The American Press on Suicide Watch By FRANK RICH

[Demeter]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/opinion/10rich.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=opinion



IF you wanted to pick the moment when the American news business went on suicide watch, it was almost exactly three years ago. That’s when Stephen Colbert, appearing at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, delivered a monologue accusing his hosts of being stenographers who had, in essence, let the Bush White House get away with murder (or at least the war inIraq). To prove the point, the partying journalists in the Washington Hilton ballroom could be seen ( courtesy of C-Span) fawning over government potentates — in some cases the very “sources” who had fed all those fictional sightings of Saddam Hussein’s W.M.D.

Colbert’s routine did not kill. The Washington Post reported that it “fell flat.” The Times initially did not even mention it. But to the Beltway’s bafflement, Colbert’s riff went viral overnight, ultimately to have a marathon run as the most popular video on iTunes. The cultural disconnect between the journalism establishment and the public it aspires to serve could not have been more vividly dramatized...


I THINK IT STARTED WHEN JOURNALISTS WERE FORBIDDEN AT WAR SCENES, AND THEY WENT ALONG WITH IT. THE WHOLE "EMBEDDING" NONSENSE PUT GOVERNMENT BEYOND CITIZEN ACCOUNTABILITY.

[peace frog]

1. Those dinosaurs deserve extinction

as piss-poor as most of their so-called "reporting" has been over the last decade or more. Survival of the fittest is most appropriate in their case.

[sam sarrha]

2. Bu$h couldn't have done better if he had been declared 'DickTatter' for life...

[Captain Hilts]

3. And Rich helped make it possible by trashing Gore in '99/'00. nt