Good Morning . . .
The LA Times, a bastion of liberal thought, published an op-ed piece by former CBS News President Van Gordon Sauter. Sauter was President of CBS News for the first half of the 1980's. Until recently, Sauter was the chairman of the California Boxing Commission.
Sauter writes that he stopped watching CBS News a long time ago die to its "unremitting liberal orientation."
Sauter notes that the problems at CBS News include "it has no credibility. And no audience, no morale, no long-term emblematic anchorperson and no cohesive management structure."
Sauter writes that the problems at CBS News may be indicative of partisan news agencies and the public has grown not to trust the media.
Sauter believes that Leslie Moonves can restructure the News Division, but only if CBS and the other networks begin to offer nonpartisan, objective news.
What's Ailing CBS News? Let's Make a Not-So-Little List
Last week talk show host Armstrong Williams announced that his marketing and PR firm had received $240,000 from the Department of Education to promote the 'No Child Left Behind Act.'
Williams' company created PR materials to promote the Bush Administration's centerpiece on education. For his part, Williams talked about the Act with various government officials on his talk show. Democrats and others are strongly criticizing the Administration and the FCC is looking into the payment.
Well, hold on, it seems that paying someone to actively promote something is nothing new. The failed Presidential campaign of Howard Dean now admits that it payed to political blogs to favorably promote his campaign on the Internet.
The partisan Democratic political bloggers who were hired by the Dean campaign were Jerome Armstrong, who publishes the blog MyDD, and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who publishes DailyKos. Each of the sites received $3,000 a month for three months. The owners of the sites said they were supporting Dean before the payment.
A spokesperson for the DNC Chair candidate said that there was nothing unethical about the payments since both blogs disclosed their connection between themselves and the campaign.
WSJ.com - Dean Campaign Made Payments To Two Bloggers
TKS (formerly the Kerry Spot) on National Review has some interesting items about Rathergate and other political activity.
TKS on National Review Online
Here is this week's column by Ann Coulter. It contains her take of Rathergate and the Report. HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Liar, Liar, Now You're Fired by Ann Coulter
Normally, I reserve my media comment for national media or specific programs, but there was a story locally in Chicago that needs mentioning.
On Wednesday night there was a natural gas explosion at a local mall on the Southwest side of Chicago just miles from Midway Airport. The blast was so strong that 20 cars were destroyed and the hole was 100 feet wide and 25 feet deep. Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. The cause is still under investigation.
The reporting on the story was terrible, especially on Channel 5, the NBC owned station. Initial reports were done on the phone because the explosion happened within an hour and a half of the 10PM news and crews were just arriving at the scene.
The live reports from reports Done Lemmon and Amy Jacobson demonstrated the problem with local news and reporters that can only read from a teleprompter.
While Jacobson did an ok job from a local hospital, Lemmon should be fired for is incomprehensible description of the scene, On no fewer than 10 occasions he used the word "huge" to describe the hole, the scene, the explosion, and the number of injured. Actually, there were only about two dozen people injured. The Ford City Mall, where the expolsion happened in the parking lot, is a rather large mall and there were probably hundreds of people at the mall before the explosion.
Lemmon, nevertheless, carried on and began talking faster and faster and faster to the point he was no longer intelligible. In addition to his very poor reporting, Lemmon wore a knit cap that made him look like OJ Simpson on a night in June 1994.
All in all, the coverage by Channel 5 was amateurish. There is no excuse for such uninteresting and unintelligent reporting even on a live breaking story. Lemmon should be relegated to the 5 AM news instead of the 5PM news and not be allowed report live from the field ever again.
There should be a decision today from the judge hearing the case filed by an atheist to have prayer stopped at the Inauguration. If that decision comes down as expected or there are any other interesting events, you'll find it in the Afternoon Update.
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