MSM Death Watch: Polls, TV News and AP Rogue Newspapers

Mainstream Media:
Gatekeepers' Media Death Watch
October 29, 2008



* Why Polls Don't Work
* Why TV News Never Worked Out As Adversarial
* AP Papers Going Rogue
* Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) Wants "Fairness"
* Obama RedistributionMania
* LA Times: Arrogant Info Overseer

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MSM Shake, Death Rattle and Roll


"Look! Up in the sky!
It's a Hawk!
It's over Iowa!
It's IowaHawk!"



We present for your edification:

The Short Course in Why You Should Mathematically and Statistically Distrust Polls 101;
or, in layman's language, "Balls and Urns".
Brought to you as a public service by IowaHawk Educational Services.
Hat tip: Little Green Footballs: IowaHawk on the Abuse of Statistics

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The Future of TV News in the Post-Russert Era explains why TV network news will eventually go the way of the buggy whip.

This idea of a friendly news-government relationship is the opposite of what the Founding Fathers wanted. They wanted an adversarial relationship between the press and the government. The country’s founding premise was that the public must continually protect itself from governments’ natural inclination to encroach on their individual rights. Jefferson wanted newspapers to serve as a “fence” to stop this encroachment and encouraged them to engage in a process of “attack and defense” with government. In fact, he established a newspaper with James Madison to bloody-up Alexander Hamilton’s Federalists during Washington’s administration.

You didn’t notice that network news deliberately tries to be friendly to politicians? Just compare network to cable news coverage. Cable TV requires no broadcast licenses from the federal government – there’s no need for these channels to keep FCC political appointees happy. Note how much hotter the political talk is on cable vs. broadcast news. On cable, you find politician-attackers like Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann. On broadcast, you find suck-ups like Brian Williams and Katie Couric.

The only TV stations engaging the Obama campaign in an adversarial relationship seem to be getting hit with the ban stick: first, in Florida, Obama Campaign Cuts Access for Florida TV Station Asking Unpleasant Questions UPDATED; then, in

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* Democratic Senator Tells Conservative Radio Station He’d Re-impose Fairness Doctrine--on Them

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) told radio station 770 AM KKOB in Albuquerque, N.M., that he didn’t know if Democrats in Congress will try to re-impose the Fairness Doctrine next year – but he would certainly like them to.

AP and Rogue Newspapers

* Bob McCarty: Newspapers Turning Away From Associated Press?

AP = Associated Pap

* Brewing battle between AP and its member newspapers will make papers healthier and their readers happier

Lost Remote reports that there is growing interest around the country in Ohio newspapers’ plans to side-step the Associated Press and share statewide news only among themselves, ensuring that their papers are the exclusive sources for their original stories. Some papers feel they are simply being taken advantage of by the AP. The editor of the Columbus (OH) Dispatch said “What has happened is we’re becoming the wire service for the wire service,” as the AP lifts their statewide stories and distributes them to others.

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Obama's tricks with your treats.

* Is Obama Planning to Redistribute Chocolate, Too?

Barack Obama shrugs off charges of socialism, but noted in his own memoir that he carefully chose Marxist professors as friends in college.

* Obama Affinity to Marxists Dates Back to College Days

The LA Times makes decision (again) to not inform their readers.

Remember when the LA Times circulated a memo telling its reporters not to write anything about John Edwards in their blogs? [John Edwards-Rielle Hunter Love Child: LA Times Censors Reporters on Story] Now the Times is formalizing its policy of Arrogant Info Overseer, Southern Cal Division, with its refusal to release a 2003 video tape it has obtained of Barack Obama yukking it up with--ready?--some questionable associates.

* McCain Campaign Demands LA Times Release Hidden Video Tape

The Times is working on its fourth or fifth different excuse for not releasing the tape. #6 is right around the corner...

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file