Thank You Captain Obvious

So I was going through The Huffington Post just now and I ran into a post by Peter Mehlman. If you do not recognize the name, he was one of the head writers for Seinfeld. Due to a couple degrees of separation, he got me on as an extra for a show he created (not Seinfeld) a few years back. He is a great comedy writer, but when it comes to analyzing the media, his message is rather depressing.

The gist of it is that in today's media, there are so many outlets for people to choose to get their news from, whether you are liberal or conservative. Because of that, he sees the Information Age is more like "it's the blather-ation age." Well I am glad you notice that Peter, the Information Age does allow many people to express their viewpoints and yes, other people can choose to read whichever they deem fit.

Mehlman highlights the works of Maureen Dowd and Bill Maher on the left and David Broder on the right, showing that as talented as these people are the only thing being accomplished is preaching to the choir. What Peter is missing here is that even though politics is extremely divisive, the world is not wholly black and white. There are (gasp) independents out there that hate both choirs and are looking for a middle ground. In fact, there are more and more Independents being registered all the time.

The most depressing part of his post was the end:

Preaching to the choir is a deadening experience.

Then again, preaching to the heathens isn't much better. On the right, a respected conservative columnist like David Brooks in the New York Times sounds more and more desperate in his attempts to gently get liberals to think another way. Ask a Maureen Dowd fan if he or she read David Brooks today and you get this put upon reaction of, "I started reading but by the third paragraph, I just couldn't stand it anymore."

Instead, we spend our lives preparing for an argument we'll never have with a person we'll never meet whose opinions we could never change.

Now I find this insulting to people that are actively engaged in politics, even if they only want to know what is going on in the world. What Peter seems to be inferring is that with all the sources of information out there, why should we even bother following the news if we can't get through to the other side?

Well if I remember correctly, it is an engaged citizenry that strengthens a democracy. Sure, not everyone is going to follow the news as meticulously as others, but that is perfectly fine. Nevertheless, people's minds do actually change, the Congress, the Presidency and all the elected offices below that do change hands based on how the public feels their leaders are doing. It is how a democracy works (even if ours has been walloped in the head over and over by the neo-cons in the last few years) and we should continue to strive for a better nation that serves its people.

Coulter And Tweety: Living Under A Random House

Media Bloodhound happened upon an interesting piece of synergy last week about Ann Coulter and Chris Matthews. The Edwards/Coulter story lasted so long because Coulter was there to take the call, being on Chris' show for an entire hour. What reasonable and/or newsworthy relevance is there to an hour of the pathetic piece of crap that Ann is? Could it be because both Chris and Ann share the same publisher for their books?

From Media Bloodhound:

Ann Coulter’s Godless is published by Crown Forum, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, which is part of Random House. Who is Chris Matthews’ publisher for his upcoming book Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success? You guessed it - Random House.

But wait, there’s more.

Coulter showed up on Hardball this past Tuesday to promote the new paperback edition of Godless, which just happened to be released on the same day of her appearance. (Matthews also fails to point this out to his viewers.) And while this hour-long Coulterfest was nothing more than a deftly marketed, nationally televised promo book party posing as news, it only begins to touch on the disturbing synergy between the two. A little more digging reveals that Coulter's forthcoming book If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans: Ann Coulter at Her Best, Funniest, and Most Outrageous, published by the same Random House company, is scheduled for an October 2, 2007 release. And the release date for Matthews’ Random House publication Life’s a Campaign (his first, incidentally, with Random House)? Whaddya know: October 2, 2007.

The article goes into much more detail and is a very interesting read. If it seems odd to you that there are so many coincidences going on here, they probably aren't coincidences. Media giants like Random House love synergy of their products wherever they can get it. Having two authors on Hardball creating controversy doesn't get much better for book sales.

This is just another piece of evidence that Tweety is nothing more than a hack for whoever his employers are. He lives off of an impression that he is a credible journalist and media entity. The more he does this, the smaller Matthews will get over time.

Chris Dodd Has A Message For The Media

Chris Dodd is sounding better and better by the day. Although he is far behind in the polls, the leadership he is taking in regards to getting out of Iraq is highly commendable.

Al Gore Versus The Media

The Young Turks talk about how Al Gore and the media have gotten along, in addition to how the media treats other candidates. For the traditional news outlets, it is all about fluff and hardly any substance. Seriously, who cares if Edwards got a $400 haircut? If that is such a pressing issue, why not ask Bush why he spends over $10,000 on a suit.

Obama Teaches A Lesson To The Press

Score one for Obama against the lazy traditional media yesterday. He was sick and tired of the media directing the narrative of his campaign and struck back in their faces. When a young girl asked him about education, he gave an honest and sincere question to her. The next moment he told the press to take notes from her.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Summed up, he went on, the narrative says that "I can deliver a pretty good speech" but that it's all rhetoric and no detail.

Not true, said Obama.

"I have the most specific plan about how to get out of Iraq of any candidate," Obama said, also mentioning his proposals regarding education, health care and energy. Plus, he pointed out, he has written two books "that give more insight into how I think and feel" about important issues.

"The problem isn't that the information's not out there," Obama told reporters.

"You've been reporting on how I look in a swimsuit," he said, a reference to the recent publication of pictures of him on a Hawaiian beach and subsequent commentary about it.

The media just doesn't get it. They are the ones who look for fluff and forget substance. This shit happens all the time and it is getting old. Maybe if they would do some investigative reporting you might find out Obama is more than just a guy in a bathing suit that attended a madrassa church on Chicago's South Side.

As he left the room, Obama paused to answer the question of a teenage student who attended the press conference. She asked about education.

Obama answered her, then pointed to the reporters leaning in to listen.

"Take some notes, guys," he said. "That's how you do it."

The children our are hope for the future indeed.

Live Blogging The Libby Trial

Oh you know this is going to be good. The 'trial of 2007', at least in the first few weeks of the new year. Libby is in a lot of trouble and is looking for a way out. Implicating higher-ups could be the best route to attain those ends. Look out Cheney, you might be facing some loud music in the near future.

The trial will also include the first live-blogging of a major trial. Two bloggers will be allowed in the courtroom at a time and those spots will be filled on a weekly, rotating basis. Finally a biased opinion that doesn't come from corporate America. The regulars like CNN, MSNBC and that other place may claim to be unbiased but we all know that's a load of crap. See more at TalkLeft.



Those guys should be shaking in their boots. Chris 'Tweety' Matthews is one of those DC elites and constantly flirts with the lines of ethical journalistic standards. Fineman talks about the how the run up to the war will be revisited and how the press played into the White House's manipulative hands.

Jokes and Consumerism Dominate Media: Human Event Stories Suffer

With numerous twenty-four hour cable news networks, a declining but still healthy print media and a plethora of local news outlets you would believe that what is news in this world would be covered. The human interest story that connects people with their fellow man should be an easy decision to cover. Unfortunately the media in America is not interested in items like that. Botched jokes and the latest gadget that is sold on gadget.com takes far more space in what we see and read than matters of life and death around the world.

Truly Equal points us to Doctors' Without Borders annual top ten list of underreported stores. Of these ten, seven minutes of airtime was dedicated, combined! The top ten are listed below in no particular order.

Somalia - Somalis Trapped by War and Disaster
Central African Republic - Fleeing Violence in the Central African Republic (CAR)
Tuberculosis - Increasing Human Toll Taken by Tuberculosis
Chechnya - Consequences of Bitter Conflict in Chechnya
Sri Lanka - Civilians Under Fire in Sri Lanka While Assistance is Limited
Malnutrition - Effective Strategies for Treating Malnutrition Not Implemented
Democratic Republic of Congo - Congolese Endure Extreme Deprivation and Violence
Colombia - Living in Fear in Colombia
Haiti - Violence Rages in Haiti’s Volatile Capital
Central India - Clashes in Central India

Where is the in-depth reporting on these issues? Is it too much work for our journalist community to send reporters to put these matters on the front pages of our newspapers and in the thousands of news segments taped daily? Perhaps the press believes that people want to be happy in a state of delusion and that George Foreman's seventh edition grill is much more important?

Earth to journalists, it is your job to cover the news, no matter what it is. Stop showing us garbage that you think will give you the best ratings and give us the truth!