Mock, Paper, Scissors

I thought at first this job posting at Twitter had to be a joke:

Media – Head of News and Journalism (SF or NY)

Full-Time — New York City, NY

Twitter is playing an integral role in the evolution of the news industry — both as a tool for reporters and newsrooms and as a way for consumers to find news in real-time. Twitter has already changed the way news breaks and provided journalists new ways to connect with their readers. We are looking for a seasoned leader to shape and drive the next growth phase of Twitter’s partnership with the news industry. We believe Twitter is a valuable complement to the great work already being done and want to find ways for Twitter to help ensure the industry’s success.

You will be responsible for devising and executing the strategies that make Twitter indispensable to newsrooms and journalists, as well as an essential part of the operations and strategy of news organizations and TV news networks. You should have a strong vision for the broad potential of Twitter and news, while also being able to rigorously manage and scale the news team’s daily impact.

You will be also Twitter’s representative to the News industry. You will manage Twitter’s partnerships with newsrooms in the United States as well its relationships with journalists. You will be responsible for representing Twitter at industry events.

You must have deep experience leading teams in reporting, editing or managing journalists, as well as a strong record of executing strategic partnerships. (This role will report to Head of Media)

But if it is, then the Guardian UK fell for it.

The thing is, I think that The Guardian’s enthusiasm–while infectious in that reserved, British-style–might actually be well-placed. The updates that have come through Twitter on newsworthy events like the Boston Bombing were timely and uncannily accurate; crowd sourcing huge public events like that give you a very accurate picture. Twitter as a communications platform is unrivaled for real-time information.

And before you laugh at the thought of news in 140-character bites, consider how that limitation would force you as a reporter to not embellish who, what, where, when. Why and how? Well, maybe that becomes a link to a more in-depth piece. But by its very limited nature, Twitter should remove the editorial from news reporting.

The problem is, and will always be, about the credibility of the news sources. But that is the problem with the MSM, too. CNN has crashed and burned so many times with bad reporting that few people turn to them any longer. The challenge with Twitter for news junkies is going to be the same challenge with using Yelp: who do you believe?

(Guardian UK)

Death of the Media

Politico’s Dylan Byers wants to know what is taking the Boston Bombing investigation sooooo long:

It’s been more than 24 hours since the explosions in Boston. But while new details emerge by the hour, the question on so many people’s minds remains unanswered: Who did it?

For many journalists I’ve spoken with today, this ignorance is tortuous. The identification of the attacker(s) and the reasons for the attack will likely have enormous political (and potentially geoplitical [sic]) ramifications, which will vary greatly depending on whether the attacker(s) is domestic or foreign, acting alone or as part of an organization. We’re standing on the verge of a very important national conversation about something, and we have no idea what it is.

Yes, sonny-boy, it is all about you and winning the morning. And besides, I thought Politico’s stock-in-trade was having national conversations about something, and having no idea what it is about.

Jeebus, some people!

I think more pundits should be smacked by umbrellas on the air.

NEW YORK (AP) — David Gregory has re-upped as host of “Meet the Press.”

NBC News shared no details, but described the new deal as “a long-term commitment.”

“What a great vote of confidence from NBC,” a pleased-looking Gregory said Thursday. He said his first four years in the moderator’s chair have passed quickly.

“In some ways, it feels like we’re just getting started,” he said. [Ed. Sweet Jeebus!]

But was Grandpa Walnuts’ contract renewed, too?

(Yahoo News)

Regular readers know that our sometimes mantra, “Both Sides Don’t” is generally ignored; the pontificating poltroons in our courtesan press continue to belch up false equivalences to try to appear non-biased.

Our pal Driftglass has long said that the punditry lie of Both Sides Do It is the essential lie that lets all the other pundit lies exist, and we agree. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, any criticism of the Right immediately triggers a reflexive, “yes, but the Democrats…” and the topic shifts. The thing is that they are never equivalents and usually not even related. It’s like trying to pay your bar tab by handing over your dry-cleaning ticket. But I digress.

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones asks us, “Has the mainstream media finally had enough?,” and he postulates that maybe they have, reluctantly and bitterly started to reach the conclusion that the GOP is both rudderless and off the rails:

“It seems to me that something has happened over the past three months: the nonpartisan media has finally started to internalize the idea that the modern Republican Party has gone off the rails. Their leaders can’t control their backbenchers. They throw pointless temper tantrums about everything President Obama proposes. They have no serious ideas of their own aside from wanting to keep taxes low on the rich. They’re serially obsessed with a few hobby horses — Fast & Furious! Obamacare! Benghazi! — that no one else cares about. Their fundraising is controlled by scam artists. They’re rudderless and consumed with infighting. They’re demographically doomed.”

OK, that is sort of the conventional wisdom of Lefty Blogostan, what else have you got?

Recently, though, my sense is that this has shifted a bit. The framing of even straight new reports feels just a little bit jaded, as if veteran reporters just can’t bring themselves to pretend one more time that climate change is a hoax, Benghazi is a scandal, and federal spending is spiraling out of control. It’s getting harder and harder to pretend that the same old shrieking over the same old issues is really newsworthy.

Question: Am I just imagining this? Or has there really been a small but noticeable shift in the tone of recent reporting?

It’s a worthy question: are Drum’s Spidey-senses tingling?

My sense is that the MSM print media is just sort of sticking its metaphorical toe in the water of actually reporting, but I suspect that it won’t last. The electronic media (Dancing with the Gregory, This Week with a Greek Dwarf, etc.) have not even tried to break the surface of Villager foolishness.

I mean, just look at the top 3 Sunday Talkies line-up:

-NBC’s “Meet the Press”: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); husband to former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and retired Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly; roundtable with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

–ABC’s “This Week”: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI); White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; roundtable with ABC News’ George Will, Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX), former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, former Romney 2012 campaign senior strategist Stuart Stevens; “Sunday Spotlight” segment with author and Johns Hopkins Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery Dr. Ben Carson (“America the Beautiful”)

–CBS’s “Face the Nation”: White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; former Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) and Mayor Cory Booker (D-Newark); Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl; defense and foreign policy roundtable with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Foreign Policy Magazine’s Tom Ricks and CBS News’ Margaret Brennan; political roundtable with Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter and CBS News’ John Dickerson

It’s not encouraging that so many pundits who have been proven demonstrably wrong continue to bloviate their conventional (incorrect) wisdom, week after week, month after month, year after year. There is no consequence for these people to be wrong on issue after issue. Next week, Walnuts will be on another Sunday Talkie.

In related news, a comet exploded over Russia indicating the end of the dinosaur era. Let’s hope Grandpa Walnuts gets the message.

(Mother Jones)

Tiger Beat on the Potomac (Thanks Charlie!) has yet another unsourced, breathless and gossipy article on how the GOP is rebranding itself via Fox:

Republicans and Fox News are moving to purge the controversial political creatures they created.

Both were damaged badly in 2012 by loud, partisan voices that stoked the base — but that scared the hell out of many voters. Now, the GOP, with its dismal image, and Fox News, with its depressed ratings in January, are scrambling to dim those voices. To wit:

• Fox ousted contributors Sarah Palin and Dick Morris, two of the most obnoxiously partisan figures on the network’s air.
• Karl Rove, himself sidelined by Fox after the election, has helped start a new super PAC, the Conservative Victory Fund, designed to keep controversial conservatives like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) from winning Senate primaries.
• Senate GOP leaders created what amounts to a buddy system with their caucus’s most popular tea party members, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, to get their help in taming anti-establishment conservatives.
• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been running around the country warning anyone who will listen that Republicans must quit being the “stupid party” that nominates nutty candidates.

But as in every Politico (who are fluffers for the gelatinous Roger Ailes, let us not forget), there is always the Tell:

One high-profile Republican strategist, who refused to be named in order to avoid inflaming the very segments of the party he wants to silence, said there is a deliberate effort by party leaders to “marginalize the cranks, haters and bigots — there’s a lot of underbrush that has to be cleaned out.”

…which of course is the patented way in which to marginalize cranks: refuse to have your name attached to your criticism. Boy, that’ll learn ‘em up good!

We’ve been saying this for a long time, since before the 2012 Goat Rodeo in fact: it’s not the presentation, it’s the policies, it is Republicanism itself that is the problem. Wingnuttia seems to think if they could just find the Magic Dog Whistle, they could get the rest of the country to back them. You can redesign the cereal box, but if what you are selling is Rat Poison, no one is going to buy it.

Anyway, it is an amazing fantasy of an article from Tiger Beat, full of bluster and non-attributed sources, signifying absolutely nothing. But read it and be amazed at how it sucks up to Ailes while trying to sound indie. My 7th grade journalism teacher is probably having a good laugh over it because even her charges could do better than this.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If only Dancin’ David Gregory did this more often… but it leaves one with the impression that mowing down little children of white, affluent Manhattan-office workers is the bridge too far for Gregory. The families, in other words, were his people. Still, I’ll take what I can get. It’s a rare day I actually say something… nice about Gregory. Note this on your calendars.

Now compare and contrast Dancin’ Dave’s interview with Ross Douthat’s lede graf:

“Bloomberg, LaPierre and the Void FOR a week after the Newtown shooting, the conversation was dominated by the self-righteous certainties of the American center-left…”

Actually, Ross, it was shock and mourning. Remember? Now is not the time to talk about gun control legislation? Anyway, the rest of the column was another love note to Both Sides Do It, on one side gun nuts and on the other gun-restriction nuts. It’s a remarkable piece of tin-eared dissembling, and false equivalencies.

So once again I leave you with the reminder that this is our constitutionally-protected free and unfettered press, fellow citizens. Cherish it.

Anderson Cooper’s team tracked down a scam artist bilking cash in the wake of Newtown. In the name of reporting the facts of the story, around the 1:40 mark of the clip, even Anderson Cooper gives a look of, “What the hell are we reporting?” It’s okay to ask people if they understand that their explanations sound ludicrous. I do give them credit for daylighting this as this is a pretty horrible person.

“The level of vitriol and personal animus that exists on both sides over the flap is truly discouraging.”

–Mark “The President is a dick” Halperin in TIME magazine talking about The Willard Mechanism finally pandering to the Birthers in the GOP. Except that there is no both sides, there is nothing close to both sides. This is Willard finally being so desperate that he is feeding raw, naked lies to the Pig People.

He’s such a hack.

(TIME)

At 10:30 on Monday night, Ann Romney is scheduled to take the stage at the Republican National Convention, in Act 1 of her husband’s four-day introduction to the nation. But tens of millions of people will not be able to watch.

CBS plans instead to show a rerun of “Hawaii Five-O,” its hit police series. Viewers on NBC will see a new episode of “Grimm,” about a homicide detective with the supernatural ability to sense evil. And ABC plans to show “Castle,” a series about a best-selling mystery novelist who helps solve crimes.

The networks, which reap considerable advertising dollars even from summer reruns, have told the Romney campaign that they will broadcast an hour of convention coverage on the final three nights — but no more.

“YOU people,” Queen Ann did not screech, “have gotten on my last nerve!”

(NYTimes via Watertiger)

Death of the Media

…on losing 52% of their audience as they pivot to lure the Fox viewership.

Death of the Media

Jeebus, Wolf, I’m embarassed for you.

…just woke up in a cold sweat, screaming:

“According to GreekReporters.com, anchor Panagiotis Bourchas was pelted with eggs and yogurt by protesters upset over him hosting a spokesperson from the far-right political organizations Golden Dawn.”

Now imagine if protestors here threw eggs and yogurt at Dancin’ Dave because he had a conservative on his show that was recommending budget cuts on the backs of the poor to balance the budget. Oh, wait.

(Raw Story)

“I’ll just say this which is it’s not the language I would have used. I’m focusing on the issues I think are significant in the country today and that’s why I’m here talking about jobs and Ohio.”

–Willard

OK, Willard, you tower of quivering Jello, nicely dodged the Limbaugh controversy with weasel words. But you know that you are his boss, right?

Perhaps, you cad, the words you should be looking for are, “Rush, you are FIRED!”

EMOTICON OF PRIVACY?!

You silly twatwaffle, MODICUM!

Some where out there is a real journalist who should have the opportunities our favorite booze heiress is squandering.

(And if you argue with me on the dolphin point, you are saying that SoyBlo is smarter than a dolphin, and that is empirically false and defames dolphins.)

Hey guys, remember that time when Pat Buchanan said that President Obama’s path to the White House was the result of “Affirmative Action all the way?” Me Neither!, and it seems neither did MSNBC.

Until now, that is

MSNBC suddenly learned that Pat Buchanan might have meant something else when he declared that he was a Wizard between the sheets.

Anyway, latest book, Suicide of a Superpower contains some very offensive racist diatribes, and MSNBC is saying that he is not invited back.

(Raw Story)

The Death of the Media

This is from the Columbia Journalism Review, and is titles “When Ledes Go Wrong” –

Like any new immigrant, the deadly West Nile virus became American almost immediately after landing on our shores—altering itself to fit in and then infecting a popular backyard bird to secure a firm foothold in its new home.

I just hate it when new immigrants infect birds in my backyard.

Repeat after me: There are no editors anymore.

(CJR; San Jose Mercury News)

Nothing starts my day like listening to Petunia bleating an assertion of motive not backed by any evidence as a teaser to having short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump join her on the couch to discuss conspiracy theories.

(Media Matters)

Looks like someone at ABC is going to be fired:

–NBC’s “Meet the Press”: Speaker John Boehner; Rep. Michele Bachmann; Romney campaign surrogate Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC); roundtable with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and Republican strategist Mike Murphy

–ABC’s “This Week”: “Great American Debate” on the subject: “There is too much government in my life,” roundtable with Rep. Barney Frank, former Clinton Labor Secretary and University of California at Berkley professor Robert Reich, Rep. Paul Ryan and ABC News’ George Will (live, with a studio audience, from the Newseum)

–CBS’s “Face the Nation”: Newt Gingrich

–”Fox News Sunday”: Mitt Romney; roundtable with the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), Republican strategist Ed Rollins and Fox News’ Juan Williams

Oh, Peggington Noonington is going to be poured onto set at CNN.

Oh, man, has all of America forgotten our sweetheart, Alaska’s part-time governor and full-time grifter Sarah Palin? There she was working her fingers to the nubbins to bring us quality entertainment like Sarah Palin’s Alaska, and we were so ungrateful that we didn’t watch it. The shame, the shame.

Anyway, Mooselini picked herself up by the bootstraps, dusted herself off, and is now offering a new reality program based upon the exploits of her monosyllabic anger-troll husband Todd. It seems that Quitty McGrifter hopes that everyone will be interested in watching him drive his snowplow on the frozen tundra of their marriage and what not and that the networks would pay her 1M Ameros per episode for the pleasure of watching white people in white snow.

The score so far:

But for now, TLC owner Discovery Communications has passed, say sources. And A&E Networks, which entered into a bidding war with Discovery for Sarah Palin’s Alaska, also is not interested.

(Hollywood Reporter)

Is remixing the “I smoked but didn’t inhale” of the next generation?

Anyway, the comments in this post are very revealing. Admittedly, I am part of the generation that got slapped down by the RIAA, who overnight managed to outlaw sampling in a stunning action of greed and overreach (and I consider the Sonny Bono Millennial Copyright legislation to be the absolute work of the devil), and yet, at the same time I’m also one of the people who says Pay The Author really loud. I guess this question makes me very conflicted.

Anyone want to weigh-in? How can I object to HuffPo if I think that sampling Mommy Dearest with Noonan’s latest appearance on MTP is a valid use of creative license?

(Waxy)

….Willard?

Q: Tell me how your father, George, influenced you.

A: He made sure my brother and I mowed the lawn, shoveled the driveway.

Q: Did he get you up early in the morning to go do the chores?

A: The lawn mowing was not early in the morning.

Q: Did he give you your drive?

A: I don’t know whether that comes from DNA or from one’s home, or perhaps the combination.

Q: Your eldest son, Tagg, has said that the 30-month mission you went on for your church in 1966 shaped who you are today.

A: I was sent to live in France among the lower middle class.

Q: Did it help you become self-sufficient?

A: Yes.

Q: It was a good growing up experience? [sic]

A: It was a good growing up experience. [sic]

OK, it is a cheap shot to make fun of Willard’s robotic answers from questions from a self-serving homunculus like David Gergen, but then again someone at Parade Magazine decided to green light this prattle and give it the unbelievable title of A Mitt Romney You Haven’t Seen Yet. Actually, this is exactly the Willard we have seen for nearly a decade.

The cheap shot, the really cheap shot, is to let a hack like Gergen interview a shape-shifting Terminator such as Willard, and then ask him such stupid questions. Gergen is like those domestic animals that are pictured wet-nursing a lion. That man would nurture anything for access to power.

(Parade Magazine: A Mitt Romney You Haven’t Seen Yet, by David Gergen)

Death of the Media

Sweet baby Jeebus on a Clairol package! Just when you think that maybe the media might have finally turned the corner and started doing some real reporting there comes this: 800 words on Willard’s hair in the NYTimes.

Unbelievably, his stylist claims that, Reagan-like, Willard does not color it or use any styling products. Of course, Saint Ronnie used left-over black face from his minstrel show days shoe polish, so no one can be accused of lying.

But it is good to know that Petunia is big on Candy Corn.

(Media Matters)

Death of the Media

That c*** called Obama (or Biden) Numbnuts?

[The unnamed source, a "longtime money manager"] added that he was disappointed that members of Congress from New York, especially Senator Charles E. Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, had not come out swinging for an industry that donates heavily to their campaigns. “They need to understand who their constituency is,” he said.

My guess is that the Senators are well aware, and the protesters show that they know, too.

(NYTimes)

The dirty little he-said, she-said DC Gossip rag (No, not Wonkette. We love them!) Politicogot caught in their own plagiarism scandal.

For a site that claims to be journalism (but really does little other than foist thinly veiled GOP talking points and gossip), they did the right thing. I’m shocked.

WaPo via Best Week Ever

He’s helping to rehab Blam-Blam.