Comments on: Dog bites man–film at 11…

By: Charles Knell

Charles Knell — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 10:41:13 +0000

Don’t let’s get carried away. As interesting as this blog is, MSM (by which I think we are saying mainstream media) it isn’t.

By: acline

acline — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 04:21:12 +0000

Better than mine?

Charles! Welcome back!

Yes, the Fineman commentary is cogent. Thanks for calling it to my attention.

By: Charles Knell

Charles Knell — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 15:40:26 +0000

I think this is the best MSM analysis of the behavior of the MSM that I've seen. Fineman on MSNBC

By: acline

acline — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 06:37:57 +0000

JP- IMO, I don’t think this is ideological. If the press truly were a bunch of rabid liberals, they’s be hounding about the DS memo, too. So much for the predictive accuracy of liberal bias

The thing with McClellan is a matter of A = A. McClellan said something that now appears not to conform to reality. It’s easily understood as A = non-A.

The anger (and I’m guessing here) probably comes from the fact that McClellan is good at dodging questions and, apparently, good at dodging them such that A = non-A. In the current journalistic epistemology (undergirded as it is by a correspondence theory of truth), McClellan’s willful dodging just makes their heads pop.

By: JPEarl

JPEarl — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 04:48:51 +0000

Doc,
Is there a reason to why the reporters in the press-room are being so persistent and aggressive on this issue? It seems as though the Downing Street Memo and other issues of the same suit have been far more ethically damaging for this administration. Yet, the reporters rarely (or never) become as torrid on those issues. Although I agree that they were foolish to get so mad, it is encouraging to see them put some heat on the administration. I just wonder why on this issue.

By: acline

acline — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 06:07:29 +0000

Matt…I like that idea. Perhaps we’ll see it begin to happen with bloggers. And, I agree, ordinary people often ask better questions than the press. I think this happens because their concerns are vital to their personal lives rather than vital to a profession.

By: Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 05:48:08 +0000

Part of the apparent problem is that the gaggle in question only very occasionally comes off to the public as hard-hitting or protective of democracy. The White House and its Press Corps are seen as discrete, self-interested parties, engaging each other purely for their own amusement. I wouldn't want the reporters to abandon the press briefings whole-hog. I would want them to cede their press passes to the citizenry. Let some real, likeable, well-informed, flesh-and-blood people into the briefing room to have at Scott McClellan. "Mr. McClellan, my name is Dorothy Schwartzmann from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and I want to know why we haven't heard anything from Mr. Bush when his right-hand man looks to have endangered an agent of our country's central intelligence service?" The press corps' decorum is played out. I think if you could get the genuine stakeholders in the room, you'd see some true Senatorial decorum, vintage 1902.