Finally! Some real “digging” into a prominent figure not named Sarah Palin. Or Todd Palin. Or Bristol Palin. Or Trig Palin. Or Bristol Palin’s Baby Daddy.
— But don’t get too excited. The NYT’s Jodi Kantor wasn’t interested in vetting Barack Obama — or even John McCain, for that matter. No, in this instance the target of “inquiry” was far more crucial: Cindy McCain. And Ms Kantor sought the help of friends (and their parents) of the McCain’s 16-year-old daughter Bridget, trying to contact them through Facebook, to dig up dirt on the potential First Lady.
Journalism.
A text of Kantor’s query to one of those 16-year-old friends:
September 29 at 7:21pm
I saw on facebook that you went to Xavier, and if you don’t mind, I’d love to ask you some advice about a story. I’m a reporter at the New York Times, writing a profile of Cindy McCain, and we are trying to get a sense of what she is like as a mother. So I’m reaching out to fellow parents at her kids’ schools. My understanding is that some of her older kids went to Brophy/Xavier, but I’m trying to figure out what school her 16 year old daughter Bridget attends — and a few people said it was PCDS. Do you know if that’s right? Again, we’re not really reporting on the kids, just seeking some fellow parents who can talk about what Mrs. McCain is like.
Also, if you know anyone else who I should talk to– basically anyone who has encountered Mrs. McCain and might be able to share impressions– that would be great.
Thanks so much for any help you can give me.
Jodi Kantor
Political correspondent
New York Times
kantor@nytimes.com
212 556 4596
[my emphasis]
Predictably, the Times story was a recycled hit piece trashing Ms McCain (their equally critical piece on Michelle Obama will be available shortly after the election, no doubt), and it drew the following reaction from McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb:
Today the New York Times launched yet another in a series of vicious attacks on Senator John McCain, this time targeting not the candidate, but his wife Cindy. Under the guise of a ‘profile’ piece, the New York Times fails to cover any new ground or provide any discernible value to the reader other than to portray Mrs. McCain in the worst possible light. Though Mrs. McCain’s battle with drug addiction and even her miscarriages are again reported, the paper entirely ignores a life devoted to family and charity work in the most impoverished and violent corners of the world — except when a detail can be quibbled with so as to imply some kind of deceit. This campaign made every effort to share personal accounts of Mrs. McCain’s good works with the paper, but apparently they were deemed unfit for publication in the New York Times. This is gutter journalism at its worst — an unprecedented attack on a presidential candidate’s spouse.
In order to assemble this barrage of petty and personal attacks, the New York Times employed tactics that are obviously unprofessional and almost certainly unethical. This campaign has obtained a copy of an email sent by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor to a 16-year-old girl and friend of Bridget McCain, the youngest of the McCain children. Ms. Kantor sought to dupe the unsuspecting minor by soliciting ‘advice’ on how best to approach the story, as if a top-flight investigative reporter at the New York Times would need the assistance of an underage girl in writing a hit piece.
“The New York Times has stooped lower than this campaign ever imagined possible in an attempt to discredit a woman whose only apparent sin is being married to the man that would oppose that paper’s preferred candidate, Barack Obama, in his quest for the Presidency. It is a black mark on the record of a paper that was once widely respected, but is now little more than a propaganda organ for the Democratic party. The New York Times has accused John McCain of running a dishonorable campaign, but today it is plain to see where the real dishonor lies.”
Indeed, Cindy McCain’s representative, John M. Dowd, sent the following letter to Mr Keller at the Times in advance of the story:
Dear Mr. Keller:
I represent Cindy McCain. I write to appeal to your sense of fairness, balance and decency in deciding whether to publish another story about her. I do this well knowing your obvious bias for Barack Obama and your obvios bias hositility [sic] to John McCain. I ask you to put your biases and agendas aside.
I understand that Cindy is in the public eye, but you have already profiled her extensively (Jennifer Steinhauer reported), written about her financial situation (including an editorial on her tax returns) and about her role at Hensley and Company.
I am advised that you assigned two of your top investigative reporters who have spent an extensive amount of time in Arizona and around the country investigating Cindy’s life including her charity, her addiction and her marriage to Senator McCain. None of these subjects are news.
I am also advised that your reporters are speaking to Tom Gosinski and her cousin Jamie Clark, neither of whom are reliable or credible sources. Mr. Gosinski has been publicly exposed as a liar and blackmailer on the subject of Cindy McCain. Jamie Clark has very serious drug and stability issues and has failed in a number of attempts to blackmail Cindy. She is simply not credible.
In 1994, Mr. Gosinski drafted a civil complaint for damages claiming, among other things, that Cindy had defamed him with prospective employers after he was discharged from AVMT. Those allegations were utterly false. He was unable to produce any prospective employers and Cindy had not discussed his deficiencies as an employee with anyone outside of AVMT. Indeed, his termination was demonstrated to be appropriate and when he was let go, Cindy gave him severance pay. When confronted with this evidence, his lawyer resigned. Gosinski never filed the complaint in Court and could produce no evidence to support any of its allegations. He attempted to have Cindy pay him $250,000 in exchange for not filing the complaint. Cindy refused and made his attempt to extort her public.
Thereafter, he amended his complaint to allege that Cindy asked him to commit perjury in the adoption proceed [sic] involving Bridget McCain. The notes of Cindy’s counsel and the official transcript of the adoption proceedings clearly demonstrate that Gosinski’s [sic] was never asked to lie and did not falsely testify in the proceeding. His allegation was an utter fabrication. Gosinski further alleged that Cindy used his name to obtain pain killers for her own personal use. The records of AVMT show that Dr. Max Johnson, licensed by the DEA to order drugs, directed the use of employee names on the prescriptions. The drugs obtained using Mr. Gosinski’s name were used and donated on an AVMT trip to El Salvador. They were not used by Cindy.These allegations and efforts to hurt Cindy have been a matter of public record for sixteen years. Cindy has been quite open and frank about her issues for all these years. Any further attempts to harass and injure her based on the information from Gosinski and Clark will be met with an appropriate response. While she may be in the public eye, she is not public property nor the property of the press to abuse and defame.
It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama’s drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father. Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here.
I suggest to you that none of these subjects on either side are worthy of the energy and resources of The New York Times. They are cruel hit pieces designed to injure people that only the worst rag would investigate and publish. I know you and your colleagues are always preaching about raising the level of civil discourse in our political campaigns. I think taking some your own medicine is in order here.
I ask you to let Cindy McCain carry on in her usual understated, selfless and dignified way. The fabrications and lies of blackmailers are not fit to print in any newspaper but particularly not in The New York Times.Sincerely,
John M. Dowd
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
In its predictably self-righteous fashion, the NYT took this letter, no doubt, as an attempt to STIFLE THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW — even though they’d written the same story time and again, and have still not deemed it the PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO KNOW about Obama’s vast network of connections to full-blown Marxists, socialists, New Left radicals, the New Party, the DSA, Black Liberation Theology, or any number of other associations that could speak either to his political education or his judgment.
Instead, they spend more time going after Cindy McCain, having found that going after Sarah Palin has done little more than preach to the progressive choir (perversely, galvanizing the rank and file conservative base), and to show up many country club Republican pundits for the beltway insider elitists many of us (after Katrina) already knew them to be.
That the NYT is in the bag for Obama is no secret. That they are actively running one arm of his campaign — the propaganda wing — is troubling both from the perspective of journalistic ethics and from the perspective of what amounts to a kind of oblique voter fraud, the natural product of dishing out misinformation or framing narratives in order to garner votes for the preferred candidate.
At this point, the NYT, for all its elitist pretenses, may as well be publishing stories of BatBoys or Tom Cruise’s martian sperm.
Don’t forget about the Elvis spottings.
The press this election cycle has completely gone off the rails. Their peak was the Trashing of Joe the Plumber.
Dang, we don’t even get the page 6 bikini girl.
Ace’s idea of vetting the vetters sounds more necessary day by day. I wonder if Jodi would like if someone trolled her daughters school to find out what kind of parent she is.
There is no public interest served by talking to Sen Obama’s drug dealer… now, where did we put that repeat of the story about Cindy McCain and prescritption pain killer abuse again…?
/NYT
Could this represent a new high on lows for the NYTimes…
Naaaaaaaaah!, but it definately ranks in the top ten of this year…
Believe me, as bad as this is, underplaying the role of the GSEs in the current financial seizure is a pretty big one, even if it is sin by omission!
And, it’s also pretty bad they haven’t shown more Outrage! over O!s machine politics rise as well as the scum he allied-with/utilized on his way up the ladder…
But, you know, we have a few weeks left,and who knows what kinda junk they’ve saved for the final days!!!
4 –
sounds like it, don’t it? except I doubt it would work very well. we’ve been ‘fact checking their asses’ for years now – and have some results good and bad from it. What we need I think is to have the ‘net as the pollster’s first go-to media outlet. Let the MSM have the starlets and puff-pieces while we take up the real work. It may result in overtly partisan news but at least we’ll know the bias beforehand
[…] Look who is being vetted now. Finally! Some real “digging†into a prominent figure not named Sarah Palin. Or Todd Palin. Or Bristol Palin. Or Trig Palin. Or Bristol Palin’s Baby Daddy. […]
TopsecretK-9,
I luuuuuuv Ace’s idea personally, from a, you know, vendetta point of view…
But something tells me that the hew and cry of eeeeeeevil RethugliKKKan brownshirts! would only help feed the lefty’s narrative-du-jour…
Now perhaps using it in an extortive way…? Mebbe that’s the ticket…
Just wait til they have impunity under their shield law. Then they’ll get really vicious.
I totally ignore the old media. Whatever leaks through my defensive shield I automatically to be the outright lies that they are. In this age of broadband, the Internet, mobile phones and ubiquitous digital cameras, I trust only our coterie of citizen reporters and only then by cross-checking multiple sources. We’re all editors and journalists now.
Reed
Their time has come.
Jody Kantor can’t be much of a mother herself is what this reveals. I wonder if anyone has bred her yet? I kinda doubt it, but it would be interesting if anyone might be able to share impressions.
sorry. that’s Jodi with an i.
“I wonder if anyone has bred her…”
A nice layer of progresso bread crumbs and then ~10 minutes in a skillet..o, erm, yea she’s not much in the sack.
oh. Jodi has spawned something. I wonder if any of her teachers or parents of her classmates may be able to share impressions?
JeffG
I started vetting Jodi here. She’s got quite the reputation.
I think we should troll FAcebook and ask just which NYTimes editors she fucked to get her job.
oh. The Kantor spawn is one of those I have two last names people. Figures.
oh. Here is a video of the Kantor spawn. The guy what bred the Kantor is kind of hard on the eyes. I wonder what it’s like to grow up with an ugly father?
I don’t mean ugly as in oh well he’s not the most handsome one I mean he’s really homely.
I wonder if they got clearance for the Sufjan Stevens music?
I think it is high time the FEC looked into the NY Times operation with regards to “in-kind contributions” and at the very least, require them to post a disclaimer acknowledging that fact at the beginning of every campaign article they publish.
[…] again, is Gail a licensed journalist, or is plumbing that much more a profession?  His name is Samuel, but his middle name is Joseph, and he goes by his middle name. Has […]
Left this over at Darleen’s:
MSM reporters have finaly found their ecological niche: the political equivilent of head lice.
Well, I just sent a nastygram to the NYT Public Editor about Joe. So did Tom Maguire.
The response should be bitterly amusing.
as if a top-flight investigative reporter at the New York Times would need the assistance of an underage girl in writing…
As if she wouldn’t.
Comment by guinsPen on 10/18 @ 1:29 pm #
“as if a top-flight investigative reporter at the New York Times would need the assistance of an underage girl in writing…
As if she wouldn’t.”
BRILLIANT! and hilarious …
Just when you thought the NYT couldn’t get any more partisan, vile and base, they go ahead and publish the next day’s fishwrap. There’s no bottom to it, really.
The press this election cycle has completely gone off the rails. Their peak was the Trashing of Joe the Plumber.
You say that like it’s not going to get even worse in the next 3 weeks!
Cripes, Daryl. That’s exactly what I was going to say.
So, SECONDED! DITTOS!
As for “vetting” the MSM, I’m all for doing something to make them stop being what they are or whatever, but it’s awfully hard to take on someone who still buys ink by the barrel. The Internet is certainly a good alternative, but most Americans don’t spend enough time on it to make a big difference.
However, did y’all know that some dude named Saul Alinsky wrote a book about taking down the establishment?
I’m just sayin’
What frightens me is that I can’t even summon up any surprise anymore at how far the filthy rotten bastards will go to ensure that President Jesus (thanks, Dan, or N.O. Brain — I can’t remember who coined the sobriquet)is installed come January.
No surprise.
Just disgust.
And a lot of rage.
A lot of rage.
I add my comments of appalling – now if we could just get Jody to dig for that documentation that Barack Huessin Obama aka Barry Sorentoes is really a US Citizen.
kata
at this time I believe the citizenship thing a no-starter. Better to vet Obama as a socialist and show the people how much Barry and his Brownshirts consider Joe’s ambition to be a future business owner a “fantasy” they mock and deride. There are countless Joe’s and Jane’s out there that really would like to be their own boss and such socialist “we’ll take care of you! Pinky promise! Just sign here … and be a drone for the state” translates into ice cold water on their future.
…at this time I believe the citizenship thing a no-starter.
Why do they keep dicking around with technicalities in the court case, do you think, Darleen? I am asking seriously, I thought this was tinfoil cap territory at first, but dragging out the PA lawsuit instead of just breaking out the documentation is starting to make me wonder.
I do not think myself old at all at 36. But that Jodi is younger than I am, and in such a very responsible position, frightens me.
B Moe
With 3 weeks left in the campaign I truly believe to focus on the citizenship thing is to deflect us looking at what is already known. Why should camp O! release any information when those going down that path are setting themselves up so nicely? The bandwagon will have it’s wheels fall off 3 days before the election when camp O! releases the documentation and the MSM will have 32 font headlines screaming about the McCain campaign and the RNC being behind the false birth certificate meme. Even if that is not true, the MSM WILL tie it to the McCain campaign in the last 72 hours and it will be unanswerable.
I’ve seen such tactics before and McCain supporters would well be warned away from that tar baby …
I denounce myself.
Nuke ’em from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
If you are the choice of all the most scummiest people in the country, doesn’t that make you a little scummy? Scimmy?
[…] Via Jeff Goldstein, the news that the ‘news’ as we need it is nothing more than the most significant element, an important arm of the of the Obama campaign. Who knews? […]
[…] Via Jeff Goldstein, the news that the ‘news’ as we need it is nothing more than the most significant element, an important arm of the of the Obama campaign. Who knews? […]
[…] Via Jeff Goldstein, the news that the ‘news’ as we need it is nothing more than the most significant element of the of the Obama campaign. Who knews? […]
More O!dinga please
“I think it is high time the FEC looked into the NY Times operation with regards to “in-kind contributions—
My impression was that McCain/Feingold exempted the Media from that.
“The MSM is doing a fine job this election cycle being the Pravda of the Demorat Party.
Time to burn effigies of Marx
Reaganand call it a good day.That’s why they’re going to be handily defeated.
Keep dreaming, euro-king.
So far you’re batting 0.000 when it comes to predictions.
Vote for Obama. Vote for socialism. And you will obey.
Have it right, Thor?
i am nauseous.
On behalf of every decent, honest editor and reporter everywhere, and they do exist, I apologize.
i fucking hate what these people have done to my industry.
At long last, Grey and Dying Lady, have you no sense of decency?
While it pains me to say it to you, mcgruder, it no longer matters if any are ‘decent, honest’ b/c I will cheer the day they are all, all of them, in breadlines and would do whatever possible to make that happen.
Time to get out and do something else, mcgruder.
It’s no longer an honorable trade.
Well, to be less confrontational, I’ll offer this:
The ‘net and blogs evolved to be an alternative to the MSM and probably its natural that the antagonism has polarised to the extent it has. I don’t think the ‘vetting the vetters’ approach is the right one to adopt, but I can easily see something rather more effective come along shortly.
Yes, mcgruder. If you have REAL journalism skills it’s a wide-open territory out here.
Watching Sarah on Tues on PCN in PA. I love her.
Hey, the NYT paid good money for those professional dumpster divers!
Sarah looks like she stepped out of a Pearl Vision commercial.
“With 3 weeks left in the campaign I truly believe to focus on the citizenship thing is to deflect us looking at what is already known.”
I think you are “right on”. In any case aren’t the people pressing this Democrats who despise Obama? Intra-Party warfare so to speak.
Socialism! Taxes! ACORN! and Drill baby Drill!
Rinse and repeat.
“Sarah looks like she stepped out of a Pearl Vision commercial.”
Great gams on that gal.
On behalf of every decent, honest editor and reporter everywhere, and they do exist, I apologize.
i fucking hate what these people have done to my industry.
Like the legal profession, it’s the 99% bad apples who give the other 1% a bad name.
“The MSM isn’t to blame, other than FOX News, who suck beyond belief. The MSM is doing a fine job this election cycle.”
thor, you’re just jealous because the MSM gets to rally suck Obama’s ass, where with you it’s just a distant dream.
O! is sexual fantasy thing for alot of people no?
Jeff G. wrote, “At this point, the NYT, for all its elitist pretenses, may as well be publishing stories of BatBoys or Tom Cruise’s martian sperm.”
They did do an article recently on dowsing.
They’ve done at least two others since 1998.
Bow to thor, your intellectual superior! He owns you! Nobody crafts a pseudo-witty turn of phrase like the great Russian-fucker! He reads Celine, you know!
Thor…
You paused to think and never started again.
Hit the pause button again, dude…
– This thing about the MSM being openly in the tank for a Obama, isn’t all that different than other times and Presidential races.
– What really bothers is I don’t see a damn thing to regulate this yellow journalism anywhere in sight. And this time around they’re using tactics that even the Liberal press hasn’t resorted to in the past, at least no where near this extreme.
– I’ve been hearing for years about the falling readership, and layoffs, and financial problems, and that sooner or later many of the worst offending rags will go belly up, but somehow they hang on, fueled by Left wing synchophants like Soros, and no one seems to be able to stop their illegal advocacy, or even acts of sedition/treason.
– At some point, regardless of how this election comes out, something has to be done. This bullshit has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
“Thank you sir, may I have another.”
Sincerley, thor
oh. No. For real. It’s different I think. It’s Lakoffy and very will to powery and it’s informed by a reptilian condescension and it’s coordinated to an unprecedented degree, with Baracky and with each other. It’s defiantly not journalism I guess is what I mean. It’s narrative. It’s dangerous. If it succeeds something fundamental will have broken and after that the boundaries they’ll test their ambitions against will be undefined cause they’ve never really been imagined I don’t think. Not in America.
Palin was on SNL tonight. The Weekend Update bit with her was pretty friggin’ savage (the hurt-stick was applied to Barky, not Palin). Catchy little rap tune about Obama/Ayers and putting the MSM in a coffin, it was.
Now you’ve done it. I’m drunk dialing the times. The number you posted doesn’t work but you can work around it. Somehow I got the dial by name and managed to get her voice mail. I left her a nice angry message.
SPB
You think NBC will allow that video tape see the light of day after Camp Obama gets wind of it? (it’s only 10:15p here on the leftcoast…no SNL yet)
Tape it if you can, Darleen. I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it.
On Breitbart.tv now.
Opening is here.
SBP and geoffb, Thank you. It is always fun when SNL actually gets it right, and they are some of the best at being evil fare.
Holy shit!
The NYT says YOU. ARE. BIASED.
Via Hot Air…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19pubed.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Quote:
“Nobody acknowledges the possibility that, because of their own biases, they could be reading more, or less, than was intended into an article, a headline or a picture.”
Whatid I say?
The political equivilent of head lice.
The thing is too N. O’Brian, the creeps on the far left do see the media as biased too….. but in the other direction. Remember, they blame this as much for Iraq an W.
Meanwhile, Terry Gross’ rolodex is spinning as she feverishly tries to line up Jodi Kantor for the next version of Fresh Air.
If it succeeds something fundamental will have broken and after that the boundaries they’ll test their ambitions against will be undefined cause they’ve never really been imagined I don’t think. Not in America.
If this thing comes down to Ohio I foresee significant ugliness, and not just the verbal kind.
#30 dicentra:
However, did y’all know that some dude named Saul Alinsky wrote a book about taking down the establishment?
Exactly what I have been saying – use the tactics manual against them. Personify the problem, such as send letters critical of this to the paper and to home addresses.
Since they wish to trash the underage children of candidates and go after some Joe who had the temerity to ask a question, go after them.
(Show some of the class they don’t show, however, leave their underage children out of it.)
>>such as send letters critical of this to the paper and to home addresses.
Weak sauce, MikeyNTH. Not saying its a bad thing, just that it hasn’t worked in decades now.
WRT using Alinsky’s stuff: The other major bit was using their own rules against them. Most MSM types don’t use rules, so don’t waste time on that, I’d say.
Instead, I’ve been looking at the shift in political loyalties as they relate to region and class. This is the first election since ever when we haven’t had at least one patrician on the ticket, plus if you look at the red/blue shift we’re obviously becoming a more populist-focused party while the Dems are becoming the elites. With the ascendancy of Sarah we’re turning a real corner and probably beginning to lose old strongholds while gainng new ones.
Dems are now the Empire, we the Rebel Alliance IOW. Its been that way for a long time of course, but I think it’ll still take about 10 years for that to filter into the common public consciousness. I suppose with a little help that may arrive sooner.
The arrival on scene of rightwing protesters – a new beast, decidedly – is what first got me looking into this, BTW. We’re seeing a tectonic shift in US Politics
Look at it this way: If City Journal, say, were to produce an article entitled The New Patricians, would it surprise you if it detailed hereditary celebrities and the clout they wield in politics? If it treated them as a recognisable class instead of a collection of Lefty blowhards that made it big? How easy or hard would it be for that meme to enter into the collective conscious? Its not a new idea, it just doesn’t have a name yet
Cleo –
do you think Powell did any good turns during the lead up to the WOT?
#83
Then you, thor, and Colin Powell will be on the losing side of history.
g2g. back later
#81 urthshu:
It is just a suggestion.
Perhaps others can come up with better ones to match the tactics manual.
#85
I think cleo is more than on the wrong thread. Cleo gets his “facts” from Coppola instead of history books.
“Where the flock was he while Condi and George clusterfucked the WOT?”
The war we’re winning, you retarded marmoset?
That one?
seman, when you played in the sandbox as a child, did the cats keep trying to bury you?
It has a name. It’s name is O!
If Colin Powell was not to be believe or trusted for spreading Bushitler’s LIES!1! during the run-up to the Second Gulf War, why is he “believable and trustworthy” now, lefties?
Techie,
That’s the greeeeeat mystery of the leftie paradox…
Or, to put as one of their own would; “gaia only knows, and she ain’t tellin’…”
Spooked, Cleo?
Sorry – not here.
Oh, and I denounce you for using ‘spooked’ and ‘Powell’ in the same sentence. Racist!
former Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander, Jr. (Carter Administration), former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig (Clinton Administration), senior Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice, and former Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters (Clinton Administration), Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard, the campaign’s national security director, Lee Feinstein, Gen. Merril McPeak (USAF-possibly self-unselected by commenting on Jooooos), Lawrence Korb (Reagain Administration), Denis McDonough, the campaign’s national security coordinator, MG Scott Gration (USAF), BG James Smith (USAF), Adm. Robert Williamson (USN), Adm. Don Gutter (USN), BG David McGinnis (ARNG), BG Larry Gillespie (ARNG), Adm. John B. Nathman (USN), MG John B. Nathman (USA), MG Ralph Wooten (USA), MG Jim Jones (USMC).
McPeak and Clark were the only O-10s I could find and they’ve commited acts of autopedic marksmanship via oral dysentery.
Oh, I’ve been writing about that for years. But now I guess it’s Ace’s idea. Or Powerline’s. Or Hugh Hewitt’s. Or PJM’s.
It spreads! We need our leaders!
Whatever. Centralize the power.
Oops. Wrong thread.
#91 cleo
I see I caught you out.
Crack a book sometime, ok?
That the NYT is in the bag for Obama is no secret. That they are actively running one arm of his campaign  the propaganda wing  is troubling both from the perspective of journalistic ethics and from the perspective of what amounts to a kind of oblique voter fraud, the natural product of dishing out misinformation or framing narratives in order to garner votes for the preferred candidate.
Of course when the conservatives are winning, it is because the American people have spoken (its a mandate, y’all!), but if the Democrats are winning – well then someone has to be brainwashing the public (fucking Marxists!). Forget that no one except leftwing elitists like myself actually read the New York Times – someone is somehow convincing Joe Flyoverstate to magically decide to pick up the Times and become Obamatized into leaning Democratic.
My theory, for what its worth – and that aint a whole lot – is that in tough times, people always skew toward some kind of blame-the-other-guy populism or fuck-the-rich socialism (unlike my pure and sweet socialism that was not born a few weeks ago from the ashes of my stock portfolio – I am a purist and a lifer). It is really not a mysterious plot to hoodwink the American people. They know exactly what kind of politics they are flirting with right now.
Lisa
It doesn’t have to be “brainwashing.”
Does everyone in “fly over” country read Vogue or WWD? Yet somehow the fashion from those pages ends up being worn by people who never read ’em.
Look at your local newspaper… original stories of local events are written by people IN your town while the front page and the “national” news will be wire stories from AP or Reuters. Many times columns are syndicated from the NYTimes or WaPo.
“All the News That is Fit to Print” has made the Grey
LadySlut the “taste maker” and driven news cycles for decades. The the NYSlimes Book Review ignores your book, well then it must not be one of quality. If the Arts Section drools over your pottery, regardless of it being covered in child p0rn, then you have arrived as an avante gard artiste … even if Jodi Kantor fucked her way to being the Art Section editor.Objectivity in news delivery has been going the way of the dodo ever since the transistion of Ayers’ contemporaries from street aggitators into “respected” educators churning out “advocacy” journalists in J-schools. Puffpieces on women swooning for Billy Jeff ran on the frontpage, above the fold, Los Angeles Times, so why the full descent of “major” newspapers into all out PR organs for Obama should be such a surprise?
The LATimes TODAY endorse Obama REGARDLESS of their own admission that Obama hasn’t a clue on the economy and McCain has better ideas. Why?
Ideology and classism. Thieving socialism happens to other people. The editors at the NYTimes and the celebrities in Hollywood figure they know the right people and will be exempt. Socialism gives them an out when it comes to moral obligations.
And it helps keep the riff raff in the red sections of the country IN THEIR PLACE…the uppity bastards who should know better than to aspire to more than wearing LizWear and carrying knock-off Coach purses.
Two things Conservatives must do if serious about recaliming a voice:
1) Re-open the old party newspapers. There is no objective independent journalistic tradition in the country, mostly because, historically, there never has been. Once aupon a time newspapers were unabashedly party organs–thre MUST be two papers (or at least news outlets of whatever medium) in every town of 100,000 or more.
2) Go back to the teaching occupations. So long as the Progressives hold a monopoly on the schools, they’ve got the future by the shorthairs. And onesey-twosey isn’t going to cut–the only way to have an impact is to provide safetyin numbers–it’ll have to be a Conservative education movement. We’ll have to be just as patient as they were, until we have the seniority and experience to start moving into the administrative positions. Troops to Teachers could be an excellent inroad for this.
Jeff,
Your criticism of the Old Dead Lady is totaly unfair. She has tried to slime Senator McCain and his family repeatedly and failed. But the rotting, stinking corpse has gotten up and tried again.
Is that not the American way? Try and try again!
“Is that not the American way? Try and try again!”
Except in semam’s case it’s probably just OCD.
Two things Conservatives must do if serious about recaliming a voice:
1) Re-open the old party newspapers. There is no objective independent journalistic tradition in the country, mostly because, historically, there never has been. Once aupon a time newspapers were unabashedly party organs–thre MUST be two papers (or at least news outlets of whatever medium) in every town of 100,000 or more.
2) Go back to the teaching occupations. So long as the Progressives hold a monopoly on the schools, they’ve got the future by the shorthairs. And onesey-twosey isn’t going to cut–the only way to have an impact is to provide safetyin numbers–it’ll have to be a Conservative education movement. We’ll have to be just as patient as they were, until we have the seniority and experience to start moving into the administrative positions. Troops to Teachers could be an excellent inroad for this.
Excellent. I remember growing up reading both the Sacramento Bee (the libs) and the Sacramento Union (the conservs). We read the NYT and the WSJ to see both sides’ take on national and international news. I never understood this recent push to make newspapers objective. They have been endorsing candidates and opining on issues since the first one came off of the printing press. The New York Times has always skewed to the left and the Wall Street Journal has always skewed to the right. Neither is going to change their tune because of our high-pitched whining. Read both of them. You will be happier.
What sucks is that we fell asleep at the wheel and allowed one newspaper to swallow up the other in our towns. Most towns and cities now only have one newspaper instead of two. And that is likely run by some conglomerate rather than any local folks. That needs to change. But it won’t unless we demand it.
And yes RTO – I work in academia and freely admit that it is a hotbed of liberalism (yay). However, there are conservative faculty who are not afraid to speak their mind. And they are quite happy to be there. Being a conservative in academia does not always end in tears. Most of the time it goes along very nicely.
Lisa, at my house we kept our Union subscription right up to the end, and we did business with their advertisers. We stayed with them through the transition to tabloid format, and the three-times-a-week last gasp.
You?
Lisa, I was an education major, once up upon a time. I wanted to teach history, preferably in some at-risk school somewhere. Then I learned I’d have to be a member of a union. I’d already turned down summer employment with UPS becasue I didn’t want to join the Teamsters. I wrestled with that a long time and decided I could probably make a go of it.
As I got into the advanced subjects like Legal Aspects, I became more mand more off-put by learning that if they brought a bucket of oatmeal into my classromm, declared that it was a student, not only did I have to teach it, it had better pass the standardized tests (this was well before No Child Left Behind).
Then they told me that because I had external sex organs, I’d be required to coach some athletic event, whether I wanted to or not, which was not something I was especially suited to back then (the Army has helped me change that).
Final insult–my counsellor had been asleep at the wheel. When I went for Senior validation of my degree plan, I learned that the 18 hours I had left to finish would have to be broken up over three more semesters because the remaining classes could not be taken concurrently.
I took 3 hours of European history credit and finished a general history degree (then walked up the road and enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard). 15 years later, I still plan to finish a teaching ciertificate if only because I once set out to do so. Today it’s just a matter of finding the time for the 3 hours of Texas history credit which is all I lack if I exercize a Troops to Teachers voucher.
Good for you, RTO. You and a number of other military would probably make great teachers because you understand discipline and mental rigor. Hope you pursue it.
RTO Trainer: you’re going to be an awesome teacher.
RTO
You would make a great teacher! Even as it is gamed to make people like you look elsewheres or burn you out with the BS sooner than the union drones.
The CTA charges the second highest dues in the state of CA right behind the AFL-CIO. And they use those dues to chase anyone even faintly right-of-center out of education and beat down anyone opposed to their blank check on the CA state budget.
I never understood this recent push to make newspapers objective.
::bangs head against wall:::
The NEWS pages were to be objective. Separation of opinion and reporting. Granted, papers could and would be fully partisan, but it was supposed to be in its own section.
But that was in the day when reporters came up through the ranks, not being indoctrinated at fancy J-schools.
My dad was in the newspaper business before going into corporate advertising — Citizen News, then The Examiner (afternoon paper, the morning papers were The Herald and The Los Angeles Times). When the Examiner merged with the Herald, dad left.
I grew up reading newspapers everyday, starting at age 10 y/o, and analyzing what the papers were reporting over the dinner table with my dad.
There are several alternatives to teaching in public schools on the horizon, too.
Think: distributed school, with teachers and students from across the country.
RTO you will be an amazing teacher.
McGehee, my parents kept their subscription to the Union until it shut down in 94 (one of their favorite pastimes was firing off angry letters to the editor). I moved out of town to go to college in 1987 and didn’t return until after it had closed.
Wonder how many of those my letters provoked? <evil, maniacal cackle>
When I get my certificate, I may never exercize it. I’ll have it because it was a goal I set for myself once.
I’ll look into the options, see how much BS has to be endured/ingested. Until then I have a plan that would kill the teacher’s unions–I just can’t get even the Republican governors interested in it, which I do not understand.
Dad was a cop, mom was a teacher. I figure as an NCO, get to be a bit of both, but they won’t let me keep doing that after 60.
RTO,
As one that is considering teaching, but wary of the BS too, what plan do you have to exx the PC teachers unions? Maybe it’s something we should all work on collectively…
But admittedly, it’d be hard to pull of here in NYC; it’s union heaven here…
Folks at my church and in my neighborhood keep tellin’ me that they desperately need male math and science teachers, and they get really psyched when I talk about being an aerospace engineer…
I just can’t help but think that the unions will only get stronger, and the BS deeper, under O!
The thing is, you don’t need to work in a public school.
You don’t even need to work in a private school.
There’s not much risk that you’re going to unionize against yourself, yes?
Much more on this later, I hope — it’s part of a project I’ve been working on for a while.
Or, you know, get off your ass and make it happen yourself.
Deep Six the Teacher Unions:
The biggest signle reason that there are teacher unions is becasue teachers need insurance and an advocate in the event they are accused of something untoward involving a student. The unions neet this need. The union dues include teh insuracne premiums. The answer to this is to remove that need and that can be done with simple tort reform.
Provide teachers with tort immunity. There must, of course be limitations–some people are human scum and the legal process is the right way to deal with them. Make an exception that says that a teacher may only be sued civilly if they are first found guilty criminally. (Which is not an unusual thing in tort immunity.)
The answer to this is to remove that need and that can be done with simple tort reform.
Barring that, a non-profit(not a union) set up for the sole purpose of getting group insurance rates would do the trick.
RTO,
I wish that was possible.
But I doubt that the Democrats will allow either substantial tort reforms or the scrapping of the teachers unions. Both groups, tort lawyers and educators, their appelation of choice these days-kinda like progressives, are among the largest, most generous, and most vocal constituencies of the poitical left…
Mayne SBP and his crew are cooking up some internet schooling thing that will relieve us all of those unions…
Until then, like he noted, there’s always private schools. The local Catholic archdiocese may pay a bit less than the public system, but the kids are better behaved and there is virtually none of the PC BS associated with the public system…
Schools where they are interested in the students really learning; who knew….
I think the unions could be effectively painted, given the right PR campaign, as providing cover for pedophiles and enabling educational malpractice (the latter I think the general public already beleives anyway) and that the reform measure is the way to fix that. At the same time, sell the teachers (and the general public) on paying lower dues, keeping more of their already admittedly low wages. In addition, aggitate the idea that professioanals shouldn’t need unions and stand ready to help inclined educators to stand up an American Educators Association–not that there’s no potential abuse there, but it would be more appropriate–which would be focused on providing assistance to states, and schools on recommendations of textbooks and setting curricula.
Or, you know, get off your ass and make it happen yourself.
I will buy a local newspaper if you will. Of course mine will have a very fashionable hammer and sickle logo. How about you, Crawford?
I guess I’m more of a “let a thousand flowers bloom” kind of guy, RTO. I think any centralized curriculum organization is inevitably going to be captured by those who seek power.
Ha ha ha McGehee. I bet you guys did battle more than once.
Lisa – Where can I find some Hammer & Sickle clothing? I want to make sure that I can dress the role when our new liberal overlords take, and I mean take office in January.
I already have my brownshirt, and my polished jackboots.
JD:
Yeah you can just cross out the “Republi” on your “Republifascist Overlord Association” uniform that you have been wearing for the past 8 years and write in “Demo”. Also, make sure you have a nice bright red armband to show your fealty to the cause (I think Michael Jackson may have a few extras – he was really into armbands in the 90s). It’ll be great.
I’m Comrade Sugartits and I approve this message.
Mayne SBP and his crew are cooking up some internet schooling thing that will relieve us all of those unions…
Until then, like he noted, there’s always private schools. The local Catholic archdiocese may pay a bit less than the public system, but the kids are better behaved and there is virtually none of the PC BS associated with the public system…
There’s always home schooling. I mean, there is for now.
Thank you, KKKomrade Lisa. How could I have forgotten about the armbands?
Lisa!?!? Okay now I am really concerned about you, JD. You haven’t called me Lisa for ages.
I will send you a powerful cocktail of anti-depressants and Cialis. You will be as good as new in no time.
“a powerful cocktail of anti-depressants and Cialis.” In about two weeks, when I am back from this tour, that combination would probably cause me to spontaneously combust…
My sincere apologies, sugartits. I am still waiting on some linky confirmation ;-)
I keep waiting for the follow up to this post: “Heavy Vetting!”
That only leads to trouble and…
Seat vettings!
Could lead to Shotgun Vettings.
Some people prefer T-Birdings.
NTTAWWT.
Why don’t they begin vetting the actual candidate for Presidency. Very interesting info below that the media WON’T cover.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/pennsylvania/paedce/2:2008cv04083/281573/13/
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