REDUX?? The Legend of Trent Lott and the Weblogs. Considering media and the spin of the day.

[L. Coyote]

SUBJECT: Is the Press missing the real story behind Trent Lott's resignation?
The lead story is what a "senior Republican" leaked to the press.
Are they going to redux and reduce this event to what the Rs are spinning?
Here is another opportunity to observe the Weblog/Dead Tree Media difference and interaction.

What is your take on how these media are handling this breaking story?

My first reaction here, on LBN: FISHY Cover-Up! Corrupt VECO CEO Campaign Contributions. More R Senators Involved.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3077550&mesg_id=3077823

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HELLO! Don't these people read the News, like on DU :rofl:

Alaska trips put Washington on the hook as Bill Allen used fishing for pork bait!
FROM: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2062738



Bill Allen, second from left, is pictured in 2000 with Republican Senators Trent Lott of Mississippi, left, Dennis Hastert of Illinois, and Phil Gramm of Texas.



From left, Sen. Kit Bond, Tricia Lott, Sen. Trent Lott, Bill Allen, unidentified woman, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former Sen. Phil Gramm, Nancy Murkowski, Sen. Frank Murkowski.

Over the past 20 years Alaskan oil entrepreneur Bill Allen and people who work for him gave more than $1 million to candidates running for Congress. But his connections gave him another way to gain influence in Washington -- fishing.
If lawmakers paid for these trips, they would cost $1,000 a night. But they don't.
Instead, political committees and a network of non-profits backed by lobbyists pick up the tab. ......

L. Coyote ... Oct-17-07 09:44 AM
15. A few comments for now. This needs more research. But, it is huge already ...

I expect more research will surface soon. Myself, I'm off for some real salmon fishing .... (likewise right now!)

What to expect? The bribes are going to reach other R Senators. It will take more work, but the evidence is there. The oil companies funneled money via Stevens to many Senators, almost every R and R candidate. Also, now we must look to direct contributions by the oil execs, and the timing of those contributions. Expect to find that there is a pay as you go R legislative process. You want something, you pony up money!

This story may just be starting, and expect it to be as HUGE as an Alaskan King Salmon!

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Oh, the HUBRIS of the Corrupt Bastards; they printed Club tee shirts and hats!
"Corrupt Bastards Club" has more political appeal than the oxymoranic Culture of Corruption.
What we need now is the complete roster .....

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I love a political "told you so" moment like this!!

Again, read on .... at: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3077550&mesg_id=3077823

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The Legend of Trent Lott and the Weblogs
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2004/03/15/lott_case.html

A new study from the Kennedy School pinpoints what happened between Big Media and the blogs in the case of Trent Lott. It does not portray weblogs as lead actor, but as reactor to a story that almost disappeared. A certain receptivity in the bloggers allowed judgment in the press to correct itself.

I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years either.
— Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, Dec. 5, 2002

One way to learn that pack journalism is real is to be caught outside the pack with a story it does not recognize. This happened to Ed O’Keefe, a young “off-air reporter” for ABC News in Washington, who happened to be in the room when Trent Lott, then the most powerful man in the United States Senate, gave remarks that embraced the spirit of Strom Thurmond’s 1948 campaign for president. O’Keefe knew enough about that campaign to find Lott’s words shocking, and he said to himself, “This is news.”

But Washington journalism said back to him: we don’t think so.

O’Keefe’s judgment later won out. Pack judgment was wrong— in this case, extremely so. Lott became the first majority leader in Senate history to resign under pressure. How it all happened is told in the new case study from Harvard’s Kennedy School, “Big Media” Meets the “Bloggers.” (By Esther Scott, supervised by Alex Jones of the Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School of Government. Available only in pdf form here.)

My favorite moment in the story is when O’Keefe’s counterpart at another network asks a more senior producer in the Washington bureau to look at what Lott said that evening at Thurmond’s 100th birthday party. “No, I don’t think it’s anything” says the more experienced pro.

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Final Question: Is it open season on the BIG FISH yet?