Holly cloudbeing, Professor! Was that satire?

Re-reading his letter, I honestly can't imagine who he thinks would side with him in his tirade other than the champagne & caviar aristocracy. Who would think the jackass makes a good point?

I've heard that comedians will sometimes perform for ‘the band’ when they think the audience is too slow. Apparently, John King is performing for the beltway beau monde since us lowly "americans" don't appreciate his 20 years of anal news rimming.

By the way, any guess on who his "friend who understands how my business works" is? It would be interesting to know, since it often involves more than one person for someone to get their head up their ass.

I sent a letter to Bill Hemmer once when he was acting like a right-wing buffoon on CNN. Among other points I made was my suggestion that he should look at things in a historical perspective.

"These are historic times," I said, "please ask yourself which side of history you want to be on."

Two months later he moved to FOX News.

Now, I'm not suggesting it was me who pushed him to Fox but, ... Oh OK... I'm suggesting it was me who sent him to Fox!

;-)

It is so amazing to me that someone would proudly wave around their credentials as a mainstream journalist covering campaigns when the media is already in trouble with each other and the public for their terrible campaign coverage and the reputation of the press in general is at an all time low.

It's as if he thinks that his role as part of the problem gives him some authority over people pointing out the problem. Mental gymnastics at their finest

I one summer I heard a curled-up rattle-snake at the back porch door. Yowza. O, Yep.

Whoa. Watch out is right!

I thought I had indoor plumbing when I heard the hiss-sound.

You get the rattle-snake tail prize? I need to go bathe, and I'll do it most-immodestly as I know how.

I'll wear my old-leather shoe-boots, O, a,

straw hat, flannel shirt, and laden-dung-manure dirt-boots,

and I'll be ready to kick-poop off the snake-dung-critter. Hiss.

I actually didn't see your post and Google'd MRC after Scientician's post. But I'm sure yours was fabulous as well! And yes, it IS all about you and the Kings...all of them.

I'm curious, Mr. Greenwald, about your background, given how much you dislike journalists. Did one of those lowlifes write a bad book review? Have you ever been a reporter? Covered politics and politicians, traveling day and night, with little sleep, poor food and endless deadlines? It is a fun job. Some do it better than others. My own prejudice is that print reporters do it better than broadcast ones, so I'm not overwhelmingly sympathetic to John King. But his response raises a point that your reply dodges: what reporting did you do? From what I can tell, you referred to what was aired and then proceeded to spill your vitriol all over Mr. King. Judging from other columns about reporters, that appears to be your style. Your privilege, of course, but it does raise the question about your qualifications. Thanks to the First Amendment, you don't need any. You've written two books, so you must be an expert. But you do remind me of the airchair quarterbacks who rant about the ones on the field, even though they themselves couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with a forward pass from the inside. So what's your story, Mr. Greenwald? Are just another sidelines blowhard, or does your pontificating have any grounding in experience?

Prof. Tim Smith, Kent State University.

p.s. To save you the trouble of asking, I practiced journalism as a reporter and editor for 20 years before leaving to teach in the field.

I thought that when we got rid of Rumsfeld we were finished with the business of people trying to make their point by asking and then answering their own questions. It's hard for me to read through the "did you" part of the email without hearing it in Rummy's voice.

Edward R. Murrow would be proud of you, Glenn. The issues have not changed much since his day, nor has the situation improved. By the way, the recent movie by the above name is a great flick. Take it in some time, if you have not already done so.

I would think that if King's full, challenging interview was so important to him- that he's really proud of it as an example of his hard-edged interviewing skills- that it would follow that he would fight ferociously any CNN editor's who wanted to air the interview with all the challenging questions edited out on one of their 'many programs'. Give me a break dude, you suck, you got called out, and now you're salty.

Also, as a professional journalist writing a counter-critical letter, you might want to run it through spellcheck once or twice, maybe even have one of your worshipping interns read it over....

Excerpting what I think is the crux of your plea for compassion,

what i'm calling for is some understanding of the work/business environment that "reporters" and all of us operate in.

create rules and structures that you feel comprimise your ethics. what do you do? if you blow a whistle, you may be fired or blacklisted.

The preamble for the journalists code of ethics reads,

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility. Members of the Society share a dedication to ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the Society's principles and standards of practice.

http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

which is pretty analogous to the AMA's,

The medical profession has long subscribed to a body of ethical statements developed primarily for the benefit of the patient. As a member of this profession, a physician must recognize responsibility to patients first and foremost, as well as to society, to other health professionals, and to self. The following Principles adopted by the American Medical Association are not laws, but standards of conduct which define the essentials of honorable behavior for the physician.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2512.html

The basis in each is to put the recipient of the service first. Then, your question is, what to do if your ability to put the recipient of the service first is undermined by your employer? The answer, for a professional, is the degree to which they have internalized their code of ethics. If your desire is to adhere to the highest ethical standards, the answer is to confront your employer.

It shouldn't be the case, that the professional's desire to maintain their integrity should be at odds with their employer's; they ought to be coincident for good business reasons. Loss of viewers/readers or loss of patients. Do you really want to entrust your medical care to a physician who offers you substandard care (which is potentially life threatening) for the sake of cost containment? I suppose it could be argued that the medical profession might be more sensitive to the issue because someone could die. Of course, would we want to count the number of military deaths because it was widely and uncritically reported that Saddam had WMD?

In both cases, the assumption of the code is that the needs of the client come before the practitioner; the employer isn't even mentioned - the profession is. The first responsibility of the professional is to the client, and secondly, the profession.

It's really very simple. I never said it was easy. That's what makes a professional, a professional.