It REALLY pisses me off the freaking media doesn't do their job anymore

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I mean HELL'S BELLS a guy on THIS forum figured out something NO ONE ever took the time to figure out in the ENTIRE news media of the United States in the four fucking years bush has been in office.

How sad is that? What kind of state of affairs is our media in when ordinary people who aren't even journalists are scooping major shit?

Granted, Walt had to do quite a bit of digging and legwork, but hell, that's what the media is supposed to do!

I know there are a FEW journalists who do bust their ass, but are they swept under the rug or something?

I think the media in this country is like a big fat lazy pig, just slopping at the trough of corporate profits and not giving a damn anymore.

It's time they were lean and mean again. When was that?

[seventhson]

1. WHAT??? What did he figure out? I can't read everything.

nt

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Look here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x675299

[Fleshdancer]

4. There are photos of W wearing medals he never earned...

DUer Walt Starr discovered this. May he never travel on small planes.

[City Lights]

9. No kidding.

Stay safe, Walt.

[movonne]

2. It is sicking, I get so furious so I just don't look at the news anymore.

I think if we all just stopped looking maybe they would lose advertising dollars. I get about 90% of my news on here.

[MichiganVote]

5. Same here. Its all just a talk show host mania. Can't take it.

[annxburns]

6. Just read "Blinded by the Right"

It is worse than I thought. It isn't laziness or negligence - it is outright and blatant serving of the right wing noise machine.

We have a LONG TERM problem that is going to take the combined effort of a lot of us to fix. In the 70's the republicans decided to hijack the media and now they have. Walt is a hero on the front lines of a new battle that we need to join. And it will not, and cannot end, with Kerry's election .....

The debate is more important than that. We are fighting for the soul of our country.

[Fleshdancer]

7. AND they get mad at John Stewart for being critical of them.

Do they just live in their own little bubble? They can't see what the rest of us see?

One thing I've always wondered though is what do Journalism professors think of the current state of Journalism? Are they embarrassed? Apathetic? I would be interested in asking.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Their too busy kissing the chimp's ass.

Please, don't expect them to do any more than that. As long as they get their paychecks and have their lips attached to the idiot's ass, then they are happy. To hell with the rest of the world.

[AirAmFan]

10. Greg Palast says 3 factors--time, risk, and money--explain the death

of investigative journalism that has accompanied the decline in print media.

In browsing the new expanded edition of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", I came away with the feeling that, if we want real news, the major media no longer are the place to look for it.

Investigation takes TIME that's not available when hard deadlines often are mere minutes away when press releases roll in. It's much faster for reporters to cut and paste, change syntax here and there, and press "submit". If they take time for more than a cursory check of the "facts" they're being fed, they'll be "scooped" on the story, and may have to come up with yet another story by deadline time.

Investigation also exposes a media outlet to the RISK that influential feathers will be ruffled, that legal actions may be filed, or that the "facts" that have been published may be proved WRONG. ANY of these outcomes could cut off a source of the press releases on which the "completeness" of the outlet's coverage depends. For instance, Dan Bartlett's job at the WH is to threaten credentials of "White House Press Corpse" members whenever he reads or sees something he doesn't like.

Both time and risk boil down to MONEY in a limited competition for profits among a few outlets of each kind. There no longer are enough media outlets to compete profits away entirely, as is the case in many industries. "The News" is BIG business in the US, and big money rides on attracting "eyeballs" and sellling them to advertisers. Dumbing down things is NECESSARY to get mass audiences. That's why Palast has emigrated to Britain, where investigative journalists still can get paid by nonprofit entities such as The Guardian and the BBC.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Right on! See my sig line -- nt