The Washington Post bows down to Conservatives!
By John Amato Thursday Sep 24, 2009 7:00amI always knew that the media would find a way to turn back to right-wing ideology after America voted out the conservatives who almost destroyed the country and the financial global economy. But I didn't know they would use a minor story like ACORN as their catalyst.
You know how the WaPost feels about liberals who complain, don't you? This is very troubling indeed. Apparently the Washington Post thinks it should be paying more attention to the crazed rantings of Glenn Beck and incorporate it into their news coverage.
Now you understand what we'll be up against the rest of Obama's term:
Conservative bloggers and commentators know how to turn up the heat on mainstream media. Glenn Beck did it one day last week on his Fox News program. Theatrically unhinged, he directed viewers to call their local newspaper and demand coverage of ACORN, the national community action group targeted in an embarrassing hidden video sting.
"Right now, get off the couch. While I'm talking, you pick up the phone. You call the newspaper," he commanded. If ACORN hasn't been on the front page, or if the paper isn't investigating the group's local activities, "then what the hell are they good for?"
Shortly, The Post and other papers were flooded with angry calls and e-mails.
It's tempting to dismiss such gimmicks. Fox News, joined by right-leaning talk radio and bloggers, often hypes stories to apocalyptic proportions while casting competitors as too liberal or too lazy to report the truth.
But they're also occasionally pumping legitimate stories. I thought that was the case with ACORN and, before it, the Fox-fueled controversy that led to the resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones.
{}Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said he worries "that we are not well-enough informed about conservative issues. It's particularly a problem in a town so dominated by Democrats and the Democratic point of view."
To guard against it, he said, "I challenge our reporters and editors with great frequency to look at what is going on across the political spectrum . . . at the extremes, among the rabble-rousers, as well as among policymakers." He said he pressed the National desk this week to provide more ACORN coverage.
The Post does not survey its staff to determine its ideological makeup.
The most authoritative recent research into the political leanings of newsrooms (including television, radio, magazines and wire services) shows they are considerably more liberal than the general public. At daily newspapers, those who "lean to the left still far outnumber those who lean to the right," said Indiana University journalism professor David H. Weaver, whose researchers surveyed 1,149 journalists in 2002 and recently conducted a follow-up study of 400.
A recent Pew Research nationwide survey said only 26 percent of those questioned believe news organizations try to protect against political bias, while 60 percent said news organizations are biased.
Beck is more provocateur than newsman. And Fox caters to conservatives. Working in concert, they and other right-leaning media have a large audience. Beck averages 2.25 million viewers.
The Post should follow its own news standards, not theirs. But it should pay attention to what they report.
The pseudo-elites who sit atop the media dogpile do think that conservatives represent the one true America, so they've found another reason to justify their actions and will submit to the new Matt Drudge of the right, Glenn Beck.
Please read the article thoroughly and then contact Andrew Alexander at 202-334-7582 or at ombudsman@washpost.com.
Please be civil and articulate.
Digby writes a lot more on this issue:
The methods of dissemination are the same as they ever were. They push the "scandal" through the right wing noise machine, work the refs hard (which isn't hard to do because the villagers are convinced that the right wing represents "Real America") and they create the illusion that something "doesn't pass the smell test." Here, we see that the wingnuts have convinced the Washington Post that "something is wrong," that the "Van Jones story" was a huge deal which they failed to cover and that they need to be more vigilant about ferreting out these important issues.
At the same time the villagers are busily convincing themselves that the fact that all these players are black is coincidental and irrelevant because none of them have a racist bone in their bodies and yet they "feel" there must be something to all this. In fact, I think they are probably in the process of convincing themselves that only by relentlessly covering these scandals can they prove just how colorblind they really are.
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If papers like the Washington Post and the New York Times (which also believes it needs to give conservatives special attention) really believe that their precarious financial future is served by following the Glenn Beck agenda, then we won't have to worry about them much longer anyway.Update: From Andrew Sullivan an observation to which the Washington Post should probably pay attention:
A reader recently made a very interesting reference. He said he believed that the GOP was morphing into the American equivalent of the Parti Quebecois. It is essentially a regional party now - representing the South in the national discourse. And its rhetoric seems divorced from any desire to actually hold responsible public office. So Republicans, like the Quebecers, tend to use politics as a means for disruption or protest or threat or veto.
It's also worth remembering that the huge amount of noise on the far right is actually quite narrowly based. Here's a fact from the Time profile of Beck:
In 1987 comedian David Brenner bombed in syndication with about 2.5 million viewers at midnight — which is roughly what Fox, the leading network for political talk shows, averages in prime time.
There is certainly a very angry far right base out there. But it would be foolish to over-estimate it.
And as Duncan said a few years ago:
Atrios:
Let's get this straight. The Right hates honest journalism. Has run a 35 year campaign against it. Hugh Hewitt does almost nothing but blast regularly what he considers to be "the liberal media" which, of course, includes the Washington Post. All we, on the left, wanted was a straightforward correction and admission of error and a genuine attempt to correct the record.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/deborah-howell-and-the-fa_b_14221.html
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..isn't newsworthy or isn't being reported, what good is the MSM?
If war crimes aren't worth being reported, what good is the MSM?
(OT-Tell Jay Leno you won't be watchin' His show if he has rush limpbaugh on.)
The lives and deaths of our troops should be page one every single day. It's not every patriotic to report lies about death panels or FEMA camps, is it?
He's more of something but definitely not a newsman! Maybe he's more the steamin' pile o' dog mess, maybe.
was hit by an acorn or some other nut falling from a tree yesterday. There, I reported on it. Nuff said.
That's like when Newton discovered gravity
http://www.thebeergoggler.com/wp-content/uplo...
And followed that up with the discovery of plastic surgery.
stuck in his throat last week, after a squirrel threw it at him from an oak tree in Ben's yard. He coughed for two days, but his vet wanted to wait it out, and it finally became dislodged. Film at never.
never covered Michelle Malkin's forays into countertop criticism and cheerleading.
I have a fu*king idea. How about they report on the positive things ACORN has done over the years? How about they report on the shit that has been thrown at ACORN that didn't stick and shouldn't have. If we find a few bad apples in Congress, should we shut the whole place down? How about in the military if we find some bad apples there should we shut down the entire military?
and how about the newspaper industry? There's lots of bad apples there... should we shut them down too? and look at Faux News... what about them??
will ever convince conservatives it is not biased and that its attempts to do so only reinforce views of liberals that its editorial leadership is stupid.
My last newspaper subscription is about to run out, and I will not renew it. There is never anything in it that I have not already learned about through the internet. Newspapers have become useless. Rest in peace.
Orlando Sentinel at 7-11 today. Haven't read it in years. When the clerk said $1.07, including tax, I put it back. Marginally readable in the first place, I'll never read it again.
We stopped reading newspapers over 10 years ago. The Chicago Tribune had been force feeding us their self-serving corporatist swill for decades. One day we realized the only thing we were buying it for was the comics. So we stopped.
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I can't tell you the last time I looked at a newspaper. I used to read them voraciously, however their biased coverage based on the editorial staff, those "in charge", and the owner's or owners' biases being spread throughout the pages of what should be the facts getting reported has made me decline to get my news there. BBC and CBC have somewhat unbiased reporting, and The Guardian has a great site.
No thanks to the newspapers and rags like Time. I'd rather read Rolling Stone for my info and watch The Daily Show, thanks!
If this is all about the "pimp/ho" video, then why the hell have they been obsessed with ACORN for the past year?
The guy who made the film and played the part of the pimp has a creepy as hell history. NBC did a little background on him.
A whole lot of the people in ACORN are black. ACORN is a community organizing group. Our President is black and was a community organizer. If the right can prove ACORN is bad, then they can tag that to the President. It's going around the barn to get to the door, but if that's what it takes for them to try to slime the President, that's what they'll do.
to vote to defund ACORN. The other didn't vote, but she pissed me off by voting for Roberts. Also a Dem. I won't vote for either ever again.
I was just checking my home page saw a story that I missed. A man named Bill Sparkman who was collecting census information in rural Kentucky was found earlier this month hanged with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest? Wasn't Michelle Bachman who would trying to drum up fear about the census with the aid of the all of the usual suspects from the MSM? Is there no responsibility? At long last have these people no shame? Just think of what would happen if a Democrat would have said what she said and this happened?
[This is OFF TOPIC. We have a thread Here. Please make your comments on this story on that thread. Thank you-Sitemonitor]
FRONT PAGE? Where was the WAPO and the rest of the MSM reporting on this. I don't thin that ACORN has caused anybody to die by a violent action.
On morning joe this morning they told what happened to the man and what was scratched on his chest. Then Joe and Mika said they were just going to leave the story at that and not talk about it until they knew more facts. Fox and Friends told about the story but did no speculation.
.
That is strange. Could it be they just found the body recently? I don't know.
like the dangerous raving lunatics that they are, and thus make the media complicit of their rise due to all the biased favorable coverage they have provided said homicidal bigots?
Frankly, I consider a far graver affront to kill and hung somebody, than making some lame assed pimp-ho video. For such a "liberal biased" media we got in this country, they sure seem to favor anything and everything conservative.
I thought they had found the body on the 12th. (9/12) Am I wrong or did I tune in to Clusterfox by mistake?
[This is OFF TOPIC. We have a thread Here. Please make your comments on this story on that thread. Thank you-Sitemonitor]
got carried away.
[It's ok. When it first went up, I let the initial post stand, because the thread had not dropped yet. But now there is a thread for the topic. Thanks for understanding-Sitemonitor]
I started reading the story Time Magazine did on Beck last week. As they begin the piece they talk about some of the signs they saw at Beck's 9-12 project. One of them said, "End the Fed" I couldn't help but think about that sign when I read about the death of the census worker and what was scratched on his chest.
Is about ending the Federal Reserve and has nothing to do with census workers or federal employess in general. FYI...
It's all "Gummint" to them.
ending the life of that federal worker has nothing to do with the sign. I'm so f**king glad you you made that so clear to us.
I am sure the family of the deceased can rest easier now! It is not like the Census is a constitutionally mandated thing, oh wait...
[This is OFF TOPIC. We have a thread Here. Please make your comments on this story on that thread. Thank you-Sitemonitor]
Human Events, NewsMax, etc. Money's money, eh?
[We have a section in our FAQs about advertising. Why don't you check that out before you kvetch. We have to pay for the bandwidth the site uses. If you can come up with a legal, efficient and predictable way to raise cash without advertising, we're all ears-Sitemonitor]
bandwidth then, eh?
Now that Big Biz has been bailed out what are they doing other then continuing to help themselves while the rest of us sink?
The guy they targeted in San Diego went to the police and filed a report. He wanted to help bust them.
David Brenner? Why use him as a reference? Conan O'Brian averaged the same 2.5 million viewers for ten years...in the 12:30 am slot. Last week's evening news average per night:
NBC: 9.2M
ABC: 8.1M
CBS: 6.1M
Total 23.4M
Fox has 10% of the broadcast networks viewers. Heh, Hannah Montana regularly doubles Fox. Monday Night Football (on ESPN) was 14M last week.
without our TV watchin' . . .
Maybe?
So what exactly is the washinton times to the right of?
.
This comment was meaningless without the original. So
SNIP
So where is the wp on:
Project Censored Releases Their 2010 List Of 25 Stories You Should Know, But Won't Hear From Mainstream Media
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Sep 23, 2009 3:00pm
?
Any word on Gail Norton and the hundreds of billions of dollars that she sold to a "gasp" euronation oil company, anything? What is more importent to the country, ACORN or the rape of our natural resorces to pad the pocket of another corrupt rethug from the Bush admin. To the WaPo and other media outlets the answear is simple, idiots with acamera will always be far more importent than the dull same old corrupt pol.
they will "report" on any shiny thing that will distract from the real issues. Boycott all newspapers. They don't have enough money now, and to take a hit from liberals and progressives will sink them. Use the power you have.
I would, but it was the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times(owned by the same corp) that broke the story about Norton.
The reason why most don't care about the ACORN story is because there is no story.
From what I gather about the ACORN story, a few people were duped within the organization and shown to be lacking in some way.
Wow, amazing...an organization doesn't have perfect employees...someone alert the town crier.
If the right wing is so concerned about organizations having ethical employees and behaving ethically, then why aren't these people taking their torches and pitch forks to the real devils down on Wall Street or in Xe or one of the other hundred or so pernicious organizations that has literally killed people or destroyed people's lives for profit?
This is not about the right's desire to expose and correct unethical actions. This is about the right's racism, nothing more and nothing less. That is the real story here. They may not overtly say we don't like black people or latinos, but based on the targets of their ire, one clearly sees that somehow only people of color or organizations that help people of color are the ones that are being targeted.
And, please, there are no left-leaning MSM newspapers. When was the last time we had self-proclaiming socialists on the editorial page?
I agree with you!
And, might I say I agree with you as well!
If I were to dress as an Arab shiek with a suitcase full of money and a hidden camera, how many members of congress do think I could get to take the money, ala ABSCAM. One, maybe two (har har) and do think that would make the difference in getting it reported? Pictures over words, we have gotten tooo lazy to think.
Regular citizens with cell phone cameras are what pass today for journalists on the ground coverage. All the cable channel encourage viewers to send them pictures of events from tornados to floods. Reporters on the scene is becoming a rarity.
In the article by the WaPo there is a part that is not in the C+L post that reads:
I claim bullshit on this and I am writing to ombudsman@washpost.com. to let them know that the reason why "complaints by conservatives are slower to be picked up by non-ideological media" is because conservatives lie so often that it is not worth spending the time to verify every complaint because so much of it is nonsense. If the right wing would start telling the truth then maybe they would be taken more seriously. It is all about credibility and if you lose it then you will not be take seriously. The right wing has lost its cred.
However, I call bullshit a different way because the MSM regularly picks up conservative complaints like this thing that had to deal with someone's birth certificate...I don't know all the details...I just saw it on the news ALL the time. *end snark*
They are quick to pick up conservative talking points and propagate them; however, they are glacially slow to allow real liberal ideas into the MSM discourse. I mean the idea of single payer has been existent in America since what the Bull Moose party, and it still can't get any airplay in the MSM.
Well of course you are correct.
Washington Post (Factor)
It is time to shut down the post. I don't believe that the post could survive if progressive subscribers dropped their subscriptions. Look at the weekly standard? I don't believe they've ever made money. Besides, most conservatives are so locked into the "liberal media" myth they probably wouldn't subscribe. Admitting that the media is not only not liberal but is in fact owned l,s,& b by Republicans would just ruin conservatives ridiculous view of themselves as underdogs. We should conduct a boycott.
The only ones that bother with them are more wingnuts. The msm killed the news and they are in their death throws. Wasn't that what chenny said?
You cannot trust any of the corporate owned media.
remember republicanism is a mental illness!
If there are 2.5 million viewers to Beck's show, that's because folks that watch Fox News channel don't watch ANY OTHER NEWS CHANNEL except for Fox. Those of us that are more intelligent, articulate and informed watch a variety of news programs and networks.....and if you add all of THOSE up you come up with a much higher number then 2.5 mil.
My worry is that when i breeze by Fox to see what kinds of nonsense they're screaming about and what kind of misinformation they're spewing.....does that count as one of those 2.5 mil.??
Yes, it probably does.
Also do not forget that many many many of the Fox viewers only get their "news" from Fox it is because they are incapable of using or reading the internet machine or do not want to spend the time to research what the truth is. They like to be force fed bullshit and they eat it with smiles on their faces.
It has been a spur in the backside of conservatives that the Professional Media does not cover the stories they want covered. FOX sees bias not only on how a story is told, but also what stories are told. Hence their 'outrage' that the Washington Post and others have not given the ACORN story the blanket coverage FOX news feels it merits. FOX has reported on ACORN hundreds of times, by their own accounting, whereas the Professional Media has reported on it a fraction of the time that FOX has reported, and FOX has the stats to prove it. They basically plead that others carry the story as well. For a time there, there wasn't a segment or program of FOX NEWS that did not feature ACORN and the videos, and commentators. The rest of the media world was focusing on other stories, to the chagrin of FOX, stories like the war in Afghanistan, Health care reform, Iraq, Economy, you know-- unimportant stuff.
If you think though, that they would be satisfied by the Washington Post reporting with more frequency stories that are important to FOX NEWS, you can bet dollars to donuts that FOX NEWS will be also insist on how the stories are reported. For example, in every FOX NEWS report on ACORN, they never fail to try to hang this around President Obama. If the Washington Post does not follow suit in tying this to the President on every single article, Glenn Beck is liable to have a conniption right there in front of the tv. It's not only what story to cover, it's how you report it that matters to FOX and their fine coterie of 'fair and balanced' propagandists.
By the standars of FOX NEWS, the Post would have to publish a story on ACORN every single day on page 1, hundreds of times, until it matches FOX's intensity of coverage, day after day, and every single one of those stories would have to have a negative tie-in to President Obama.
The Post should have the cojones to tell FOX NEWS to mind their own business. If the Post wants to mine right wing thinking on issues, it could do a lot better with sources other than the Republican Propaganda department at FOX NEWS.
end of them.
Do not lose sight of what this original post was all about. WaPo saying that right wing crazy talk is not being reported by the MSM. Read this Jane Hamsher deal. It is amazing to see it 3 1/2 years later. It is very enlightening.
I writing because I want to urge the Washington Post not to cave into the likes of Glenn Beck ( a man who describes himself as a rodeo clown) by running the stories, that Beck (a self-described rodeo clown) thinks are important.
I realize the post (unlike Fox) really does strive to be fair and balanced and I’m sure they want to make sure that all viewpoints are covered. However, trying to bring down president Obama with smears over acorn is not really legitimate news and as a somewhat thoughtful reader I would be pretty annoyed if the Post stooped to that level.
Instead I’d be happy to see views from thoughtful conservatives about why they oppose health care, or other issues outside the tabloid press. I’d be happy to see that run against liberal viewpoints about why we need it, and then let the best arguments win in the market place of ideas. But please, avoid letting Beck (a self-described Rodeo clown) dictate what the news really is with red-herrings that do nothing but distract from the important issues of the day.
Am I missing something here? I am surprised by the comments on here. If this had been a right leaning organization that was caught on tape giving advice on how to run an underage prostitution ring we would all be howling and not assuming it was just a few bad apples. There should be investigations into what kind of services ACORN is providing. This kind of shit is beyond the pale. How could any employee not be on the phone with police after these poseurs came in unless this was not such an unusual thing. I am calling hypocricy on you normally level headed and fair commentators.
No one is against reporting of news. But what FOX does is not news. It is smear journalism. They only want to somehow smear OBAMA in every story, and in this case through ACORN, and what they want is for everyone else in the media to do the same. Some crooked ACORN employees caught discussing illegal activities, somehow OBAMA is to blame.
I agree that the mainstream press should cover the story, but 300 times? At every turn? And doing it in some way that OBAMA gets tagged with ACORN. C'mon.
It's Fox's angle.
That lunatic Qaddafi spoke at the UN. What did FOX report? That Qaddafi praised OBAMA, and called Obama his son.
who do they think they are?
Halliburton? Blackwater/Xe? Oh, right!
It would have been billions.
This is still my opinion on the ACORN "scandal" too. I can't defend that. Furthermore, it hurt us bad.
It appears as though your advice has been taken. People ARE listening to the right-wing media.
Nine Values and Twelve Principles. On 9/12/09 a census worker was found hanged in Clay County Kentucky. The single father of two children was hanging by the neck with the word "Fed" written on his chest.
We need to listen to the right-wing media - nevermind the fact that voters turned out in record numbers to vote the Republicans out of office last year following those wonderful right-wing Bush years.
We need to listen to the right-wing media and attend demonstrations brandishing our assault weapons as is our right.
We need to listen to the right-wing media and poison Nancy Pelosi.
We need to listen to the right-wing media and villify the primarily African-American service organization Acorn while turning a blind eye to the felonious deeds of Blackwater/Xe and Halliburton.
We need to listen to right-wing politicians like Michele Bachmann and sabotage the census - apparantly by any means necessary.
I regret not having a subscription to the Washington Post so that I could cancel it. I am disgusted and angry that the supposed "mainstream media" is unable or unwilling to link cause to effect.
My bet is that the WaPo will continue propping right-wing politicians so that the business which George W Bush did so well can be finished: the nullification of the Constitution and the financial destruction of anybody who isn't a billionaire.
Perhaps the Post should hire some editorialists from Stormfront.
Surely they deserve to be heard?
I wonder why we're just now hearing about this. I didn't know it happened 9/12 until I read your post. I did hear that it "happened a week ago," but nothing about 9-12. To be as hyperbolic as I am, that's a game ender, man.
Thank Cheezis you're here to correct me.
Beware of barefoot teabagging hillbillys.
But John, when it comes to bowing down to conservatives, NOBODY beats Obama himself. Why should we or WaPost or anyone bother fighting the good fight, when Obama has taken the lead on undermining everything we try to do, even everything we try to do for HIM, and everything we're having to try and do for ourselves that we elected him to do, but he hasn't, and won't, because he is fully occupied being first in line to give credence and respect to the Moonpie People in lieu of us? WaPost is taking their cues from Obama, not from their conscience or from us. That's just how the "press" is anymore.
The irony here is that the people that flooded the WaPO with calls and e-mails don't even read it - and they never will.
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of the Felony and Capital crimes of the Bush Administration?? And Blackwater/XE?? And Halliburton/KRB??
Or that's right!!! Actual Felony and Capital crimes aren't news! Petty rumors are!
It is not my job to call the WaPo and whine to them about their editorial policies, sorry.
Secondly, I will not act, or take my lead from Glenn Beck.
Third, who the heck reads the WaPo, or takes them seriously? I haven't read them for many, many years now, and I am no worse the wear. When idiots such as the one quoted in your article above say that we should pay attention to Beck, I say my point is proven in spades.
Fourth, and the WaPo wonders why newspapers are dying......
I don't believe the editor when he says it is his journalistic passion to provide what matters to his readers. As if? Somehow, I would suggest that his bosses are the ones who want him to cover Beck, but this shouldn't surprise any thinking being.
So what is the big surprise here? Didn't you KNOW WaPO is a nest of conservative snakes?
Always has been, always will be.
The newspaper here, TMJ (The Milwaukee Journal) owns TV channel 4 and WTMJ radio AM620. The radio pumps hard right propaganda 24/7. The TV channel is softer right on the local news, but shows hard right Sunday Morning round-tables where if there are any dems or progressives participating, they are the weakest of sissies. The newspaper arm of their corporation pretends to take a more centered view with their "alleged" beliefs in global warming, civil rights issues and their support for Obama in the election, though I would hardly call that support "against the wind".
Bizarrely, the drones on AM620 constantly talk about how liberal the paper is. Our editors page does nothing but bash public teachers, city, and county workers and also are anti worker in general. They came out against a referendum recently passed with 70+% of the vote giving ALL workers in the city paid sick leave. Over 50% of people who work in our city have no sick leave at all. Meanwhile the referendum died in court. Rarely a whisper of criticism for business either.
Mercury Marine recently pitted the cities of Fon Du Lac Wi, where they originated and have been operating for 70 years, and Stillwater Ok against each other for location of their new combined plant. Mercury Marines offer to the Fon Du Lac union workers? 7 year pay freeze, less benefits, and new hires come on to make about 13 dollars an hour down from the family supporting level of $20+ an hour.
The union voted it down, the company said it would move to Oklahoma. The entire community came down hard on the union and the newspaper was no exception.
The editors decried the unions position and railed in general about how unions are bad etc. Well to make a long story short, there was another vote, the company is staying and the workers will all eventually make poverty wages. Also I might add the company will get, all told, hundreds of millions of tax dollars in incentives and loans. All to be paid by Wi taxpayers.
Not a peep of criticism for the blatant blackmailing of the taxpayers by Mercury Marine for the corporate welfare check it extorted. Not one peep.
This is just a typical slice of the paper in my town.
I have no doubt the swing is on the rise for conservatives again. Slack-jawed mouth breathers from coast to coast are stocking up on weapons and ammunition of all kinds while they threaten progressives and democrats with impunity. All major outlets of media are right leaning and pushing even harder right. 1 out of 100 americans are in prison while people with advanced degrees can't find any work. And the Wheel turns...
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