Now is the time when the media — including The Eagle — publish rankings of the top news stories or issues of the year. So it’s appropriate the media is the subject of its own ranking. Politico.com listed the top 10 media blunders of 2008, including:
The New York Times story about John McCain’s lobbying ties, which suggested that McCain had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist;
The ill-fated pairing of Chris Matthews and Keith Obermann as co-anchors of MSNBC’s election coverage;
A Fox News commentator referring the playful greeting between Barack Obama and his wife as a “terrorist fist bump”’;
The ABC News-sponsered Democratic debate in Philadelphia, which spent the first half of the debate on such trivial issues as Obama’s stance on flag pins;
The New Yorker’s “Politics of Fear” magazine cover depicting Obama dressed as a Muslim with an American flag burning in the fireplace.
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28 Comments
Oh darn, the “media’s over use of top 10 lists at the end of the year” only made number 11 this year.
The media, a fairly random collection of people who write (hopefully nonfiction) for a living, is just as capable of blundering as the rest of us. 2008 being an election year, blunders were probably more likely to happen this year than last. All told, the blunders listed in the article were fairly minor, did get corrected and probably had no real effect on us. Not the way the media blundered and allowed itself to be used and manipulated five years ago as a willing propaganda tool on the issue of WMD’s and the necessity of a trumped-up war. That one has cost our nation so much in so many ways that we may never recover. That’s the one we need to keep reminding ourselves and the media of, not the usual election year gaffes.
#1 is Sean Hannity. “As Media Matters for America has demonstrated time and again, Fox News’ Sean Hannity has been a prolific and influential purveyor of conservative misinformation”
He is named Media Matters’ 2008 Misinformer of the Year
“”That’s my job. … I led the ‘Stop Hillary Express.’ By the way, now it’s the ‘Stop Obama Express.’ ” Hannity’s “Stop Obama Express” promoted and embellished a vast array of misleading attacks and false claims about Obama. Along the way, he uncritically adopted and promoted countless Republican talking points and played host to numerous credibility-challenged smear artists who painted Obama as a dangerous radical. When he was not going after Obama, Hannity attacked members of Obama’s family, as well as Sen. Hillary Clinton and other progressives, and denied all the while that he had unfairly attacked anyone.”
MORE at: http://mediamatters.org/items/200812170007?f=h_top
David,
I don’t believe we should consider Fox as one of the media as it is admittedly a propaganda mill for the extreme right wing of the ‘publican party. Think of it as a one-client ad agency.
Imagine that. “Media Matters”is attacking Hannity. Well duh. Maybe it is because Daddy Warbucks George Soros and some notable Democrats including HRC founded “Media Matters” as a vehicle to discredit and destroy Conservatives and conservative media. They monitor and record every second of every conservative show out there and then twist and distort what they say. They use lies and innuendo to try and slay the conservative media dragon, which they have never been able to compete with in the free and open marketplace of fair competition. May George Soros take his long appointed place in the hotter regions of Hell real soon.
“Think of it as a one-client ad agency.” — Jed
——-
Excellent description! Succinct and accurate.
Too me the media pounding us almost every day with big black headlines on how bad the economy is or will be is not good. Sure knocks the confidence level down.
Wow, imagine wanting to send someone to hell for countering ones beliefs. Sounds like the religious right is on the warpath again, which in itself is an oxymoron.
I’m not sending anybody anywhere JM. Soros punched his ticket a long time ago. You Democrats are such lying hypocrites. You claim to care about the poor and the downtrodden, yet your George Soros has caused more misery and more hardships for more people than just about anybody in history. His currency speculating which is the reason he has so much money in the first place has hurt millions of poor people in countries like Argentina, yet you gladly take his money like the dupes you are. He has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat Bush and the republicans because they shut him down when they came to power after Clinton gave him a free hand through out the nineties. Way to go stooges. Hope you enjoy the ‘Change you can believe in”.
Gotta agree. Sean Hannity is public enemy of the truth number one.
HE is the only, major member of the media who ran with the “McCain supporter attacked and mutilated! B for Barack carved on her face!”.
Fairness doctrine is needed.
“Hope you enjoy the ‘Change you can believe in”.” — Chrisfrommactown
——-
Thank you! I already am, and the future looks bright.
I’d like to offer kudos to the media.
The “McCain supporter attacked and mutilated!” had ALL the stuff that gathers viewers or sells papers.
But with rare exception noted above, the media vetted out the story before running with it.
“almost every day with big black headlines on how bad the economy is or will be is not good.”
Not to worry. In less than a month, we will be living in a land of milk & honey. Once Obama is on His throne, the press will report all positives. Utopia to follow…………..
Hollywood is already working movies on prophet Obama and a remake of the Land of Obama (aka Lincoln). Just wait until Obama arrives on the Lincoln train for his coronation. History will be re-written once again!
What was wrong about the mccain and his lobbyist girlfriend? Don’t think that story was ever ran down to any kind of conclusion.
Chrisfrommactown
Posted December 26, 2008 at 9:53 am | Permalink
I’m not sending anybody anywhere JM. Soros punched his ticket a long time ago.
=====================================================
I guess I just don’t understand the right-wing mind. First, they send em to hell, then they claim they didn’t. But just to make sure they get their point across, they “kinda” claim they’re going their anyway. How come every time I read their posts, I get that feeling the RR changes rules by the minute to suite their beliefs at the time? And here you claimed only the libs knew what hypocrisy was . . .
“Phantom” asks –
“What was wrong about the mccain and his lobbyist girlfriend?”
As I recall, Cindy McCain quashed the story with one brilliant response:
“Who’d wanna fuc# HIM?!”
Couldn’t argue with that.
The McCain supporter who was supposedly attacked and mutilated was treated at a hospital. I think she claimed it happened at an ATM, but the camera there showed only her–no attacker. I think the hospital at which she was treated let the news media know that she had not been attacked. The letter “B” which had been written on her face was backward & somebody figured out that meant she drew the B while looking in a mirror. I think that the campaign office she was working in fired her.
“The letter ‘B’ which had been written on her face was backward & somebody figured out that meant she drew the B while looking in a mirror. I think that the campaign office she was working in fired her.”
The late Morton Downey, Jr. was caught in the same sort of situation. He claimed to have been attacked in an airport rest room by skinheads who drew a swastika on his forehead. Sure enough, it was backwards, too.
The press is “f” up by reporting on a Republican clown from Mike Huckabee campaign named Chip Saltsman and the article show’s Obama face.
This is Chip Saltsman mug
http://www.daylife.com/photo/07z4cmU0Y00Xr
From what platform of politics can this jerk come from? Bush ruined this country in many ways. The RNC just got beat down with McCain as their nominee.
This candidate for the Republican National Committee chairmanship said Friday the CD he sent committee members for Christmas — which included a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” — was clearly intended as a joke.
The title of the song about President-elect Barack Obama was drawn from a Los Angeles Times column.
“I think most people recognize political satire when they see it,” Tennessee Republican Chip Saltsman told CNN. “I think RNC members understand that.”
The song, set to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was first played on conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in 2007.
Title was drawn from a Los Angeles Times column that suggested President-elect Barack Obama appealed to those who feel guilty about the nation’s history of mistreatment of African-Americans.
Saltsman said the song, penned by his longtime friend Paul Shanklin, should be easily recognized as satire directed at the Times.
The CD sent to RNC members is titled “We Hate the USA” and also includes songs referencing former presidential candidate John Edwards and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among other targets.
Other song titles, some of which were in bold font, were: “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.”
Saltsman was national campaign manager for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential bid in 2007 and 2008. Before that, he held a variety of posts, including a number of positions under former Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee
I don’t know how many viewers or readers the basement dwelling Matt Drudge has. He was the primary source for the mutilation “story”.
But Sean Hannity has a radio audience in the millions.
The “McCain supporter attacked and mutilated!” lie COULD have been so very destructive. The RESPONSIBLE media is to be congratulated for not running with it before they knew what it was.
And Hannity? He never issued a retraction or apology for getting it wrong.
THIS is why we need the Fairness Doctrine.
Interesting–not a single mention of why NOT one MSM personality could bring themselves to point out the obvious: George W. Bush got the shoe attack because a lot of people in Iraq don’t like being invaded and occupied by a foreign army.
At least they’re consistent.
Crappy, you are nothing if not consistent. Consistently wrong.
The bozo who threw the shoe was a (pay attention there Crappy), Baathist. Yeah, He was rightly pissed. After ruling over the majority Shiites for years, He suddenly found himself out of power and out of luck.
So your little shoe flinging hero does not represent the feelings of the Iraqi people and any rough handling He may have received behind closed doors was well deserved.
“Chrisfrommactown” promotes democracy with –
“…any rough handling He may have received behind closed doors was well deserved.”
As usual, you are off base too MH. If He was roughed up, it was by Iraqis. Probably Shiite Iraqis, who enjoyed every minute of it.
And who ever said I was into promoting Democracy? I despise Democracy which is nothing but a transitory form of government which is always followed by a dictatorship.
“any rough handling He may have received behind closed doors was well deserved.”
Win their hearts and minds!
And if ya can’t? Beat the hell out of ‘em.
I feel a chorus of “My Country tis of Thee” coming on.
“I despise Democracy”
This is because YOU are …gifted? with those two little words that ever make a man a slave.
“Yes boss!”
Hey BJ, if you knew even the first thing about our founding fathers and the Constitution, you would know that they despised democracy also. In fact they went out of their way to make sure that the Country they had founded would never fall under a democracy form of government.
Dump the sophistry, “Chrisfrommactown” –
The rest of us took 8th Grade social studies, too. And we know the difference between a republic and a pure democracy.
But George WMD Bush pretty much hung the current understanding of “democracy” on his attempted justifications for preemptively waging war Iraq.