Real Actual News
I don't do news. I am not a journalist, as many bloggers think they are. But today I went to the Media Matters forum on (of course) "why media matters" at the George Washington University. I don't have pictures, since my phone camera sucks, but intend to report what I witnessed as accurately as possible.
The panel was Eleanor Clift, Helen Thomas, David Brock, and Al Franken (hell yeah!) And as a panel that was fantastic. I think that I listen to too much Franken though, because like his last book, I felt like I was hearing a lot of the same stuff. Same with David Brock, I read The Republican Noise Machine in 2004 (and it is still the only book since 1992 that I have had to look words up in order to understand, and I mean that as a complement,) and he repeated a lot of back story that I have heard before.
Anywho, the topic was the media and specifically progressive voices in the media - the problem was that no one wanted to talk about that. It was a lot of talk about the war and Bush, which relates to the media, but isn't the real issue. Helen Thomas was very engaging and on topic, specifically saying that we were at war "and I want to know why?" Which garnered the first applause since the panel took the stage (she gave her opening statement last, so like 35 minutes in.)Mrs. Clift spoke about being attacked from the left in response to her editorial criticizing Russ Feingold for bringing up censure. And she repeated something that has been getting to me lately.
She quoted Newt Gingritch. Some time in the last month he said that the democrats should run with the slogan "Had Enough?" I've heard this quote a bunch of times in the last few weeks, and it bugs me. This is why. I got to ask a question, and though I stammered in trying to form it as a question I hope the point wasn't lost (Al wrote it down, so I hope he uses it.) I referenced Mrs. Clift's quote of Newt, then explained that I have a bumper sticker on my car (which I put on 3 months ago) from the DNC that says "Enough is Enough - Vote Democrat." OK? It's the same damn slogan, and everyone in the media is touting it as a Newt idea. The worst was that Mrs. Clifts response was that she didn't know about the DNC slogan - which tells me the thing we already know, the media refuses to do their homework. Which Helen Thomas echoed in her earlier statements.
On the happy side, Al used the opportunity to say that it concerned him, because it gave the impression that Newt was smart. I now am the proud owner of a comedy assist to Al Franken. Sadly the young guy ahead of me in the question line was not so lucky, he tried to be funny, but was met with the Al retort "I'll do the jokes." It was all in good fun though.
Side note - Al's Cheney impersonation is better on the radio that in person.
Another interesting thing, is that Al looked at me a lot. And when I introduced myself as "an actor in D.C." he moved his glasses and squinted trying to see if he could place me. Good luck man, unless you watch "Toy Soldiers" a lot, or are a fan of Union training films it's not too likely, but I thank him for the attention.
Over all, the final question, "where do we go from hear?" which was a very poorly planted question - went unanswered for the most part. Mrs. Clift thinks the media will right itself - like a free marketeer would, Helen Thomas thinks we have to start over (I know what she means, but that would require some kind of universal journalistic control group to beat the bias out of all these pseudo-journalists crapping on the airwaves these days, and the draw and quartering of Chris Matthews,) and Al says he's going to do his radio show tomorrow - funny, but not an answer.That’s the problem; no one wants to fix what is wrong. One side wants to talk about the consequences and the other will just ignore it. We have to stop watching news entertainment (cable news) or none of this will change. The corporate media only responds to money, so watch Oberman and John Steward, but not Lou Dobbs or Wolf Blitzer - until they get with the program and start dealing with fact.
posted by Thehairyape @ 10:43 PM
4 Comments:
Where to go from here?
I think I am agreeing with your answer. About two years ago I stopped watching television news. I still watch The Daily Show & sometimes The Colbert Report, but nothing else. Here is why. Television spin is much more warped than anything in print. When I read a newspaper, a blog, or a magazine; those writing it can do their best to sway me, but they have to do it in a concise and thought out manner. When someone has only a 2 minute segment with which to spew an idea, we get what you called 'pseudo-journalism' and what I call 'media vomit'. This is where the news networks have ingested a bunch of facts in a short period of time and it is all just roiling around in their metaphorical tummies and they can't digest all of it so they just regurgitate the one chunk that will seem interesting to folks with a short attention span. Then to make matters worse, they put little vocal inflections and slip shod editing and sometimes cheesy music to disguise the fact that they are really trying to shove their puke down our throats.
So here is my completely unbelievable utopian idea for the future of the media. Invest our attention and money toward teachers and literacy. Make the reading of print media a way of life. If we teach kids in school to read a newspaper everyday then we can hope that it will become cultural, and ingrained into their normal way of life. If the networks and cable news had to compete with print my guess is that they would work harder to do decent reporting.
ps. I have buddy who was also in Toy Soldiers. Crazy.
Helen Thomas said "the key to democracy is an informed public" several times. Which is what your suggesting, and I agree. There was a retire history teacher who had the smae comment as well. This really comes down to a new kind of education - 21st Century Education.
Personally, I think the reason Americans (adults and children) watch so much TV, is that they work too much. So they don't have time for anything else. Or the parents are so busy that they just sit kids infront of the cable babysitter. All this stuff contributes to the reading problem that you brought up.
Did you know that Network News used to be 15 minutes in the 60's? Is it any wonder that we still only have 15 minutes of news, and 23 hours 45 minutes of opinion.
your talking about clint right?
There is always time to do what matters.
Reading the news is something that has lost cultural significance. Outside of work, it has become a pastime, a hobby. That is why I advocate training them young. If reading is the way of life, than people will make time for it.
Good guess, but no, it was Dave.
Toy Soldiers rocks, with or without the canuck.
Interesting discussion. But what of the people who live in places where the print media is not much better (in terms of writing quaility or objectivity) than Fox News?
That might be a slight exaggeration. But newspapers run the gamut in this country. In my limited experience - Kentucky? Surprisingly decent. West Virginia? Forget about it.
So do we ship the Wash Post (because the NY Times would never fly in many parts of this country) to classrooms everywhere? And what then of the Kansas teacher who is studying up on their "Of Pandas and People" textbooks? Won't they give it their own spin?
Right. No answers. Just questions.
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