Our favorite irascible media tyrant is in the news once again, and once again it’s time for me to bring you a story of doing one thing while wishing for another.
We have heard a lot about the...how can I put this politely...challenges Murdoch seems to face associating factual reality with his reality, and we could have lots of fun going through his factual misstatements—but instead, I want to take on one specific issue today:
Rupert Murdoch says he hates it when people steal his content from the Internet to draw readers to their sites...which is funny, if you think about it, because he has no problem at all stealing my content (and lots of yours, as well) for his sites.
WASHINGTON – Gov. Jennifer Granholm will visit theWhite House on Tuesday amid speculation that she’s on President Barack Obama’s short list to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court but a senior administration official says the event is unrelated to the spot on the court.
What the event is and who else will be in attendance were not immediately revealed. The official was unwilling to be identified because the meeting and its topic had not yet been made public.
As I mentioned yesterday, it's widely known that Granholm is on the short list of SCOTUS nominees, and she's highly regarded by legal experts as a wise choice to replace Souter.
Granholm, 50, graduated from Harvard Law School with honors and was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review. She's been a lawyer at the local, state and federal level, and authored legal opinions as well as scholarly law journal articles.
She was a judicial clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit Court, which includes Michigan. In 1990, she became a federal prosecutor in Detroit, where she racked up a 99 percent conviction rate.
Four years later, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. In 1998, she was elected as Michigan's first woman attorney general. In that post, she authored 115 quasi-judicial legal opinions supervising civil, criminal and appellate cases.
-snip-
Granholm has an appealing personal story, as a career mom who juggled demanding jobs, marriage and three children. She also has been scrutinized by the media and has had no major scandals.
"Granholm's an excellent candidate," said Richard Friedman, a law professor and Supreme Court expert at the University of Michigan.
And to the unnamed White House source who says that her meeting tomorrow isn't about SCOTUS, c'mon, do you really think they're gonna say that is? Silly wabbit, that's not how the game of politics is played.
When word leaked out last week that Gov. Jennifer Granholm's name was on the short list of possible Supreme Court nominees to replace retiring Justice David Souter, the casual observer probably wouldn't have played the odds.
But for the insiders and those paying careful attention to what President Obama himself said when making the announcement, they're feeling pretty confident.
Now, the process of selecting someone to replace Justice Souter is among my most serious responsibilities as President. So I will seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity. I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation.
I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving as just decisions and outcomes. I will seek somebody who is dedicated to the rule of law, who honors our constitutional traditions, who respects the integrity of the judicial process and the appropriate limits of the judicial role. I will seek somebody who shares my respect for constitutional values on which this nation was founded, and who brings a thoughtful understanding of how to apply them in our time.
The articles in the state's two largest papers pretty well seem to agree with the insiders, and as they say, it's because Granholm's about as qualified as they can get.
In the wake of newspaper cutbacks and shutdowns, and shortfalls in tax revenues, representatives of local governments have been talking about ways to scale back the quantity of newspaper advertising required by Michigan law.
Now the Michigan Press Association is going on the offensive to protect the laws that require large legal notices to be published in newspapers.
You gotta love Biden for having the guts to call out a reporter for giving credulity to the stupid "communist" right-wing, smear tactics against Obama's viewpoints that government should help poor and middle class people, not just the rich.
And yes, Virginia, there IS a such thing as a stupid question. The real fun comes 2:20 into the interview.
UPDATE: I heard that the station is being slammed today for their lack of journalistic professionalism. Also, it turns out that the reporter's husband is a consultant for the Republican party in Florida.
If you read a newspaper, watch the evening news, or surf the web, there's a good chance that you've heard from one of the thousands of people that could personally benefit from embryonic stem cell research if Proposal 2 passes in Michigan.
From the U.P. to the southeast corner, Michigan's media has been closely following and reporting on this issue. Channel 7 in Detroit has an excellent analysis on both sides of the issue and TV 6 in Marquette offers a very introspective piece.
Whether it's living with Juvenile Diabetes like Ryan does, or a spinal cord injury like the one that Laura has, stuck with Multiple Sclerosis like Brenda is, a chronic heart condition like Kipp, or living with a chronic digestive disease like I do, it's amazing how a personal story can really cause people to think, and it's something that we're all hoping everyone does come November 4th.
As a person who has Crohn's Disease, something for which there is currently no known cause or cure, I'm fighting like hell to make sure that Michigan voters are hearing from people like Ryan, Laura, and myself because this issue is so important. Not just to us, but to families, our friends, and if we can have them, our children.
It's also important to the thousands more that will be diagnosed now and in the future with illnesses/injuries like ours, and cancer, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), Parkinson's, blindness, and the list goes on and on.
When the diagnosis is handed down, their lives will be shattered just as ours were. The difference for them after November 4th will be whether or not hope exists in the form of treatments and cures, something that for many of us is not available now, but something that Proposal 2 will.
We all remember how bravely actor Christopher Reeve fought for this very issue after suffering from a spinal cord injury, or how hard Michael J. Fox has pressed the country after his diagnosis with Parkinson's.
So from the thousands of Michigan residents whose lives are consumed with pain, illness and injury, all we ask is that you be our Superman or Superwoman on November 4th and vote Yes on Proposal 2 to Cure Michigan.
Great news out of the state's two largest newspapers today for Proposal 2. Both the Free Press and the Detroit News gave a ringing endorsement of lifting the state's archaic ban on embryonic stem cell research that has the possibility to help thousands, even millions like me that suffer from different illnesses and diseases.
Among the many reasons to repeal Michigan's ban on embryonic stem cell research, perhaps the strongest is this: The ban doesn't preserve life. Instead, it wastes unwanted embryos that could save and improve lives. The ban also stalls scientific exploration for life-giving cures.
(skip)
Michigan voters should say yes to Proposal 2 on the Nov. 4 ballot to open up the state to this tremendous opportunity. They should say yes to put Michigan researchers in the hunt to solve heretofore incurable diseases.
Let's face it, throwing these stem cell lines into the trash instead of using them to find cures is as far away from being 'pro-life' as one can get.
Michigan has one of the most backward laws on embryonic stem cell research in the nation. Prop 2 on the November ballot would change that. Residents should vote yes on Prop 2.
And if that doesn't convince you, just consider this. How often is that these two papers actually agree on anything, particularly something like this?
Spread the word, get involved, and help out. Michigan needs Prop 2 to pass, and we need you to help make that happen.
Yesterday's New York Times posted a misleading article that uses the relationship between SEIU President Andy Stern and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott as evidence of a "slowing down" of the Wal-Mart campaigns.NYT registration required-- it's also re-posted at HuffPo.)
While we cannot speak for Wal-Mart Watch, everyone in Michigan should know WakeUpWalMart.com has NO intention of letting Wal-Mart off the hook. None. Zero. Zilch.
April was a bad month for Gannett, which owns the Detroit Free Press, the Lansing State Journal, the Battle Creek Enquirer, the Livingston County Press & Argus, the Port Huron Times Herald, and the Observer and Eccentric papers in the Detroit suburbs.
The chain reported a drop in operating revenue of 7.7 percent on a drop in advertising revenue of 10.4 compared to the same period last year. Strong showings in things like travel, restaurants, and advocacy (it is an election year) were offset by softness elsewhere. Also, the chain reported what has been a generally declining trend in what was once its bread-and-butter, classified advertising. Classified advertising in the chain's community papers dropped 20 percent. (An unrelated note, probably, is that a private investment group submitted a mini-tender for the company's stock.)
It also explains why a continued wave of reductions in staff and news space is now in process and likely in the months to come.
The good news of this is that the loss of reporters doesn't mean piling work on those few and declining number of warm bodies in the newsroom ... the space they have to fill is also disappearing. But, it does mean fewer shoe leather reporters doing important reporting in less space.
There are two accredited journalism programs in the state of Michigan. Guess what else there are two of here -- award-winning student newspapers.
CMU's Central Michigan Life and MSU's the State News were both named finalists in the Society for Professional Journalist's Mark of Excellence awards (CM Life in the non-daily category, the State News in the daily category). The awards were announced yesterday. Both universities picked up awards here and there, including an in-depth online reporting award for a story from MSU on the Pine River cleanup in Gratiot County.
Why is this worth mentioning on a political blog? Well, aside from the role a strong, independent, professional media plays in informing the public, it's a big deal because it shows that Michigan universities -- and not just U-M put together some incredibly excellent academic programs, programs that are competitive nationally. I don't think this is something that is recognized often enough, especially when it comes time to talk state budget.
I didn't see the heavy hitters of journalism schools listed -- Columbia, the University of Missouri, and Northwestern -- anywhere, so probably not everyone submitted an entry, but the list is long and some of the programs have considerable regional prestige and/or have been recognized nationally. So, go us.
The second reason I mention this is because I'm an alumni of CMU's program and a former staffer of CM Life. Here, anything that's a big deal to me I make a big deal to you. And, while we're happy for the purposes of comity and inclusiveness to let stinking cow college to the south share this bit of the spotlight, MSU will never do anything but play second fiddle to the Chippewas when it comes to journalism schools.
Many of you have already signed a petition to get Democracy Now! on both 88.1 FM WYCE radio and WGVU TV Channel 35 in Grand Rapids. This media alert is the last push in this campaign to get the award winning show with Amy Goodman on the local airwaves in our community.
Here is what you can do in the next few days:
1) Sign the Petition online and get others to do the same no later than May 19:
2) We need as many people as possible to come to the May 20 Board of Directors meeting of the Community Media Center to lobby for them to air Democracy Now! on 88.1 FM WYCE. The meeting is at 6pm at the Wealthy Theatre, 1130 Wealthy. Everyone will have a chance during public comment to speak on why you want Democracy Now! to air on this community radio station.
3) If you cannot make the meeting on May 20, you can send an e-mail to the Executive Director of the Community Media Center Laurie Cirivello laurie@grcmc.org. We are also delivering petitions to WGVU TV Channel 35 next week, so we encourage you to send an e-mail to Michael T. Walenta, the station manager of WGVU:
JRC owns a number of newspaper clusters throughout the northeast, usually centered in suburban areas. In Michigan, in addition to a handful of weeklies sprinkled across the Lower Peninsula, it owns the Oakland Press, the Macomb Daily, the Royal Oak Tribune, and the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun.
For anyone following the industry, this really isn't very shocking. Stock prices have been following profits down over the last few years, and have been following the general trend in circulation since, oh, sometime in the 80s.
Devaluing stock prices don't necessarily mean the company is in danger of going backrupt, but that investers see no good reason to sink a lot of money into it. This is one of the reasons why the stock market isn't a great indicator of economic health -- it's based on perception as much as anything. On the other hand, if there was a concrete reason why investors were steering clear of a company's devalued stock, then it means serious trouble.
In the case of JRC, that happens to be the case. It's not necessarily indicative of the profit performance of the individual papers, mind you, but of the company's overall ability to generate revenue and carry debt at the same time. In this case, the corporation -- when it purchased its Michigan cluster from the private equity firm 21st Century Newspapers -- took on a huge amount of debt, and has never been able to make things work. It's been the product of a lousy state economy coupled with a general decline of newspaper stocks (the only company showing appreciable growth continues to be the Washington Post Group, which diversified its products itself a long time ago), and also crappy corporate management (not just of numbers, but the company is also famous for mistreating employees).
Over the past two weeks, Mediamouse.org--Grand Rapids' first and largest independent news and media website--has been redesigned. While we are continuing to work on the site and make small tweaks here and there, this work is for the most part completed. Over the past eight years, we believe that Mediamouse.org has served an important role in providing news, analysis, and networking for those interested in social change, those looking for an anecdote to the local corporate media, and for progressive and left groups organizing in Grand Rapids and West Michigan.
Some of the recent changes that will help us grow and continue to serve in this capacity include:
Improved Searching - With several years of articles covering a wide variety of events and issues that have happened in Grand Rapids, we have made some changes to make it easier to find old articles.
Improved Interaction - We have added the capacity to rate articles and make comments. We hope that this will help us solicit feedback and become more responsive to the movements that we support. Additionally, we hope that it invites further discussion and interaction between readers.
Email Subscriptions - We are starting a bi-weekly email newsletter and have also implemented a service that allows folks to subscribe to daily email summaries containing all of the articles that have been posted on any given day.
We will be making additional changes in the coming weeks and continuing to refine some of the functionality. However, our primary goal over the next several months is going to be increasing the readership and relevancy of Mediamouse.org. While a lot of folks know about Mediamouse.org--primarily in the context of being a place to find out about protests--we have generally not done any advertising or outreach over the past several years. We're going to work on this--consider this email a start.
That said, we continue to invite participation from those visiting Mediamouse.org. Submit events, submit articles, suggest stories, or let us know your thoughts on the work we are doing. We appreciate comments, suggestions, criticism, and the opportunity to dialog. While Mediamouse.org is only a website, we believe it is a tool--one of many--that can be used effectively to promote radical social change.
PS - As we move forward, we appreciate any help that folks can offer us in advertising. For some ideas--including posters and links to our profiles on various social networking websites--visit:
Tucker Carlson gets his meathooks into the journalist who prompted Obama adviser Samatha Powers to resign over referring to Hillary as a monster.
Here's the money line:
She wanted it off the record ... typically, the arrangement is that if somebody wants a quote off the record, you give it to them off the record.
The hilarious part came when a little bit later when Carlson launched in a self-righteous mini-lecture about the standards of the American media as compared to the British media. This comes, you know, while we're still paying for the greatest modern failure of the American media. Like, ever. That would be the Iraq war.
Now that the media has effectively neutralized Clinton's candidacy by accusations of divisiveness, unlikeability, b!tchiness and carrying too much "baggage", all while universally singing the praises of her rival Obama for several months straight --- are they now preparing for a flip flop on Obama?
For the record, it has long been my assertion that the media was driving Hillary out of the race by their incessantly one-sided, negative media coverage. The conspiracy theorist in me feared that this was a plot to drive the strongest Democratic candidate out of the race to pave the way for a Republican victory.
While that idea was largely poo pooed in the liberal circles in which I travel - and even I was not 100% convinced of my own paranoia - several news stories have recently begun miraculously reporting less than infatuating coverage about Obama. As if suddenly awakened from a 100 year sleep and discovering their "messiah" has flaws. Media Matters - a media watch dog organization - has done an excellent job reporting on this disturbing trend in news coverage.
With Sen. Barack Obama now emerging as the Democratic front-runner, clear signs suggest that his press treatment will soon change and that the media will fall back into their routine of viewing -- and critiquing -- leading Democrats through the eyes of Republican spin.
Specifically, look at the about-face being done by partisan conservative columnists who, rather unbelievably, had expressed their deep admiration for Obama, a liberal Democrat, during the primary season when he opposed Clinton.
And its not just the right-wing nut job media outlets like Fox News and MSNBC that are starting the hack job. The article goes on to name the biggest - and most influential - names in media coverage doing a complete flip flop:
CNN's Carol Costello suggested that the audience response at an Obama rally represented "a scene some increasingly find not inspirational, but 'creepy'.
Time's Joe Klein complained, "There was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism." Times' Brooks joked that Obama's supporters would soon be "selling flowers at airports and arranging mass weddings."
The Los Angeles Times' Joel Stein referred to "the Cult of Obama," while mocking the campaign as "Obamaphilia" and his supporters as "Obamaphiles."
ABC's Jake Tapper made fun of the "Helter-Skelter cult-ish qualities" of Obama's supporters.
Meanwhile, in Sunday's New York Times, Obama was twicedescribed as being overly effeminate: Compare that to the media's portrayal of Republican Sen. John McCain as sort of a man's man, and it's obvious where those competing narratives are headed.
For two people that have almost identical policy stances, one could only scratch their head in amazement and the polarizing treatment the two have received in the press - as if one wanted Communism and the other wanted Fascism. Yet, as we all know too well, policy stances have little to do with media portrayals, but who wealthy and powerful conglomerate owners and publishers want to see in office.
The cult narrative simply highlights how Obama is not immune to bad press -- bad press that has nothing to do with his past, his policies, or his campaign platform. But bad press that journalists essentially concoct, the way they do every four years when a Democrat eyes the White House.
So, you tell me.... Am I just being a paranoid, conspiracy theorist by my insistence that the media are hell-bent on selecting our Presidents for us (and, by the way, relentlessly trashing anyone who manages to win the Office without their blessing)? Or are these too many coincidences to be lightly dismissed as the mad ramblings of a lonely cat lady?
In an age where traditional news outlets are being forced to either go the way of the dinosaurs or to completely reinvent the wheel, worthy sources of information to feed our media hunger are hard to find.
If you're left unsatisfied and bored with the same newswire report recycled nine different times in four different papers, be sure to check Issue Media Group's emerging online magazines (e-zines) that are popping up around the state. Rapid Growth in Grand Rapids and surrounding West Michigan
Capital Gains in Lansing and surrounding Mid-Michigan
I wrote Cry Me a River hoping that it was just a one-day story.
Thanks to a lazy punditocracy, it has legs.
On the liberal side of the media, the story is that the tears softened Clinton, made her likeable, made her accessible, blah, blah. On the front page of today's NYT, Her Message, And Moment, Won the Day In today's WaPo, Richard Cohen finished Crying Likeable Tears with this cringe-inducing line:
But the wave Barack Obama kept saying he was riding is apparently no match for a mother's warm tears.
On the wingnut conservative side of the media, the story is still about Hillary's "tears" -- but opinionators like Bill Kristol think the emotions were calculated.
HUME: Well, is there anything else to attribute it to?
KRISTOL: And that's the tears. No, it's the tears. She pretended to cry; the women liked it.
HUME: You think she pretended?
KRISTOL: Yes.
HUME: I don't.
KRISTOL: The women were sorry for her, and she won.
C'mon, guys. You can't think of ANY other reason for the disconnect between the pre-primary poll numbers and the final results?
A lot of little, hometown newspapers once a week go to their local courthouse and gather records from that week -- criminal sentences, divorces, business name changes, etc... -- and print them in the paper. It not only fills lots and lots of space, but it's also hugely popular. Everyone reads it, because at the end of the day, no matter how much we say that we want to stay out of other people's business ... we don't really mean it.
Along comes the Free Press. I realize that foreclosures are public records, but the only benefit there is to creating easy access to a database of foreclosed properities is pure schadenfreude (or maybe word to speculators where they can get property dirt cheap). For instance, if you live at 1713 Oak in Birmingham, and over the summer you watched your neighbors across the street pack up and move in a hurry ... there's a good reason for it. In fact, if you live in Wayne or Oakland counties, I'd recommend that you look up your street to see which of your neighbors have suffered the embarrassment and humiliation of losing their homes in the last few months.
[Warning: the Free Press cannot verify the accuracy of the database ("A note: Some of them may have been redeemed in the two months since this list was compiled."). One wonders if this means people received notice of foreclosure and paid up, or the homes were foreclosed upon and sold.].
“Blogs are nothing more than writing on the bathroom wall,” so says my former editor, Jack Lessenberry.
Off to the left there is part of a screenshot of Jack Lessenberry scrawling on the bathroom wall. He's welcome to join us. I'd hope that he'd be civil if he's going to try to poach traffic off bathroom graffiti, but I'm a generous guy. There's plenty of suckers to go around.
This is the second time that Susan J. Demas has waded into battle against the blogosphere. The last time she mentioned us by name. This time, I see she was good enough to simply swipe with a brush broad enough to do Detroit Free Press Editorial Page Editor Ron Dzwonkowski's milquetoasty heart pround -- blame everyone, hold no one accountable.
