The New Media
[Guest post by DRJ]
Two stories today demonstrate how the media is changing. The first is a Pajamas Media story about the unusual way Obama’s “Bittergate” ended up at the Huffington Post:
“It’s one of the great ironies of the campaign. The resolutely pro-Obama Huffington Post, the site Barack Obama chose last month to put out his statement on Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s outrageous comments, this month is the source of one of his biggest campaign crises. Its namesake co-owner, the conservative-turned-liberal commentator profiled recently in the New York Times as “Citizen Huff,” Arianna Huffington, was on David Geffen’s yacht in Tahiti when the deal went down.
I’m referring, of course, to the Huffington Post’s report of the now notorious comments Obama made on April 6th at a private fundraiser in San Francisco. There, the freshman Illinois senator, opining about people in small towns where the jobs have fled, said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
The other story concerns a much smaller media venture by former NBC and CNN reporter, Mike Boettcher, and his son Carlos who plan a website devoted to military coverage:
“Boettcher, a Ponca City native, and Carlos are going to cover small units and personal stories about the daily lives of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the style of Ernie Pyle, World War II correspondent. Over the years Boettcher has been a correspondent for CNN and NBC.
The two-man team will first be embedded with the Fourth Infantry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. Mike has worked with this unit many times before and is obviously respected by both the military and worldwide media.
“We have been given extraordinary traveling orders from the military,” Boettcher said. This apparently lets them travel with various units and all sorts of transportation which could even mean by aircraft carrier.
“I’ve been working in and out of Iraq since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Desert Storm and for the most recent invasion of Iraq. I’ve been in and out of there since the war began,” Mike said.
The reason Boettcher is launching this unique coverage is because he feels that the major TV news organizations and newspapers have ignored the troops in Iran and Afghanistan.”
Boettcher has YouTube video here.
In a sense, it’s as if we’re returning to Revolutionary days when one person like Tom Paine made a difference in what people thought. Sometimes everything old is new again.
— DRJ
I’d suggest that the issue is more about integrity in reporting. The HuffPo gal heard what was said, supports Obama, but reported it anyway. In short, she held herself to a personal standard of “journalistic integrity” and reported what was said.
As to Boettcher, isn’t this too a question of integrity? The MSM doesn’t want to report on the Iraq War, or about the actions (unless they are bad) of our service men and women.
Why is the trend (at least as it seems to me) to be to get your news from the internet? Is it, perhaps, because the MSM biases are so blatant that they can no longer be trusted? Perhaps that’s why MSM companies and outlets are in such dire financial straits. They have lost their reliability, their integrity is proufoundly suspect, and the population is seeking someone trustworthy to listen too.
509th Bob (e73ed2) — 4/15/2008 @ 11:57 am509thBob,
I like having more information, even if some of it will be suspect, but you might want to read the first link before you applaud the HuffPo blogger for her integrity.
DRJ (a431ca) — 4/15/2008 @ 12:22 pmArianna Huffington NEVER WAS A CONSERVATIVE!!! I worked for a REAL Conservative in Orange County. Arianna only pretended to be a Conservative because she wanted her then in the closet husband, Michael, to be a US Senator, and she’d be the power behind Michael’s face.
When we lost to the Huffington charade, not one Dannemeyer volunteer or paid staff went to work for Huffington even when offered pay.
For you who remember Michael’s acceptance speech for the nomination in Los Angeles or heard the broadcast of it on the news, I’m the one who filled the pause after Michael said, “What is the difference between me and Dianne Feinstein?” with the shout of “NOTHING!”
PCD (5ebd0e) — 4/15/2008 @ 12:24 pmI applaud the guys who are going to embed with the troops but the cynic in me wonders if they have seen the huge response to Michael Yon who went to Iraq on his own, is supported by private contributers (like me), and has become world famous with a book in the top 20 on Amazon and rising fast. He is now being compared to Ernie Pyle and probably has a long and successful career ahead of him. Unlike a lot of old media people who will soon be looking for jobs.
Mike K (6d4fc3) — 4/15/2008 @ 1:25 pm“Boettcher, a Ponca City native, and Carlos are going to cover small units and personal stories about the daily lives of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the style of Ernie Pyle, World War II correspondent Michael Yon, pioneering Iraq-War jounalist, and other in-beds who have been ignored by the MSM. Over the years Boettcher has been a correspondent for CNN and NBC.”
There, fixed that for you.
Another Drew (f9dd2c) — 4/15/2008 @ 2:05 pmWhat happened to my strike-outs that showed in the preview?
Another Drew (f9dd2c) — 4/15/2008 @ 2:06 pmAnother Drew,
For some reason, strike-outs don’t work if you use the codes. You have to manually insert them like this: <**strike> ___ <**/strike> … but omit the asterisks.
DRJ (a431ca) — 4/15/2008 @ 2:17 pmDRJ…
Another Drew (f9dd2c) — 4/15/2008 @ 2:35 pmThanks for the info. When did this start happening? It seems to be a hit or miss thing, sometimes it works, sometimes not?
Anyway, the strike should be from “Ernie Pyle” to “coorespondent” inclusive.
You know, the interesting and confusing thing is, the code you gave showed up in the text box, and the Live Preview reflected the code, but when it was submitted … Nothing.
As ancient cartographers used to mark on the edges of maps, in the code somewhere: There be dragons here.
Another Drew (f9dd2c) — 4/15/2008 @ 2:43 pmIt could be related to the recent software problems but I’ve noticed people commenting on the strike-out issue over the past year.
DRJ (a431ca) — 4/15/2008 @ 3:18 pmYon’s book was up to #11, the last I looked. There have been people doing this for a while, they just didn’t manage to get the publicity drums going.
htom (412a17) — 4/15/2008 @ 4:15 pmThe only drums beating are along the blogosphere.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 4/15/2008 @ 7:03 pmDRJ, I’m certainly not nominating her for sainthood, the gist of my comment was that she told the truth. Same goes (re: truth), presumably, for Boettcher, who worked for CNN and NBC, neither of which I rely upon for honest reporting. Even though I generally prefer Fox News, I don’t always trust the spin they rely upon since, like the rest of the MSM, they too (aside from their talk-show segments) seemed to ignore news stories about Iraq. Ultimately, I think that people just want to be told the truth, and are happy to find it wherever it surfaces.
509th Bob (e73ed2) — 4/16/2008 @ 4:31 amWell, the deadwood media has a new way of getting embedded reporters,
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/silence/archives/2008/04/a_newspaper_bet.shtml
But their tactics, ethics and antics…seem to be having an effect they might not have counted on…
http://www.observer.com/2008/times-we-expect-layoffs
Via Instapundit
cfbleachers (4040c7) — 4/16/2008 @ 3:40 pm^ That second link reports a round of layoffs at the NY Times. Lots of loaded responses.
Vermont Neighbor (629f2e) — 4/16/2008 @ 8:13 pmCompaneros: Say, I am feeling like the fraternal international brotherhood of comrade-theoreticians has let me down. Where is my 454 ft yacht! If companero Geffen and apparatachik Arianna get yachts the size of, well, CUBA – and I get, well, CUBA. All I can say is “What the F***!” SIGH. Well, one day. Come the revolution.
Californio (5dfc6c) — 4/16/2008 @ 11:36 pm