As a follow-up to my post regarding the sorry state of journalistic ‘ethics’, I wanted to provide a link to this commentary by Nancy L. Cohen in the Huffington Post. As usual, there is historical precedent that the journalistic community has chosen to ignore and are therefore doomed to repeat.
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Blevkog 
And this would be the same Huffington Post that tells me that enemas can cure Swine Flu?
http://www.salon.com/env/vital_signs/2009/07/30/huffington_post/
Yeah, that’s a credible source – are you planning to quote ‘Entertainment Tonight’ next?
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Sorry if that came across as too snarky, but – what is your prosposed solution, Flash? If you’re trying to say what stories News organizations are supposed to follow – that’s censorship, and I really can’t agree with it.
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On the topic of “journalism”, any bets that Lou Dobbs ends up walking a plank soon and maybe following that loon Glenn Beck over to Fox? His ratings are apparently starting to slip, and really, that’s what it’s all about now, right?
As a wise man once said, “a person uses a news source in the same way a drunk a light standard – more for support than illumination.” The centre-right CNN audience isn’t buying Dobbs on this one, though it seems to quietly nod while he rants about the damn foreigners…
Now that I think about it, the lunacy Dobbs is spouting about Obama’s birth certificate, er, his certificate of live birth might not even find a home on Fox, what with Billo even aknowledging it as bullshit.
Dan, did you read the Salon article the other day about HuffPo’s loony “medical” articles?
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Yes, I did read it – in fact, it’s the one I referred to above. I think it’s indicative of a troublesome double standard on the left – we condemn anti-scientism in the form of Creationism on the right, but ignore anti-scientism on the left, which truthfully is even more dangerous – no one, to the best of my knowledge, has ever died because their parents didn’t believe in evolution, while the death count due to the anti-vax movement is up to 197 and rising – right now Measles, Mumps and Rubella have reached endemic levels in parts of the U.K.
As for the issue of ‘journalistic ethics’ – 28 years ago, the Editor-in-Chief of one of the 2 daily papers in St John’s told me that the purpose of Newspapers was to sell advertising, and nothing I’ve seen since nor read about in the history books has convinced me that his opinion was in the minority – the idea of the crusading publisher, out to shine the light of truth into the dark places, is more a Hollywood fiction than a reality. And frankly the article that Flash links to proves it – it’s revisionist history at best. Contrary to what she says, the Dems had plenty of opportunity to put forth their case for healthcare – unfortunately, they chose Hillary Clinton to do, and she did a crappy job of it.
As for the present day coverage – I don’t have a television, so I’m mostly getting my news via the Net, but I haven’t exactly noticed a dearth of news on the healthcare debate. If anything, there’s too much – they’re following the negotiations in the Senate like they were the play-by-play commentators for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the left-wing blogosphere are acting like Claude Rains in ‘Casablanca’ – “I am shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that there is politics in Washington.”
As for Lou Dobbs – yeah, his days at CNN are numbered. I don’t know if he’ll wind up at Fox – my bet’s on his moving to MSNBC, where he’ll host a show with Pat Buchannan called ‘Dem Damn Foreigners’. And then, two months later, Rachel Maddowe will snap, and beat the crap outta both of them with Joe Scarborough’s detached head. I’ll treasure posting that Youtube video on this blog, yes I will….
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Dan,
Pointing out an interesting coincidence, found the story valid enough given the subject matter.
Simple as that. It was, you may have noticed, a column, not a news story, which puts it in sufficient context to make me comfortable referring to it.
You know me well enough to know I do not advocate censorship, merely decrying the fact that the journalistic community is wasting the public’s time reporting on each other. Are you trying to tell me what I can write?
You know what? Not taking the bait this time. You may thrash as you like, I decline to participate.
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