Letters to the Editor
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Yellow Journalism
Scroll down to the cartoon of Pulitzer and Hearst as the two yellow kids at http://www.neponset.com/yellowkid/history.htm
And see (and buy!) Art Spiegelman's book, In the Shadow of No Towers http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/towersComics.html
. . . About a hundred years and two blocks away from Ground Zero, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, the twin titans of modern journalism, gave birth to the newspaper comic strip as a by-product of their fierce circulation war (a competition that led to actual war when their papers inflamed public outrage over what may well have been the accidental sinking of an American ship in Cuba). Their distorted reporting of the Spanish-American War - America's first colonialist adventure - would have made Fox News proud. Their sensationalism was dubbed Yellow Journalism and its emblem was the Yellow Kid, America's first newspaper cartoon star. . . .
- - Art Spiegelman -
Into The Buzzsaw
Edited by ex-CBS producer Kristina Borjesson, "Into the Buzzsaw" is a collection of essays, mostly by serious journalists excommunicated from the media establishment for tackling subjects like the CIA's role in drug smuggling, lies perpetuated by the investigators of TWA flight 800, POWs rotting in Vietnam, a Korean war massacre, the disenfranchisement of black voters in Bush's election, bovine growth hormone's dangers and a host of other unpopular issues.
Borjesson describes "the buzzsaw" as "what can rip through you when you try to investigate or expose anything this country's large institutions -- be they corporate or government -- want to keep under wraps. The system fights back with official lies, disinformation, and stonewalling. Your phone starts acting funny. Strange people call you at strange hours to give you strange information. The FBI calls you. Your car is broken into and the thief takes your computer and your reporter's notebook and leaves everything else behind ... The sense of fear and paranoia is, at times, overwhelming."
The majority of the eighteen pieces in Borjesson's book are about hard-working mainstream journalists, dedicated to the ideals of their profession, who stumble into the buzzsaw and have their careers and reputations eviscerated. Though the subjects and personalities involved are wildly diverse, the stories echo each other in disturbing ways. Journalists are sent by their bosses to do their jobs -- in the case of Borjesson, to investigate the crash of TWA Fight 800 as a producer for CBS news. Sometimes what they find is impolitic, other times it brings threats of corporate lawsuits. Suddenly, editors kill the story, or demand changes. In some instances, like that of TV reporter Jane Akre, who was investigating the use of Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone, reporters are ordered to insert outright lies in their pieces or face firing. Other times, like with Gerard Colby's book about the Du Pont family and Gary Webb's San Jose Mercury News series about the CIA's role in the crack epidemic, the bosses are spooked after the fact and withdraw their support from work already published, hanging reporters out to dry.
From:
http://www.alternet.org/story/12753/
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Defining Failure
Paul Rosenberg
1) the quote says the media "completely" failed. That statement is plain false if the truth was available.
2) democracy is participatory and it is work. If the governed fail in their responsibility to do the work (see [1]) that is NECESSARY to be adequately informed than it is the INDIVIDUAL THAT HAS FAILED - they fail the country and they fail themselves.
3) there are liars and people of malice everywhere. It is naive to not expect "the media" to be infested with them at least to the level of the general population (which would be equal to at least 30% of population still supporting bush and the cult of republicanism) and in the case of corporate management of media conglomerates, a much higher percentage than the general population.
4) it should be obvious that by allowing the preponderance of information to the general population to be controlled by a very small number of corporations controlled by a very small number of people that the whole system is rife for corruption and manipulation. If America doesn't breakup Big Media, the country will continue to be subject to the anti-American ideology of the cult of republicanism.
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The Bottom Line
The corporate media outlets, press and TV, exist to sell paper, to make money. These talk show hosts are little more than disc jockeys playing the most popular tunes or the ones being pushed by themselves and their employers. They have a high margin of profit and a low level of integrity. The coverage of the 2000 election was evidence with their gushing embrace of the Bush boy.
I decided, not with my vote, not with my money and canceled almost all subscriptions to the dailies, weeklies, and monthlies. No one obliges us to buy or read the pablumn shoveled behind their much discussed covers, as though this is of great importance. I now spend the subscription money on books, "How Would a Patriot Act?" is an example, stay informed by reading the international press on the net and a great varity of blogs. The information is out there, it is just that you need a sturdy tool to find it.
It is a reward to read Glenn's articles.
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sunny miller:
Thanks. I just 'commented' two times at Chris Floyd's E.B.
Then I come here to 'hear' what others are thinking.
My amazement is increasingly more amazed. My computer acts slow and 'funny-weird.' To 'hit' and exercise patience waiting to read the 'sites' many readers suggest to 'us' for further wisdom's, would mean I'd die of young-age waiting for 'bugs' to fly-off... There are some beautiful orange and black lady-bugs I never worry about...They are beneficial insects.
If you, good sunny miller, wish to read my ramblings that agree with your 'letter' comment, go to cranky-Floyd's today? You have to read between the lines. Listen to the silence between the bird chirps too...Virgil said hell is where the spring feathered creature don't sing.
I know the proverbial 'evil omen' of the Bushido crowd is upon us too. My respect. Remain quiet at the proper time, No Chihuahua's....okay? No hush, either. Speak Truth.
brotherbruz.