I had to laugh. . .
Topic: Eye on the Media

. . .at this:

Time Inc. Lays Off 289 Persons of the Year

Time Inc., the country's largest magazine publisher, spent the morning telling hundreds of staffers their jobs were being eliminated—in its latest and largest yet round of staff cuts—for the company's good.

OK, it's far from funny for the folks who are losing their jobs. And believe me, I'm deeply sorry that Time Inc. has for some reason failed to prosper in the dynamic, expanding Bush Economy.

Gore's Syndrome Strikes Again
Topic: Eye on the Media

Yesterday's front-page story in the Chicago Sun-Times: "Was Al Gore Right About Global Warming? Warmest Winter Ever."

Link on the Drudge Report this morning: WINTER FINALLY TO COME 'WITH A VENGEANCE'?...

Those of us who still fondly recall how Professor Gore once gave a speech about global warming on the coldest winter day in many hears can only shake our heads and smile at the Sun-Times' bad timing.

Dumb as a Box of Rocks
Topic: Eye on the Media

How else to describe the editorial board of Time magazine after they chose YOU, i.e. the American people, as Person of the Year?

"If you choose an individual, you have to justify how that person affected millions of people," said Richard Stengel, who took over as Time's managing editor earlier this year. "But if you choose millions of people, you don't have to justify it to anyone."

On the downside, no one will pay much attention. I wonder if that ever occurred to Mr. Stengel?

The Man Who Never Was
Topic: Eye on the Media

The Associated Press finds itself embroiled in a growing scandal over its reporting from Iraq. It appears that one of the AP's oft-quoted sources, an Iraqi police captain named Jamil Hussein. The problem for the AP is that CPT Hussein appears to be an imposter. Iraq's Ministry of the Interior, which controls the national police, claims to have no record of his existence.

This is a problem for the AP because it relied on "CPT Hussein" for information on a couple of sensational stories: one in which Iraqi soldiers supposedly stood by while people were burned alive in a mosque, and another in which US soldiers supposedly shot and killed shooting 11 civilians. Iraqi and US officials deny that either incident ever happened.

So what the hell is going on here? Most likely, hate-Bush bias so poisoned the AP's well of objectivity that it allowed itself to be rolled by a terrorist provocateur masquerading as a police officer.

Needless to say, the rest of the mainstream media has studiously averted its eyes from this gross breach of journalistic ethics—if the term "journalistic ethics has not become an oxymoron. After all, their false and lying stories were bashing George W. Bush, so at least the AP's heart was in the right place. Right?

Thucydides He Ain't
Topic: Eye on the Media

Only those with no knowledge of history can really be shocked by the revelations in Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial. Just imagine! In the middle of a war, leaders are divided in their opinions, acutely sensitive to turf issues, mutually distrustful and overly concerned with covering their own backsides. Of course, that could describe the Anglo-American alliance of World War II or for that matter Athens during the Peloponnesian War. What is different today is the existence of shake-and-bake historians like Woodward, whose puerile commentaries generate more heat than light.

AA Lives to Yak Another Day
Topic: Eye on the Media

Last week I passed along a report  that lefty talk radio network Air America is facing bankruptcy. Now it appears that reports of AA's financial demise have been somewhat exaggerated. (Be it noted that the original story came from a progressive source. You simply can't trust these people, can you?)

Cry Me a River, Al
Topic: Eye on the Media

Rumor has it that Radio Unfree Pyongyang, aka Air America, is poised to declare bankruptcy.

It won't be easy, but I think I'll be able to get through this difficult time without the services of a grief counselor.

Sorry, No Storm Surge
Topic: Eye on the Media

Hurricane Ernesto has petered out. This morning, alas, its a mere tropical storm. I say "alas" out of compassion for the mainstream media, whose eagerness to cover a catastrophic weather even on the on-year anniversary of Katrina was so very palpable.

 Better luck next time, boys and girls.

Be Afraid. . .
Topic: Eye on the Media
. . .be very afraid, for hurricane season is upon us. I'm not referring to the hurricanes themselves, though they can be dangerous enough, but to media coverage of hurricanes. After the terrible job that the media did on Hurricane Katrina, I'm inclined to be highly skeptical of their reporting this time around.

Bunker Groupies of the Media
Topic: Eye on the Media

Have you noticed that whenever the good guys go after the bad guys, the media have a tendency to obsess over the allegedly superhuman capabilities of the bad guys?

 

It’s happening again as Israel goes after the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon. News report after news report raves about the famous toughness of Hezbollah “fighters,” their well-disciplined fanaticism, their huge weapons caches and, of course, their impregnable 100-foot-deep bunkers. Meanwhile, we are constantly being told that the hapless Israelis are “surprised” and “shocked” by Hezbollah resistance, that their “air campaign” has failed, that they are being forced to rethink their plans, etc., etc.

 

In this connection, the bunkers of Hezbollah have become a bit of a media obsession. Most reporters, observing military operations, have no idea what they are looking at. The fog of war, as Clausewitz so aptly described the confusion that descends on any battlefield, must be particularly baffling to people who think in terms of press conferences and sound bites. So they fall back on symbolic clichés, like the bunkers of Hezbollah.

 

But wars are not won by hunkering down in bunkers—as Hitler discovered in his final days.