The Press is failing America every minute of every day.

It will be replaced by other avenues of authoratative information in direct proportion to its failures to validate the truth and expose the false.

It’s impossible for democratic people not to replace a press that fails its culture. It’s a natural process.

Only the power of money can keep the propaganda press in place, but even money can only hold out against the truth so long. It’s expensive to fight reality and eventually you just have to change anyway so the returns are limited.

Rupert Murdock and Sun Myung Moon are only mortal. They will soon disencumber the earth and make way for new men with new ideas.

May their reigns be short and their meeting with God swift.

The problem isn’t Rev. Moon or Murdoch here. It’s that AdNags is a spineless loser who is letting himself be positively used to distribute the GOP’s message. I mean, why the hell did that last quote have to be given “anonymously,” as though it were some super-secret information? You could find the same damn quote on GOP.com! Stupid freaking loser! Gah! Want to kick sand in his face!

Byron Calame, July 30:

This riff on the realities of anonymity brings into focus the crucial issue of the value of the information the reporter is getting. That value needs to be weighed against the cost to The Times’s credibility of adding yet another anonymous source to the next day’s paper.

Thou art weighed in the balance, Ad Nags, and found wanting.

the problem is Rev. Moon and Murdoch and the telecommunications bill of 1996 and the consolidation of the meadea that has happened since then

watching any abc or cnn or fox or msnbc show is frustrating to an unbearable degree, a hour-long, one sided viewpoint on the issue of the day to the exclusion of other more pressing issues

The Pakistani-British would-be plane bombers were only foiled by British cops and Pakistani intelligence because Bush had the guts to invade Iraq.

You do the math. I can’t get the numbers to add up.

“It’s funny how arrests in Britain are somehow a vindication of the GOP’s war in Iraq”

exactly.

So you folks believe that Adam Nagourney is now pushing the Bush agenda? That AN is sopme sort of closeted conservative who is now setting free his inner right-wing beliefs?
Or is it you believe he is merely spineless, and frightened of what the evil BushCo junta will do to him if he dares to challenge them?

If this is what you folks believe, you are even more departed from reality than I thought.

“Speaking on condition of non-accountability”

fixed

tomaig- no, I believe he is a lazy-assed reporter who sloppily jots down whatever the Republicans tell him and calls it “news.”

All politicians, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, love having reporters like AdNags around, who will dutifully jot down whatever they say without providing any logical context to their remarks. In short, Nags is letting himself be used by Republicans to distribute their message that the foiled London plot somehow, some way vindicates them and reveals the Democrats to be weak on terror. He is a big loser.

The terrarists are a-comin’!
The terrarists are a-comin’!
The terrarists are a-comin’!

Uh, wait a sec. Weren’t we a-fightin’ them o’er there, so we wouldn’t hafta fight ’em o’er here?

Didn’t the GAO test airline “security” last year by “smugglin'” liquid bomb materials on board airplanes and wasn’t that widely reported back during the first of the year? Oh, crap. Why let that get in the way of some good ol’ fashioned fear mongering? Terra in the skies! Target America! Terra in the skies! America on Alert! The terrarists are a-comin’! Watch the cable news ratings zoom! Yeeehaw! Save us Dear Leader! Re-elect Joementum so the Evildoers will stay away.

We’re saying that Ad Nags is a rotten journalist who only cares about being a Washington insider and purveying Washington insider nonsense, and that means he lets himself be used to news-launder nonsensical administration talking points.

Why does Ad Nags not have to follow the Times policy of saying exactly why a source was granted anonymity?

Or is it you believe he is merely spineless, and frightened of what the evil BushCo junta will do to him if he dares to challenge them?

It’s that he’s fucking lazy, loves the cachet of kool kidz’ klub anonymous sourcing, and feels compelled to reprint that particular turd of wisdom to keep his White House sources happy, even when the piece is full of similar lines delivered on record.

What precisely, tomaig, does that quote add to the story? How, exactly, would the piece have conveyed less information without it — as opposed to the consultant who reported internal polling and was granted anonymity for doing so?

It was precisely the content-free ‘agenda quote’ that Calame has described as damaging the credibility of anonymous sourcing in general.

If this is what you folks b–

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

ersatz- he doesn’t. But this is a pattern you see all over the place, where a “White House source” is quoted “anonymously” as saying “Democrats are fags,” or something like that.

See here for smarter analysis.

Why does Ad Nags not have to follow the Times policy of saying exactly why a source was granted anonymity?

That policy is no longer in effect: see my link above.

The crappiest thing about that crappy quote was that it repeated the mealy-mouthed conflation of ‘the war’ with the issue of terrorism. No clarification. End of piece, thank you ma’am. If you have the ability to hide behind anonymity, and can’t be called to comment on your bullshit, then it’s incumbent on reporters either to note that it’s bullshit, or to force that source to clarify the bullshit — especially when it’s ‘agenda sourcing’.

What Brad said.

And I gotta say, this is really topsy-turvy world.

We have Republican talking points that have been out there for the past 5 years now that “terrorism can’t be handled as a law enforcement problem” that instead we have to roll out the tanks and kick some righteous ass militarily, in the new front on the war on Terror, Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

Then the British law enforcement foils a plot hatched on its own soil to kill Americans.

So the Republican talking point is now – See? See? This just proves what we’re saying, We Republicans can protect you better than Democrats.

Oh, really? How so? The British plot demonstrates that a) fighting them in Iraq DOESN’T mean they won’t fight us here. and b). Law enforcement works.

The British plot simply demonstrates that the Republicans were wrong.

In fact, they’re really just reduced to one talking point, disguised in other forms, and its this:

“Boooo!!! Scarey bad mans out there!!””

Tofubo,

Disagree. I have no problem with the slant of Murdoch or Moon’s papers, provided they are treated as ‘right-wing’ instead of ‘fair and balanced’. England has an entire media industry run by ideological papers — you know what you’re getting, say, when you read The Guardian or The Sun, they have an ecological niche. That there is no comparative left-wing daily in the States, well, that’s a problem, but blogs are starting to balance the scales a bit.

The real problem comes in with Papers of Records, papers that pride themselves on their honest, objective, take on the news. They are more insidious when they publish things like this because the ‘independent’ who reads a piece in the Times thinks they are getting a straight story.

I have a friend like this. It drives me crazy. He reads Newsweek and is completely indoctrinated in the ‘fair-mindedness’ of contemporary journalism. He’s liberal, but he regurgitates the kind of talking points a guy like Naguourney regurgitates himself. He knows Fox is right-wing, so, in his mind, Newsweek and the Times represent something approaching the center.

This is where the media has failed us the most. Alterman calls it the result of decades of ‘working the refs’. It’s impossible to disagree.

And tomaig’s post is exactly what I mean.

Purposefuly befuddled, agenda-driven and intellectually bereift. He knows the game, but is completely unable to see the problem we would have with simple propaganda being passed along in a ‘think-piece’ story that misidentifies the problem and the issue.

Gentlepersons:

Lets head this whole thing off at the pass. One writer suggests that the containment of this week’s GOP promotional terrorist crisis is because of Bush’s “success” in Iraq. There is nothing like a short attention span to cause one to surmise erroneously. It is more likely that the plot existed because of Mr. Bush’s failed mid-east policy, inclusive of condoning the rape and pillage of Lebanon by our “allies” and handlers, Israel. Check out this handy-dandy compilation of information regarding Palestinain deaths to Israeli death ratios and you may alter your perspetive just a touch.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/index.html

Does anyone remember the days when the Washington press corps was contentious? When they actually did journalistic things like research? Fact-checking? Asking questions that weren’t softer than a marshmellow? Was that a long long time ago or have we just gotten so lazy and irresponsible that quickly?
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d be just as disgusted by this if the adminstration in question were liberal.

punkinsmom,

They were tigers when the issue at hand was a blowjob and an obscure land deal, though, weren’t they? No detail too small. No source too shaky to quote. Another towering acheivement for the geniuses of the press.

“Bin Ladin Deterimed to Strike U.S.” popped up on whoise watch?

Yep.

And what did he do about it?

NOTHING

And the result?

9/11

So please explain to me why we’re safer with President Low Normal?

Nice picture of Ad nags. But where’s his dog dollar?

Why does someone who was completely, 100% wrong about the consequences of their own policies even think they can talk about the negative consequences of someone else’s policies? Because our idiotic press gives them the false credibility to do so.

tomaig wrote:

So you folks believe that Adam Nagourney is now pushing the Bush agenda? That AN is sopme sort of closeted conservative who is now setting free his inner right-wing beliefs? Or is it you believe he is merely spineless, and frightened of what the evil BushCo junta will do to him if he dares to challenge them?
——————-
I believe AdNags is the new Judith Miller.

And didn’t that all turn out well…

It would be nice if somebody asked the really tough questions, like, if this is a super Red alert whay are people allowed to dump all their liqids in a communal bin at the airport?
Why are there no hazmat teams at every airport?

There is a real chance of an explosion or noxious fumes.

Just wanting to know.

The fact is, if the Democrats had been in power, the British wouldn’t have tried as hard to foil the terrorist plot.

The fact is, the Democrats can’t be trusted to protect our country by making our teammates in the War on Terror better, through the example of hustle and grit.

The fact is, George W. Bush singlehandedly foiled this terrorist plot by using his magic “resolve” and “moral clarity” powers to make British investigators (who normally don’t care about preventing terrorist plots) work harder and longer at their jobs.

The fact is, Democrats would have used taxpayer dollars to send those same British investigators on Caribbean cruises with lots of champagne to make them drunk and forgetful of their duties, because Democrats hate America and will do everything in their power to blow up airplanes full of Americans.

And the fact is, the American public knows this and that’s why all of us except the 49 percent lunatic fringe voted for George W. Bush to be the boss of us.

I really don’t see the problem with this piece.

AdNag is exactly who Colbert was talking to when he gave his standup routine.

Diane, it’s because this whole thing is a bunch of BS. If there is any actual plot behind it, it’s likely along the lines of that nonsense in FL a few weeks back.

Considering the destruction US policies have caused in Iraq and the ME in general, I’d be surprised if someone wasn’t plotting something. But this just smacks of a bad suspense plot concocted by James Bond-obssessed kids. With the Bush admin practially laying out a welcome mat for terrorists at our ports and nuke, chem an water plants, why concoct some kind of Coke-and-Menthos scheme?

Dustin,

I think you’re one of those straight-arrow concern types, but maybe this one will strike you. Compare. Contrast.

Figure it out.

Okay, Dustin, try this:

Some Really Scary Shit that Republicans Did Nothing to Prevent Play in Political Arena

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Republicans seized on some really scary shit that was about to go down and that Republicans did nothing to do prevent yesterday to bolster a White House campaign to turn scary shit that other countries take care of to their advantage this fall, arguing that the nation needs tough Republican policies to protect Americans from scary-ass motherfucking shit that Republican policies did nothing to prevent.

[snip]

A senior White House official on Air Force One, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dismissed the notion that there was anything wrong with these kinds of issues being mixed up in a political campaign.

“Boo!,� this official said. “Monsters! Run! Hide!�

The polarization of the media is predictable, I suppose, in an era where barriers between advertising, marketing, entertainment and information are virtually gone, and the ability to communicate any level of lunacy or straight – out lies convincingly and professionally is simple and cheap. Anybody with an agenda and a few bucks can get highly effective PR and marketing firms to format, shape and “frame” their message so that it will be swallowed whole. Hence we have VNRs as reportage and the hateful, insidious “He-said/She-said Journalism”. In the interest of “balance” and a desire not to offend any customers or potential customers, the press has lost interest in actually informing, but rather provides any veiwpoint available. All advertisers get what they want, and consumers are numbed anyway by the vast amount of information available, almost all of it communicated in exchange for money by someone with a specific agenda.

The sad part is that people like you and me, who are aware of this condition and willing to do extra work to get actual information, are in many cases either unable to do so or at least unable to unambiguously identify it when we see it. Throughout the day I read MSNBC, al Jazeera, AFP, Xinhua, Deutsche Welle, Reuters, BBC, Informed Comment, Antiwar.com and Think Progress. And I’m still starved for data and frequently at a loss to understand what’s true and what’s not and what none of them are willing to tell me. And who knows when/if/how it will get better. It’s a profit driven world that puts the press in the control of the marketeers and the bean counters, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon, except for the worse…

mikey

What, no trolls?
Ad Nags is totally Rove’s cabana boy. Tool.

oops, sorry.

““Boo!,â€? this official said. “Monsters! Run! Hide!â€? ”

Now, that’s honest journalism!

Brad, by the look of that pic I think someone just did kick sand in his face.

Now there are two open tags hanging around wide open and just daring those little pussy close tags to do something about it. I wish there were a Fraktur tag we could leave open so the whole thread would look like a series of Mötörhead albums forever.

_______

Kids run to the tub!

I’ll step up and be a make-shift troll.

The fact is that the Muslimalist Nazimunists’ attempt to kill every single person on the entirety of the Eastern Seaboard is further proof that we need to bomb Iran NOW. Also, Lebanon, cause, you know, why not?

Umm, Dean and Micheal Moore dragging the party to the left. No plan for terror. Umm… no… lemon fresh scent?

Bush will win re-election in 08, because the American people know only he has the Ruby Key with witch to unlock the Secret Door of Safety on level 13, behind the Troll under the bridge, where you get the Sheild of False Security.

Man. I’m pretty non-confrontational, and even I want to punch this twit in the face with a brick.

AN is a lot older than I expected, if that is really him.

thanks for the Greg Sargent link Jay B. it really is shocking to read his fake article.

[…] (And look, AdNags! Singer didn’t even request to go off the record before making his statement! Take a note, you loser!) […]

Disagree. I have no problem with the slant of Murdoch or Moon’s papers, provided they are treated as ‘right-wing’ instead of ‘fair and balanced’. England has an entire media industry run by ideological papers — you know what you’re getting, say, when you read The Guardian or The Sun, they have an ecological niche. That there is no comparative left-wing daily in the States, well, that’s a problem, but blogs are starting to balance the scales a bit

For years, the English footballer (soccer player) Graham Le Seux was rumored to be gay. I was interested because he was really cute and so I was at a Chelsea v. Manchester United match and I asked the bloke sitting next to me about the rumors (Le Seux played for Chelsea then). He went on and on about what a shirtlifter he was, what a bumboy etc. etc. I asked him “Wow, he got caught with his pants down in Hampstead Heath, eh?”. “Nah, the poof reads The Guardian”. I was so stunned I couldn’t say anything in reply.

Needless to say, I read the online Guardian every day.

Hhateful, insidious “He-said/She-said Journalism�. In the interest of “balance� and a desire not to offend any customers or potential customers

This drives me nuts because of two things I see all the time in the MSM.

One concerns stories about gay & lesbians. It doesn’t matter what the story about us is, the MSM always always always has a preacher or wingnut comment. I mean, I’ve seen stories about teh geighs and their cars have that in there. “I would hope that local dealerships don’t advertise within the homosexual community as that would encourage it etc. etc.” Unreal.

The opposite side of the coin is the total free pass given to religion. There were two articles in the last few months in the Los Angeles Times (one on some scrolls that were found and a truly scary one about Rapturists trying to breed red cows) and there wasn’t one sentence of dissent. Not one voice saying “That’s nice, but there’s no credible evidence Jesus ever existed, so these scrolls are kind of pointless, really” not one “Um, these people breeding red cows are completely insane”. It’s just a given that the Bible is true and that the people that read it are all completely sane.

A senior White House official on Air Force One, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dismissed the notion that there was anything wrong with these kinds of issues being mixed up in a political campaign.

C’mon…. Dubya isn’t that articulate, and Cheney flies on Air Force Two. How many more of these leeches get to fly first class?

I’M COMMING TO GET YOU!!! YOU LOSER MOMMAS BABBY