Journalism's Dirty Little Secret: Most Scoops Come from Partisans
Writing at Salon, Michael Scherer discloses one of journalism's dirty secrets: many of the biggest and most sensational stories you hear about in the media were not dug up by the reporters themselves. Instead, they were handed to them by political operatives from an opposing campaign. Oftentimes, the provenance of that information is never disclosed to the audience.While he frames his article…
WashPost: Advertising Anti-War Website, Uses Obscene Graphic for GOP
In a commencement address to New England College, Democrat Party presidential candidate John Edwards has issued a call to turn Memorial Day from a day to celebrate our troops to a day pushing a political message that attacks them. He has also created a new website to further that goal and the Washington Post is helping him advertise it breaking their more common practice of not posting links…
DNC Attorneys Send Cease and Desist Letter to Free Republic
The Howard Dean-Kathleen Sebelius-Kansas tornado story has taken an interesting turn. Scott Johnson at Power Line reported Saturday that attorneys representing the Democratic National Committee have sent a cease and desist letter to Free Republic due to a post at its website concerning allegations made on the “Quinn & Rose” XM Satellite radio show Thursday (h/t Glenn Reynolds).Howard Dean…
GMA Frets That Pope is ‘Pushing his Pulpit’ and ‘Interfering
On Friday’s "Good Morning America," ABC anchors and reporters worried that the Pope may be "interfering in American politics." Correspondent Dan Harris discussed the Pope’s comments about pro-choice Catholic politicians and an ABC graphic offered this leading question, "Is Pope Pushing his Pulpit?" Talking to conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Harris adopted a tone of surprise that the…
Warm Welcome for Hillary on MSNBC: 'You Have Been a Unifying Force
Boycotts are falling everywhere. With the French having elected Sarkozy, American conservatives are feeling good about buying Beaujolais again. And with Imus gone from MSNBC, Hillary Clinton has ended her one-woman boycott of the network's morning-show slot. Hillary had famously shunned the shock-jock's show in the wake of his suggestive shtick at a Radio & TV Correspondents dinner with Pres…
Obama Says ’10,000 People Died’ in Kansas Tornado, Media Couldn
Imagine for a moment that one of the leading Republican presidential candidates said that 10,000 people had been killed by the recent tornado that destroyed Greensburg, Kansas, Saturday. Do you think this would have been easy fodder for the broadcast television news divisions that always seem fascinated with gaffes made by folks on the right?If your answer is an unequivocal “Yes,” then why did…
