Media Criticism as Self-Defense - UTNE reader

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Media Criticism as Self-Defense
Blaming the media in the mirror
—By Bennett Gordon, Utne.com - June 14, 2007 Issue

Poor celebrities. Can't we just leave them alone? Focus on the real news in the world? As the website Iraq Slogger reluctantly reported, Paris Hilton, the embattled hotel heiress and pop-culture fetish whose jail-house comings and goings have dominated headlines of late, recently made an impassioned plea for more responsible journalism. "I would hope going forward that the public and the media will focus on more important things, like the men and women serving our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places around the world."

Those are tough words from the star of 1 Night in Paris.

>snip
When former Republican Representative Mark Foley was accused of preying on young male pages in the run-up to the 2006 election, MediaMatters reported that conservative pundits scrambled to find someone else to blame. "It's clear to me," said über-conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh (no stranger to personal scandal), "that what the Democrats are doing here in some sort of cooperation with some in the media is to suppress conservative turnout."

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2007_303/news/12598-1.html