Politico and the Payola Scandal- It an't free and it an't journalism

[Ichingcarpenter]

In the fifties, a bunch of rock stations got caught taking money from music producers to give their artists airtime. The "Payola" scam, as it was called, was sufficiently outrageous to become a major national scandal. Last month, Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple reported that Politico's Mike Allen is running a similar scam — accepting lucrative payments from advertisers and lending his editorial voice to hyping, and sometimes parroting, their agenda. Given the relative importance of national politics vis-à-vis rock music, this struck me as a potentially career-ending revelation. Instead, Politico has ignored the report and carried on as if nothing at all were amiss.


http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/12/politico-stonewalls-mike-allen-payola-scandal.html

[deminks]

1. I have no doubt it is widespread.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. "Into the Buzzsaw''

"Into the Buzzsaw''

Do we have a "free press" or just the illusion of one?

After reading the much awaited revised and expanded "Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press," you'll have all the information you need -- from journalists themselves -- that theoretically we have the ability to have a free press. The problem, however, is that the most powerful sectors of the media -- television, radio and newspapers -- act more like the old Soviet self-censoring press than a media that reports on the truth necessary to engage in the public discourse necessary to a democracy.

The phrase "into the buzzsaw" is a journalistic expression for how stories eventually become censored or altered to the point that they reflect an official viewpoint, rather than the facts or investigative findings that expose possible deceptions in the "official viewpoint." After a time, only the most intrepid journalist will take on the powers that be, because they know that their careers (and high salaries) will suffer the wrath of General Electric (owner of NBC), Viacom (owner of CBS), Disney (owner of ABC), Time Warner (owner of CNN), Rupert Murdoch (owner of FOX NEWS), etc., etc. Not to mention news writers for papers like the Washington Post and New York Times, who have yet to do one serious long-term investigative piece on the chronic lying and misdeeds of the Bush Administration between them. Whatever their editorial policies, they hold their news writers on a very short leash, only allowing the occasional revelation of Bush deception or misdeeds, without continued follow-up and a sustained effort at providing news context.

http://www.buzzflash.com/reviews/05/rev05032.html

These stories from award winning journalist are true but some would think and justly so that there is a conspiracy

[progressoid]

6. Into the Buzzsaw - Excellent book. n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Didn't we go through this with the Bush II administration?

[Major Hogwash]

4. Halperin's outfit. I guess they "double downed" on what they would charge to say.

They are all over the place on tv touting their bullcrap.
And that one guy with the weasel face, Jim VandeHei, was one of Bush's biggest supporters when Dubya was in office.

[JEB]

5. Hey, it's the Free Market. Everything is for sale.

In the "Free Market" money determines everything, is the arbiter of truth, legitimacy and morality. If Ted Bundy had enough money, he'd be cruising in his yacht. And the insipid crap that passes for music on the TV...argh. Better music on the street corner or around the campfire.

[Blue_Tires]

7. kick for truth

[UTUSN]

8. Aside from the usual and banal greed, ALLEN is one very strange humanoid. n/t

[Enthusiast]

9. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch.....nt

[KoKo]

10. Thanks...had no idea about this..!