Our Terrible Media
(updated below)
As I was scanning the news headlines at Memeorandum, I came across this one from ABC News: Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama.
Even before I clicked on the article, I was positive that the headline would not be supported by the content of the story itself. That's how truly terrible our mainstream media has become. You instinctively know not to trust a headline when it says something provocative about a major Democratic candidate. There is ALWAYS far less to the story than the headline indicates.
Sure enough, I was right. Once you get past the initial paragraphs and the reporter actually lets Obama explain himself, the utter triviality of the article becomes apparent:
Needless to say, these are eminently reasonable positions, ones probably supported by most parents (I know I would have no problem with such a policy). Yet ABC decides to run with an intentionally provocative and totally misleading headline--Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama--with the obvious purpose of turning a total non-story into something that will attract lots of traffic from dishonest right-wing bloggers.
And it worked. As of the moment I'm typing this, there are already 50 links to the article showing up on Technorati, virtually all of them from right-wing bloggers citing the headline to bash Obama.
For example, Matt Margolis of GOP Bloggers writes:
But it's not really the right wings blogs that bother me. I expect them to be dishonest and partisan. What bothers me is that ABC News would publish a story like this, which intentionally takes something utterly trivial and attempts to turn it into something controversial, solely to increase traffic. There is increasingly little difference between the Drudge Report and major news organizations. It's pathetic.
UPDATE: Mitt Romney jumps into the fray by slamming Obama. What a shameless hack that man is. Thank you, ABC. By the way, Governor, I don't think that flag is big enough.
As I was scanning the news headlines at Memeorandum, I came across this one from ABC News: Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama.
Even before I clicked on the article, I was positive that the headline would not be supported by the content of the story itself. That's how truly terrible our mainstream media has become. You instinctively know not to trust a headline when it says something provocative about a major Democratic candidate. There is ALWAYS far less to the story than the headline indicates.
Sure enough, I was right. Once you get past the initial paragraphs and the reporter actually lets Obama explain himself, the utter triviality of the article becomes apparent:
When Obama's campaign was asked by ABC News to explain what kind of sex education Obama considers "age appropriate" for kindergarteners, the Obama campaign pointed to an Oct. 6, 2004 story from the Daily Herald in which Obama had "moved to clarify" in his Senate campaign that he "does not support teaching explicit sex education to children in kindergarten. . . The legislation in question was a state Senate measure last year that aimed to update Illinois' sex education standards with 'medically accurate' information . . . 'Nobody's suggesting that kindergartners are going to be getting information about sex in the way that we think about it,' Obama said. 'If they ask a teacher 'where do babies come from,' that providing information that the fact is that it's not a stork is probably not an unhealthy thing. Although again, that's going to be determined on a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards.'"So let's review. Obama favors allowing teachers to say non-explicit but accurate things in response to children's questions, and only then in accordance with guidelines developed on "a case by case basis by local communities and local school boards" and with a provision allowing parents to opt out. He also favors teaching young children about "inappropriate touching" so as to prevent and/or identify cases of child abuse.
In addition to local schools informing kindergarteners that babies do not come from the stork, the state legislation Obama supported in Illinois, which contained an "opt out" provision for parents, also envisioned teaching kindergarteners about "inappropriate touching," according to Obama's presidential campaign. Despite Obama's support, the legislation was not enacted.
Needless to say, these are eminently reasonable positions, ones probably supported by most parents (I know I would have no problem with such a policy). Yet ABC decides to run with an intentionally provocative and totally misleading headline--Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama--with the obvious purpose of turning a total non-story into something that will attract lots of traffic from dishonest right-wing bloggers.
And it worked. As of the moment I'm typing this, there are already 50 links to the article showing up on Technorati, virtually all of them from right-wing bloggers citing the headline to bash Obama.
For example, Matt Margolis of GOP Bloggers writes:
This is absurd. There is no reason why we need the schools to teach kids that are five years old about something that should be left to the parents. What's even scarier is that he told Planned Parenthood that sex education for kindergartners is "the right thing to do" as long as it is "age-appropriate." Oh yeah? And who gets to decide what is "age-appropriate?"Clearly Matt didn't read past the first paragraph of the article. If he had, he would have learned that, under the bill Obama supported, parents are free to opt out and "local communities and local school boards" determine what is age appropriate.
But it's not really the right wings blogs that bother me. I expect them to be dishonest and partisan. What bothers me is that ABC News would publish a story like this, which intentionally takes something utterly trivial and attempts to turn it into something controversial, solely to increase traffic. There is increasingly little difference between the Drudge Report and major news organizations. It's pathetic.
UPDATE: Mitt Romney jumps into the fray by slamming Obama. What a shameless hack that man is. Thank you, ABC. By the way, Governor, I don't think that flag is big enough.
posted by A.L. at 9:22 PM
11 Comments:
There is increasingly little difference between the Drudge Report and major news organizations.
Glad to see you have let go of the "sloppy journalism" meme or the "So-and-so" is a sloppy journalist.
Perhaps the fact that the MSM has totally misrepresented the recent repub filibuster as everything that is was NOT finally opened some people's eyes.
Yes, admitting that abc and drudge operate on the same level is a start - the next question is, "who's work do they do and why."
What can we do about it?
(1). Honestly acknowledge the problem.
(2). Organize those that was positive change to stop spending their money with the corporations that sponsor and bring use the lying lairs "catapulting the propaganda."
(3). Bring back the "Fairness Doctrine" because clearly the MSM is owned and under the influence of too few owners in order for it to actually serve the people.
I hope we can put the lame meme to rest that our problems are because of any of the lying liars that stand in front of the keyboard or microphone - the problem is much deeper and is structural.
The degree to which the MSM orchestrates the lies and propaganda and creates an echo chamber via the "mighty wurlitzer" should be disturbing to anyone that is willing to look past the personalities involved.
http://www.siecus.org/pubs/guidelines/guidelines.pdf
point well observed and taken. But in the interest of starting with the man in the mirror (as it were), I can't help noting that Huffingtonpost engages in precisely the same crap -- that is, hooking the reader in with needlessly provocative headlines that bear very litle relation to what's going on in the story itself.
Granted, ABC News and Huffingtonpost are not the same thing, and it's sad that they would be held to a similar standard, but I have thought to myself more than once how I wish HuffPo would refrain from this tactic. It makes them look bad. That is, like everyone and everything they supposedly oppose.
I agree about Huffpo, Brux. Still, like you said, the serious news outlets should hold themselves to a higher standard.
The "serious" outlets cannot possibly hole themselves to "higher standards" because they do not see their role as supporting democracy.
From the slamming of Al Gore in 2000, that stolen election, the exploitation of 9/11, a war of conquest based on lies, Katrina, the stolen 2004 election, BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of fraud in the military budget, and the ongoing criminality that the MSM protects, this isn't about "standards" at all.
This post has been removed by the author.
"Shameless hack," indeed.
I wonder if it ever occurred to Slick-Dancin' Mitt that age-appropriate sex education would actually help children to keep from drowning in that "ocean of filth" he keeps talking about.
This is to say nothing of the fact that Rommey is completely misrepresenting Obama's comments on sex education. In a broader sense, this approach is counterproductive to the goal of keeping kids safe.
What is wrong with these people? Why do they think just telling kids to say "no" to pre-marital sex is enough to keep them emotionally- and physically-healthy as sexual beings? Why can't they see the importance of equipping young people to avoid pregnancy and disease in the event that they should have sex at some point in their lives?
It's not just shameless hackery, it is dangerous hackery. It is, in a very real sense, putting young people's lives at risk.
Of course, there is no political benefit to someone like Romney speaking the truth, even if he understands it. Just listen to the mindless applause he receives to that ridiculous wingnut rhetoric. That's how you win support from the GOP base, so for a hack like Mitt, that's the way to go, common sense be damned.
This is the second or third negative reference I have seen for HuffPo recently. Something has gone wrong there.
ABC also employs Jake Tapper, who tired to smear one of Gore's daughter about the fish she served at her wedding.
I'm not kidding. These people are bat shit crazy. And pathetically terrible.
This is precisely why Al Gore may not run. He won't put himself through 8 years of these total scumbags.
Grabbing eyeballs/clicks is no doubt a major reason for this kind of misleading crap being passed off as news. Another is political.
Up the corporate food chain there are powerful people who set the tone and make it known in various ways that they have certain expectations. Those executive suite opinion makers don't have to ring up a reporter, a TV news segment producer or a cable squawk show guest scheduler and put in their order specifically. Media toilers who keep their jobs have gotten the drift. Some who've moved up and done well for themselves not only got the drift, they ran with it.
I said corporate opinion makers let what they expect be known in various ways. One of those ways is hiring certain people for certain plum or powerful jobs.
For example, ABC's powers that be made Mark Halperin the organization's top political guru in the late '90s.
Media Matters' Eric Boehlert provides insight into the message ABC's executive opinion makers wanted to send to the viewing/listening public, to advertisers and to ABC employees with that appointment. Here's a sample:
"Conservatives forever braying about a liberal bias in the press received a big boost last month when Mark Halperin, director of ABC's political unit, took to the airwaves with the reddest of Bush partisans -- talkers Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Hugh Hewitt -- to voice his heated agreement that the mainstream press treats Republicans unfairly.
"Confirming their longstanding fears, Halperin insisted that reporters are 'overwhelmingly liberal,' they 'hate the military,' are 'blind' to their bias, and should use the closing weeks of the campaign season to 'prove' their worth to right-wingers. Suddenly, instead of conservatives working the refs -- badgering journalists with complaints of bias in hopes they would get the benefit of the doubt next time there was a close call in the newsroom -- it was one of the refs (Halperin) working the refs.
"Keep in mind, this wasn't Bernard Goldberg, the disgruntled former CBS lifer who wrote Bias, a book claiming that network news leans left. This was Mark Halperin, the public face of ABC's political news team and founder of The Note, the influential online Beltway tip sheet. Halperin's words carry real weight."
Ever wonder why a typical "This Week With George Stephanopulos" has Republican guests one after another, with at most a token Democrat or maybe just a video clip of a Democrat, and then right-leaning and right-wing, pro-Republican regulars like George Will and Cokie Roberts sit there discussing what lame losers the Democrats are?
Halperin has just moved to Time, where he is the senior political analyst. Time belongs to billionaire Sumner Redstone, who announced well before the 2000 election he needed, wanted and expected a Republican in the White House after the election. Recall how in 2004, Time, along with the New York Times, spent an entire year sitting on an October story about the Plame investigation that would've cast the Bush administration in a bad light -- because, Time later said, it didn't want to affect the outcome of the election!
Now, is Halperin a perfect fit at Time? Has he left his mark at ABC?
You betcha.
This tone-setting, pro-right bias from the top isn't always true of every major media enterprise and all media executives and worker bees — just to too many too often.
FYI- Sumner Redstone is Chmn of Viacom. Time magazine is owned by Time/Warner. Everything else you said about Mark Halperin is 100% correct however.
How has the American public turned its back on the reason this was at one time the greatest society on earth. The left wing loons, who control the majority of the trash media, Time, New York Post, and all network outlets, seem unable to report the truth. All this green shit is rejected by most all scientist, , scholars, and anyone with common scene. Now we trust idiots, including Al Gore, a pathological liar and 1/4 ton M. Morris who cant control his gluttony and John Travolta who cant travel in a vehicle smaller than a 747 jet to do lunch across country. God help us!
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