Unless one is prepared to argue a conspiracy theory - Cheney used the delay between the accident and when the call was made to the newspaper to shape what was said to the reporter and to local law enforcement authorities - it is clear Cheney thought a local newspaper was more likely to report the accident accurately than a confrontational, liberally biased White House press corps.
The context for that decision is simple: Like it or not, the mainstream national media long ago lost much of its credibility with the public and has for many years been losing great chunks of its audience to Talk Radio, cable news and the Internet. The MSM is no longer the mainstream or national.
Indeed, one can make the case that entirely apart from ideological considerations it is rapidly becoming possible to communicate effectively with the general public without according the shrinking mainstream media anything remotely like the respect it once commanded. And still demands.
And nobody in this or any other White House is naive or stupid enough to think they can silence Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly or Powerline. Or DailyKos, MyDD or Comments from Left Field. Or PressThink, Tapscott's Copy Desk or (Lord help them if they ever try) Jeff Jarvis!
Bottomline: Rollback means "reality check."
Friday, February 17, 2006
Rollback?
Mark Tapscott makes some useful points, riffing off Jay Rosen:
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4 comments:
I am currently writing these comments in a bathrobe, half awake, drinking my second cup of coffee.
TMI
No longer does someone have to drive down to a particular building and sit down in front of an expensive piece of equipment. An four year old IMAC and a Road Runner Internet connection works just fine.
It would be nice if these folks saw their jobs as something beyond that, though. Even if they are fully dressed.
david:
This is true, but then again the MSM has resources average people can not imagine.
If they would just get back to reporting rather than molding the news people would be glad to go back to them.
They have just lost so much credibility their audience is dwindling.
The whole ignore the cartoons but jump all over Cheney thing is a perfect example.
The WSJ has an interesting opinion piece by Henninger today on these manufactured scandals, suggesting they are designed to turn wedge voters away from the Reps.
They may be designed for that purpose, but I think this is another instance where the MSM aimed at the Administration and shot off their own gonads.
Or, to put it more simply..they cried "wolf" once too often. LOL
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