Video- Awkward! Fox & Friends Confronts Wallace Over His "Hope" That Palin Would "Sit On [His] Lap"

Via Media Matters. Love to see people like him squirm. Backstory and original video of what he said here.

An eyewitness to the death of responsible journalism

By GottaLaff

On the Sunday talk shows this morning, I watched as representatives from both ends of the political spectrum repeated their respective talking points without being challenged meaningfully.

I witnessed Roger Ailes making wildly off base statements that could have easily been refuted, but nobody was given an ample opportunity. A few seconds to try, yes, but a chance to respond significantly, no.

I witnessed David Axelrod bob and weave as he gave vague answers to specific questions.

I witnessed guest after guest evade, lie, generalize, snipe, and dig in their heels as host after host pretended to challenge them without following up with specifics or forcefully delving into any given subject.

I witnessed sound bites substituting for substance.

I witnessed the mind-boggling priority of jamming a lot of superficial "interviewing" that further encouraged the pervasive climate of divisiveness into one 6 minute segment, rather than taking several segments to explore one topic thoroughly and fairly.

I cringed as my fear of the death of responsible journalism was confirmed over and over again.

I submit to you Exhibit A and Exhibit B.

Ailes: "People are not stupid."

Krugman: "No, they're misinformed" .

I rest my case.*



*Witnesses don't actually present cases, but you get the point.

Poll: Media not impressive as watchdog

Hard to imagine since James "Electronic Surveillance" O'Keefe considers himself a "journalist".

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- American media's role as government watchdog during the first year of Barack Obama's

presidency has been so-so, a Gallup Poll released Wednesday indicated.

A third of the poll's participants said news media have done an "excellent" or "good" job as a government watchdog, while 37 percent said media earned "fair" marks, results showed.

Twenty-seven percent of participants ranked media as "poor," the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

(snip)

Forty percent of respondents said news media could do a better job reporting on Obama's economic policies, followed by 30 percent saying healthcare, Gallup said.

Forty-three percent of survey participants said media's collective performance as watchdog under Obama was equal to how news outlets did during previous administrations. However, 31 percent of respondents said they believed the media were worse, compared to 21 percent who said television, newspapers radio and Internet were doing a better job.

Gosh, if they actually reported on policy and content instead of hype and jingoism, imagine how well they would poll.

Sarah the Journalister

By GottaLaff

Via Gryphen, we get wind of one of the most blatant lies that ever fell out of Barbie McLipSchmutz's lipschmutzed up mouth:

Here is what I found posted on Oprah.com. (I have not seen the show yet.)

"When I studied journalism, we learned all about the who, what, when, where and why of reporting. Just stating the facts," she says. "I'll engage in that, kind of ratcheting back down to the simplicity of what journalism should be about: just the basics and letting the people decide what their opinion will be."

Of course, the "basics" part is true, because she can only handle basics. No, on second thought, she can't.

As for being a simplistic journalist, she got that right. So she can tell the truth! But only this once.

That whole "stating the facts" thing? Ain't gonna happen. Never. Not ever. No how. No way.

Video- Medved: With Palin and Huckabee on payroll, it will be "tougher" for Fox to call itself "fair and balanced"

They've been lying thru their teeth up to now, what difference is a couple more fingers added to the scale?

Chuck Todd, Savannah Guthrie Share New MSNBC Show

What a whitebread, cracker ass waste of television time. Howsabout some diversity, maybe some "outside the beltway" types maybe? Segments that last more than 4.5 minutes even? Younger voices? Dear g-d these people are stupid.

NBC News White House correspondents Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie will be anchoring a new program for MSNBC, reports WaPo's Howie Kurtz.

The program, titled "Daily Rundown," will air at 9amET in 2010, filling the slot formerly occupied by Dylan Ratigan's "Morning Meeting," who, we heard, will be on in the afternoon.

Todd says the program "has the feel of a signature Washington show for us." The plan is for one of the two to anchor from the road when they are traveling with the president.

Added- Just what MSNBC needed, another middle aged white guy in a suit for their evening line up.

Headline of the Day

Bra-Free Celebrities
I never link to Fox, but this deserves recognition for how well it typifies the Fox "News" website. (With pictures!) Oh, and if you google "bra", the first pic you find is a bacon bra. Hmmm.

Broadcast Networks Pulling Full-Time Correspondents From Iraq

I don't know about you, but with shit like this and this going on every damn day, I think this is just criminal. Guess Iraq isn't sexy anymore.

As discussed in today's Media Menu, the New York Times' Brian Stelter writes about the broadcast news networks redeploying full-time correspondents from Iraq to other regions of the Middle East. Joseph Angotti, a former VP of NBC News, says in the article he "could not recall any other time when all three major broadcast networks lacked correspondents in an active war zone that involved United States forces."

Stelter writes the networks, who would not talk on the record regarding the decision, will "maintain skeleton bureaus in heavily fortified compounds" in Iraq.

McCain Camp To Journalists- "Take It Easy On Palin Or Else"

Not only are they bullying Gwen Ifill, other journalists are already so cowed they're censoring themselves-

Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign has undertaken an aggressive effort to accuse journalists of being overly hard on Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK). Campaign aides have attacked the media for being sexist, lacking “deference,” and trying to “smear” Palin. In today’s Washington Post, Howard Kurtz writes that in response, “some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they’re piling on.”

About That Anthrax Scientist

He may or may not have been guilty, I don't know. But there is something that is almost more important and it involves Brian Ross of ABC's part in the whole scare. Glenn has covered this over and over, so go read.

Brian Ross segment starts at 12:30.