Letters to the Editor
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@ Shooter
We think transparency should extend to all (including Generals) commenters, while Glenn is content to stop at one very small category.
When did he say that? Links, please.
Also, I'm curious: did you ever actually read Barstow's original NYT piece? Doesn't seem like it. C'mon, be honest now!
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Flag Pins and the News Post 9/11
October 7, 2001
When Patriotism and Journalism Clash
By WARREN STRUGATCH
Mark Preiser, a partner in Walter F. Cameron Advertising in Melville, on Long Island, said he learned about the dispute when a client telephoned to say that he was considering whether to pull his advertisements from News 12, Cablevision's all-news channel on Long Island.
The client, an automobile dealer Mr. Preiser would not identify, told him that someone claiming to be a customer called to complain about News 12's ''no flag'' policy. Cablevision and News 12 employees said that reporters and anchors had been told not to wear American flag lapel pins on the air or in the field.
Patrick Dolan, the senior vice president of the Cablevision Systems Corporation in charge of its News 12 Networks, said the policy was implemented to protect the station's credibility as an impartial news provider in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
[...]
''We don't want anyone to get the false impression that our patriotic emotions cloud our reporting of the facts,'' Mr. Dolan said on the air on Sept. 19.
But the caller whom Mr. Preiser cited accused News 12 of being unpatriotic, chastised the automobile dealer for advertising on the station and promised to shop elsewhere for cars in the future.
''It's created quite a backlash,'' Mr. Preiser said, referring to the News 12 policy. ''A number of clients are talking about running their ads somewhere else.''
[...]
News 12 was not the only outlet wrestling with the issue of balancing human empathy with journalistic objectivity. On the networks, news anchors like Brit Hume on Fox News and Tim Russert on NBC have at times worn flag pins and red, white and blue ribbons on the air.
News 12 itself appears to have quietly allowed the tricolor ribbons, though it has not rescinded the no-flag policy. And many broadcasters, including News 12, have repeatedly used images of the American flag in the on-air visuals that appear in a corner of the screen or when a station breaks for a commercial.
[...}
''Like everyone else, we feel shock, and pain, and anger,'' the statement said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks. ''And we want to respond. Our way of responding, as journalists, is to do what the First Amendment of the United States Constitution compels us to do. To report the facts objectively, and to give all sides of a story, without even a hint of bias.''
''There is no ban on the American flag at News 12,'' the statement added. ''You can be sure all of us at News 12 are good Americans.''
It is not clear whether Mr. Dolan's ban on flag pins and similar accessories came after he saw newsroom employees wearing them. But as soon as he issued the new policy, the station found itself in a public-relations quagmire. Viewers and some advertisers loudly proclaimed the importance of the flag in moments of crisis and questioned the patriotism of the news station and its staff.
Those who know Pat Dolan talk about his integrity and eloquent defense of journalistic ethics. ''He draws a clear line between what's genuinely newsworthy and what's newsworthy only to certain interests,'' said Ernest G. Canadeo, the president of the EGC Group, one of News 12's largest customers. ''Advertisers don't tell him what goes on the air.''
[...]
T. Walker Lloyd, the executive secretary of the Long Island Advertising Club, had little patience for Mr. Dolan's reasoning. ''I'm really angry that here's somebody saying we have to be even-handed,'' he said. ''If he said these things after Pearl Harbor, he'd have been lynched.''
As word of the policy spread, it quickly became clear that it faced opposition. Ms. Gosselin, the News 12 spokeswoman, said that Cablevision employees quickly logged about 500 phone calls and an equal number of e-mails from viewers, most of them of the wave-the-flag variety...
http://tinyurl.com/6adf4w
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Immaculate Perceptions
FACT: American people were somehow impregnated with a rosy picture of the war in Iraq and an exaggerated sense of the threat coming from Iraq throughout 2003 and 2004.
It's a mystery how this happened? If the politicians didn't do it, the media didn't do it, the analysists and think-tanks didn't do it, then who did? The good American people weren't born thinking this way and it didn't come through word-of-mouth. How did it happen?
Care to investigate this phenomenon, Brian?
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The Corporate Controlled Media
Great posting, Glenn! Your serving as watchdog regarding media complicity with the Bush administration on a host of issues has, alone, vindicated the utility of blogging and alternative sources of information. Indeed, certain Internet sites (Salon.com is occasionally but not consistently one) have become crucial outlets for information.
Things have now become so bad that I can no longer bring myself to watch what many continue to call "the mainstream media." A better, more descriptive term would be "corporate-owned media" or "corporate-controlled media," because it is money that is doing the talking.
Keep on pounding 'em!
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You're missing the most important aspect of the whole kerfuffle
Brian Williams has a Porsche 911 GT2-- $191,700 baby. He is definitely salt of the earth. I suggest all you whiners out there go buy a 911 GT2 and then maybe you'll leave Brian alone. Freakin' ingrates!
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@Brynn
I didn't catch either of those 60 minutes segments but I just watched the beginning of the IAF one on-line. Pathetic and I stopped watching about 30 seconds in. Surprisingly, I did catch one episode of Carrier the other night. It wasn't what you might expect and I was really surprised at the access the camera crew had and the frankness of the crew. The episode I saw was mostly about the mundane day to day of life on a floating city. It wasn't the flag waving sort of piece you might expect, but it is a series and i only saw one segment. I hope the other 60 Minutes piece was a little better than the IAF one.