An open letter to lurking Media Types ........

[Stinky The Clown]

Hi Media Person,

Thanks for checking in.

A report in today's Washington Post makes a point that you guys are starting to do your jobs ..... finally.

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4693783)

Let's get something clear, okay? We on the left side of the spectrum - from centrist to extreme left - would love to have a left leaning media. You know. The kind that always seems to be vilified and excoriated in **your** pages and on **your** air. But we all know that doesn't exist except in the imaginations of the deluded and in the playbook of the power strategists.

And while we on the left would love this myth to be reality, it isn't what we need. And it should never be your job to put out biased talking points and spin, no matter the 'side' or source.

No, what we need is what we've seen for the last week or so.

We need the media to report truth. Just plain, simple facts. You know. The basics you learned about in journalism class back in college.

Joe Friday's facts.

The truth is a wonderful thing. It will set you free. It will also set this country on the right course. It always has.

And speaking the truth is the first duty of the once great Fourth Estate.

Look what truth has done, just in my lifetime.

The truth led to the downfall of a corrupt and arguably criminal president - Richard Nixon.

Walter Cronkite's truth caused another president - Johnson - to make the wise choice to forgo the run for a second term.

The truth caused more criminal activity to come to light - and be prosecuted - in the aftermath of our activities in Iran and Central America.

But then you guys sorta lost your way. Look at what the distortion of the truth - or simply the failure or refusal to report it factually - did, just in my lifetime.

Avoidance of the truth led to the impeachment of a president who was guilty of nothing more than a stupid and unconscionable sin of the flesh.

Avoidance of the truth, some would say, and say with arguably correct fact, that the outcome of an election for president was engineered by the winner with some combination of voter rights crimes and vote counting manipulation.

And that led to your opportunity to report other facts. Facts that went unreported or were finally reported, but too late.

Avoidance of the truth led to an elective war against a country that was no threat to us. And we never heard the fact that the stated reasons for that war have continued to this day to shift and morph and change.

Avoidance of the truth led to even more voter and voting questions during the next presidential election. To this day, that story remains untold - and unreported.

In the face of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, however, you seem to have found your core again.

What was it?

Was the smell of death such that your field reporters would not allow 'corporate' to squelch or spin the story?

Was it your basic humanity that caused you to tell the truth regarding the horrible plight of hundreds of thousands of our citizens?

Was it genuine outrage at our government's abject failure to render appropriate aid in a timely and competent manner?

Was it the genuine outrage you may be feeling at once again seeing the powers-that-be's clear and blatant attempt to use your pages and your air time to spin a cover up instead of allowing the accountability to be placed where it belongs - wherever that may be?

Just what was it?

And will this newfound love of truth continue?

Please let that be so. Please. Just report the truth.

And here's a story idea for you .......

Have a look into Ohio and Florida. You know why.

And make no mistake. There is diminishing confidence in the sanctity of our individual votes. Many people have evidence of irregularities. Talk to them. But at the end of the day, if you care about your country, you have the power to report the facts and get the voting system back to the highest level of confidence possible.

It is your job. It is your duty. It is your country.

Thanks for listening.

[MindPilot]

1. Nice work! Kicked and nominated.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Here's another thought for the media to chew on ......

You guys have lots of ways to tell stories. You have your headline/hard news stovepipes. But you also have your soft news/opinion stovepipes.

Here's a thought ......

Just because you **can** get two people to argue both sides of a story doesn't mean you should.

I know, I know ..... fairness ..... balance ...... whatever.

But come on guys. We **both** know what happens. Partisan for Side One says something and Partisan for Side Two refutes it. Partisan for Side One starts to raise the volume just enough and implores Partisan for Side Two to 'please allow me to finish my thought'.

And then it turns into a shouting match. No more information comes out. No more message. No nothing. The winner is the one with the biggest lungs. The loser? We the people. Oh sure, the guy at home waving his beer and cheering as if for a football game. He's happy. But what was accomplished?

I have a better idea. How about we give each side of the story some air time to speak his mind. Let's say 10 minutes. Then go to commercial. Sell some soap and some beer and some prescription drugs. Then come back and let the other guy have 10 minutes.

In the interest of fairness, let the guy who represents the minority party of the day have the last go at it.

Let the persons on each side of the argument actually argue. With facts. Let people see and hear what they have to say.

And then let We the People make up our own minds.

This is not some game show. Really.

As above ... just the facts ... or in this case, fairly presented opinion.

And one more thing .... when its opinion .... maybe you could say that. I aim that statement at the professional yakkers. They do, indeed, add to the legitimate discourse and they have their place. But make no mistake. Neither Al Franken nor Bill O'Reilley are 'journalists'. Walter Cronkite was a journalist. Just as a comparison and to use as a yardstick.

Okay?

[BQueen]

13. OK, color me

envious of Sparkly. ;-)

And "ask pointed and relevant questions of BOTH sides, and don't fold like a cheap tent at the ceremonial 'No'."

[calimary]

25. Here's something else, yet again:

It was in yesterday's "Baltimore Sun" - evidently SOME in the media ARE starting to stand up...

After Katrina Fiasco, Time for Bush to Go
By Gordon Adams
The Baltimore Sun
Thursday 08 September 2005
The disastrous federal response to Katrina exposes a record of incompetence, misjudgment and ideological blinders that should lead to serious doubts that the Bush administration should be allowed to continue in office.
When taxpayers have raised, borrowed and spent $40 billion to $50 billion a year for the past four years for homeland security but the officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot find their own hands in broad daylight for four days while New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast swelter, drown and die, it is time for them to go.
When funding for water works and levees in the gulf region is repeatedly cut by an administration that seems determined to undermine the public responsibility for infrastructure in America, despite clear warnings that the infrastructure could not survive a major storm, it seems clear someone is playing politics with the public trust.
When rescue and medical squads are sitting in Manassas and elsewhere in northern Virginia and foreign assistance waits at airports because the government can't figure out how to insure the workers, how to use the assistance or which jurisdiction should be in charge, it is time for the administration to leave town.
When President Bush stays on vacation and attends social functions for two days in the face of disaster before finally understanding that people are starving, crying out and dying, it is time for him to go.

(snip)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090905M.shtml

[northerdar]

2. yeah...cafferty, anderson, o'briens, CNN

Finally, they are reporting the truth. unvarnished. maybe it's not too late to take back the country.

fantastic thread. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CrispyQ]

11. We won't be able to do it without them!

kicked & nominated

[In Truth We Trust]

3. Kicked and Nominated

[Totally Committed]

4. I agree 1000% !

Great post. I am proud to endorse the sentiment and recommend the post.

I couldn't have said it better, so I won't try.

One observation: Anderson Cooper has been outstanding! I used to think he was a whiny pretty-boy infotainer. He has done a metamorphosis that is nothing short of spectacular. I hope it lasts!

TC

[blue neen]

8. I agree. He has been outstanding.

Anderson and Keith Olbermann are who I have been watching. They've been telling the truth.

[Totally Committed]

15. But, Olbermann gives the impression that he is an intellectual.

At least he comes off that way.

Cooper is from a wealthy family. His mother is more famous, in a way, than he is. He always gave me the impression that he was just about infotainment, and looking good. That's why his transformation into and honest-to-god journalist with compassion and fire has been so spectacular to me.

I hope it continues.

TC

[blue neen]

19. It does seem like Cooper has had a life-changing transformation.

It was like he was just going through the motions before.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. recommended! n/t

[IndyOp]

6. The media *should* be biased -- always...

for the people. Journalists are supposed to work FOR the people - and that is the very definition of being a 'lefty' in our political system.

Journalists can choose to work for the powerful - presenting corporate and government propaganda -or- they can work for the people, that is, be a member of the 'liberal media'.

My request to lurking Journalists: GROW SOME GONADS - accept and live by the label 'liberal media'.

[blue neen]

9. Excellent post.

Recommended for being spot on!

[BQueen]

10. Thank you for putting it so eloquently for all of us.

Hope journalistic ethics are contagious.

[glitch]

12. Wow - I want you to send this to as many media ops as you can. nt

[shaniqua6392]

14. Well said!!

Thank you so much and you definitely deserve a nomination.

[GeorgeBushytail]

16. 9/11 March to Bushville, DC - www.bushville.org

On 9/11 survivors of Katrina will commit an act of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience by setting up an illegal camp on the Washington, DC Mall. Bushville, DC will stay there as long as it takes to get answers and change.

Visit www.bushville.org and spread the word.

We will camp on Bush's doorstep and make him face us every day until he is driven from power.

Join the March to Bushville, DC. If you can't make it on 9/11 visit us on 9/24.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Does anyone have more info on this?

Has the basic idea caught fire? Will, in fact, 10,000 Katrina survivors show up?

Not quarreling, just asking. I'm near DC.

[grasswire]

18. you forgot the part about them reporting about WJC...

...you know, the years when they reported the disinformation and hype about Bill and Hillary Clinton. Gee, in some instances, reporters even became part of the story itself! (WaPo's S. Schmidt, remember?) Remember how the most intimate details of an illicit affair were beamed into American homes on the 6 o'clock news?

Oh, and then there was the run-up to war on Iraq, where the media assisted in the lying and the catapulting of propaganda. And now nearly two thousand Americans are dead, many thousands maimed, and a heartbreaking amount of our treasury looted, for lies they eagerly carried.

I think members of the Washington press corps owe us something. I love the press. I just want each reporter to do his/her job -- to stand between the people and tyranny by telling the truth.

[Beam Me Up]

20. Fuck the media. They have betrayed us and this country one too many times.

Now they've opened the door to full blown fascism and THEY are going to have to live with it until they bring it down. And if they think it isn't going to effect them, their work, their famalies and communities, they truly are FOOLS.

As far as I'm concerned the vast majority of the media 'talking heads' today are NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF FAT STUPID WHORES shilling for their corporate masters. They've lost all credibility. I am not interested in listening to their innane commentary (and so much of it is SO STUPID it is unbelieveable!). I'm not buying the consumerist reality they are selling. I have no respect for media personalities what so ever. :puke:

[Douglas Carpenter]

21. amen

[Senator]

22. Why Ohio and Florida are NOT "Old News" -- the Real "Blame Game"

On the odd chance that you lurking EupheMedia Types accidently read the comments on this post, let me anticipate your highly-trained, Pavlovian reaction to the mention of Ohio and Florida (ouch, that's "old news").

The American People are being blamed.

More accurately they are being falsely accused. Your continuing refusal to testify about the reality of Ohio and Florida has gotten the American People convicted of complicity with the crimes of this regime.

This is your fault, not theirs, and it continues to have very real consequences. Has it occurred to you that taking the American People out of the loop in 2000 is what made us "fair game" for 9/11? That our demonstrably Stalinist** attitude to elections here makes an international joke out of efforts to "promote democracy" elsewhere?

The American People are your real clients. Unless and until you exonerate them with the truth of Ohio and Florida, at least raise the possibility of their innocence, they will continue to languish on death row for crimes they did not commit.

This is our Dreyfus Affair.


---
** "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." -- Josef Stalin (then James Baker, Katherine Harris, Antonin Scalia, Karl Rove, Kenneth Blackwell, et. al.)

--

[Elidor]

23. I think a more appropriate message would be

Bill Hicks' message to people in advertising.

If you work for a cable news outlet, kill yourself. Just a thought. Kidding. No, I'm not. Kill yourself. Now. Seriously. There is no redeeming feature to your existence, no justification. Do us all a favor and cut your throats.

[Totally Committed]

24. kick!

Too important to leave the front page...

:kick:

TC

[blm]

26. Well done. Another recommend.

.

[YvonneCa]

27. Excellent! Thank you...

...for eloquently expressing what I have wanted to say to members of the media for a while now. I hope they are listening. I think they are finally waking up (Remember how that feels? It's scary!), and we need to be kind...but PERSISTENT! The media's awakening is the key to restoring clear vision to the rest of the country. I'm hopeful. Remember the words of Jefferson:


“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt…If the game runs sometimes against us at home, we must have patience until luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."

Thomas Jefferson
Alien and Sedition Act

:patriot:

[ProudDad]

28. They've got to be high!

I mean, they've got to be on a high being able to be reporters for a while.

I thought Giraldo was going to bust a gut he looked so ecstatic to return to his muckraking roots.

Maybe they'll get addicted to telling the truth.

I won't hold my breath though.

[Blue_Tires]

29. ttt for the night shift