How bad are things going for the media lately (between Miller, Woodward, the failure to cover the war lead-up story until a few years after the war was launched, Rather, etc, etc)?
This bad:
Even the Thanksgiving Day Parade couldn’t be covered without a media outlet getting a black eye.
It’s the holiday season, so I thought I’d share a tiny tidbit of positive political news.
It has to do with celebrity politicians, both current and prospective.
It turns out that voters really know them. But they don’t really like them. And that is the case even out here in California.
Arnold’s numbers are way down. Rob Reiner wouldn’t have a chance. Warren Beatty? Nope, the unfavorables are leading by a three to one margin in his case.
So we don’t like actor/politicians.
In fact, the only thing we like worse is politcian/politicians (but this is my holiday post, so we’ll skip that for now).
In this week’s The New Yorker, Laura Secor writes about the collapse of the reform movement in Iran.
The article brings up a broader question:
By what standard do we measure success in the so-called war again terrorism?
Wouldn’t a hard move away from democracy and freedom in Iran be a strike against the effort?
What else should be in formula?
How safe are Americans from the threat of a terrorist attack?
How safe are other innocent civilians around the world?
Is the overall number of terrorists growing or decreasing?
Are governments in countries that support terrorist activities moving away from that stance or digging in?
What else?
Doesn’t it seem a bit stange that we’ve never really seen a multi-point plan or a set of clear goals when it comes to winning the what we’re told is the war of our lives?
Over at Rollyo we’ve improved the way individual search engines are displayed. They’re now easier to find and bookmark, etc.
Here are a few interesting ones worth checking out.
Top News Search Engine (I use this one to link to more news on a topic from this blog…)
Brian Greene’s String Theory Search
Travel and Hotels Reviews (search across 20 travel and hotels guides at once…)
Arianna Huffington’s Poltical Blog
PBS Frontline’s Alternative Medicine Search
Family Guy Anything Search Engine
Early Stage Venture Capital Search Engine
C.S. Lewis Narnia Search Engine
Top Christmas and Holiday Shopping Search
Of course, if you don’t like any of these, just Roll Your Own…
A few days ago I wrote that Bob Woodward should be criticized for making dismissive comments about the Plame case without letting viewers in on his own role.
But the whole time he knew he was a part of this story. Forget about all of the other issues of journalistic integrity and Woodward’s close proximity to power.
How could he have issued strong opinions on a matter without telling us he was connected to it in some way?
Today, in a hard-hitting piece, Wapo Ombudsmen Deborah Howell wrote much the same thing (without the kid gloves):
Last week we found out that he kept the kind of information from Downie that is a deeply serious sin not to disclose to a boss — the kind that can get even a very good reporter in the doghouse for a long time. He also committed another journalistic sin — commenting on National Public Radio and ‘Larry King Live’ about the Plame investigation without disclosing his early knowledge of Plame’s identity.
Howell went on to add: “He has to operate under the rules that govern the rest of the staff–even if he’s rich and famous.”
Watergate is a million miles away, folks. From Deep Throat to deep something else.
