"Some Reporters Should Drop Out of the Campaign"
By bluegal Thursday Jan 17, 2008 8:15pm
Martin Schram in The Sacramento Bee (h/t BSM):
Along with the handful of presidential candidates who dropped out so far, voters might be better served if a hundred or so of my political-reporter and pundit colleagues dropped out as well – and were replaced by journalists whose beats are about national security, economics, environment and health care.
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"national security, economics, environment and health care."?
Come on, it's a horse race!
i hear you bluegal, but c&l might want to hold off on mounting the high horse until you have the guts to report on voting machine fraud, or -dare i say- investigate 9/11.
That guy Johnson who cornered Mitt Romney about having a lobbyist working on his staff should stay. He's the only one beside Olbermann that seems to be dogging them
But, but... what will be tell the children if we do not hear about BritneyLindsayParis 24/7??????? This Constitution thing you speak of... is it a new bar or a drink?
Vapidity rules in the MSM, but all of us are guilty by giving them ratings.
Well, being that we are in between Nicaragua and Togo in freedom of press ratings, and more advanced nations such as Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark have always been in the top ten, I agree, we need to have some real press freedom. Americans unfortunately equate blather with freedom of speech. Get real folks. It's just blather. So many other countries (47 to be correct) have more accurate and thorough reporting than the country that touts itself as an icon of democracy. Wake up. You lost your rights a long time ago.
SPIT Matthews and Mika " take-it-out-my-mouth-joe" Brezenski should do the honors now.
ROM Spaceknight @ 2:
you all know the european press is reporting new hampshire as a likely stolen democratic primary, right? why wouldn't they? obama had a double-digit lead in about twenty polls the day before, yet somehow, rupert murdock's gal hrc pulled out a "miraculous" win. and 81% of the vote was apparently calculated by neocon-owned diebold machines.
anyone for a shell game? i need $$$ for bills, won't one of you suckers step up?
Can we please have inquisitive journalists that aren't
interested in a six-figure salary?
Please?
loosecannon @ 5:
It's worse than you think.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/263.html
all you ever post about is your critique of big media though. so its kind of hypocritical to post anything about your disdainment for it even though you supported the censoring of Mike Gravel which was a clear endorsement of media taking style over substance.
war broke out in Mexico today.
oldhacks.blogspot.com
bluegal, pardon me for going o-t, but it's friday and i'm going out; i doubt i'll be around for the open.
here's my comment...
while it's interesting the cia chose to go on record today and state that al q. was behind bhutto's assassination, i wonder if general hayden would care to clarify how he reached the conclusion that the i.s.i. and musharref are completely cleared of any wrongdoing.
furthermore, i wonder if general hayden would care to state his opinion on bhutto's claim, censored by the bbc, that osama bin laden is dead.
ROM Spaceknight @ 7:
Link please.....
At least Dennis is paying for the re-count!
Ohio Proud @ 12:
From what I understand, the re-count is just two counties. Am I correct?
"Reporters" we still have that species around today??
Pardon me, but I only see stenographers & human-tape-recorders.
God, if that isn't the truth!! We keep bitching about it, but nobody really seems to believe we can do anything about it. We are pretty much controlled by the corporate media.
Oh well....just keep working your two jobs to remain above the poverty line, buy your home, car and new appliances every year so you can buried under debt up to your neck, and don't worry about what is happening to America. The corporations will take care of you.
Ron at #9...agreed, it is so freaking bad I fear we have lost this beautiful democracy created by such great intelligent men. I feel terrible for my kids. Unless we turn this ship around and boot out the redneck right wing evangelicals that are ruining this country, we will end up a theocracy with no rights or privileges to speak of.
#13,
I don't know...
Point being is that Dennis is doing something about it.
I find it hard to believe that she recovered so much ground,
so fast.... I guess when you have a large portion of the VRWC
working for you, things can happen.
A close horse race sells more shit and keeps the citizens from the
serious issues of the day.
CriminalGeorgeW @ 14:
:( but true.
ROM Spaceknight @ 7:
Two things-
9/11 conspiracy theories are off limits here not because of any belief whether or not there were any, but because it's a very, VERY personal thing for the guy who owns this site. He's a native of NYC. He lost friends. Those of us who have been around since before C&L went huuuuuuge know and respect this. Just give the man a break.
As for HRC's come from behind win...first, remeber that Iowa's caucuses aren't traditional primaries. They're more like mini conventions. People are convinced by others to change their vote just as they're casting their votes. If someone tries campaigning inside of a polling place on election day- at least here in Michigan- they are breaking the law.
And pollsters always have a margin of error. Ever notice those "+ or - 4%" (or 3% or 5%, dependent on the polling techniques)? HRC was close enough on the margins of error in those polls to make it a race before she got all weepy. I don't like HRC much, but she's a smart campaigner, and whther or not I was convinced by the sincerity of her tears, you can believe that there were those who were swayed.
Ohio Proud @ 17:
did you know guiliani got 9.11 per cent of the votes in 3 precincts.
did you know lieberman's opponent, lamont, in 2006 had EXACTLY THE SAME NUMBER OF VOTES as lieberman's opponent in 2006?
the powers that be think you're dumb as he!!. why do you keep obliging them?
oh, right - as if that's going to happen..
face facts, everybody: McNews is here to stay!
I won't watch any of the major networks and
generally get my world news from the BBC
World Service - as far as the domestic side
goes.. well I don't expect much these days
besides more BAD news.
*2000
Andy K @ 19:
please don't lecture me on amato's personal connection to 9/11. i know this as well as i know my personal connection to a friend lost in iraq.
now, from the huffington post:
Obama 41
Clinton 28
Edwards 19
Richardson 6
McCain 34
Romney 30
Huckabee 13
Paul 8
Giuliani 8
Thompson <3
Hunter <3
The surveys of 776 New Hampshire residents who are "likely" to vote in the Republican primary and 778 New Hampshire residents who are "likely" to vote in the Democratic primary were all completed after the news from Thursday's Iowa caucuses had been reported.
Each figure has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points. So Obama's lead is "outside" that range, while McCain's is not.
See the full results here.
***
RealClearPolitics.com Average (January 6, 7:15pm ET)
Obama 35.1
Clinton 30.3
Edwards 18.3
Richardson 5.9
McCain 32.6
Romney 28
Huckabee 11.9
Giuliani 8.7
Paul 8.1
Thompson 2.4
See full results here.
***
CNN/WMUR/UNH Poll (January 5-6 )
Obama 39
Clinton 29
Edwards 16
Richardson 7
McCain 32
Romney 26
Huckabee 14
Giuliani 11
Paul 10
Hunter 1
Thompson 1
The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire, surveyed 341 likely Democrats and 268 Republicans likely to vote in Tuesday's primary. It had a sampling error of 5 percentage points.
See the full results here.
***
MSNBC/McClatchy/Mason-Dixon (January 6)
Obama 33
Clinton 31
Edwards 17
Richardson 7
McCain 32
Romney 24
Huckabee 12
Giuliani 10
Paul 8
See full results here.
***
Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (January 6)
Obama 31
Clinton 30
Edwards 20
Richardson 7
McCain 31
Romney 32
Huckabee 12
Giuliani 7
Paul 6
See full results here.
***
Concord Monitor (January 5)
Obama 34
Clinton 33
Edwards 23
Richardson 4
Kucinich 3
McCain 35
Romney 29
Huckabee 13
Giuliani 8
Paul 7
Thompson 3
See full results here.
***
CNN/WMUR Poll (January 4-5)
Clinton 33%
Obama 33%
Edwards 20%
Richardson 4%
Kucinich 2%
Sampling error: +/-5% pts
McCain 33%
Romney 27%
Giuliani 14%
Huckabee 11%
Paul 9%
Hunter 1%
Thompson 1%
Sampling error: +/-5% pts
See full results here.
***
American Research Group (January 5)
Obama 38%
Clinton 26%
Edwards 20%
Undecided 8%
Richardson 3%
Gravel 3%
Kucinich 1%
Barack Obama leads John Edwards among men 42% to 21%, with 19% for Hillary Clinton. Among women, Obama leads Clinton 35% to 31%, with 20% for Edwards. Clinton leads Obama among Democrats 34% to 32%, while Obama leads Edwards among undeclared voters (independents) 49% to 21%.
McCain 39%
Romney 25%
Huckabee 14%
Giuliani 7%
Paul 6%
Undecided 6%
Hunter 1%
Keyes 1%
Thompson 1%
John McCain leads Mitt Romney among men 42% to 21% and McCain leads Romney 35% to 30% among women. McCain leads Romney 44% to 19% among undeclared (independent) voters, with 18% for Huckabee. Undeclared voters are now 27% of the total Republican vote.
See full results here.
***
Rasmussen Reports (January 4)
Obama 37%
Clinton 27%
Edwards 19%
Richardson 8%
Kucinich 3%
Gravel 1%
See full results here.
McCain 31%
Romney 26%
Paul 14%
Huckabee 11%
Giuliani 8%
Thompson 5%
Some other candidate 2%
and please view Hacking Democracy, as originally presented on HBO.
[In the future, please post links rater than text. It saves bandwidth- and bandwidth is costly. Site Monitor]
Andy K @ 19:
Thank you Andy K for the insight. How terrible for John.
Need another reason not to support Hillary? She supports the McCain endorsing Holy Joe http://youtube.com/watch?v=52NDBLxW8fI
In Window Media player -> File menu -> Open Url.
Put in
http://85.8.187.107:8082
You got Aljazeera - quality not so good, but on the TVout to the tube is watchable. You can get the news this way. Wish they would stick a higher quality feed on peer-to-peer TV such as TVU.
Well now, how do you expect them to report on the stuff that matters. They have so much to print about Hillary all the hate the vile, the tear drop, the snazzy pant suit, looking old and tired. Heck that's more important than the issues.
And they that lets them skip right over Obama. He doesn't have any ideas, that are his and original. And he can do anything he wants, smile and read speeches written for him. Dang gone you all know it's more important to flame Hillary than report on all this.
Andy K @ 19:
If I had a friend that was murdered, I would not stop until I (and the world) knew the truth. And justice was served. But that's just the kind of friend I am!
beltway bumpkins and Bernaysians are ruining our country with their reindeer games
I do my homework @ 28:
If I had a friend that was murdered, I would not stop until I (and the world) knew the truth. And justice was served. But that's just the kind of friend I am!
well, that's a big part of why i'm here tonight...
[Please feel free to start your own blog and allow any kind of commenting. There is a commenting policy at this site and you are abusive-Sitemonitor]
ROM Spaceknight @ 30:
well, that's a big part of why i'm here tonight...
i lost a friend who joined the national guard to go to school, never expecting palehorse nazi scumbag don rumsfeld to help launch an illegal, psychotic war of preemptive aggression.
real sweet gal, she was, we'd probably be dating...
Well, since 2003 I knew corporate media was a sham. Between Terry Shivo to Jacko and the latest missing white girl, I knew something was amiss. Now we have the destroyed e-mails, the fact Canada considers us torturers, and a economy that is tanking. And yet, no one in the media seems to care. Hold on to your asses people, the crash is going to come. So be prepared!
It would also help if television stations did not decide which presidential candidates to invite and which to sic the pundits on.
But then again, yah know, it would be nice if we had a democracy in this country.
Or if Santa Claus was real.
And there were unicorns.
Without the Corporate Media how would we know who to vote for :twisted:
Gekke @ 35:
We still don't judging by their information. That's why I support Edwards.
I can sure munch to this and if you need me too, I can call all of them by name, starting with Rush, Shaun, O'Riley, Chris, Wolf, and there are so many more of these ass holes,stashed all over our media and they are a daily pitiful site for the world to see.
Our beltway coverage is too busy with stenography writing down the power elites' talking points, cementing connections and "access" at cocktail parties, giddily passing along candidate gossip and innuendo about hair styles and houses for those trapped in a junior high school mentality, and parroting the parent corporation's party line to pull in the hefty pay checks.
Basically, they're nothing but six-figure junior high school stenographers, and piss-poor ones at that. A high school writer for the school paper is often a better journalist.
Fire all the phony pollsters while your at it , the ones who persistently told us Rudy was the front runner. Where did those numbers come from , what do they say now, " ah he went that'a way " They're always trying to lead the sheep to a brown pasture.
Ohio Proud @ 12:
bradblog.com and blackboxvoting.org
It's hard to watch the personality-driven media and not think that the American people, as a whole, are getting exactly what they deserve. Lazy reporters sit in wait for the slightest miscue by any candidate so that it can be drummed into us all day long on cable.
We have the attention span of gnats, and so it is much easier to chose a president based on some fleeting impression that he/she is a nice person you could have a conversation with, whose views you agree with, even if that person has only had those views for a week or two or some pig tricked out in lipstick for the election season. We've seen where that gets us. As Dr. Phil would say, "How's that working for ya?"
Otay @ 38:
For our "journalists" today it is about being granted and keeping access to the BushCo Administration. If you don't play their game you don't get access and without access you have nothing to steno. Nothing to steno has them out of their nice cushy job and they no longer have the power and admiration they crave so much. Look at how they've screwed with Helen Thomas because she has the nerve to ask actual questions and not throw softballs. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic how the print and TV media have sold their souls and ultimately sold out their country.
NoBuddy @ 26:
Go To http://www.channelchooser.com/ and click on news.....scroll down and there is an Al Jazeera link...not bad quality...I watch it all the time for a diff perspective (sometimes truth instead of Faux News MSM bs)
Did anyone notice how the full article talked about how political reporters aren't "qualified" to ask difficult questions and follow up? That's a complete load of BS. I, and many other regular people, could ask serious questions and follow them up. You don't have to be an expert to know when you're getting the political run around.
The problem is that the press has forgotten that its supposed to be a politely adversarial relationship. The reporters and editors are supposed to be working for us, the people who buy their product.
But thanks to that media conglomeration of the 90's, the press works for Wall Street; the advertisers (i.e. corporations); and the political class. It's all one big happy family and we aren't a part of that family. We get invited to the reunions every four years, but that's about it. We're like those cousins who live in the trailer, that nobody really likes, but it would be unseemly to not invite us.
Everyday, this country more and more resembles the Soviet Union...only with better window dressing. And from homo Sovieticus we can learn that there is no news in the truth and no truth in the news.
Go to http://www.channelchooser.com/ and click on news on left side.....a bar pops out and you can choose alJazeera newsfeed.......it isn't bad quality...hmmm...I posted this once already, but it didn't appear.
The article would have had more weight for me if the author had not used Michael Gordon as an example of "a top Pentagon correspondent," holding the candidates feet to the fire. Maybe there are two Michael Gordons working for the NYT. The first is the "co-author of a much-praised book on the Iraq war," while the second is the hack who teamed up with Valerie Plame for the pre-war propaganda blitz.
We'd be better off with videotape recorders on the campaign trail.
Behihoo @ 44:
Mixing my people: Meant Judith Miller. Sorry
Behihoo @ 45:
Not to worry. I always get the people involved confused. The Bush Administration has so many scandels and crimes going against so many honest Americans like Valerie Plame its easy to get people mixed up. :lol:
"Only Americans can hurt America"..
Dwight Eisenhower
"There ought to be limits to freedom"...
G.W. Bush
think about it folks
btw..
hey folks the MSM is only doing what there owners tell them to do
Hillary is leading Obama in some polls today in Nevada.
I think that Obama will win the caucuses today.
If he does what does that say about the polls?
The polls were wrong in NH and they will probably
be wrong in Nevada.
I still have not made up my mind for whom I will vote in our primary, and probably will not do so until shortly before
I vote. I suspect that millions of voters across the country feel the same way. I am not seeking a savior in this election,
because there are none. I'm just trying to figure out who
will do the least possible harm if elected.
Polls, voting machines, stolen votes all make good fodder if you are of the "horse race" mentality, but the fact remains that there is damn little to choose from in the way of candidates and the American voter realizes this and is acting accordingly, which is to say totally unpredictably.
The Republican nutwing-faction class fears a John Edwards Presidency more than anything in its small-mind world. Its all smoke and mirrors. They can't draw attention to that facet of themselves or the games up. Why is his campaign almost invisible in pundit land and front-page newspaper headlines throughout the nation? Because their misinformation machinery is extensive and efficient. The smoke and mirrors works well for a general public that really only reads at an eighth-grade level and are susceptible to sensationalist headlines (and scrolling dumbed-down messages). Look how quick they moved to smear him for the benefit of little minds over his populist and truthful message that there is a class-driven economy that results in nearly two hundred thousand veterans being homeless on any given night. Dismiss him and move on to the the juicy stuff by using emotional, racial, hate-mongering rhetoric and issue diverting manufactured events. Poof, he's gone!
He doesn't have the lobbyist and special interest money (but they will say he does if they can't make him disappear completely.
when we get reporters who don't want to be a star-we might get honest ,important and realistic journalism--until then you will have nothing but gossip and biased reporting by very unprofessional amateurs
Thank God someone put it in writing. MSNBC allowing advertisemtns for a political candidate on their website and virtual ads in the their news as well as CNN, allowing these lengthy unedited versions of one candidates speech while not allowing others the sam e privilege is absurd they don't even cover their tracks
Funny background on that image - is that the French flag? Would they not have a free press over there?....Nonetheless, anyone in either the gov't or corporations that tell writers what to write instead of thinking for themselves is clearly communism/totalitarianism - that's what happened to the run-up of the Iraq war quagmire!
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