In this edition: US not the only country spying on its journalists; Afghan reporters focus on roots of insurgents' unrest; what are good editors made of?; The Baghdad Press Club; most of the media doesn't cover Durbin's response to Bush speech; why we need TV newsmagazines; Tony Snow Job begins; dumb Joe Klein quote; FT names most influential journalists; Muslim news in the US; and more...
Thoughts, and Then, the News
With a few exceptions, the media largely chose not to air live Durbin's response to Bush's immigration speech. There's nothing fair and balanced about giving free airtime to Bush, while not allowing time for Durbin. Speaking of airtime, for two weeks in a row, MTP and Fox News Sunday didn't have a Dem on as a guest. While Sunday Talk guest imbalance has been covered by Media Matters, morning show guest imbalance hasn't gotten enough coverage in the blogosphere. Millions watch those morning shows, and the imbalance there shouldn't be ignored. I plan on doing a post about it, but I don't have the resources MMFA has to compile everything. Ask them to do for morning show guests what they did for Sunday Talk guests.
Now for the news from the past week posted, May 22, 2006:
Note: I'm going to put a %%% next to things that are more interesting or go into things more in-depth.
Way to take a stand, Joe
Joe Klein on The Chris Matthews Show
"Hillary Clinton may be running for president. But -- she also may not be. And I just wanted to be on the record as saying that... It is very -- I think there's a strong possibility that she is so happy and so successful in the Senate that she will not want to take the risk."
One not to trust
Jason Leopold's bad track record Plagiarism and unsubstantiated reporting color Leopold's past.
The Tony Snow Job
* Yes, the WH hired a new press secretary to repeat the ole "can't confirm or deny" line.
* FishBowl DC rounds up the early reviews here.
* FishBowlDC reviews Snow's first televised press briefing CJRDaily weighs in here. Jay Rosen weighs in here.
* On Call summarizes Snow's first televised press briefing
* Memo to WH Press Corps: Snow misled you in answering his first question
* Memo to Snow: Consider not using "tar baby". Follow up memo: Consider not trying to defend the use of "tar baby"
* Snow tears up when asked about Livestrong bracelet He's a colon cancer survivor.
* Kurtz fluff profile of Snow
Knight-Ridder sale fallout
* Bidder interest apparently intense in KR's Plains States orphans
* The Glory Days at the Philly Inq
* Six potential bidders line up to make a play for Philly papers More on the bidders here and here.
Credit Where It's Due
* CNN's Nic Robertson for his reports on Darfur.
* Joe Scarborough on NSA phone record collecting: "Had this alleged power been used during the Nixon administration. Deep Throat would have been exposed before Watergate erupted"
* TNR devotes issue focused almost entirely on Darfur
* USN&WR profiles Murray Waas.
* George F. Will. Something sensible from him...
An aggressively annoying new phrase in America's political lexicon is "values voters." It is used proudly by social conservatives, and carelessly by the media to denote such conservatives.
This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to . . . well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots.
Awards, Fellowships and Nominees
* NYTer Sharon LaFraniere wins Michael Kelly Award for reporting on women in Southern Africa.
* E&P Announces 2006 EPpy Awards Winners
* Bob Schieffer Receives Fred Friendly First Amendment Award At Luncheon
Battle of Media Folks
* Alessandra Stanley v. Byron Calame
* Well, this one ended without much fanfare, but a Newsweek piece and a Slate piece re: lacrosse culture were oddly similar.
* Joe Johns "Vindicated:" Radio/TV Gallery Says CNN Didn't Ambush Sen. Stevens The fighting continues anyway.
* BushCo vs. the Media People paid by BushCo to attack press on blogs?
Journalists in Dangerous Situations
* David Wright of ABC on how tough it is to get into Darfur
* Lara Logan is CBSNews' fearless reporter
* Afghan reporters focus on roots of insurgents' unrest %%%
* WSJ's Fassihi: Distribution of my private e-mail caused great stress. More from Fassihi here.
* China launches severe crackdown on media
* WaPo reporter shoots video of ambush in Iraq
* The Baghdad Press Club: The horror, claustrophobia, and everyday heroism of reporting on the Iraq war %%%
* Gay CBS News employee healing after near-fatal gay bashing during vacation in St. Maarten
Journalists, Leaks & Investigations
* AG Gonzales says reporters can be prosecuted for publishing classified information Video here.
* Where's the outrage over US spying on journalists?
* Dispute over USA Today NSA scoop has Top Journos Buzzing
* Libby judge is allowed to view reporters' notes
* Germany admits its foreign intel agency spied on journalists
* Feds monitoring phone calls of media. ABC's Brian Ross was on the Ed Schultz show to talk about his scoop, and eventually, his scoop was confirmed (and confirmed again). Ross was on CNN's Reliable Sources to discuss this. Remember the questions about Amanpour? They're back. There's no oversight for so much of this, and given how this administration operates, odds are that they're probably abusing power and trying to hide it. In the meantime, the editorial boards of the NYT and WaPo are silent, while reporters offer mixed views on the government snooping on reporters. Sen. Schumer is asking Bush to provide some answers.
* Hollinger Inc. Will Cooperate with Feds in Case Against Conrad Black Guess who the prosecutor is on this case?
TV Guests Watch
* Sunday Talk modified from Hotline listing:
Meet the Press hosts Sec/State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA). Where are the Democrats? No Dems for a second week in a row.
* Face the Nation hosts AG Alberto Gonzales, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). A GOP tilt here, too
* This Week hosts Gonzales, ex-Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) and John Walsh in the voices segment.
* Fox News Sunday hosts Rice and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). No Dems for a second week in a row?
* Late Edition hosts Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, Australian PM John Howard, Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and U.S. Amb. to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.
* TDS has guests from both sides on and Stewart can challenge them while being polite and insightful.
Stewart v. Ramesh Ponnuru
* The Early Show had Snow and Frist on. Why no Dem? Hotline 5/17: ""Today" and "GMA" led with Pres. Bush's poll numbers and hosted WH spokesperson Tony Snow. "Early Show" led with the immigration debate and hosted Snow and Senate Maj. Leader Bill Frist. "Washington Journal" hosted Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)."
* What? They couldn't get the governor of NH (Lynch, a Dem) on to discuss flooding? Hotline 5/16: ""Today" led with Matt Lauer in the Louvre for his "DaVinci Code" tour. "Early Show" led with Pres. Bush's speech and hosted Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA). "GMA" led with flooding in the northeast and hosted Romney. "Washington Journal" hosted Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Henry Bonilla (R-TX), U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar, and Nat'l Capitol Immigration Coalition's Juan Carlos Ruiz."
* Hotline 5/15: ""Today," "Early Show," and "GMA" led with flooding in the Northeast. "Early Show" and "GMA" hosted WH Counselor Dan Bartlett."
*
Meet the Press is Meet the Newt Why does Russert handle Newt Gingrich with kid gloves? Why is Newt on for 35 minutes without someone from the other side there as well? I hope Bill Clinton gets his 35 minutes on MTP soon.
RWCM Watch
* Memo to the media: Bush doesn't speak Spanish well at all
* Power Rankings Skewed; Media Fails to Tell Electorate the Truth Behind the Numbers
* Two top notch investigative reporters lost jobs at Time
* Send CNNers back to polling school. Another poll showing Bush approval in mid-30s, CNN calls it "a bounce".
* Jay Mathews' Selective Quotation? You decide, by teacherken
* NPR's ombudsman writes about the Liasson and Williams being panelists on Fox I don't think Think Progress misinterpreted Liasson at all. It looks like Dvorkin got that part wrong.
* Whoa. NOLA bloggers aren't happy at all with Chris Matthews.
* Chris Matthews is a GOP Talking Points Magnet
* Former TV anchor objects to gay rights amendments This will really piss you off.
* Judith Miller resurfaces; writes about Libya and WMDs
* VIDEO: TDS on Phone logs and Fox Pundits
* What does it take for the Dem response to get any coverage? MSNBC, PBS and C-SPAN are the only channels who covered Durbin's Democratic Response to Bush's immigration speech
* Bumiller hearts Bush's immigration speech. Does she fact-check? The article is really just awful.
* Check out what the DKos members dug up in the open thread for Bush's immigration speech
* My commentary on: Rothenberg: The Key Democratic Race for '08: Bayh vs. Warner vs. Edwards Does anyone believe that Rothenberg or any other DC pundit would describe a Republican who connects with rural voters as someone who has a shtick? Oh, but when a Democrat connects that way... it's shtick-y. And Rothenberg plays the `angry Dems' card again.
* This is pretty funny in a so-sad-it's-funny kind of way: Tom Friedman's Iraq's `decisive' six months have lasted three and a half years
* Joe Klein Klein shouldn't place the onus on Democrats to solve this problem. If Rove is going to engage in subtle race-baiting, then, Klein should call Rove on it and say that Rove should not do it.
* The hypocrisy of the AEI's panel on media and Iraq.
* Media Matters
Media People
* Tom Brokaw gave commencement address at Univ. of FL College of Medicine
* FT names most influential journalists Dowd, Friedman, Krauthammer, Krugman, and others make the cut.
* Lara Logan profile from Kurtz
* Rather's contract at CBS is almost up
* Aaron Brown to join ASU's faculty for spring 2007 Cronkite is happy for him.
* Profile of Texas Monthly editor, Evan Smith
* Forbes Q&A with Howell Raines
* Profile of Paula Zahn from The Toronto Star
* Couric gets $110K for commencement speech; gives money to charity
* Osnos on what good editors are made of %%%
* 60 Minutes salutes Mike Wallace. Related: Wallace discusses suicide attempt and more here.
* Vieira preps for The Today Show
* Anderson Cooper's favorite songs
News & Notes on Media orgs, Programming, Specials, etc.
* Interested in local TV news clips? Find out how.
* The problems at ABC News %%%
* Advice for Katie Couric Related: Couric showed up at CBS upfront meeting, which may have violated an agreement with NBC to avoid doing publicity for CBS.
* USA Today Phone Spying Scoop Has WaPo and NYT Scrambling
* New study finds CNN embedded reporting in early days of Iraq war was fair
* Syndicated talk radio aimed at women is a new trend
* Primetime left of ABC's fall schedule at May upfronts.
* Infant TV network unveils the face of Muslim news %%%
* Why we still need newsmagazines
* Camera use splits Capitol reporters %%%
* NYT on one year anniversary of HuffPo My, how it's grown!
State of the Media, Trends, Research Reports, Innovations
* Three experts offer hard truths on future for newspapers
* Study guide for US citizenship test omits freedom of press
* Dan Rather says new media useless without old-fashioned journalistic values
* Hardware firms oppose Net neutrality laws, while online retailers support net neutrality.
* FCC indecency complaints triple in Q1, because of organized campaign against NBC's Las Vegas
* Senate OKs higher fines for indecenecy on TV
* KR Washington editor: "Twenty-first century American journalism is at a crisis" %%%
* Times are tough for news media, but journalism schools are still booming
* Campaign 2006: Bloggers spreading `netroots' influence
* Suburban newspaper market poised for growth
Ratings, Circulation, & Ad Revenue Strength
* Study: Increasing number of Americans prefer on-demand online offerings
* CNN Pipeline growing
* Buyers influenced by blogs %%%
* Adults under 35 turn to web portals for national international news
* Morning Show ratings: Today Show wins again
* Sunday Talk ratings via Hotline: "For the week of 5/14, NBC's "Meet the Press" won with a 2.8 rating/8 share and 3.749M viewers. CBS' "Face the Nation" was second with a 2.0/6 and 2.682M viewers. ABC's "This Week" followed with a 1.8/5 and 2.238M viewers. "Fox News Sunday" came in with a 1.1/3 and 1.399M viewers (Hotline sources, 5/18)."
* Cable Ratings for Bush's immigration speech. Here.
* Media age for CNN and FNC viewers increasing
* Countdown 9am repeats do well in 25-54 demo
* Cable news ratings highlights for week of 5/8: AC360 beats On the Record with Greta in 25-54 demo for the week
* Evening News ratings for Week of 5/8-5/12: NBC comes out on top; CBS beats out ABC WNT in total viewers for first time since 2001 (see chart here). Bob Schieffer is pretty darn happy about the rising ratings. CBS's move upward in the ratings gets coverage in NYT, NYPost, and Houston Chronicle.
* Social networks attract nearly half of all web users Stats for MySpace, Blogger, YouTube, and other sites.
Media News Monday is a compilation of media news from the past week posted on Monday. Media is an integral part of politics, and I think that it's important to get to know media and media innovation in order to forecast future ways of campaigning, targeting voters, and disseminating information. If any of you are interested in campaigning, this weekly diary may help you with ideas. It is also important to keep up with right wing corporate media (RWCM) news. If you have any media news to add, please do so. For more RWCM watch & Media News: Penndit's News, Media News, and RWCM Watch Links. I get the advertising, public relations, targeting voters information, and media research from a variety of sources other than the links above. Cross-posted at Penndit and My Left Wing. For previous editions, search my diaries or Penndit.
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