public from the actual important issues of the day. Then logically it would follow, that the MSM, acting as the Administration's lapdog, is aware of the inherent weaknesses of Obama's policies and through misdirection is shielding the man behind the curtain. Sound about right?

An Honest Journalist?

I have to admit I was a bit surprised when I read this from Carl M. Cannon:

Sarah Palin’s rambling abdication speech was hard to follow, let alone acclaim, but in her abrupt announcement that she is withdrawing from public office, the Republican governor of Alaska was hardly the only player in a 10-month drama who demonstrated a lack of self-awareness. Democrats scoffed at her “politics of personal destruction” line, but it’s a maxim they originally popularized, and one they will undoubtedly trot out again the next time it happens to one of their own. But the true villains in this political morality play may have been the press.

The mainstream media is undergoing its demise, drip by drip, day by day, and its practitioners, which include most of my friends in life, are under considerable pressure. In my opinion, however, these pressures do not excuse the treatment accorded Sarah Palin. On the contrary, to me the entire Sarah saga revealed that it wasn’t only the traditional media’s business model that is broken. Our journalism model is busted, too.

We no longer expect that level of honesty from a journalist. It is a shame but anymore journalists are often put in the same category as used care salesmen and personal injury attorneys.

To say that journalists have put out misinformation about Sarah Palin would be generous to a fault. So called “respectable” media outlets have lied about Palin on everything from rape kits to library books. They’ve lied about her children and they’ve lied about her policies. In between the lies they filled the gaps with snark. Exhibit A from Judith Miller:

"[Sarah Palin] is the 21st-century face of the backlash against women’s progress. . . . The hatred of women . . . is still alive and well in our society, and when directed at well-educated women, it’s socially acceptable, too."

To which the only sensible response is, “Meow.”

Cynthia Yockey, A Newly Conservative Lesbian, has Cannon’s full article.

Why Does Obama Need Bo When He Has The Press Corp To Play With?

Via Memeorandum

ABC News intends to hold a health care town hall meeting from inside The White House -- and has denied Republicans' requests to participate.

Can there be any surer sign that the media’s journey from government watchdog to this administration’s lapdog is complete? What began with a tingle going up Chris Matthew’s leg should soon become a game of fetch as Pres. Obama chucks the daily briefings in favor of throwing sticks at the Press Corp out on the White House lawn.

TownHall linked a recent poll that shows how disillusioned the American people have become with the press:

Findings from a new Sacred Heart University poll show the most trusted national TV news organizations in terms of accurate reporting were: Fox News, 27 percent; CNN, 14.6 percent; and NBC News, 10.9 percent. They were followed by ABC News, 7 percent; local news, 6.9 percent; CBS News, 6.8 percent; MSNBC, 4 percent; PBS News, 3 percent; CNBC, 0.6 percent; and CBN, 0.5 percent. In a 2003 Sacred Heart University poll, CNN led Fox News in being trusted most for accurate reporting, 23.8 percent to 14.6 percent.

I don’t think it would be far off the mark that if asked to sum up their opinion of the MSM most people would answer, “it sucks.”

Michelle Malkin says it best, “ABC News should be required to register as a federal lobbyist.” But then, after the Brian and Barry love fest aired earlier this month, NBC could hardly call itself a “news” outlet. Unless of course, Tiger Beat is the current model we’re using for hard news these days.

Stacy McCain points out that not long ago that the Left felt the media was being to lax with the Bush Administration:

Remember 2002-04, when the "progressive netroots community" went off on a media establishment they felt were too eager to parrot the Bush administration's line on Iraq? The problem with reverse-engineering that -- which is what conservative bloggers must try to do now -- is that during the Bush administration, liberal bloggers had the advantage that 90% of the D.C. press corps had voted for Al Gore and John Kerry.

In the above poll only 7% said they trusted ABC. I wonder what the number would be if the poll were taken today.

Other reaction: Riehl World View, Right Wing News, Right Wing Nut House, Hot Air, The Sundries Shack, No More Mister Nice Blog, Babalú Blog, Atlas Shrugs

UPDATE: From George Moneo at Babalu:

A little side note. From now on I (and whomever else writes on this blog) will stop using the term "mainstream media." They are far from mainstream, and have been for decades. I'm going to use Rush Limbaugh's term, which is pithy and perfect in describing them:

The State-Run Media.