Media Watch

Why We Need Media Critics Who Are Fiercely Independent

The most renowned media critics are usually superficial and craven. That’s because -- as one of the greatest in the 20th century, George Seldes, put it -- “the most sacred cow of the press is the press itself.” No institutions are more image-conscious than big media outlets. The people running them know the crucial importance of spin, and they’ll be damned if they’re going to promote media criticism that undermines their own pretenses. To reach the broad public, critics of the media establishment need amplification from . . . the media establishment. And that rarely happens unless the critique is shallow. The exceptions can be valuable. The New York Times publishes articles by a “public editor” -- an independent contractor whose “opinions and conclusions are her own” -- and the person now in that role, Margaret Sullivan, provides some cogent scrutiny of the newspaper’s coverage. But on the whole, the media critics boosted by big media -- inward-facing ombudspersons and outward-facing journalists on a media beat -- have been conformists who don’t step outside the shadows cast by the institutions paying their salaries.

Barrett Brown plea a symptom of government harassment of journalists

On April Fool’s Day, Wired magazine reported that long imprisoned journalist Barrett Brown had accepted a plea agreement. Brown's pending case on hacking charges that many called flimsy at best. The best-selling author of Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design and the Easter Bunny, Brown was facing over 100 years for posting a link in a chat room. The link was to a list of clients of the defense and intelligence firm Stratfor that included some credit card information. None of the information linked to publicly and openly by Brown was used to defraud anyone.

Brown is accused of posting the link in a chat room used by other journalists working on a project he founded known as Project PM. Project PM was founded in part to examine information released by hacktivists associated with the group Anonymous about domestic spying by corporations on private citizens. Brown is also accused of hiding his laptop at his mother's home to avoid it being found during the execution of a search warrant. Brown's mother was charged with obstruction of justice and remains on federal probation.

David Bird, Wall Street Journal Reporter, Goes Missing After Reporting for Three Months on Oil Glut in U.S.

David Bird, a reporter who covers energy markets for the Wall Street Journal, has been missing for nine days. Bird, who has worked for the parent of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, for more than 20 years, left his Long Hill, New Jersey home on the afternoon of Saturday, January 11, telling his wife he was going for a walk. Despite a continuous search by hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officials, Bird has not been located.

Bird is 55 years old, approximately 6’1, and was last seen wearing a red jacket with yellow zippers according to officials. He and his wife, Nancy, have two children, ages 12 and 15. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Long Hill Police at (908) 647-1800.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Bird is a liver-transplant recipient and is required to take medication twice a day. He did not take his medication with him when he left for the walk.

I Googled "Evil" and it took me to Google

Google may have been, unil now, the Obama of hip internet monopolies. No matter how many nations the President bombs, people still put Obama peace-sign stickers on their cars. No matter how many radical rightwing initiatives Google funds, people still think it's a "progressive corporation" -- How could it not be? It's making progress!

Google is funding Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union, and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation.

And there's more really bad news: Google is funding ALEC, the powerful, secretive, and destructive lobbying force from which many companies concerned with their public images are fleeing. ALEC is in the news this week, holding its 40th annual meeting. Together with allies, RootsAction.org is applying as much pressure as we can. And it might just be that the tide is turning. Google just might have to start worrying about whether its users favor plutocratic plundering or not.

Who writes the news? The British free press goes on trial

The Guardian is about to face investigation by the British Government. The London-based newspaper has been at the forefront of the global surveillance controversy since their journalist Glenn Greenwald published in its pages Edward Snowden's revelations last June. Supported by Prime Minister David Cameron, a parliamentary committee is due to launch an inquiry to determine whether the Guardian's publication of Snowden's leaked documents was a threat to national security.

In a functioning democracy it is expected that a free press would come to the defence of a fellow news outlet facing governmental interference for publishing information about a matter of public interest. Britain has prided itself on having some of the oldest and strongest press freedoms in the world. Yet for all that, the powerful media barons in the UK have all fallen in step with the government's line on security: that the Guardian has helped terrorists.

The rest of the top 25 censored stories 2012-2013

From Project Censored 25. Israel Gave Birth Control to Ethiopian Immigrants Without Their Consent In January Israel acknowledged that medical authorities have been giving Ethiopian immigrants long-term birth-control injections often without their knowledge or consent. 24. Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval? Monsanto introduced genetically modified alfalfa in a full two years before it was deregulated according to recently released evidence. 23. Transaction Tax Helps Civilize Wall Street and Lower the National Debt In February United States senators Tom Harkin D-Iowa and Peter DeFazio D-Oregon introduced a bill to implement a new tax of three basis points that is three pennies for every hundred dollars on most nonconsumer stock trades. 22. Pennsylvania Law Gags Doctors to Protect Big Oil’s “Proprietary Secrets” In communities affected by hydraulic fracturing or fracking people understand that this process of drilling for natural gases puts the environment and their health at risk. 21.

Another day, another dark website, another journalist silenced in fear

Citing the decision by the secure email provider Lavabit to close rather than install NSA spying hardware and/or software directly on its servers, an important and long lived legal news blog groklaw.net shuttered this week. The founder of the blog, Pamela Jones or PJ, had collaboratively covered major intellectual property lawsuits, anti-trust suits and issues around open source software for 10 years with both programmers and lawyers, bridging the gap between the two professions in a masterpiece project of investigative citizen journalism. The owner of Lavabit, Ladar Levison, claimed he was threatened with arrest several times while being dragged through court in order to compel him to spy on his customers. Sources quoted by NBC have said that the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia is now considering charging Levison for shuttering his business.

Mainstream media icons defend conviction and murder of investigative journalists without trial

Mainstream writers are obviously feeling their loss of prestige, power and authority. Two weekend incidents illustrate the condescension and outright bloodthirstiness that lurks in the deaths of some of their minds. A senior national reporter for Time Magazine exhorted the government to extrajudicially murder Julian Assange via drone strike while a reporter at the UK Observer Magazine, conflated “journalist” with “hacker” and “charged” with “convicted.” The Observer is a weekly news magazine owned by the Guardian. One case displays a callous disregard for human life, the other a seemingly reckless disregard for the truth.

Mockingbird Redux: How the CIA just bought a newspaper with someone else's money

One media pundit described the event as an earthquake caused by so many jaws hitting the floor at once. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos just bought the Washington Post for a cool $250 million. A family owned and operated newspaper for nearly eight decades was just gobbled up for a little more than 1% of Bezos's massive personal fortune.

The Washington Post was the gold standard for investigative journalism in America when it came to national security. It broke the Watergate scandal. It defied Nixon again when it published the Pentagon Papers along with the New York Times. It was an early partner with the Guardian in publishing some of Edward Snowden's revelations, although it seems to have gotten cold feet as of late. Perhaps we are seeing why.

Had Bezos been shopping for just any big marque newspaper he could have picked up the Boston Globe for a paltry $70 million just last month. He is one of the few that could easily outbid the Koch brothers for the LA Times and/or the Chicago Tribune. Big name newspapers are a steal for tech moguls. The Washington Post was what he wanted and the Washington Post is what he got.

Intelligence leaders and courts unite in renewed offensive against press freedoms

Current and former intelligence community leaders made their case for imprisoning journalists to the public through compliant corporate media outlets today while a federal judge gutted a historic court ruling protecting journalists and their sources. The court ruling could lead to the indefinite jailing of Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist James Risen.

General Michael Hayden's comments leave little doubt that some in the Obama administration are strongly considering espionage charges against Glenn Greenwald who has been leading the journalistic investigations of NSA violations of US and international law through its bulk interception of virtually every phone call and email on planet Earth. Taken together with the mysterious death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings, the government's control of the press seems to tighten daily.
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