Category Archives: Media

Canton, Kan., gets its Colbert apology

Stephen Colbert’s serial Canton-bashing has moved northward. Colbert’s inevitable official apology Tuesday to Canton, Kan., for his unkind remarks last week on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” kicked off an assault on Canton, S.D., including a song calling it “North Dakota’s dirty ashtray.” A CNN report on the reaction in the Kansas Canton, which is near McPherson, featured one woman who said she’d like to “hit him in the nose.”

Protect the public’s right to know

Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback need to support the Free Flow of Information Act, which the Senate is expected to vote on this week. The act would protect the public’s right to know by preventing reporters from being imprisoned and fined if they don’t reveal confidential sources. The protection isn’t absolute; reporters would have to provide confidential source information if it could prevent acts of terrorism or other significant harm to national security, as well as some other exceptions. But in order for the press to serve as a watchdog and provide the public with information it needs, it must be able to protect its sources.

No fine for ‘wardrobe malfunction’ after all

wardrobe.jpgThe Justin Timberlake-Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” was hardly a proud moment for free expression or even entertainment. But it was a relief to see the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals conclude that the Federal Communications Commission “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in fining CBS $550,000 for the incident during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, because “the nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast” didn’t meet the FCC’s long-held standard of what merits a fine - something so “pervasive as to amount to ‘shock treatment’ for the audience.” If there must be such punishments for broadcasters, they should fit the crime and the FCC’s own guidelines.

Conservatism will miss Snow’s eloquence, passion

snowbush.jpgWith the death of former White House spokesman Tony Snow, conservatism lost one of its most passionate and eloquent advocates. Even before his 17-month tenure on the Bush team, Snow was a familiar spokesman for the movement through his work on Fox News, on the radio and in newspaper columns. Snow’s death on Saturday, at age 53, put his December address to the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce in a bittersweet light. Then, Snow already had given 25 speeches since leaving the White House in September and had 50 more scheduled, in a race to earn money to provide for his family should he lose his battle with cancer.

Rush is flush

limbaugh2.jpgRush Limbaugh will be on the air for at least eight more years, and he’ll get paid a fortune for it: more than $400 million, including a $100 million signing bonus, according to a new deal he signed this week. After nearly 20 years in national syndication, Limbaugh still attracts a huge audience - nearly 20 million weekly listeners.

The New York Times magazine has a long profile of Limbaugh. It notes how he is an American icon, but that his fans and critics don’t agree on what he is iconic for. The article reports: “Serious people have called him a serial liar and a moral philosopher, a partisan hack and a public intellectual, nothing more than a radio windbag and nothing less than the heart of the Republican Party.”

Why isn’t there more coverage of Iraq?

iraqussoldiers.jpgPer a New York Times article: “According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of Iraq has been ‘massively scaled back this year.’ Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007.”
A pro/con on Wednesday’s Opinion pages debated why this is happening. Cal Thomas blamed the decline in coverage on the liberal media not wanting to report good news. But Frank Rich noted that there isn’t much reporting on the bad news either, and he argued that the public has made up its mind on Iraq and is more interested in “Cindy versus Michelle, not Shiites versus Sunnis.”

Russert’s death a big loss

russert.jpgThe death today of Tim Russert, 58, was a shock and a big loss. Russert, moderator of “Meet the Press” and NBC’s Washington bureau chief, was known for his unrelenting questioning. “There wasn’t a better interviewer in television,” Barack Obama said. John McCain called Russert the “pre-eminent journalist of his generation.” But I liked best NBC anchor Brian Williams’ description of Russert as a person: “aggressively unfancy.”

Are ‘military analysts’ really Trojan horses?

militaryanalystsFormer generals serving as “military analysts” on television may not be the independent observers that most viewers assumed. Many of them have been recruited by the Pentagon and have financial ties to military contractors, the New York Times reported.

“Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks,” the Times determined after suing to obtain Pentagon e-mails and other documents. “Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show.æ. . . In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.”

No doubt many military analysts are independent and aren’t improperly influenced by the Pentagon or business ties. But internal documents show that the Pentagon was involved in recruiting and cultivating “message force multipliers” and “surrogates” it could count on to deliver administration “themes and messages.”

Will Six value free media?

sixstephenOne incident in the recent work record of incoming Attorney General Stephen Six is reason for concern regarding Six’s respect for First Amendment rights and a free media. As a Douglas County District Court judge, he issued a broad search warrant last month meant to allow a University of Kansas police investigator to examine the online subscriber files of the Lawrence Journal-World. KU wanted to identify someone who had posted online comments about a story on the death of a KU student — the sort of information that the newspaper had twice provided, under subpoena, in other cases. The search did not occur (the newspaper’s attorney got involved), but it should give Kansans pause that their next attorney general saw no problem in giving law enforcement a license to go fishing through the electronic files of a newspaper. As the Journal-World editorialized, “if the newspaper is forced to open its servers and files to police through warrants, it becomes an investigative arm for government law enforcement. That’s hardly the proper role for a free and independent news media.”

If you think U.S. journalists are lackeys

In an effort to cement the allegiances of China’s future journalists and quell any notions of investigative reporting, the Chinese government has started requiring “Marxist journalism” classes for Chinese journalism students. Textbooks advise: “We need to use the Marxist position, the Marxist point of view and the Marxist method to observe and deal with things.”
Posted by Kristin Mehler

It is the 2007 Weeper Awards!

EtheredgeLook out. It’s time for our annual Weeper Awards, which recognize extraordinary achievement in the area of public fiascoes, flops and foolishness. This year’s honors include the “Bum Steer” Award to Wild West World owner Thomas Etheredge (in photo), the “With Governors Like These” Award to Kathleen Sebelius for her promotion of Kansas wines and the “Illustrated Man” Award to Paul Morrison for his “L.C.” tattoo.

2007 from Crowson’s View

Crowsonyearend Check out Richard’s cartoon year in review. Topics include gas prices, Holcomb, Paul Morrison, Carlos Mayans, gambling and much more.

Putin is scary but not a bad pick

PutintimeRussian President Vladimir Putin isn’t a bad choice for Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” — given the selection criteria. As the magazine explained, the selection is not an endorsement but a “recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world — for better or for worse.” In picking Putin, Time noted that “at significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power.”
Runners-up were Al Gore, J.K. Rowling, Hu Jintao and Gen. David Petraeus.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Britney and Lindsay as People of the Year

SpearsAuthor Stephen King made a provocative nomination for Time magazine’s 2007 Person of the Year: Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. His reasoning is that the pair “symbolize the media’s growing obsession with issues of personality over substance.” King noted: “People care more about the details of Spears’ child-custody case than they do about where the billions the U.S. government has poured into Iraq have gone. It’s time for a discussion about whether the news media have chucked their responsibilities and run off to Tabloid Disneyland.”
By the way, Time has an online form you can use to submit your own nominations.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

New Imus show, new Imus?

Imus_don
The guest list on Don Imus’ new talk show today on WABC-AM spoke to how many friends the shock jock still has, including presidential candidates Chris Dodd and John McCain, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and political odd couple James Carville and Mary Matalin. Imus’ addition of African-American comedians Karith Foster and Tony Powell to the cast serves his contention that being fired for his comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team was a “life-changing experience.” But for listeners who felt his absence since April — and especially his ability to get newsmakers to speak candidly — the question is: Can Imus be both funny and politically correct?
Posted by Rhonda Holman

If you think the media are liberal now, wait until they add Rosie

OlbermannEagle columnist Brent Castillo wrote today about a study that found that the media has been more favorable in their news coverage of the Democratic presidential candidates than the Republicans. Conservatives are touting it as more evidence of liberal bias. That likely may be, but it may also partly reflect news that was happening at the time. For example, the study noted how much negative coverage Republican John McCain received. But the study examine a time period during which his campaign was falling apart.
The study focused on news coverage, which is expected to be neutral, not opinion and commentary, which aren’t supposed to be neutral. But that format may lean more to the left soon.
MSNBC is planning a shift to a left in its evening talk shows, driven by ratings. “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” (in photo) has been such a success that the cable network plans to showcase other hosts who take on the administration, the New York Times reported. One horrifying possibility: Network execs have been talking with Rosie O’Donnell about a prime-time show, though those talks have stalled.
Just as Fox News has made hay with conservative talk shows, MSNBC is realizing there is a big market for opposing views.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Will Miller movie give full picture?

Hollywood is working on a movie based on the story of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. It sounds as if the movie is portraying the Miller character as a hero who was willing to go to jail rather than reveal her sources. But will it also show the Miller character being used by the administration to get uncritical news stories published about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction? Will it show her helping sell a war?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

A boon for investigative journalism?

Here’s a media innovation worth watching: A new nonprofit group, Pro Publica, will pursue investigative journalism pieces uncovering corruption and wrongdoing in government and business, and provide them free to top newspapers and magazines.
Paul Steiger, who recently retired as managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, will lead the planned newsroom of two dozen journalists.
Many newsrooms would likely be leery about using these pieces, particularly if the group seems partisan. But it’s a worthy effort, considering how many newspapers and other media outlets have scaled back investigative pieces because of the time and expense involved.
Posted by Randy Scholfield

O’Reilly showed ignorance but did not have Imus Moment

Bill O’Reilly is under fire for some recent racial comments, but some of it has been taken out of context. O’Reilly tried to relate on his radio talk show how a couple of experiences showed him how we share the same American dream, regardless of race, and how rap stereotypes aren’t representative of African-Americans.
Some liberal critics have taken the comments out of context to make them seem more offensive — such as his surprise that eating at a restaurant in Harlem was like eating at any other restaurant in New York City. But the New York Times media blogger argued this was no “Imus Moment.” O’Reilly’s comments, he argued, show how sheltered O’Reilly has been and may possibly reflect a "casual racism," but that they were intended to report his conversion to a new way of thinking.
Still, as one blogger sarcastically applauded: “Congratulations, Bill. It took you half a century to figure out that Flava Flav does not represent the behavior of all black people. Next week perhaps you’ll learn that every Jewish person doesn’t act like Jackie Mason and every white person doesn’t act like Larry the Cable Guy.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

GOP guide to Fourth Estate

The setting was a Topeka gathering of 2nd Congressional District Republicans. The topic was “Working With the Enemy (media relations).” The presenter was David Kensinger, Sen. Sam Brownback’s former chief of staff. The talking points included, according to the Lawrence Journal-World: The media are too powerful to be ignored. Reporters are biased; get over it. Make the bias work for you. Do not deny the undeniable. Share the sugar.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

It matters who owns the Wall Street Journal

The board of directors of Dow Jones agreed to a tentative deal Tuesday night to sell the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch (in photo) and his News Corp. for $5 billion. The final decision must still be made by the Bancroft family, which has a controlling interest in Dow Jones.
Former Eagle editor Buzz Merritt argued in a commentary on our pages this week that the sale matters to you even if you don’t read the Journal. That’s because most of the national and world news come from five providers: the Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.
If the owners of major newspapers are more interested in squeezing out profits than in quality news reporting, democracy suffers — because citizens don’t get the information they need to make good decisions and monitor the government.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Death threats over a column?

Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts takes a lot of flak from Eagle readers who find his work too focused on race. To be sure, his columns invite debate. But nothing justifies the death threats he’s reportedly received on a national level since a column, published in The Eagle June 4, challenged white supremacists’ assertions that two white murders in Knoxville, Tenn., reflect a surge in black-on-white violence. When the editor of the white supremacist Web site that posted Pitts’ personal information was contacted by the Miami Herald, he said, “We have no intention of removing Mr. Pitts’ personal information. Frankly, if some loony took the info and killed him, I wouldn’t shed a tear. That also goes for your whole newsroom.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman

Stop tarting up the news

Dan Rather isn’t backing off his criticism of his former employer, CBS News. Rather complained on a radio talk show Monday that CBS executives tried to lure viewers to “CBS Evening News” by “dumbing it down and tarting it up.” The executives quickly accused Rather of sexism toward new anchor Katie Couric. But Rather told Washington Post critic Tom Shales that he was referring to the content of the news show, not to Couric, and he raised valid concerns about how the news media are replacing hard news with entertainment. “We have enormous life-or-death issues and challenges facing us in this country and the world today,” Rather said. “Everything from the dismantling of civil rights enforcement within the Justice Department to the war in Iraq to news of secret prisons in Europe and, of course, the next presidential election.
“And yet, for some reason, Paris Hilton is the big story on newscast after newscast.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Former Eagle editor responds to bias complaint

Former Wichita Eagle managing editor Clark Hoyt (1981-85) did a “soft launch” Sunday of his soon-to-be regular column as the New York Times’ new “public editor.” Hoyt’s job is to examine and critique the Times’ news judgments, and he said he couldn’t resist writing about the newspaper’s decision not to put on its front page an article about the alleged terrorism plot at Kennedy Airport in New York City. Some readers — and Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly — had accused the Times of bias for not giving the story better play. But Hoyt reported that the news decision was based on the Times’ determination that — contrary to the apocalyptic statements that a U.S. attorney made in announcing the charges — the ability of the accused men to carry out an attack “was very much open to question.” Nonetheless, Hoyt agreed the article would have been better on the front page, because it “would have told readers that the Times knew what they were concerned about, that there was something real here, but that it wasn’t anywhere near happening and there was no need for alarm.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

Couric was wrong woman for the job

Katie Couric has not helped CBS News’ ratings, the New York Times reported. It’s still in third place, and ratings continue to dwindle. CBS producers had hoped that Couric, as well as a spiffed-up broadcast, would attract younger viewers. Though it did draw in younger women, her sunny, morning-show disposition hasn’t drawn many traditional hard-news lovers.
But speculation over whether a woman delivering the news has stunted ratings is laughable and sounds like something from "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."
It’s not that Couric is a woman; it’s that she isn’t the right woman for the job.
Posted by Andie Clum