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2.0 — Blog — The Obama Doctrine: The Best of Both Worlds?

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - By Rory O'Connor - Dec. 02 (Opinion) - The Afghan escalation speech was classic Obama. His enigmatic and epigrammatic split the baby in half Yoda/Spock-speak offered something for everyone: good-news-bad-news; back and forth; give and take; get in to get out; speed up to slow down; and in the end, let’s all come together and get along to end the war – by waging the war more intensely…but only for eighteen months, and then we all get to go home.

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Russia: Politkovskaya Laureate Murdered

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - Jul. 16 (News Report) - So close, and so terrible… [—] I know people who were friends with Natalya Estemirova… So, they take her life. It’s like in a Strugatsky [fantasy novel]… What’s next then? Lighting candles… Cursing the murderers, and writing letters to the prosecutor’s office with appeals for investigation to rightfully convict these murderers - murderers who probably carry epaulettes and hold positions of corresponding responsibility in the security structures.

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Open Letter To Stephen Colbert

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - By Danny Schechter - Jun. 15 (Comment) - The Pentagon was delighted and this effort was consistent with the “AAU” mantra that governs news coverage (AAU stands for all about us. ) The Iraqi people and their suffering were no where to be seen on The Colbert Report, just as they are usually invisible on the news.

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The Economic Crisis Returns with a Vengeance

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - By Mark Jurkowitz - Feb. 05 (News Analysis) - In a sign of how quickly the media narrative has shifted from pomp and circumstance to layoffs and bankruptcy, the grim U.S. economy was the overwhelmingly dominant story one week after Barack Obama’s festive inauguration. The financial crisis filled 45% of the coverage studied from Jan 26-Feb. 1, as measured by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. A week earlier, it was Obama’s move into the White House that consumed most of the media’s attention, also accounting for 45% of the newshole, or the time on TV and radio and space in print and online.

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How Unscrupulous Campaign Strategists Are Taking Advantage Of A Quirk In Our Brains - And What Reporters Can Do To Stop Helping Them

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - How to tell a story straight.

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The Trial of Al Jazeera

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - Jun. 24 (News Report) - Should Al Jazeera English be banned from American air waves?

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The Fire Bell In The Night And Our Real Terror

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - By Danny Schechter - May. 01 (Opinion) - AP: "A man upset over thousands of dollars in fees owed to a condominium association brandished a gun and took two association employees hostage before he was killed by a SWAT team, authorities said. Deputies 'were screaming at him to put the gun down, but he didn't seem to be paying attention,' said Ross Torman, 30, a resident who watched the standoff from his nearby balcony. 'He just put that gun right to his head and that's when they began to shoot.'" The Housing Panic blog reaches into history to remind us of an uprising that saw martial law imposed in Iowa in 1933 after "a mob of 150 farmers dragged Circuit Judge Charles C. Bradley from the bench, manhandled the 60-year-old jurist and threatened to lynch him unless he promised not to sign further foreclosure orders." Don't think never again. If it has come to this, it can come to that.

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Media Tenor's Presidential Campaign Watch

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - By Media tenor (analysis by Markus Rettich) - Apr. 27 (News Analysis) - A detailed analysis of the reports from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox news shows that the war of words has damaged both candidates... Senator McCain, who should profit most from Democratic infighting, did not do as well as expected: Although he stayed in the background of the campaign reports, he earned less positive coverage than Clinton or Obama. His tax proposals were billed as a populist gesture by the media. "Although McCain has achieved more attention for his economic platform than his Democratic contenders, his tax proposals have flopped," Rettich points out. "Moreover, as his visibility is insufficient, McCain is not yet beyond criticism."

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Newhouse School announces finalists in second annual Mirror Awards

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - By Jean Brooks - Apr. 14 (Press Release) - Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications today announced 22 finalists in five categories in the second annual Mirror Awards competition honoring excellence in media industry reporting.

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PBS's Frontline: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late On Iraq

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Channel - Mar. 28 (Opinion) - Cowards abound in the media and Congress. These people worry about a job when our Founding Fathers put their lives on the line. Where do they find such cowards? I think the public has the responsibility to do its job, especially when our government has killed, orphaned, maimed, and turned into refugees well over 1 million human beings, all based upon lies, greed, and arrogance, plus ruined military and our economy and brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. I think historian Howard Zinn says it best in his logic to our opposition to the Iraq invasion and subsequent occupation: "When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them. We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians and profiteers may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress (and press)."

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What Is "The Change We Can Believe In?"

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - By Danny Schechter - Feb. 08 (News Analysis) - Who is in office is not necessarily who is in power!

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Investigative Journalism Project Reveals Problem at Core of Mainstream Journalism

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - Feb. 07 (News Analysis) - Pro Publica, an initiative launched last month in the United States to help revitalize investigative journalism, is a great idea trapped by the worst aspects of the best instincts in contemporary corporate commercial journalism. The project reminds us of important values at the core of the craft of journalism, but also exposes the common political confusions of mainstream journalists that so often undermine their best efforts.

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Edward Bernays and the Assassination of Democracy

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - Feb. 01 (Opinion) - 'He was manipulating the public in ways that were undemocratic'

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Network News's Perfect Storm

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - By Marc Kusnetz - Jan. 31 (News Analysis) - Paradoxically, television is trying to remain relevant by appropriating the techniques of the computer, while ignoring its unique qualities. In so doing, television news is delegitimizing itself. It deepens the problem by insisting that all stories must have an arc--a beginning, a middle, and an end that is clear and, if possible, have a touch of inevitability, as great stories often do. The problem here lies in the difference between literature and journalism.

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NBC Battles To Keep Kucinich Out Of The Debate

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - Jan. 15 (Opinion) - Democracy calvary to save Kucinich's seat on debate

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Naked Launch: Fox News Architect Dan Cooper Tells All

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - By Dan Cooper - Jan. 11 (Opinion) - "... the thinking of the average citizen and his opinion about public affairs is in very great measure shaped by a wealth of unrelated information and by the most diverse ideas that the selective process of private economic enterprise presents to him for consideration.

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House Commerce Committee Gears Up For FCC Investigation

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - Jan. 09 (Opinion) - "This investigation will also address a growing number of allegations received by the committee relating to management practices that may adversely affect the agency's operation."

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People & Power: Death of the Dollar - Part 1

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - Dec. 19 (Opinion) - A country whose standard of living is decreasing cannot be said to be 'making progress' nor will it be a 'superpower'.

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Ukraine's Journalists Fight To Save Image After Bribe Claims

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Media Channel - By Deutsche Welle - Dec. 13 (Advocacy) - Under the motto "We can't be bought," television journalists in Ukraine are fighting for change after some broadcasters succumbed to bribes from politicians during the last elections.

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CNN/YouTube Debates: It's A Trap!

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:12:53 -0800

Media Channel - By Jason Rosenbaum - Nov. 29 (News Analysis) - Once again, CNN failed the American people. The "YouTube debates" were supposed to embody a revolution of online democracy. But they failed to broaden the argument around the issues or even truly grasp what online democracy is all about.

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As the Media Merges With Politics, Can We Resist 'Electotainment?'

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:01:29 -0800

Media Channel - By Danny Schechter - Nov. 19 (Opinion) - Our politicians are turning into brands to choose between in the great mall of electronic "democracy." Unfortunately, you can't return them or upgrade later.

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Fame And Obscurity At The New York Times

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:41:17 -0700

Media Channel - By The Observer - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - Mr. Stelter's rise to one of the most coveted jobs in journalism as a probationary reporter is proof that a bit of conventional wisdom for success on the Web--establish a brand!--is now good career advice at the newspaper of record, too.

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Green Media Catches a Buzz

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:51:54 -0700

Media Channel - By Michael Hedges - Oct. 15 (News Analysis) - Green media is moving up that 'long tail.' While environmental issues may not beat the major stories in the popular press - Brittney Spears, Kate Middleton and Paris Hilton - editors are keenly aware that climate change, energy and development are related. Listeners, viewers and readers can smell the news. Editors follow.

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Is Keith Olbermann the Next Edward R. Murrow?

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:44:34 -0700

The Nation - By Marvin Kitman - Sep. 26 (Special Report) - What the evening news shows need is less "objectivity" and more analysis. The problem with objective journalism is that it doesn't exist and never did. Molly Ivins disposed of the objectivity question for all time when she observed in 1993, "The fact is that I am a 49-year-old white female, a college-educated Texan. All of that affects the way I see the world. There's no way in hell that I'm going to see anything the same way that a 15-year-old black high school dropout does. We all see the world from where we stand. Anybody who's ever interviewed five eyewitnesses to an automobile accident knows there's no such thing as objectivity."... In short, what CBS (and all the others) need is a new Ed Murrow. Good news! There's already one out there on the launchpad who has demonstrated his qualifications. I'm talking about Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. He has the journalistic chops and the mind, heart, instincts and courage. Olbermann, who anchors a one-hour nightly news show on MSNBC called Countdown With Keith Olbermann, closes his show every night by saying "1,547th [for instance] day since Mission Accomplished in Iraq," an hommage to Ted Koppel's "Iran Hostage" coverage, which evolved into Koppel's late-night ABC news show Nightline (the MSNBC show was originally Countdown: Iraq). Then Olbermann throws his crumpled script at the camera, which shatters, a simulated digital effect (something Koppel never did).

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They Know More Than They Tell: Reporters in Iraq

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:53:09 -0700

Media Channel - By Niqash. - Aug. 09 (Opinion) - The real problem, for an Iraqi journalist working inside Iraq today, is the fact that very little has resulted in terms of security for those journalists who still remain, even after the relatively large number of journalists who have fallen in the past four years. It is painful that the brutal losses suffered by the Iraqi press are not just about some comrades losing their careers, but also about the imminent collapse of the already fragile media in the new Iraq after the fall of Saddam's regime. Media openness and freedom of expression, in addition to the establishment of electoral democracy and the expansion of social space to civil societies that would motivate opinion-making mechanisms, increasing the amount of participation and placing rules upon the administration of differences; media thrives on such values and participates in their creation, but they are certainly doomed to attrition by the hegemony of armed violence as a means of expression, currently the most influential tool in Iraq today, more powerful than any words that are said.

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