‘Citizen Journalism’ vs. Journalism

Dan Wooding has an article today on GoodNewsDaily.net entitled, ‘Citizen Journalism’ is transforming the news business. But is it good or bad?

When I first entered secular journalism in London, England, back in the late sixties, my colleagues warned me against the dangers of “Citizen Journalism.”

In those days, you had to have a National Union of Journalists (NUJ) card to even been get a job on a newspaper and the perks of being a union member were terrific.

We “worked” a four-day week and were pressing for a three-day week because of the “stress” of the four-day week. We got seven weeks paid vacation and wanted even more time off.

My newspaper, the Sunday People, wouldn’t allow us to use electric typewriters as that would make it too efficient.

While on assignment, reporters were not allowed to take photographs as that would deprive our unionized photographers of their living.

No wonder, we didn’t want “Citizen Journalism” as we just wanted “professionals” to ply our trade and, because if they did, we would lose much of our power in shaping the thinking of our readers.

But Rupert Murdoch changed everything in Fleet Street, the center of British journalism, where I “worked.”

His transformation was called the “Wapping Revolution” and in 1986, the owner of News International, moved production of his major titles (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and The News of the World) from Fleet Street to Wapping, set in London’s Docklands area, and in so doing, he set about an irreversible chain reaction in the structure of journalism in the UK.

It was one of the most dramatic industrial disputes of the last century…

[...]

Reading the tweets from the streets of Tehran as protestors rail against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad, and the intractability of the theocracy of the mullahs, is like entering an entirely new category of reporting. It goes beyond the ground-level observations and interviews of even the finest reporting to deliver something close to a longitudinal study of mass consciousness…Continue reading on GoodNewsDaily.net >>

Also, be sure to follow @GoodNewsDaily on Twitter.

Press Sides With Obama

The Wall Street Journal is reporting some of the comments by the press after Republican’s refused to support the $825 billion pork bill (often calling it a stimulus package).  Consider some of the comments from that story and others:

ABC Anchor Charles Gibson:  The banner announcing the story called it a “Rescue Plan.”  Then he went on to moan that “”not one Republican voted for it… turning a cold shoulder to the President’s appeal for bipartisan support.”

Reporter Jonathan Karl of ABC chided Republicans: “”So much for the President’s charm offensive. Today it was all partisan rancor and name-calling.”

Katie Couric of CBS whined:  “the President went up to the Hill to personally appeal to Republicans already… what more can he do?”

CBS reporter Chip Reid commented: “the White House says this is a victory for the President, but certainly there is also some disappointment that he worked so hard to get bipartisan support and couldn’t get a single Republican vote.”

LA Times reporter Mark Barabak used this headline to dismiss Republican:  “Republicans take a back seat.”

The Seattle-Post Intelligencer labeled their story about Republicans this way: “Loyal opposition: Still out of touch.”

It is interesting these same reporters never used this language when Bush was president.

The Treason Times Strikes Again…

At what point is America going to wake up to the fact that the New York Times no longer has our Nation’s best interest at heart? The fact that the American people are still purchasing this rag on a daily basis dumbfounds me.

On January 10, 2009, David Sanger of the New York Times wrote, in an article titled, U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site:

WASHINGTON — President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.

White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Mr. Bush left office. But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located.

The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama…(more)

Well, it’s not so subtle anymore, is it, Mr. Sanger? The article goes on to explain that the above information was gleaned from “interviews over the past 15 months with current and former American officials, outside experts, international nuclear inspectors and European and Israeli officials,” and that the Times actually refrained from publishing everything it knew, “to avoid harming continuing operations.”

Riiiiiight.

First, I really want to believe in my heart of hearts that these “industry experts,” that are “leaking” information to the New York Times are doing so strategically, knowing full well that the NYT will publish anything simply to get the scoop, national security be damned. In other words, it is likely that the tabloid, formerly known as a newspaper is a pawn of the CIA, in which case, its readers are nothing more than gullible idiots.

If this is not true, and the news “leaked” to the paper is actually “news,” then the New York Times has committed treason, and the newspaper owners, editorial staff, and writer should be charged and tried for providing aid and comfort to our enemies during a time of war. Once we’re through with them in the U.S., we should turn them over to the IDF.

For more on this, see commentary from The Brat, on Assoluta Tranquillita: Start Spreading the News.

 

Name That Organization

Listening to several talk radio shows today caused me to catch a tidbit of an article concerning Governor Sarah Palin’s current popularity, so as soon as I got home I got work looking for that.

Please do not click on the link before learning the rules of this game.

I was a bit disappointed when I found that article at Mens News Daily due to it being an expose’ of an article sent out by a news organization that we here at Fort Hard Knox refuse to ever link to. I really wanted to post about her meteoric rise, so I had to think for a bit as to how I could do so in a way that would allow me to get by my editor. Hope this works …

In that well thought out article is mentioned how Governor Palin being in high demand by television shows, movie makers, and others in the entertainment business. A mention was made about book deals, but how they could want her for book deals unless she has written more than one I’ll never understand. I guess she is just that popular.

In the meantime, amongst the meat found in that article from the unmentionable organization are little quips reminiscent of statements uttered by terrorist spokesmen, or nutroots. Honestly, they make one think of nasty lil people trying to make the point that the person they are speaking about is pure EVIIIL. It would be funny if this wasn’t being sold as reputable news.

OK. That should be enough for you to take a stab at guessing which organization I’ve been working overtime not to mention. Now please click on the link, then share with us if you were able to guess it correctly.

Note: Be sure to NOT mention that despicable organization here. Just let us know if you guessed it, or not. )

Ignorance Is A Sign At Time

Again we have an illustration of how ignorance is king.

At the left leaning Time Magazine site [partners of CNN] is a blog slamming article where the final paragraph tells the whole story. It ends with,

“But many readers may be reaching the point with blogs and websites that I reached long ago with the Sunday New York Times Magazine–actively hoping there isn’t anything interesting in there because then I’ll have to take the time to read it.”

Two questions jump out to me from that. Shouldn’t your article have been titled, “How Many Magazines Does The World Need”, and will/do you really take the time read it, Michael Kinsley?

Hat-Tip, HotAir

The NY Times In Its Death Throes

With the advent of America selecting a liberal to be POTUS it remains unclear whether we are demonstrating a more liberal preference, or lean more to the conservative side. If the future of the liberal New York Times is any indication one would conclude that America is more conservative.

The New York Times stock again plunged, this time by 9.92%. This drop gives the shares a value of 5 dollars and 72 cents per share. Five years ago it was valued at close to 50 bucks per share.

Over the past 5 years the Times has cut jobs in an effort to remain profitable. They also reduced the size of the paper. Neither had any positive effect on their stock price.

The 5 year fall is most notable over the past 3 month period as it had a high of just over $15.00 a share last September.

Perhaps it is following the market fall, or maybe it is due to people no longer subscribing to the print media. The only thing that is certain is the New York Times is in dire straites.

Note: These charts will vary over time.

Also see: Forbes – Ahead of the Bell: NY Times price target cut

Conservative Journalists! (Yes, seriously.)

From The Phillips Foundation:

$75,000, $50,000 and $25,000 JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS OFFERED BY THE PHILLIPS FOUNDATION FOR 2009

Washington, DC, October 20, 2008 — The Phillips Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2009 Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship Program. Print and online journalists with less than 10 years of professional experience are eligible. The Foundation created this program to provide fellowships for projects by journalists who share the Foundation’s mission to advance constitutional principles, a democratic society and a vibrant free enterprise system.

The Phillips Foundation awards $75,000 and $50,000 full-time fellowships and $25,000 part-time fellowships to undertake and complete a one-year project of the applicant’s choosing focusing on journalism supportive of American culture and a free society. In addition, there are separate fellowships on the environment, on the benefits of free-market competition, and on law enforcement.

In 2008, the Foundation awarded the following eight fellowships.

• Full-time fellowships to: David Donadio for “The Free Press in the Free Market: A Study of How the Internet is Transforming the Newspaper Business;” Travis Kavulla for “Africa’s New Christianity and the Future of American Influence;” Emily Krone for “Unchartered Territory: Can Entrepreneurial Charter Schools Achieve the Scale and Sustain the Quality to Transform the American Public School System‌;” and Lygia Navarro for “Civil Society and Democracy in Latin America.”
• Part-time fellowships to: Cheryl Chumley for “National Heritage Areas: A Blot against Property Rights or a Boon for the Nation‌;” Matthew Continetti for “The Single Society: The Social Transformation Changing American Business, Politics and Culture;” J. Peter Freire for “The University Shakedown: How Universities Take Donations but Refuse Input from Donors Based on the Myth of Academic Freedom;” and Jonathan Last for “The Fertility Rate and America’s Future.”

For a list of all 76 fellowship winners and their projects since inception of the program in 1994, visit www.thephillipsfoundation.org/fellowship_profiles.

Three Phillips Foundation Trustees serve as judges: Thomas L. Phillips, Chairman of Eagle Publishing, Inc.; Robert D. Novak, long-time national journalist and syndicated columnist; and Alfred S. Regnery, Publisher of The American Spectator.

The Foundation is looking for journalism projects which are both original and publishable. The winning projects will be delivered in four installments with the potential to be published sequentially in a periodical or as a book.

Applications must be postmarked by March 2, 2009. The winners will be announced next May at an awards dinner at the National Press Club in Washington. The starting date for the fellowships will be September 1, 2009. Applicants must be citizens of the United States.

For an application, visit www.thephillipsfoundation.org, or contact: The Phillips Foundation, 1 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 620, Washington, DC 20001, Attention: John Farley. Phone: 202-250-3887, ext. 609. E-mail: jfarley@thephillipsfoundation.org.

(Hat-Tip: blog, p.i.)

Who Yelled “Kill him!” at the Palin Rally? No one…The Scranton Times-Tribune Apparently Manufactured the Story

Secret Agent Bill Slavoski, who was in the audience during the Sarah Palin rally in Scranton told the Times Leader:

“I was baffled…We have yet to find someone to back up the story. We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.”

The The Scranton Times-Tribune reporter who broke this story, David Singleton, was apparently the only one who heard the “kill him!” remark, and even he wasn’t able to give a description of the person who allegedly yelled the threat.

Andrew Seder, of the Times Leader has more.

Hat-Tip, Susan, at Wake Up America

Also see: Michelle Malkin – “Baffled:” Secret Service can’t find anyone to corroborate reporter’s “Kill them” claim

CNN Kyra Phillips calls female Republican “C” word 2 times

Kyra Phillips has a Freudian slip and refers to a female Republican analyst by the “C” word…twice.

CNN Moves From Bias to Hate on Palin

Jack Cafferty literally goes from overt bias to hate when he discusses Sarah Palin on CNN.  Watch for yourself.