So what mainstream paper do I read now? The New York Times has the Judy Miller reputation to live down and now the LA Times has fired its most liberal journalist Robert Scheer after 30 years with the paper. The fact that the New York Times supported a Judy Miller and others who never questioned the information they were giving out to the public on the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein supposedly possessed has really turned me off to the New York Times. And to make matters worse now the LA Times which I read on a daily basis as I live in LA County has summarily dismissed one of the few columnists I enjoyed reading. Robert Scheer never was fooled by Bush/Cheney's scare tactics leading up to the Iraq War. He was right about the War all along and now he is seen by the paper as politically too left of center. The paper has decided to cater to the center and pump out pablum and information sharing that does not excite people too much, keeping its target somewhere in the empty headed middle. Scheer who is out because The Editor (who said he hated every word Scheer wrote) and The Tribune from Chicago which owns the paper could care less about the quality of the paper. They also fired Michael Ramirez, an ultra right wing political cartoonist for the LA Times, and opted for not having an in-house cartoonist at all. It seems as though many papers are opting to not have political cartoonist working for them on a regular basis. Although I hated the Ramirez content, the reasons for getting rid of him were wrong and short sighted, namely it was cheaper to run the paper without him.
I still get to hear Robert Scheer on KCRW Radio's Left, Right and Center's weekly show. He also is writing for The Huffington Post and some other media outlets. I was surprised that the only mention of Scheer's firing on the last Left, Right, & Center Show was from Scheer himself at the end of the show. To add salt to the wound The Times is adding very right wing Jonah Goldberg to replace Scheer as a regular columnist. So in this decision the pablum is tipping to the right as far as I can tell but it is still pablum. It would have been good to have a regular discussion about it. I am glad that Patt Morrison will continue to be featured regularly in the LA times and a few other writers that have liberal reputations but they will not have regular columns like Scheer did. This drift to the right of the media is nothing new but it was a shock to lose Scheer and I really hated having to go through that pitiful show that Judith Miller put on trying to place herself in the category of a selfless heroine put on by the cruel injustice of the Law because she wouldn't name Libby or Rove or whoever her source was. As far as I am concerned Miller and her buddies were all in the "Big Lie" together and it looks like they will all go down together too. Too bad the powers that be still control the media when push comes to shove. The TV media is even worse than the newspapers when it comes to right wing propaganda. And it is not just Fox news I am thinking about. I can understand why many people are turned off to the news altogether. The progressive people and interests of California did outsmart reactionary California Governor Schwarzennegger by using a very effective media ad campaign, one ray of hope in a dark cloud of growing pessisism when it comes to the news business. I wonder if it will make a difference?
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2 comments:
Patrick,
Sorry, I didn't mean to give the impression I am putting down all print media. I know there are good journalists and good reporters around. I am speaking to two papers that I read. I will continue reading both papers but may limit it to online rather than paying for delivery of the LA Times as a statement against the firing of Scheer. It is the least I can do. I do not get a subscription to the New York Times but see it online.
SRaphael
RE: "has really turned me off to the New York Times"
Now posted at: Karl Rove Says Who Leaked First
The Times They Should Be A-Changin
Bloggers Request:
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the Times should be a-changin'.
Good Bye Sulzberger, Keller, and Miller!
Fitzgerald's response:
Come politician's, journalists
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For more indictments they are a-comin'.
--Bob Dylan
Judy plans to write a book.
Now that's a novel idea.
It certainly won't be based on facts
I like Mr. Fitzgerald's motto: "If you do a white collar crime then you will serve blue collar time." Look where he lodged Judith Miller. A few months in a blue collar jail and she was ready to sing. Unfortunately, she says she forgot the words.
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