Dean at Yale: "The media is a failing institution in this country."

[madfloridian]

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=27403

SNIP..."Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean '71, a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke Tuesday at Yale about the shortcomings of today's print media and the importance of an ethical media in a working democracy.

In the symposium, titled "The Media and the Election: A Postmortem," Dean stressed corporate ownership of the media and the increased focus on entertainment as problems with today's media, and he emphasized the importance of diversity and regulation in fixing these problems. Panelists Evan Thomas, an assistant managing editor for Newsweek, and Martin Nolan, a political reporter and editor of The Boston Globe's editorial page, defended the media's integrity and objectivity.

SNIP..."The media is a failing institution in this country," Dean said. "They are not maintaining their responsibility to maintain democracy."

SNIP.."During the discussion, Dean said the media has almost completely lost its objectivity....... The solution to restoring an ethical media, Dean said, is to ensure diversity and cap corporate ownership of media outlets. He said he supports government regulation of media ownership. ..... are incapable of regulating themselves," Dean said. "What's at stake is our democracy. If you think that American democracy can survive without an ethical media, then you are wrong."

Continue speaking truth to power, Dr. Dean...and a Happy 56th birthday.

[Warpy]

1. Dean is the Democratic Party's main hope for survival

which is why the DLC will try to destroy him.

[quiet.american]

3. Amen

Where does the DLC derive its power?

Is it too outrageous to say the BEST thing the Democratic party can do for itself right now is to dismantle the DLC?

How much money has the DLC raised for the party?

[AntiCoup2K4]

11. Where does the DLC derive its power?

[madfloridian]

12. LOL Those corporate devils. Good pic.

:hi:

[quiet.american]

13. LOL, pix worth a thousand words

n/t

[kentuck]

2. The Doctor is speaking reform...

and I don't hear that from other Democrats.

[Miami Liberal]

4. Happy Birthday Dr. Dean

Keep on speaking the truth, we need you more than ever.

:toast:

[NYCGirl]

5. Happy Birthday, Dr. Dean!

:party: :loveya:

[Cha]

16. I sent Governor Dean a

birthday card by snail mail the other day. The first time I've ever done anything like that to someone I admire from a far.

It was also a massive thank you card for all he's done since getting this Country fired up even before the primaries and on into DFA..grassroot Changes For America!


Here's pics of "quilts" that madfloridian brought onto another thread that some supporters of Dean made.





And mad's quote .."I just happened to think of these today when I was talking to someone. I think it is rare that a politician would bother to hang them so prominently. The first is the blogger's quilt and the 2nd is called grandma's quilt....every bit put together by DFAers and shipped there."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOVERNOR DEAN! :party:

[NYCGirl]

18. That's wonderful, zidzi! I wish I'd had the presence of mind

to send a card, too.

Those quilts are beautiful.

[madfloridian]

20. There is a place at the blog now to post a note or send email.

www.blogforamerica.com

I had forgotten and just commented from my hubby and myself.

[mzmolly]

45. How wonderful.

Thanks Zidzi.

[Surikat]

6. Mainstream media is pretty much dead...

All you have to do is look at the impact of the blogosphere, sites like democraticunderground and moveon, and especially the impact of news.google.com and drudgereport to know that conventional newspapers and network television are finished.

People just don't go to the old places for their news anymore. I personally am as likely to read articles out of the Hindustani Times or the Daily Star out of Beruit as I am the NYT or LAT these days.

I don't think that Dean has it right about "objectivity" though. The media have never, ever really been objective. The problem is that news consumers now just have a huge amount of choice that they didn't have before the internet really got rolling. Former big frogs in the media pond are having to cope with smaller players having easy access to the same audiences that they once had exclusively.

[LastDemocratInSC]

57. A library card has always provided access to many, many sources of info

My library card has always provided access to many sources of news and information. Any of us can walk into the periodicals section of a library and have hundreds of sources of news from hundreds of perspectives. This has been the case for a long, long time. For the most part, sources available in libraries have adhered to time-honored principles of journalistic ethics.

The internet and cable televison have allowed the emergence of information sources that have nothing to gain by adherence to principles.

It's not correct to say that a "huge amount of choice" hasn't been available. There's more available today, and the quality is lower over all. In the past there were lots of sources, fewer than today, but the quality was higher.

[r3verberate]

58. The Problem is ...

... that there are so many biased opinionated 'news' stories, that it is difficult for the common man/woman to differentiate between what is fact and what is 'news'.

Truth in Journalism has become diluted.

[Lavender Brown]

7. Happy Birthday HD!

:party:

[AspenRose]

8. Once again, he's right

Fairness Doctrine Petition:

www.fairnessdoctrine.com

[wtmusic]

9. Dean is right on on this...MEDIA OWNERSHIP

is the issue of the decade.

Women's choice, the war, *everything* else depends on an objective media.

[coloradodem2005]

10. Amen Howard!!!!!

[JPace]

14. Somewhere in this sea of dark where wimpy democratic leadership

thrives and multiplies there is a courageous bit of light.
That light is Howard Dean.

You go Dean! Tell the truth and tell it loud and clear.

[Cheswick2.0]

21. Not just Dean...but DFA and all the other groups who have

joined together with the same purpose.

[AgadorSparticus]

15. Happy Birthday, Dr. Dean!!! Thank you for the continued fight.

the media is downright insidious. they follow an administration regardless of endangering democracy. to me, they are more detrimental than al queda. al queda's destruction is more sensational and quick. so it is easy to see and conceptualize. you can pinpoint it to destructive events. the media's destruction on america is slower and so subdued, most people don't even realize it. but the deaths and inhumanity are the same.

[Gloria]

17. Is the main reason that Gore had in endorsing

Dean?? Gore's first actions post-2000 was to teach courses on media and his first BIG speech also was devoted to the media and democracy for the most part.
Of course, he's got his TV plans, too.

Seems to me that the biggest thing Gore and Dean have in common right now is this issue of corporate media. It should be a very big issue...but the Party seems to ignore it.

No wonder they want Dean and Gore off to the sidelines....

[Cha]

27. Thanks for noticing this, Gloria!

One of things that Kerry was saying, too, though, is he would break up the corporate media. Not in those exact words which I don't remember but it was to the effect that the media would Not like him being at the helm.

[proudbluestater]

19. He is the ONLY one I support to lead the DNC

Screw who Harry Reid wants. I don't even LIKE Harry Reid at all, the anti-choicer.

We need a strong voice who is not afraid to speak the truth. That is ONLY Howard Dean.

[madfloridian]

22. Doesn't look like he will get it.

He was talking about it last night at Yale. There is my thread in GD Politics and several at Kos. He is afraid if he tries and loses it might break up DFA and cause many to leave.

[HootieMcBoob]

23. I've lost a lot of faith in the Democratic party

If Dean is not chosen to head the DNC I will take it as a sign that it is business as usually among the leaders of the party. I see no signs of life in this party right now. Kerry and Edwards are both silent - not doing a damn thing to see that "every vote is counted" as they said.

There are a lot of great leaders within the party right now but I think they're being silenced by the old guard who wants to keep things the way they've been, which means more losses.

Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Barak Obama are the new blood. Plus all of the organizations that have sprung up in the last few years. If it hadn't been for Dean and many of these new organizations the Democratic party would be on life support right now.

I'm hoping to be able to work for Eliot Spitzer's run for Governor of NY. But if there is no noticeable change in the party my allegiances could shift easily.

[Uzybone]

24. Keep speaking Dean

maybe one day the media will actually report what you and other democrats are saying.

[madfloridian]

25. This is how you can speak with nothing left to lose within your party.

When you are not afraid of the consequences, then you can tell the truth.

If you are giving up what you believe in order to win, then you can NOT speak with clarity. It sounds muffled and distant when you speak.

If you speak to your values, it rings, and someday it will make a difference.

[ArkDem]

26. Yeeeeeeah!

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

56. Is this humor, ArkDem? I don't quite understand the focus of your post...

Is it cheering the failing media? Or is it sarcasm directed at Dean?
Please enlighten me. Thanks MKJ

[Elenchized]

28. It seems to me

That the one sure fire way to ensure that the media has absolutely no way to control what is reports would be for the government to own it, in part or in whole. What Dean says amounts to asserting that the first amendment is either bullshit or that liberals do not care to defend it. The reality is the media in this country has lost a lot of credibility in the election as a result of people like Dan Rather making up stories for political reasons. Maybe if we were willing to call it fairly on both sides people might take us seriously as Democrats, liberals, and Americans again.

[derzocrat]

29. I disagree Elenchized

The point of the First Amendment comes down to the idea that society should have a free market when it comes to ideas/beliefs/etc. The crackpot ideas will fade with time while the good ones rise to the surface. The Doctor is arguing (and has been for quite some time), that with so much of the mainstream media in the control of just a few hands, that free market of ideas is smothered. If Fox News wants to blather its nonsense, so be it. But when Fox, NY Post, Clear Channel and others are all under the same umbrella we begin to get only one set of ideas presented to us.

[Elenchized]

33. Regulation of Media is not the Answer

News sources are always going to be controlled to some extent by large corporations, but to say there is not a free market of ideas in this country is really ignoring that just by flipping the channels on a television or radio I can get a wide range of opinions, from Limbaugh on WABC to All Things Considered on NPR. What is interesting, and too often ignored, is that just a couple decades ago, with the "Fairness Doctrine" in place there were maybe ten or twenty corporations controlling all news outlets. It was only after it was repealed that many, many more sources became available. Yes, that includes Clear Channel and Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp growing very powerful, and probably more conservative outlets than liberal have been created in recent years. But honestly, to say we do not have a monopoly on, to name a few, NPR, CBS, and ABC is really ridiculous and hypocritical. The reality is, even if they won't admit it, different news sources have different political stances and people can choose which they want to subscribe to. Corporations will cater to whatever can make them money, whether that is saying George Bush is evil (Michael Moore) or Democrats are unpatriotic (Bill O'Reily). But if you don't buy it, you don't have to listen or watch it. Far worse would be to have something like BBC, which controls what British people see, and it is only recently that even one competitor (NewsCorp) has offered even a vaguely different opinion in the UK.

[madfloridian]

35. Public news sources are being threatened by a group of GOP congressmen.

If they don't behave. I will have to look up the committee, but it handles all the public funding for NPR and PBS, etc. They are always "investigating" them...keeping them in line...Thus the cutting in half of Moyers, and the addition of Carlson.

I will look it up.

[madfloridian]

31. You are quoting RW talking points now.

Sorry.

[ProfessorPlum]

30. Damn he's smart

The corrupt, broken, and lazy media is the absolute heart of America's problems. Good job, Dean.

[shrike]

32. Thank you, Howard

Somebody had to say it. (And I work in the media, btw) I only hope you mean it.

[Ripley]

34. The one thing Kerry didn't do.

Tell the god damned truth like Dean does. Bush is a liar...say it. Bush has wrecked our economy by robbing the poor to give to the rich...say it. The war is unjustified...say it.

It sickens me that the Democratic Party shuns him.

He needs to start a new party.

[fshrink]

36. Re-frame that.

Until nothing is left. And everything is right.

[Vidar]

37. Tell it like it is, Howard!

[Rose Siding]

38. Newsweek's Thomas thinks the media's liberal

What a hoot! Great article.

[fujiyama]

39. speaking the truth

as always. i hope dfa will eventually override the dlc and lessen its influence.

happy birthday to the good doctor!

[GetTheRightVote]

40. We could always give him a write in vote, lol

Thank you Dr. Dean and happy birthday but we are no longer dependent upon the American Media Monster. We look for honest news reports from other countries now, the media in American is losing its market, so sorry.

[mmonk]

41. That's correct

but I'd say failed instead of failing. There are no checks and balances right now except the Plame investigation.

[Sparkly]

42. Preach it, Howard!!

The media problem is SO critical. I think we need a whole, large movement just to try to change that. (Although it will be really difficult until we win elections, yet it's difficult to win elections until we fix the media problem...)

[lthuedk]

43. The bribe was tax break dollars. The media accepted,

at the cost of the erosion of our great society, our country.

There are no longer any checks and balances, or fourth houses.

Only the people, now stand, against tyranny.

[mzmolly]

44. My heart is heavy with what might have been.

This issue is numero uno after restoring voting integrity IMHO.

[Guaranteed]

46. Whoa....sounds like he might have some principles.

Has anyone looked into this guy?

[madfloridian]

47. Yes, found out he was "unelectable", so say the Dems.

:shrug:

[Carolab]

48. WOOT!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU DR. DEAN! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[madfloridian]

49. Did you give DFA $56 for his birthday?

There was a bat for it, but the link quit working...not linked to the blog.

A lot of people wrote notes and sent $56.

[Gay Green]

50. Yeaaaaah! Tell it like it is,

Governor Dean! The failed corporate media is only a Propaganda Ministry, now!

[shuffnew]

51. CNN Certainly Proved Dean's Point tonight!

From Paula to Lou tonight... complete failure of reporting. Paula heads up a discussion on "Separation of Church & State" and the IRS tax-exempt controversy. As we know, IRS seems to be targeting only the democrat leaning organizations or churches. And what example does Paula feature tonight on CNN.... Sen. Edwards of course! Nothing about the evangelicals or priests at all (far right extremists)! So, either CNN is supporting the far right extremists or the IRS investigation only includes the liberal or moderate or Democrats in their investigation of the 60 (purported to be under investigation now).

Then, here comes Lou... his guest speaker being Jerry Falwell telling us about his new launching of a coalition to tear up our constitution with his extreme right agenda and instructing everyone to go to his website to learn all about it: www.faithandvalues.us This man is sick! He talked about defining marriage in the U.S. Consitution and pro-life issues and when asked about his opinion of Spencer's appointment... he said he'd been in D.C. all day and felt Spencer was going to do what was right... blah, blah, blah. Lou asked him why the big focus on defining marriage in the constitution because it appears that the bible belts have the highest divorce rates in the country and that money, jobs, etc. seemed to be a bigger issue contributing to divorces. Falwell, scooted around that question completely. Lou didn't challenge his no-op response.

CNN has been showing "Fight for Faith" for at least 3 or 4 weeks (replays which seem to have been cut with more commercials since the first showing).

I am very disappointed in CNN coverage, giving these lunatics all the free aire time they want for nothing! and Paula featuring a Democrat (Sen. Edwards) being promoted by a church with NO MENTION of all the repukes.

Dean is right on the money!

[Nordic]

53. CNN needs to be boycotted, protested, and shut down

They are just plain evil.

They are worse than Faux News, because they are more subversive, less obvious, about their motives.

[madfloridian]

54. Haven't watched CNN or MSNBC in ages.

We watched Olbermann last week. No more Hardball...Matthews has sold out.

[Nordic]

52. this is why he was crucified by the media

this is the biggest problem facing today behind, of course, the voter fraud.

If you call the media on their bullshit, they will crucify you.

And they are failing miserably, and deliberately, to report the truth for America's citizens.

Who's gonna reveal THIS? The media?

It's kind of perfect for Rove, isn't it?

[madfloridian]

59. And, not one media source covered this.

They are blacking him out now, I fear. He was on MSNBC and NBC briefly election night, spoke well, cautiously. I say briefly, about 2 minutes on each.

And on CNN with Blitzer the feed was cut...accidentally of course.

The media has failed us, and they will ignore the messenger.

[NicRic]

55. Hit nail on the head !

I've been saying since the stolen election of 2000, that the media in the u.S. does no longer have any creditability ,at least not with me ,and I assume many others .We have seen in the last four years way to many times ,when bush's policy and milatary actions went unquestioned . Everytime President Clinton said or did anything the media was waiting and ready to challenge it ,or make a story out of a non incident. This President could piss on the Washington monument and the media would wipe it up for him ,and pat him on the back while doing it !