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August 15, 2010

The Crazy media world we live in and how it's not helping getting our country out of serious trouble

Whether you like or approve of President Obama, here is one of the challenges he's facing--in addition to two wars, a recession that seems to be continuing, congressional paralysis, enormous bureacracy, a $3.5 billion lobbying industry.

He's also facing a news cycle or lack of one, which comes with the sheer pace of events, unpredictable Facebook posts by the unpredictable Sarah Palin that might, just might need a response, the way news organizations now put themselves into the story (the New York Times daily Webcast with editors discussing upcoming news stories, and an inexperienced White House press corp made of up correspondents who tend to ask really inane, inconsequential questions.

So writes Todd S. Purdum, in an article "Washington, We Have a Problem," in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. Some excerpts from his article:

"Now thank to cable, the Internet, Twitter and Facebook, there is no such thing as a "news cycle in Washington--only one endless, undifferentiated full-color stream of fact, opinion, and attitudinizing, where lies and misinformation flourish equally with truth. ...

"The White House communications director, Dan Pfeiffer, still has a Blackberry alert to tell him when The Washington Post and The New York Times have gone live online wit their next day's stories, but this is almost an antique holdover, given that any blogger at any moment can generate a story that forces the White House to respond."

"The life experiences--and thus the sense of perspective, history and balance--of today's Washington reporters are qualitatively different from those of their predecessors. An entire generation of Beltway journalists has come of age being taught that the way to succeed is to be smart--if not smart-alecky--young thing."

"Perhaps the biggest change that technology has wrought is the ability of almost any rumor to get a foothold in the public discussion and go viral in the broader media. ... The viral communities of the Internet made outright falsehood nearly impossible to extinguish. Was Obama born in Kenya? Of course not ... yet a recent New York Times/CBS poll reveals that 20 percent of Americans believe Obama was born in another country."


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Crazy Mom,

Since this essential question is part of this story, how do you feel about the president's support of building a mosque (with a highly inflammatory imam) at the site of the World Trade Center?

Castle Hill Bill said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JWB said...

Anon 8:18 let me re-phrase your question: How do you feel about the president defending the constitutional right to Freedom of Religion?

Beau Hunk said...

"...the unpredictable Sarah Palin" - indeed!

I find Sarah Palin to be remarkably consistent. She always is on the side of truth, honor, our American troops, freedom for the individual and is always against big government and higher taxes.

The fact that she is reviled and hated by the far left means that she is perfectly in tune with the vast majority of the American people. This will become abundantly clear in November.

For real inconsistency, you need look no farther than the White House. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to find the myriad glaring inconsistencies and falsehoods emanating from that source. A few Google searches will scare you.

But if you're lazy, here's a good way to judge whether or not Obama is consistent: If he has been consistent, then his approval rating and poll numbers should have remained about the same. They have not and the reason they have not is because of on-going changes in policy, tax law, medical care, foreign relations, etc.

Remember folks, Obama and his staffers will say anything to anyone to advance their liberal agenda. The truth matters not to them.

Anonymous said...

Crazy Mom..., I fail to see the point of this post?

Anonymous said...

People you are missing the point, muslims build mosques at the sites of conquests, hence their desire to build one at the World Trade Centers site.

If New Yorkers actually allow this to happen I will be amazed.

JWB said...

Anon 8:36PM I don't think the Constitution cares about what your reason might be to practice your religion. I guess when you teabaggers run around demanding that politicians follow strictly the Constitution you mean only the parts you like?

Anonymous said...

"Whether you like or approve of President Obama, here is one of the challenges he's facing--in addition to two wars, a recession that seems to be continuing, congressional paralysis, enormous bureacracy, a $3.5 billion lobbying industry."
Two wars: One war is all but won despite Obama declaring it lost 3 years ago. The other war Obama said is the "necessary" one.
Recession: A recession Obama and Co. have made worse through debt, uncertainty and tax increases. Congressional paralysis: The Democrats control both Houses. They can do whatever they want. If there is paralysis it is because Democrats are discovering the damage the Obama agenda is doing and they're jumping ship.
Enormous bureacracy: That is growing like a cancer under Obama.
$3.5 billion lobbying industry: Guess what. Lobbyists don't vote. Members of Congress can chose not to listen and vote for whatever is right.
Blame whomever you want. The problem is Obama and liberal policies.

Anonymous said...

Couple of things on these comments. First of all the supposed site of the mosque is not at the WTC. It's in a former Burlignton Coat Factory building a couple of blocks away. The building is still standing and I suppose the only thing that it has in common with the WTC site is that its in the same city and probably shares the same zip code.

Regarding the press corps. They are bad, the 24 hour all day/night news "cycle" makes them starved for stories. There is no longer a certain time of day to deliver the news. People no longer get their news in the morning or in the late afternoon or late evening for the days events. What those hours allowed was time to format the story correctly, study the issue and research it somewhat. That is not the case anymore, any a/s/shat can post something online that is a lie and you will have many ignorant (See ppl that think they are building a mosque at the wtc site) people thinking its the truth.

The other issue is that with the loss of the so many of the newspapers around the country we have lost many of the true journalists in country. Those people that dug up stories, found sources and took the time to do a story right with few holes and mostly facts. The people on tv nowdays are mostly pretty vacant faces that just blurt out whatever is in front of their teleprompter. It makes me cringe that some of these people call themselves journalists.

Then there is the other subcategory of "journalists", those who dont feel that reporting the stories is enough, the need to fill hours and hours of tv time with their worthless opinions on a story with little to no true insight on the matter at hand. These are the same people who if they cannot find a story, make one up and report on that. These people who put themselves in the story are the worst of all because depending on what they say, they can drive people to a frenzy without even realizing the outcomes of the stuff they say.

There was a time when the journalists kept the politicians in check. Nowdays they are mostly concerned with having access and not starting any waves and these politicians are getting away with murder (figuratively speaking) without any true checks on their conduct.

Beau Hunk said...

It would be immensely curative if "journalists" report on what has happened as oppose to what they think will happen!

They don't know what will happen. Neither do I. Neither do you.

The problem is that conjecture by journalists is counter-productive. Most journalists are quite liberal in their political beliefs and this comes to the surface when they "conjecture" (aka "guessing", aka "making stuff up") about various aspects of freedom they don't like.

They say that this dire thing will happen or that dire thing will happen unless their left-wing propaganda is believed and acted on.

Folks, they are guessing, wishing and hoping. That ain't news and they ain't journalists.

JWB said...

I think the biggest problem is that today the lines between News and Opinion are completely blurred. While we have 24 hours News Channels they are indeed maybe at best 1 hour News and 23 hours Opinion Channels.