It's more than Palin. It's about the failure of the news media as a whole.

[deacon]

It about being divisive. Driving wedges - divide and conquer so much so that under rove/bush the result was the explosion in growth of news blogs to counter the continued misinformation machines of cnn, fox and others.

The news media fails us when they participate in ratings wars with their ongoing insatiable appetite for top advertising dollars. They are the ones that failed to follow through on escalation of reckless violent rhetoric being spewed over the last several years.

They are the ones that thrive on creating controversy. Riling people up so they don't change the channel.

They are the ones that choose to latch onto trivial issues and milk them dry for weeks at a time.

They tossed aside the pursuit of accountability.

They gave up on the truth and provide an example of how a news media can take down a democracy.

Look across the topics here in GD and see how they continue to fail us. David Gregory, Gergan, Blizter, Rush,Beck, Bill "Tiller the Killer" O'reilly etc.- If they want to find who is really to blame, all they need to do is pick up a mirror.

[blondeatlast]

1. "Fairness/Balance" vs. objectivity. Facts aren't sexy enough for 24 hour nooz.

I remember (vaguely) a break-in felling an administration. Today, itwouldn't be sexy enough to do so.

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Bingo. Krugman made a similar distinction quite some time ago

The goal should be objectivity, not balance.

A story about the Holocaust doesn't require a Holocaust denier for "balance."
Nor does a story about climate change require an Exxon-subsidized climate denier.

Journalists have a responsibility to report the facts. Not everything is a controversy.

Unfortunately, just as you say, controversy, regardless of whether it is merited or not, is profitable.

[Rex]

2. Spot on.

It is the failure by the M$M to be unbiased and honest about reporting the facts and now they are all playing CYA.

I hope a lot of people get fired over this, but I won't hold my breath they are all rich.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Fox News..

Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Dr. Laura, Sean Hannity, Clear Channel, the list is huge, and they have all contributed to this act of violence.

[Skittles]

4. yes, and JON STEWART nailed it recently

and even OLBERMANN trashed him

[deacon]

5. One of his Stewarts most important comments was about how we don't

need roundtables for every issue. That certain truths don't need point counter point discussion. That analyizing more to get to the truth was what is sorely lacking. And, I saw that as he was 100% correct.

[unblock]

6. spot on. it's about the m$m granting legitimacy to violent, whackadoodle rhetoric

as if "i think we should get along" and "i think we should kill liberals" were merely two different sides of an idle political debate, each with equal merit and each having equally rabid partisanship.

come to think of it, they usually says the "kill liberals" view is the "populist" view and the "get along" view is the "looney left" view.


so in reality, the media hasn't failed at all. it's doing exactly what it wants to, stoking confrontation for the sake of corporate profits. success!

what's failed is that the media no longer live up to their civic duties and few seem to care.

[gratuitous]

8. I watched NBC Nightly News

They had the briefest of comments during one of their reports about some complicity on the part of the media, but of course, it was immediately papered over with a standard "both left and right do it" claptrap. They cited two instances of violent right wing rhetoric, but none on the left, which sort of, you know, didn't prove their point.

[deacon]

9. What they need to do is get out a blackboard, grab a piece of chalk

draw a line down the center - and list those political pundits, politicians and celebrity level rabble rousers from both the left and the right who use violent rhetoric in their comments. They won't do that because that would lead to the truth.