...the American people would not have ever found out about it! The American media has no backbone, has traded off what little integrity remained in the profession in order to get spoon-fed comments by elitists who gladly give them a smile and use them with their permission, and can't wait for the next "ratings crisis" to hit.

Iraq never would've happened if the American media had done its job and questioned the intelligence. But, noooooooo. They couldn't wait to get "embedded" for the 2 weeks drive to Bagdad! They are as much of the problem as they are a solution.

I never knew that Tucker Carlson, of all people, cared so much about journalism in general, and the practice of journalism specifically. He's not a journalist anyway, is he? See? That's part of the problem here in America: People who are NOT journalists are being paid to act like one; the White House puts out imaginary press releases giving the impression they are news reports, and various governmental departments stage press conferences with employees acting the part of reporters asking questions!

The real journalists should've been offended all to hell and back at how journalism, the profession, has deteriorated in our country. Instead, they just sit around and wonder how they can get paid as much as Katie Couric.

People would have spent more time talking about the dirty names Nixon called his enemies instead of the high crimes and misdemeanors that he plotted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/09/msnbc-cancels-tucker-carl_n_90648.html

I suppose this qualifies as good news.

John Powers, that is, whose book, Sore Winners, is dead-on important as it relates to this hopefully emerging media strand. He devotes a substantial, pithy chapter to media, from which a couple of snippets:

" . . . , they are at bottom deeply conservative. Because the system works for them, they have a vested interest in keeping things essentially the same. Well-off and well-connected, they don't feel personally threatened or outraged by government giveaways to corporations or tax breaks for the wealthy and the way workers are treated in factories and service jobs that nothing in their experience has made real to them. On the contrary, they are far more likely to feel on the same social level as the politicians and businessmaen they cover . . . And this is general throughout mainstream journalism. whose news coverages reflect its cosseted practitioners' sense of privelege." And, citing John Leonard, ". . . political reporters hang out with politicians, critics are friends with those they review, and the whole media universe forms one large, self-reinforcing chorus line of opinions and alliances that set the limits of acceptable thinking."

Given the theme at hand, the good news is that we have this medium (for the moment); the bad news is that it is desperately needed and unknown by so many who could perhaps surmount the relentless dumbing down by corporatist media.

Could it be that this article had something to do with Carlson's being "out" at MSNBC? At least that's what I just read in the MSM. If this is true, I do feel a bit sorry for him. One honest slip of the tongue and you're out. No doubt they'll replace him with another hack who will carry on with business as usual.