Media Coverage
Israel and Palestine
Israel and Palestine
Are the American media reporting events in Israel and Palestine, or is there something similar to the "liberal media bias"? Is the coverage "fair and balanced"? How can a reader tell if he is getting:
- ad-hoc reporting,
- news (with a semblance of balance),
- analysis (hopefully fair),
- opinion, or
- propaganda (a systematic mis-representation)?
One idea to sort out the truth: Ask
- what is the content (is the headline direct, guarded, innocuous? Is one point of view sandwiche
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Should Anti-Bush Journalists Be Tried as "Spies"? Yes ... by Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley
Should Anti-Bush Journalists Be Tried as "Spies"?by William Norman Grigg | January 22, 2005
According to Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh should be tried for espionage.
Tony Blankley, editorial page editor of the Washington Times, is a walking museum. His syndicated column regularly retails Soviet-style hymns to the majesty of the state and its Dear Leader, thoughtfully published in pedestrian English prose so as to avoid the necessity of translation.
In his most recent offering, Commissar Blankley opines that investigative reporter Seymour Hersh committed "espionage" by publishing a detailed expose of the Bush administration’s plans and preparations for war with Iran. According to Hersh, the administration has been conducting pre-war covert operations inside Iran. Those operations allegedly are being carried out through the Pentagon, rather than by the CIA, in order to avoid congressional oversight. Citing anonymous defense and intelligence sources, Hersh predicts that as many as ten nations might be on the list of possible U.S. military targets.
Many neo-conservative (or, more accurately put, neo-Trotskyite) commentators have dismissed Hersh’s account as ideologically inspired speculation. The Pentagon has done likewise. But Blankley suggests, in all seriousness, that the veteran reporter – who compiled an impressive track record with a recent string of scoops regarding Abu Ghraib and related outrages – should be arraigned, and face possible execution, as an enemy spy.
Should Anti-Bush Journalists Be Tried as "Spies"?by William Norman Grigg | January 22, 2005
According to Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh should be tried for espionage.
Tony Blankley, editorial page editor of the Washington Times, is a walking museum. His syndicated column regularly retails Soviet-style hymns to the majesty of the state and its Dear Leader, thoughtfully published in pedestrian English prose so as to avoid the necessity of translation.
In his most recent offering, Commissar Blankley opines that investigative reporter Seymour Hersh committed "espionage" by publishing a detailed expose of the Bush administration’s plans and preparations for war with Iran. According to Hersh, the administration has been conducting pre-war covert operations inside Iran. Those operations allegedly are being carried out through the Pentagon, rather than by the CIA, in order to avoid congressional oversight. Citing anonymous defense and intelligence sources, Hersh predicts that as many as ten nations might be on the list of possible U.S. military targets.
Many neo-conservative (or, more accurately put, neo-Trotskyite) commentators have dismissed Hersh’s account as ideologically inspired speculation. The Pentagon has done likewise. But Blankley suggests, in all seriousness, that the veteran reporter – who compiled an impressive track record with a recent string of scoops regarding Abu Ghraib and related outrages – should be arraigned, and face possible execution, as an enemy spy.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Fired reporters challenge Fox TV license
Straight Goods - Canada's independent on-line source of news, analysis, information and fun: "Fired reporters challenge Fox TV license | Steve Wilson and Jane Akre charge Fox with false and distorted news reports. | Dateline: Sunday, January 16, 2005 | by Steve Wilson
TAMPA (January 3, 2005) For what is believed to be the first time ever, two television journalists have challenged the broadcast license of a station on grounds it deliberately broadcast false and distorted news reports.
Veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson filed the petition Monday against WTVT Fox-13, in Tampa, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Television empire.
The formal Petition To Deny the station's pending license renewal presents the Federal Communications Commission with 98 pages of what the journalists say is 'clear and convincing support for the claim that the licensee is not operating in the public interest and lacks the good character to do so.'
...
The journalists also charge that WTVT has violated federal rules with regard to keeping on file viewer complaints and comments. The reporters say not one communication regarding the dispute over the hormone story was found in the files even though there were several examples of letters, which should have been there.
...
"There are no greater supporters of the First Amendment than Steve and I," Akre said. "But the First Amendment is certainly not a license to lie and no broadcaster should be allowed to put its own financial interests ahead of the public interest. The public interest is by law the primary obligation of every broadcaster who uses our public airwaves to make their corporate fortune, especially when broadcasting the news."
"The FCC itself has clearly said 'rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest and indeed, there is no act more harmful to the public's ability to handle its affairs,' and who can disagree?" Wilson added.
The reporters charge station executives demanded the reports be falsified and slanted to avoid a threatened lawsuit by the hormone maker Monsanto, as well as potential loss of advertising from dairymen and others who objected to the reports.
Though Fox officials never pointed to a single inaccuracy in the proposed broadcasts, they nonetheless fired the two after the reporters refused to yield to management threats of dismissal. The two also refused what they characterized as a six-figure offer of hush-money from station managers who wanted them to leave and forever keep quiet about the issue.
Straight Goods - Canada's independent on-line source of news, analysis, information and fun: "Fired reporters challenge Fox TV license | Steve Wilson and Jane Akre charge Fox with false and distorted news reports. | Dateline: Sunday, January 16, 2005 | by Steve Wilson
TAMPA (January 3, 2005) For what is believed to be the first time ever, two television journalists have challenged the broadcast license of a station on grounds it deliberately broadcast false and distorted news reports.
Veteran reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson filed the petition Monday against WTVT Fox-13, in Tampa, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Television empire.
The formal Petition To Deny the station's pending license renewal presents the Federal Communications Commission with 98 pages of what the journalists say is 'clear and convincing support for the claim that the licensee is not operating in the public interest and lacks the good character to do so.'
...
The journalists also charge that WTVT has violated federal rules with regard to keeping on file viewer complaints and comments. The reporters say not one communication regarding the dispute over the hormone story was found in the files even though there were several examples of letters, which should have been there.
...
"There are no greater supporters of the First Amendment than Steve and I," Akre said. "But the First Amendment is certainly not a license to lie and no broadcaster should be allowed to put its own financial interests ahead of the public interest. The public interest is by law the primary obligation of every broadcaster who uses our public airwaves to make their corporate fortune, especially when broadcasting the news."
"The FCC itself has clearly said 'rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest and indeed, there is no act more harmful to the public's ability to handle its affairs,' and who can disagree?" Wilson added.
The reporters charge station executives demanded the reports be falsified and slanted to avoid a threatened lawsuit by the hormone maker Monsanto, as well as potential loss of advertising from dairymen and others who objected to the reports.
Though Fox officials never pointed to a single inaccuracy in the proposed broadcasts, they nonetheless fired the two after the reporters refused to yield to management threats of dismissal. The two also refused what they characterized as a six-figure offer of hush-money from station managers who wanted them to leave and forever keep quiet about the issue.
