One just doesn't know how to view the rush to be first with a breaking story in the TV media. Watching local TV it seems the most used words seem to be, exclusive, first heard here, seen only our our chopper cam, blah blah blah. As if that meant anything to anyone anyway. It is like the nightly sex story on each station. We know it is there only because they want more people to watch so they can sell more ad time for erectile disfunction drugs and other stuff.
You really would hope that the national media would not fall into that trap. But CNN and Fox really screwed up the Supreme Court decision on health care by reporting the absolutely wrong outcome. All so they could be first with the news. Who cares who is first? It means nothing. We all would find out sooner or later anyway. Maybe they should read more than the first page of an opinion before disgracing themselves? Oh! But to be first!
What does Wolf Blitzer and the dunderheads at Fox do now? Anything they say would be like Nixon saying he pushed the wrong button on that tape recorder back in the Watergate era. Well, they all look incredibly stupid and these are the people we depend on for basic competence in journalism.
So I am off for another early golf game before we hit 100 degrees. This heat is devastating our garden. Except for the tomatoes.
1 comment:
There's a picture going around where someone photo shopped that Truman image to have Obama holding an iPad.
http://media.bonnint.net/seattle/8/805/80574.jpg
Apparently it was done by a photojournalist named Gary He, who has a web site demonstrating some of his work which is pretty good.
http://www.garyhe.com/
There had been a line of thinking that if Obamacare was struck down it would have helped the president politically, and would have taken away an issue for the Republicans.
But from what I see the result is that the Supreme Court decision is doing what Democrats failed to do all these months, which is to lay out what is actually in the bill. The decision addressed specific provisions of the bill, which anyone explaining the decision in the media can't help but lay out. Now there's a concrete Obamacare reality that will get raised every time a Republican mentions Obamacare. They had been creating the image, but not now.
I often criticize Democrats for failing to counter the way Republicans frame the news, for not having any kind of sense at all that they badly lose the war of ideas, especially New Mexico Democrats.
To his credit Jeff Bingaman used his last monthly email newsletter to explain pretty well what that health care bill does.
Martin Heinrich used his to talk about "Wildfire Safety." There were links to useful information. It was the kind of email newsletter a good, thoughtful, conscientious congressperson should be sending out. We won't have to worry about getting those if Heather is elected.
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