[W]hen it comes to the news, there’s no substitute for the mainstream media. Despite our problems, we do our best to report as honestly and professionally as we can.
The American people clearly agree. Numbers don’t lie.
wisdom from Barron’s
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Red SoxRunning |
Derek,
Listen to this sanctimonious crap:
>The bloggers certainly weren’t going to get much lip from me. I saddled up with the new media posse back in 1996, and much of what I do—write, post, link, read, communicate with readers, devote myself to an arcane subject—resembles what most bloggers do, except that I get paid for it, and I tend to write twice or three times a week at 1,000 words rather than several times daily at a paragraph or three. The biggest difference between me and conventional bloggers is that I usually pause between first thought and posting. Inspired by the slow food movement, I like to think of myself as a slow blogger. Sometimes I’m so slow—as this Wednesday dispatch from a Friday-Saturday conference proves—that I resemble a conventional journalist.
I spent close to a MONTH researching every day and then writing Iraq Antiquities Revisited.
Who the f*ck is this Jack Shafer?
Flush this bunk down the toilet, Derek. Really, c’mon.
I could write circles around this Shafer and in far more genres than he even knows. Do you think this schmuck could even put his toe into my field of linguistics? We would tear this mother apart.
I’m pissed off now.
Reporters better watch their fucking asses, Derek. You are pissing of people who are MUCH better read and more articulate than you can even imagine.
>The biggest difference between me and conventional bloggers is that I usually pause between first thought and posting.
I’d put a foot down this jackass’s throat if I could.
Give me a day or two to cool down.
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Derek,
Last night I watched C-Span2’s “After Words” interview with Donald Ritchie, whose “Reporting from Washington” has just been published, a ten-year research project. It was very good for putting journalistic practices in historical context and showing the changes and challenges that occur when new technologies arrive. You can watch here.
WNYC’s “On the Media” has a radio interview that I’m listening to right now as I type this. It’s pretty short, but covers a couple basics.
And tonight on “After Words,” Tom Fenton is going to be interviewed about his new book, “Bad News.” 6 and 9 p.m.
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Derek,
Oh boy, here we go again. Shades of Donny George and the Iraq National Museum charade all over again. Sgrena is now changing her story:
>Americans were not trying to kill me, hostage decides
>By Peter Popham in Rome
>12 March 2005
>The Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who was wounded by American fire last Friday soon after being released by kidnappers in Baghdad, has said that she does not think that the Americans were trying to kill her. “I never said that they wanted to kill me,” she said on a television talk show, “but the mechanics of what happened were those of an attack.”
>In an interview with The Independent, her partner, Pier Scolari, said: “None of us is so stupid as to think the Americans did it on purpose. But the dynamic was that of an ambush and we want a convincing explanation of what happened, because the first American explanation was totally false.”
This is tedious. These two are CONTRADICTING what they plainly stated just a few days ago.
Derek, do you see why so many people are pissed off?
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Derek, do you see why so many people are pissed off?
No. Sorry Jeffrey, but I think you’re being ridiculous. Sgrena’s account of being targeted was always absurd (as I said days ago). It was never taken seriously by the American press or the American people. (The blogosphere gave it far more attention that it deserves). She works for a communist newspaper in Italy that (I assume) doesn’t subscribe to American notions of objectivity. And as outrageous as her original claims were, I’m inclined to cut her some slack as she was recovering from a month in captivity, probably in shock from seeing her rescuer die in her arms, and maybe even doped on painkillers.
What’s the blogosphere’sWhat are some bloggers excuse for making similarly absurd claims?Derek,
Huh? Yeah, okay. I am on occasion ridiculous. Just read your update for the Sgrena blog entry.
You have to admit, however, that it is interesting that she and her partner are now performing a 180 on the story. I imagine they started to take some heat from the legal department.
I don’t like bloggers or journalists who make wild claims without evidence. That goes for your conspiracy-theorist blogger on the left or right and John Burns’s 170,000 figure for items looted at the Iraq National Museum. Burns’ behavior, in my mind, was much more reprehensible. He later admitted his mistake, but that was MONTHS later.
Listen Derek, I think we’re on the same side. Both of us want responsible reporters and bloggers, right? As David Blum said the other night at a talk given for his book on 60 Minutes called “Tick … Tick … Tick,” journalists are notoriously thin-skinned. Like I said, you better get used to the criticism. As a teacher, we get detailed criticism every semester.
As a consumer of journalistic information for several decades, this is my first chance to engage people like you and converse with others and share our ideas. Some sparks will fly, Derek. You know that. I know that.
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you spend too much time on derekrose.com