Good Morning Christy

Morning — hope it’s warmer where you are than it is here. We’re supposed to get snow today. Eeep!

Thanks, Christy. I’m very encouraged by how many people are seeing through the lies and being turned off by the hate.

How long till Barbara West joins Faux?

Good Morning Christy!

new one from charlie savage today: Appeals Courts Pushed to Right by Bush Choices

After a group of doctors challenged a South Dakota law forcing them to inform women that abortions “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being” — using exactly that language — President Bush’s appointees to the federal appeals courts took control.

A federal trial judge, stating that whether a fetus is human life is a matter of debate, had blocked the state from enforcing the 2005 law as a likely violation of doctors’ First Amendment rights. And an appeals court panel had upheld the injunction.

But this past June, the full United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit voted 7 to 4 to overrule those decisions and allow the statute to take immediate effect. The majority argued that it is objectively true that human life begins at conception, and that the state can force doctors to say so.

Mr. Bush had appointed six of the seven judges in the conservative majority. His administration has transformed the nation’s federal appeals courts, advancing a conservative legal revolution that began nearly three decades ago under President Ronald Reagan.

On Oct. 6, Mr. Bush pointed with pride to his record at a conference sponsored by the Cincinnati chapter of the Federalist Society, the elite network for the conservative legal movement. He noted that he had appointed more than a third of the federal judiciary expected to be serving when he leaves office, a lifetime-tenured force that will influence society for decades and that represents one of his most enduring accomplishments.

The whole slavish attention to access without considering its attendant costs baffles me. Truly. I get the “advancing your career” thought process, but wouldn’t being a better journalist and really digging into a story until you got to the meat of it do more to advance things than blindly repeating crapola without questioning it’s intent or the integrity of the person feeding it to you?

The lack of skepticism is really bizarre. But the herd mentality is even more so…it’s like junior high all over again in some quarters, isn’t it?

Saw that. One of the many reasons we’ve been doing the First Monday series…

Morning, Elliott!

Good Morning Christy and Pups.

Wonderful post Christy. It’s sad but true: we need to run a constant, saturation campaign of our own as citizens, to fact-check and unspin and hound the press. Rinse and Repeat.

And speaking of media:

CNN claiming they “got their hands” on an internal memo from the mcpalin campaign detailing how?why they think they will win on election day. (Now they’re saying “released publicly.”)

*sniff* *sniff* Is that a hint of desperation I smell?

Good morning Christy.

The other thing that really annoys me about MSM is the extent to which they stretch for quotes on the “other side” of issues that have only one side.

It would be great and send a message if there was a lot of protest when it is time for Snow’s station to get its FCC license renewed.

Oh man, Christy. Did you have to mention Barbara West? I’m trying to eat my oatmeal here. *g*
BTW, there’s a birthday party for eCAHN downstairs.

They planted it with Michael Scherer at Time’s Swampland, too. He prints the whole thing and you can see for yourself what is — and is not — in there. It’s reliant on internal polling for which data isn’t wholly supplied, so for me that’s highly suspect. Was just reading through that, actually…see what you guys think.

Yeah, the faux balance tendencies really tick me off, too.

Happy birthday, eCAHN!

At least Rachel Maddow is showing with her incredible ratings that it is possible to move a career ahead without being part of that pack. Check out Glenzilla’s post this morning, however, for the latest idiocy from Dick Morris, Exhibit A in your description.

God knows where the press has been these last few years.

I figure they were mostly lobotomised after 9/11 and just sat there like a lot of stunned mullet, all wall-eyed, endlessly regurgitating Bushista propaganda for the next 7 years.

Hopefully they’ll snap out of it someday and start asking a few questions. Of course, by then Bush will be long gone.

Which is worse? i’d say lack of skepticism.

so i’ll plug democracy now! – the best daily news program. amy goodman is awesome – intimidated by no one and very hard to con.

Thank you. Got a lot of good wishes and the ecake of my choice on the prior thread.

Here’s a good one. Conservatives will hold super secret (heh) meeting in VA after the election to discuss the future of the R party. Here’s the best line of all, Palin the gift that keeps on giving.

Either way, Sarah Palin will be a central part of discussion.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/…..ml?showall

Boyohboy! You have company. I’m sick of it. They seem to have no concept of how to cover the news without leaning on two shouting heads talking over eachother. Then, it’s “time’s up,” and they seem so pleased with themselves.

High quality journalism appears to be at a low ebb these days.

Lack of proper training? Lack of knowledge about the world? Laziness?

Addiction to coctail weenies and koolaide?

The best thing about Rachel is that she thoroughly prepares for interviews and discussions, so that she knows all the sides and arguments out there and is prepped for a thoughtful back and forth. Whether she agrees or not with a particular interview subject, she preps the pros and cons in order to have a well-rounded and in-depth discussion.

And it shows. You gotta love attention to detail, don’t you?

Very good point, Jim. I sure do enjoy her show.

Second that. Amy Goodman is a national treasure.

Rachel should have her as a guest. Think I’ll send Rachel emails with links to particularly good dn segments. You should consider doing the same. Amy needs much more exposure, imo.

Oh, and we got push polled by some GOP-leaning group a couple of months ago that called to let us know about some talking point that they were pushing via a recorded message from Dick Morris. I patiently sat through the call, and the recording, so I could answer questions about it. The young fella conducting the survey asked me whether I agreed with Dick Morris? “No.” “Why not?” “Because Dick Morris is a serial liar who wouldn’t know the truth if it smacked him upside the head, and I wouldn’t trust him on any issue, ever. Boy did you guys pick the wrong house to push poll.” “Oh. Well, um, thank you for your time.”

Birthday Greetings eCAHN!

Have an extra piece of cake on us. ;->

Thanks. Will do.

great idea!

Part of that, I think, really was the “battered press syndrome” part of the equation. After 9/11, any time any member of the press asked a tough question, they were cut off from having any ability to ask any more and the Bushies put out the word that they had been “unpatriotic.” Among the pack mentality within the Beltway, threatened shunning was a really effective means of shutting a lot of people up and moving them back into the herd.

Thank goodness not everyone went along with it, but they were few and far between for quite a while, there.

I see where the media turned from “doing their job” to celebrity status is with Woodward and Bernstein….. It was Woodward becoming the story, becoming the “hero” of Watergate and achieving that celebrity status. Then other reports starting to want that status too vs. actually doing their job.

The next downward spiral was the OJ trial. When 24/7 cable got its hooks into that one the meme of reporting changed from ACTUAL reporting on facts to sensationalism…..

The shift of the news departments from being a requirement to meets a stations FCC licensing to a profit center was the final nail in actual news…… its been canceled since then…..

Elmore and I sit with dropped jaws when we listen to news when we are in Europe…. REAL news….. with follow up questions….. some even on CNN with the very same reporters who give us crap here in the states….

I don’t think we can just “hope” that they snap out of it. The pressure is going to have to be brought to make it happen!

Back to Christy’s post, re: Clinton Rules, see I do read some of the links sometimes, I’m still working on getting through Vidal’s Aaron Burr. There sure was a lot of messing around in those days too. It’s an interesting look at the beginning of our country.

LA Times to McCain – No.

From the LA Times – McCain campaign accuses L.A. Times of ’suppressing’ Obama video

…

“A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi,” said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. ” . . . The election is one week away, and it’s unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job — make information public.”

The Times on Tuesday issued a statement about its decision not to post the tape.

“The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it,” said the newspaper’s editor, Russ Stanton. “The Times keeps its promises to sources.”

Jamie Gold, the newspaper’s readers’ representative, said in a statement: “More than six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light.”

…

How about wanting to retain a job

How so very Nixonian.

For the Barbara West redistribution of wealth issue, I put together a little something here.

Also, McClatchy has a great smack-down of the Joe the plumber tax argument here.

I see where the media turned from “doing their job” to celebrity status is with Woodward and Bernstein….

That’s always been my theory too, the celebrity of Woodward & Bernstein. Ironic that Woodward now holds back on important information he learns. He could have stopped the Iraq War from ever happening, imo.

I will be so glad when the election is over as the robo calls are coming constantly…. it is a pain as I am expecting my doctors office to call back with test results and schedule more……

I don’t know if the Mormon call group that was working on the CA Prop 8 has moved to AZ to work on our anti-gay marriage ballot measure but have had caller ID with Utah area code ….. last night…. they called and I answered with “What the F*ck do you want” and they would not answer me…… for a while and then I said well what were you calling me about …… again….. “you got the wrong house for that”

Yet some of the press stood up. I remember the LAT reporter (can’t remember his name) who did the work on Curve Ball. After he wrote his book, he appeared on FDL book salon. When he wrote his original article (summer 04?) I was not attached here or anywhere else that was reality based, so I was really searching for information that made sense. That LAT coverage was a saving grace for me. I told the author that on the book salon, and he was really gratious. The reporters who do their jobs don’t get the kind of kuddos they deserve.

Happy Birthday eCAHNomics !!!

Great post this morning, Christy!

I think we need to set up a balance sheet scorecard for those who proffer reporting. Most in the tank we can dub “Dancin’ Daves” and most in retention of their integrity and competence, those can be “New Murrows” or some such. Maybe use those pain chart faces for quick visuals.

Happy Birthday, eCAHN!

And hugs to Barbara if you stop by. I know these days and long nights are hard. Keepin’ the Caribou warm for you.

I dunno….I see the problem as coming from the top of organizations. For me, the loosening of media ownership rules is largely responsible for the poisoned well of journalism.

When you’ve got media outfits owned by conglomerate titans who are pursuing quarterly profits and/or their own personal political agendas, I think reporters are often too frightened to pursue truths. It either won’t get published/aired and/or they may lose their jobs.

I’m not sure they’re as much interested in cocktail weenies as they have become weenies themselves.

McClatchy is another example of folks who really dug in and asked very tough questions throughout. But I think the counter-example of that is the treatment that Helen Thomas received as a sort of “public warning” to the other press folks in the WH pool. What the Bushies didn’t bargain on was that Helen not only wouldn’t buckle under, but that it would make her more determined and feisty.

Morons. *g*

Wow. Thanks! That’s just the kind of cake I want.

OMG, I’m jealous.

We had been ignoring all calls from campaigns, using caller I.D. Now I run/fast shuffle to pick up the phone, just so I can play with their little minds, or – for the good guys – reassure them AND ask them please to remove our name from their calling list.

We seem to have been picked up by some idiotic state-level repug list, and just received a nasty hatchet-job oversized glossy post card slamming Obama. I’m still trying to figure out what to do with it. I think it’s easily worth the extra postage to slip the dratted, ugly thing in a priority mail envelope addressed to the OH Repug. Party, along with a letter blasting them for their lies and smears, and demanding that they remove our address from their list FOR ALL TIME!

Thanks for the good wishes. Check out the cake at cbl2’s 40.

I do think that has a lot to do with it. I linked some media consolidation work from NOW and Bill Moyers yesterday, but I want to share it again. Very interesting stuff…

Good Morning Christy and Firedogs,

further signs the Obamalypse is upon us . . .

yesterday, in his intro to the Barbara West story, Tweety characterized it as “her when did you stop beating your wife question”

it’s a world gone mad :D

Christy,

So we have three days of leaks of “everything is falling apart…Sarah is a wacko” and then suddenly in less than 24 hours we get, “Hey we are going to win this yet?”

Well, I just have one thing to say to the McCain camp, “If you are so confident in a possible win, then fire potential election fraud” Connell and turn him over to respond to his subpoena in the Ohio election fraud case, King Lincoln Bronzeville.

Think the treatment of Helen Thomas might have been the beginning of the end for W. She is so venerable & her shabby treatment was soooo obvious. And, she got her revenge with Stephen Colbert!

You’re right about McClatchy.

btw, if folks could give this a digg, I’d appreciate it. Thanks mucho!

I’m sure you’re right.

And yet, Rachel Maddow came on air, and her ratings immediately soared!

Hint hint, cowardly press.

Very few real journalists but plenty of celebrities posing as journalists.

Where is stat boy when you really need him. The “media” no longer reports news -that ship has sailed. Now all we get in opinion-posing as facts. I think “get it wrong three times” and the reporter/pundit should be out.

They are saying they are going to win because of Mr. Connell.

A teensy dab of credit to Chris Matthews. At least for the moment, he’s almost acting kind of, sort of professional, in a way. Wonder how long that’ll last. He musta been caught up in a wind draft, heh.

When Letterman does one of the best interviews of the season it does say something about the state of lunatic media.

Nate has some good response analysis to the McCain campaign memo for folks wanting the alternate numbers perspective.

OT – anyone know what the heck is up with the SEIU?

from democracy now! yesterday:

JUAN GONZALEZ: After a battle that’s been raging for months, public school teachers in Puerto Rico have voted against joining a union affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, or the SEIU. It’s a major victory for the forty-two-year-old Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico, or FMPR. It was Puerto Rico’s largest union, representing over 40,000 teachers.

But earlier this year, after many months of trying to negotiate with the governor, the FMPR was decertified over its refusal to comply with a ban on strikes by public employees. The FMPR claims that the SEIU allied with Puerto Rican governor Anibal Acevedo Vilá and raided their leadership. The SEIU-affiliated union, the Puerto Rican Teacher’s Union, or SPM, lost by nearly 3,500 votes.

RAFAEL FELICIANO: Well, first of all, thanks for the opportunity. The [inaudible]—in Puerto Rico, the teachers have a union. The FMPR is the union of the teachers in Puerto Rico. We developed a very strong strike in February of this year, and the government make an alliance with SEIU international union to attack our union, to attack our teachers. Our union is a very democratic, rank-and-file union that has a commitment to develop a good education for our working-class students, and we fight against charter schools and No Child Left Behind.

Our struggle in the strike and all our struggle is very strong, and what the government do is make an alliance with the SEIU international to broke our movement. But our teachers vote no to this fate, that the SEIU [inaudible] SPM, that is what—a union created by the bosses to attack our union and to substitute our union. But most of the teachers vote no, because they want union. They don’t vote no against the union; they vote no to defeat the bosses’ union and to affirm and to say that they want FMPR as their own union. And I think that this is a very big victory for all the workers of the world, because it’s a victory of the rank and file, and it’s a victory of the union with social commitment, it’s a victory of the union as a working-class mechanism to work for a better future for the workers.

Maybe he has been spending to much time with KO and RM.

Oh, I recognize that now. My mother called that frosting “8 minute frosting” instead of boiled, but it looks like the same stuff. Looks like we’ll get at least one more Christmas with her. My oldest has already started talking about the food we’ll have there.

we knew it as 7 minute icing

I’m not the only person in these parts embarrased by Barbara West.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com…..5537.story

he’s been good.

Now I want cake.

I started cooking about a year ago & have made a priority of cooking things I had as a child but not in the intervening decades. It’s been fun. Bring a dish or two of your mother’s into your own menu planning if it’s not too much work.

Today I say: Let them eat cake!

Yes — there has been an ongoing struggle for power between folks who are currently running SEIU and folks who want to topple them and run it themselves. I tend to take every public pronouncement from any of the sides of this with huge grains of salt and suggest everyone else do the same. This has been raging for well over a year now, and it has to do with differences in philosophy on the best tactics for long-term versus short-term strategy and some very large egos with a number of folks who seem to be yelling the loudest. At least, that how it’s looked to me from my vantage point on the sidelines…and, having been lied to a couple of times by folks doing PR for the loudest anti-SEIU faction, I don’t quite trust anything they say without checking it out thoroughly. But that could just be me…

recently, I’ve thought it’s that he’s lost money, serious money that made him start paying attention

sometimes I think it’s his diabetes, like he had a serious recent scare or something – he looks thinner, healthier and less pale of late

he’s still Tweety – referring to Mike Allen yesterday as a “serious reporter” and Randy Scheunemann as “one of the smart people in the campaign”

but something has definitely changed

It seems to me we are at a tipping point regarding journalism and politics. Apparently many of the current crop of influential journalists are very behind the curve re the use of technology for their research/communication (and I’m not talking Blackberries here).

The same phenomenon is being seen in the different ways the two presidential campaigns have embraced technology.

I think most of us here have the expectation that the people we see pontificating on TV/in print understand as much as we do about what is available to them via the internet — whether via blogs or the more traditional databases. I’m convinced they are naive/unschooled/suspicious about the uses of computers in their work.

The clearest example of someone who “gets it” and uses all of the resources available is Maddow. And look at the difference.

The managing editors, producers and op ed/onscreen talent are going to have to catch up.

lawsy i hopes so! refreshing, ’tis.

Some of the things I had as a kid would make the medical profession go into shock.

Tweety waxes & wanes. He used to be pretty heavily D. He gets man-crushes (and now has a woman-crush on Palin who he thinks is a talented politician) and changes his whole attitude on account of that. No predictability whatsoever. A random walk.

impatient, dipping the fingers in before it’s done? youbetcha!

I think that’s absolutely true. Especially as it concerns the intersection of blogging, journalism and peer review from readers for journalists. You can see that with some of the folks at Time once they started taking comments — it’s been interesting to watch them face immediate questioning of their assumptions and adjust to that dynamic…and then realize that it can sometimes be really helpful to have someone second-guess something when you get it wrong. *g* And then have the space to actually correct it within a quick timeframe instead of letting it hang out there for days with no pushback.

You can’t get away with sloppy work product if people are constantly checking your work.

Lard? My parents saved bacon fat to fry eggs in. I actually prefer butter for that purpose.

So stick with the good stuff.

christy – did you read the report? this wasn’t about anyone wanting to topple the SEIU – it was about the SEIU taking the side of the government against the local union. SEIU was invited to come on democracy now! to tell their side and they refused.

just because SEIU has untrustworthy enemies does not tell us anything about the SEIU. or that this report has anything to do with those struggles you describe (although if you tell me you have reason to think it does, then i’ll change my tune).

Agree. The blogs do a lot of work for journalists, if they’d only use them. My favorite examples are Josh’s work on USatty scandal & Marcy on Plame. They knew far more than any reporter. Loved the story about the high paid reporters at the Libby trial looking over her shoulder so they would know what was going on.

Yep. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised by a little of what he’s been doing lately. He still leaves a lot to be desired but, for the moment, he’s more watchable sometimes. However, with KO and Rachel, and the Lake, why bother?!

Didn’t get a chance to read the report as yet — doing twenty other things, including getting breakfast for my FIL at the moment– just your question on what’s going on with SEIU which I took as a general, and not issue specific question. Will have to read that particular report before I can answer further on that one.

thanks – didn’t expect you to respond to my comment (let alone read the report), but if you’re going to take the side of the SEIU against the local union in the comments, i think it’s only fair to give it a read.

golden moment for sure!

I think there will be more.

Jane’s & Christy’s lurker index is up. betcha.

When I hear soundbytes on the telly that could only have come from the crystal clear toobz of the Lake, it makes me smile. *g*

Wanted to pile on B’DAY wishes earlier eCAHN but called away for emergency..burn those candles on both ends.

Thanks!

I believe I just explained that I took it as a general question on your part not a report specific one — and I said to take anything people hear from all sides with huge grains of salt. No need for a chip on your shoulder in response to what was an honest mistake in interpretation on my part on what you were asking, thanks.

at least Barack has finally dropped the pie man story. he did tell it pretty well. i was just sick of it.

Part of the larger problem is that reporters for large press conglomerates are, undoubtedly, required to keep their access at all costs. Because they want to keep their jobs, they do a lot of sucking up to sources, thus ending their own independence. Most of the people in power understand the drill and use the need against them. I see David Gregory, Candi Crowley, and others doing minimal investigation of any talking points they are given. They just go with what they are given, seldom seeking more depth or other viewpoints in their stories. Sad. We all lose.

Hi, Chiming in late to wish Ecahn a happy birthday. Most political reporters are stenographers. They check their blackberry and just report what they are told.

David and Candi? I can’t stand either. They make me twirl the dial elsewhere PDQ.

christy? was just trying to explain – in response to the list of things you wrote that were keeping you occupied – that in general by leaving a comment in your thread, i don’t mean to suggest that i expect you to reply let alone to read my links. but in this case, based on how your comment sounded to me (far more skeptical than is usual for you) i would appreciate it. no shoulder chip intended on my part.

I think part of that is also a tighter timeframe on deadline — when you have 24-hour all news alla time, you are constantly pushing up against a need to put something on the air, and get it on first. Unfortunately that leads to unchecked, unsourced crapola far too often. SIGH

The whole irony of the “access” argument is that hobnobbing with the rich and powerful is a way to get good information. But as all the old investigative reporters and gumshoes knew, it was easier, cheaper and more rewarding to get your information from the lower-level workers. Go eat your lunches where the Capitol Hill janitors hang out and catch the conversations going on around you.

Bingo! What an excellent point and cuts to the heart of a lot of what’s going on. Reporters like the hobnobbing….big part of the problem.

An old consultants’ trick in the rural south in to take the line workers out for a few drinks after work. That’s how they found out what was really happening at a mill. They never got the truth from local management.

True. Though really, newspapers used to have morning and evening editions, and special ones in addition to those as events warranted. I think that the higher up the food chain, the less journalists actually work and the more they expect to be spoon-fed stuff. (Of course, being that their bosses are mostly conservative Republicans who like the tax breaks they got under Bush, they also know that their bosses would prefer them to use the GOP’s blast-faxes rather than the Democrats’ blast-faxes.)

I likely read the wrong tone in your response there, then — tough to tell typed intent sometimes. *g*

Yup. If the mill owner says “Oh no no no we have no plans to shut this mill” and the mill’s kitchen crew says “The boss told us not to order any more cafeteria supplies after Monday”, a smart reporter should know what to take away from those two conversations.

thanks – happens to me all the time.

Phoenix Woman, you make my point exactly. Most of these highly-paid TV people want to be talking to the mill owner. It makes them feel so much more important. But the little guys often have the scoop. They just need to put down the doughnut, stop talking to other reporters and get moving.

We need to expect more of them or go elsewhere for the news.

Joe Conason was one of the first reporters to realize that there was a large untapped army of online readers willing and able to help him out with research and gumshoery. That’s why the acknowledgements portions of his books take up a few pages per tome.