Open thread for night owls. FAIR awards its P.U.litzers for some of 2014s stinkier reporting ::posted Sat, 27 Dec 2014 04:00:06 +0000:: feeds.dailykos/~r/dailykos/index/~3/w2yQBXimCwU/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-FAIR-awards-its-P-U-litzers-for-some-of-2014-s-stinkier-reporting rss@dailykos (Meteor Blades) Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting announced its 2014 P.U.litzers earlier this week, recalling some of the years stinkiest media moments. As the editors there point out, only a select few from the many choices made the cut. But yall can fix that in the comment thread. Here are the headlines plus a couple of excerpts from the awards: • Promoting Climate Change Denial Award: CNN Even as the planet warms, there will still be cold days, but someone forgot to tell CNNs Crossfire (1/6/14): This weeks historic cold brings out the skeptics. Will it put the climate change debate in the deep freeze?” Yes, a cold snap compelled the cable news channel to bring viewers a balanced debate on the existence of global warming. And that wasnt even their worst coverage of climate for the year: Just a few months later, CNNs OutFront (5/21/14) decided it only needed one guest to discuss climate science: far-right pundit Ann Coulter. […] • Who Is We? Award: USA Today Good news! The March 7 front-page USA Today headline declared: Were $9,800,000,000,000 Richer. The story told readers that household wealth was boosted by nearly $10 trillion last year. If that doesnt square with how most readers are feeling, there was the inevitable but: It turns out that the gains since the crisis have not been equally distributed. Most of the recovered wealth has come from higher stock prices, and many Americans are not in the market. So we means, well—them, and probably not you. • Best, Smartest, Whitest, Malest Award: Chuck Todd, NBC Asked by the group Media Matters (10/22/14) why 62 percent of the guests on Meet the Press were white men, host Chuck Todd suggested it was out of his hands: I cant control, sometimes, the fact that 90 percent of the generals and the military experts out there–you know what I mean? Some of this stuff is out of your control. At the end of the day, you want to put the best people on. You want to put the best, smartest people on. Todd did not offer an explanation as to why the show finds 62 percent of the “best, smartest people” to be white men. • Torture Without Torture Award: Washington Post One thing was missing in the Washington Posts reporting (12/9/14) on the Senate investigation of CIA torture: The word torture. The paper employed all the familiar euphemisms—harsh interrogation measures, painful procedures, etc.--but would only say these vicious operations were deemed torture by program critics. Avoiding giving torture an accurate label is a longstanding Post policy: As an editor explained in 2010, After the use of the term ‘torture’ became contentious ... we decided that we wouldnt use it in our voice. […] • Rewriting as Whitewashing Award: New York Times One of the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip particularly captured international media attention. An early headline in he New York Times (7/16/14) told the story perfectly clearly: Four Young Boys Killed on Gaza Beach. Too clearly, apparently; the headline was subsequently changed to Boys Drawn to Gaza Beach, and Into Center of Mideast Strife. • Leaving Out Labor Award: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox In time for Labor Day, FAIR (8/28/14) looked at the guest lists for the Sunday chat shows to see how often union leaders were invited to the debate. The answer? Not once. Former and current corporate CEOs, though, made a dozen appearances. The closest labor came to being a part of the conversation was a mention of one former union leader: former Screen Actors Guild chief Ronald Reagan, who later became a notoriously anti-labor US president. […] Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—The overt racist in the GOP field: From a 1992 article in the Ron Paul Political Report: Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among blacks in this country. Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.... Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal. If similar in-depth studies were conducted in other major cities, who doubts that similar results would be produced? We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers. Is it any wonder that neo-Nazis are flocking to his campaign? But Paul is against the war in Iraq and he wants FREEDOM! So that must make his racism okay. Tweet of the Day In many states felons can’t vote. But, apparently, they can serve in Congress t.co/... t.co/...— @chicagotribune On todays encore performance of the Kagro in the Morning show, its the 12/23/13 episode. Not everything in the world has been said about Duck Dynasty yet. Greg Dworkin airs his Festivus media grievances. And on more traditional holiday note, Nordic Quack: Swedens bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve. Great opportunity for easy grassroots activism (and local stardom!) in foresterbobs diary, I signed up for health insurance, told my GOP Congressman about it, and made the local news. Then, an interview with bunnygirl60, aka Arliss Bunny, author of The Smart Bunnys Guide to Debt, Deficit and Austerity. High Impact Posts. Top Comments [Forwarded by the MyLeftBlogosphere news engine. Link to original post below:]
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 08:53:35 +0000
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