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POPSKeep the government out of the news business
Turning to Washington for help to save the declining news business says much about the mentality of mainstream journalism leaders, an attitude that we and the government are on the same side. This is the mentality that led to the news establishment’s acceptance of the Iraq War. Go to the clip to learn what happened to Mother Jones after becoming a tax exempt non-profit after it reported on lobbying in Washington. Once you allow the government or private corporation to have any controlling link to the media you lose independence. Editors become fearful of criticizing the hand that feeds it. Publishers and benefactors become cozy and unbiased reports become fewer and fewer. Journalism becomes a de facto advertisement for consumer products. We hope in the future we’ll see more I.F. Stones, more guerrilla warriors on the Web, in print and on the air. Because of them—and not because of a government handout—great reporting will survive, as it always has.
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POPSScientology: The Truth Rundown
More: Contacted by the St. Petersburg Times, Rathbun agreed to tell the story of his years in Scientology and what led to his leaving… Seeking to corroborate Rathbun's story, the newspaper contacted others who were in Scientology during the same period and have left the church: Mike Rinder, one of Rathbun's closest associates for two decades; Tom De Vocht, who Rathbun named as key to his decision to leave; and later, Amy Scobee… The reporters interviewed the four defectors multiple times, and met with church spokesmen and lawyers for 25 hours… The result of the Times' reporting is this multi-part special report, the latest in a long history of Scientology coverage by the Times…This project, as you will see, features the three days of in-depth reports from the St. Petersburg Times, as well as additional content for this Web presentation. Those additional pieces include video; a photo gallery; and links to previous coverage in the Times, including the Pulitzer-winning coverag
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POPSDon't be surprised the media elite sided with Fox 
The point's neither complex nor subtle. In this country, journalists don't sponsor or participate in partisan political events. Maybe in Venezuela or China, but in the United States, no. Explaining to the New York Times, deputy White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said, "We simply decided to stop abiding by the fiction, which is aided and abetted by the mainstream press, that Fox is a traditional news organization." Quantcast Yet neither the Times nor most "mainstream" pundits evaluated the claim on its merits. Most pretended not to grasp the White House's point, and then went straight to the aiding and abetting. Many invoked the ghost of Richard Nixon. Why, to criticize Fox, claimed the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus and Charles Krauthammer, was downright "Nixonian." NPR's Ken Rudin recalled "what Nixon and Agnew did with their enemies list." So did CNN's Anderson Cooper. Rudin subsequently apologized for the "boneheaded" comparison; Cooper didn't.
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POPSPatriot-News investigative reporter Pete Shellem dies "He is a one-man Innocence Project,’’ Preate later told American Journalism Review for a 2007 story about Shellem. “The idea that a single, solitary newspaper reporter can accomplish all this is a remarkable story." additional info. @ http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4341 Pete Shellem of Harrisburg’s Patriot-News has freed four people from jail through dogged, old-fashioned reporting. Shellem lived in Gardners in Cumberland County. He is survived by his wife Joyce and two sons, Philip and Alek. investigative
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POPSUniv of Mississippi journalism student arrested for taking photos Disorderly conduct. The catch-all offense when a cop can’t legally arrest someone. What crime did this ‘lawbreaker’ really commit? Police say: interfering with police assisting someone to an ambulance, getting in the way of the fight, cursing at the officers. Besson said he did not curse at them until after they handcuffed him when he was telling them not to delete his photos. I don’t know if they were actually deleting any photos, the story doesn’t get into that aspect. But can we safely say they wouldn’t? And the two guys fighting? They were not arrested.
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POPSThe Washington Post's 2002 "reporting" on Iran The issue isn't whether you believe Iran desires to develop nuclear weapons; it's obviously possible (even rational) that they do. The issue is the painfully reckless, transparently irresponsible, and Iraq-replicating "journalistic" methods for disseminating these war-fueling assertions. In perfect 2002 fashion, Warrwick does not have a single named source for these scary allegations; instead, this is who fed him these claims: "many U.S. and European intelligence officials" and "two former senior U.S. officials" and "intelligence officials from the United States and allied nations" and "a senior Middle East-based intelligence official" (one wonders, in vain, which "allied nation" and which "Middle-East based" country might have whispered these things?). And while Warwick provides a cursory paragraph devoted to denials by Iranian officials of these accusations, he does not include a single expert or named source to dispute these claims. It's a purely one-sided, unquestioning and en
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POPSFauxNoise Passing off Opinion Journalism as News, placating the gullible, and firing up the lunatic fringe toward violence — that's their mission statement.
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POPS Charles Krauthammer :: Fox Wars only disburses more than $3 trillion every year but is extending its reach ever deeper into private industry -- finance, autos, soon health care and energy. Think twice before you run an ad on Fox. At first, there was little reaction from other media. Then on Thursday, the administration tried to make them complicit in an actual boycott of Fox. The Treasury Department made available Ken Feinberg, the executive pay czar, for interviews with the White House "pool" news organizations -- except Fox. The other networks admirably refused, saying they would not interview Feinberg unless Fox was permitted to as well. The administration backed down. This was an important defeat because there's a principle at stake here. While government can and should debate and criticize opposition voices, the current White House goes beyond that. It wants to delegitimize any significant dissent. The objective is no secret.
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POPSCharitable Organization Funds To Preserve Journalism? The report is asking “philanthropic organizations to support local reporting.” That’s where the tax comes in " or fees " to be gathered in some fashion from telecom or internet providers.” I might not object if a clear definition of “journalism,” and adherence to that definition, must be met to get the nonprofit status. Of course, it all depends on the definition of the trade " like defining what “is” is. Next will be White House ordered legislation assuring that FOX News is excluded from “nonprofit status.” I cannot credit this report by linking to it, because the “original source” says I cannot (but never mind, they want me to donate to keep their less-than-honest endeavors alive) but go to Breitbart.com type in some keywords and you’ll find it.
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POPSWhite House Boasts: We 'Control' News Media Obama Cabinet Member Anita Dunn: Mao Tse Tung "Favorite Philosopher"; Truth is subjective Video of Dunn's speech, broadcast during a segment of Glenn Beck's evening show on the Fox News Channel, can be seen by clicking following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi1zg2NOCn8&feature=player_embedded
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POPSFox News isn't even pretending anymore The boldest innovator, however, has been Fox News. Since President Obama’s election, the cable news channel has dropped all but the barest pretense of objectivity. Billing itself as “fair and balanced,” Fox has turned itself into what White House communications director Anita Dunn recently called “the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.” Actually, that’s an extremely polite way of putting it. It’s closer to Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth.” Fox openly promotes “Tea Parties” and other political demonstrations; it portrays every perceived White House defeat, such as Chicago’s failure to secure the 2016 Olympic Games, as a victory for something called “Fox Nation.” “Doublethink,” Orwell called it: the ability to “hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them.” So it is with “Fox Nation” and “fair and balanced.”
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POPSWho’s Behind the White House War on Fox News?
Or about the joint White House-ABC News health care reform infomercial that aired earlier this summer. Some “opinion journalism” is more equal than others. Debates about the blurred lines between opinion and journalism are all well and good. But don’t the talking points-crafters in the Oval Office have something better to do than carp about the talking points they don’t like hearing on the one cable network that hasn’t been completely overrun by Obama sycophants? The corruptocrat affiliations of Obama’s communications team are illuminating. His press shop can’t rise above the fray because they’ve been entrenched in the Beltway fray for years. They can’t help themselves. Democratic media consultant Dunn’s claim to fame is her decade-long service as chief strategist for disgraced Democrat and former Senate Majority Leader-turned-health care lobbyist Tom Daschle. She was in the thick of his failed re-election campaign as Daschle asserted a bogus property-tax
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POPSWhy is Marijuana Illegal? Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You’ll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.
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POPSDesk-Bound Journalists Blow Hopi and Navajo Green Stories It is sad to see what damage can be done when some journalists take to rewriting company PR. The hard work of Hopi and Navajo people to save their land and heritage is easily overlooked and set back by those who have degrees in journalism process but no on-the-ground knowledge about anything or the gumption to get at all sides of a story.
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