Letters to the Editor
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Your key fourth estate...
In action. Ugh, that's painful to read.
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Was Journalism Always This Bad?
I guess Hannah Storm thought she was being dynamic and tough, bulldogging the tough answers out of a recalcitrant subject.
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and we wonder why
Clinton played the gender card? Are vital national issues really important to most people, or are most people more interested in tongue studs and "boy vs girl" silliness?
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Carl Bernstein weighs in:
GREENWICH, Conn. — A culture coarsened by celebrity news is to blame for inadequate public affairs journalism, Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein told a group of college preparatory students.
Newspapers are devoting fewer resources to issues of importance such as the Iraq war and potential abuses of the U.S. Constitution, the former Washington Post reporter told students at the Brunswick School on Thursday.
He said more resources are being devoted to the lifestyles of celebrities such as Donald Trump and Paris Hilton.
"The problems we have in news and journalism are about us not doing our job well enough," Bernstein said. "The ideal of providing the best available version of the truth is being affected by the dominance of a journalistic culture that has less and less to do with reality and context."
Bernstein, 63, said he believes an "idiot culture" is partly to blame for the dysfunction of political life in the United States.
"You can't separate the appetites and demands of the people themselves and what they are given," he said. "The blame simply can't all be put at the feet of those who present news."
Bernstein and Bob Woodward are known for their work at the Washington Post in the 1970s when they broke numerous stories reporting on the Watergate scandal that eventually drove President Richard Nixon from office.
Bernstein is promoting his recent biography of presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., the Democrats' leading candidate.
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An Amazing Interview
I couldn't resist. I had to watch the video. I think it made my eyes and ears bleed.
Hannah Storm: Mr. Kucinich, how do you respond to allegations that your wife is a sleazy, sex-freak, foreign, trophy-wife unworthy of being First Lady of these-here-United-States?
This from a woman with a porn-star name.
Elizabeth Kucinich is hot. She also happens to be a humanitarian, does a lot of social work in war-torn countries and has a master's degree in international conflict analysis. Which I suppose is why she retained the grace to not hunt Hannah Storm down, rip off her arms and use them to beat her to death.
Oh, and Storm, I know most politicians don't give straight answers. You have to badger them continuously and ask the same question three different ways. Dennis Kucinich is not most politicians and he already answered your question. Which you might have noticed if you had actually listened to him.
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20 Years Ago Storm Would Have Been Fired
Over such a display of rudeness to a presidential candidate. She clearly thinks she is bigger than Dennis Kucinich, and that he should feel priveliged to be interviewed by her.
Pardon my french, but Hannah Storm isn't a pimple on Dennis Kucinich's ass.
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Well, had it been someone other than Kucinich,
...I'd probably have been wincing a lot more. But I'm still too busy hearing "US Out! U.N. In!" in my ears, over and over.
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Journaliwhat?
What the f_ck is wrong with the US media, this is what journalism is supposed to be.
Give me a f_cking break, fire this stupid moron.
Goddammit what the F_CK happened to America, my brain is going to explode.
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Was she cracking her gum while asking her questions?
Or could she even chew gum and ask questions at the same time?
"Mr. Kook an Inch, Umm, I mean Senator or Congressor or whatever your name is pronounced, you've criticized President Bush and stuff for trying to keep us all safe from the war on terror or whatever, but someone told me you were attacked by a UFO or something... What's that all about?"
Good lord. "We'll have you back if you get to be third in the polls." So snide and condescending from a fifth-tier hack, dressed up in a journalist costume. She won't have to fulfill any standard for her to be back. Even with nothing to offer, she'll be back anyway... following this important commercial announcement!
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CBS - morons, idiots and imbeciles
I stopped watching CBS news when Dan Rather was booted out. I have glanced at it now and then for a laugh at how pathetic it has become. The President of France realized that he was wasting his time with those idiots and bugged out.
It must be nice to be so stupid that you don't even know it. The only thing that CBS news still does well is that morning magazine show. Last Sunday I caught a little of Face the Nation and I honestly think that Fox News is far more respectable and they are a pack of rabid dogs, albeit well-groomed rabid dogs. It was nice to see a Republican come out against torture which was volunteered as there was no intelligent, probing or worthwhile questions fielded to either guest for fear of offending some neocon or defense contractor.
I suppose CBS news staff are all on psych meds or have used their cellphones a little too often.
CBS - the lights are on but nobody's home.
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OK....two stories
At the last Winter Meeting of the DNC with a Veteran's non-profit group, I asked Dennis Kucinich to sign a tiny Young Democrat tee shirt for my new grandson...who just for the record was born while his father was in Iraq. All the other candidates signed.
Kucinich was wondefully articulate and was willing to listen as well as talk. However, when it came time to sign the shirt, he wrote "Dennis" and drew a heart under his name and handed it to his wife, who signed "Elizabeth" under the heart. I thought it was a little flaky. Later, I saw them walking out through the lobby, hand-in-hand, without a single bit of attention, unlike the other candidates who were drawing rock star coverage. And I confess, shamefully, that I wrote him off on the basis of the wifely bit of silliness. On the other hand, he's a politician, and he should know about things like appearances and appropriateness to professional situations. Nonetheless, I should also know what qualities truly count.
Second story...when I got out of college many years ago with a degree in broadcast journalism, I was told by news directors that I couldn't get a job as a woman because they were looking for "models", not journalists. So I went in other directions.
And now we have people like Dana Perino and Hannah Storm turning journalism into an ancillary of the Oprah Winfrey Show, (on a good day) and proving that women, with the exception of those stalwart pioneers who are now a literally dying breed, are just dumb window dressing.
And back to Dennis. The man is articulate and thought-provoking, despite obviously "hearting" his beautiful wife. To have a network "journalist" do an interview like this one is repugnant, irresponsible and completely lacking in respect for the fact that this man is a national political figure. And it doesn't show much respect for the audience, either.