Want to see how the mainstream media views Fox News? Look no further than Newsweek's Howard Fineman and the way he thinks the Bush administration uses the network.
Fineman, who is Newsweek magazine's senior Washington correspondent and a regular on MSNBC, told an audience at the Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. on May 1 that if you want to know what the Bush administration has in store for Iran, keep your eye on Fox News.
"Now about Iran," Fineman said. "I think there's no doubt they're [the Bush administration] looking to see what can be done there and I would recommend Fox News to you. I can' believe I'm saying this, but if you want to know what's being thrown out there, what balloons are being floated - that's the place to look, okay. That's why you've got to scan all the media."
Another topic Fineman addressed was how blogging has become a part of the modern media, which he doesn't think is necessarily a good thing. He referred to spending time as a journalist in Kentucky early in his career where he learned "from the ground up," which he feels is an element missing from bloggers.
"Not enough people today in journalism today want to do that [learn from the ground up]," Fineman said. "All the kids immediately want to go blog - be in New York or L.A. or Washington and blog about something."
According to Fineman, the media is different today than what it was over the last 50 years which was a sort of "consensus national media."
"We're all our own editors now," Fineman said. "I'm old enough to remember the days of Walter Cronkite and [Chet] Huntley and [David] Brinkley and so forth, where as maybe 50 million - the numbers vary, 50 or 60 million people tuned in every night in a country that was much smaller - and there was some shared reality. And Walter Cronkite would end his broadcast saying, ‘That's the way it is.' You know, and everybody would sort of say, ‘Yeah, I guess so.'"
However, things have changed, but according to Fineman, it was only the post-World War II era that media choices were limited.
"Well, those days are over to me," Fineman said. "That was a consensus national media that was pretty much created in World War II. It didn't exist before the war. There were raging isolationist papers and pro-internationalists papers, pro-Roosevelt papers and anti-Roosevelt papers. The media was not thought of as some omniscient thing as the top of the pyramid."
The transformation of media in the 20th century began in the 1970s, which gave rise to "conservative voices," including Fox News, where as he said is the place to look to see what the Bush administration is floating out about Iran.
"That happened because of the war and the consensus pretty much lasted until Vietnam and Watergate," Fineman said. "Then it began to fall apart and then the rise of conservative voices and conservative media, now epitomized by Fox. And I think all of that is to the good. I think the more it falls apart, the better."
Fineman also noted some weaknesses in the American media, noting a tilt from U.S. media sources to international media sources.
"And just like the dollar is weak, American media is weak," Fineman added. "We're closing overseas bureaus - although Newsweek is not. Interestingly, we realized one of the few precious things we have that makes a publication like Newsweek unique is its global perspective."
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So Fineman is basically
May 2, 2008 - 11:26 ET by dscottSo Fineman is basically admitting the MSM, of which he is apart of, is not reporting the story? And you have to go to FNC in order to get the story the MSM won't report? Bahahaha
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
Yeah, that's how I read it too
May 2, 2008 - 11:32 ET by 10ksnookerIf you want news, tune to Fox. If you want the latest Obama spin tune the rest.
Not The Way It Was!
May 2, 2008 - 11:28 ET by ChasvsWalter only stated the way the liberal media wanted Americans to believe it was! Tet was a Victory, but Walter said is was a defeat - And so it was! That's the Way it is, and Fineman is right to say the more the left's hold on the media falls apart, the better!
Blooging from the ground up
May 2, 2008 - 11:34 ET by CobraMan"Not enough people today in journalism today want to do that [learn
from the ground up]," Fineman said. "All the kids immediately want to
go blog - be in New York or L.A. or Washington and blog about
something."
He's missing the fact that those "kids" are also learning journalism "from the ground up" as there is an immediate response to their blog posts and any "un-journalistic" practices and methods are quickly exposed and ridiculed by the public and other bloggers. This leads to a very rapid peer review and public opinion polling process which is far superior to old-fashioned MSM journalism methods of slow, single editor based peer review practices and sales related public opinion polling methods. The bad blogs are ignored and the good ones become very popular, just like in good old-fashioned MSM journalism. Bloggers quickly learn which journalistic methods and practices work and which ones don’t. I would call that learning from the ground up, wouldn't you?
(on edit: Included the full quote)
Journalist arrogance
May 2, 2008 - 11:43 ET by KC MulvilleI deny that the national consensus is, or ever should be, shaped by journalists. I further deny that the best person to comment on public affairs is an ex-reporter, even if he's now grown up to be an editor or opinion pundit. To me, that is the core arrogance of the journalism profession -- namely, the hubris that they alone are qualified to discuss and grasp the truth about public affairs.
In fact, in every situation, the journalist is the least qualified person on the scene. Only the journalists themselves believe that they're the most qualified.
He's right, but for the wrong reason.
May 2, 2008 - 11:53 ET by Joe C.If you want to know all sides of a story about anything - Iran included - turn to FoxNews. If you just want leftist lies and spin, turn everywhere else.
Things HAVE changed,
May 2, 2008 - 12:03 ET by mattmThings HAVE changed, Howie! The Lefotids no longer have their monopoly on media.
Thanks to Talk Radio (due to the reeal of the unconstitutional 'fairness' doctrine), FOX news and the internet, the people can decide for themselves if "that's the way it is," rather than robotically accepting whatever Walter Crankcase told them.
The Left can handle the competition.
He could have used a better analogy...
May 2, 2008 - 12:24 ET by Syrius...than "what balloons are being floated". I would have substituted turds for balloons.
Bush thinks of Iran and repeats-"Bring 'em on!"
Syrius
"...the dire consequences to society when people begin to believe that by
renaming someone to erase their humanity opens the door to the
devaluation of everyone's life..."-dscott
That's what happens when
May 2, 2008 - 12:32 ET by FishFace222That's what happens when you are at the top, as Fox News is. Everybody tries to knock you off the hill.
That's what happens when
May 2, 2008 - 12:33 ET by FishFace222Oops, double post.
THIS COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER...
May 2, 2008 - 12:45 ET by danybhoyIt's too bad Fineman did'nt say this on Meltdown w/ BathTubBoy. MSNBC would have to go to a test pattern until Kieth could be taken out of the studio in a straight jacket on his way to a rubber room.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
Uh-Oh
May 2, 2008 - 13:28 ET by capavMr. Fineman might just find himself on the worst person's list for even daring to recommend Fox News.
PLACE YOUR BETS...
May 2, 2008 - 13:37 ET by danybhoyI had not thought about that, but now that you mention it, I would put the odds at 10/1 that BathTubBoy will do this. Not in the 1 slot, but maybe the 3 spot, & then sort of dismissing it as a little joke aimed at Fineman, enough to keep from pissing him off.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
If bloggers are lazy, then
May 2, 2008 - 14:00 ET by dscottIf bloggers are lazy, then what do you call the MSM when they consistently fail to report the news? How about this lazy blogger? I'm sure Al Franken was hoping you were correct Mr. Fineman.
And wasn't it bloggers who repeatedly caught Reuter's photoshopping pictures misleading the public????
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
Media Consensus until Post- Vietnam
May 2, 2008 - 15:42 ET by CapitalismRulesHe is right. That is about when the media stopped getting ALL of its marching orders from the lefties. They had successfully lost the Vietnam War for the US, they got rid of Nixon and not much was left to do. Problem was, the world kept on going, and not in a very good direction for the lefties either. The new Vietnamese government was awash in human rights abuses, the Khmer Rouge slaughtered just about everyone in Cambodia, the rift between China and Moscow split the commies along differing ideologies and there was no longer a major anti-US student protest movement to cover.
This is when things got bad for Carter and suddenly, the media had to begin to examine what it had done to the country and perhaps even admit that was time for a change. It began slowly with less popular conservative formats, but with the rise of the internet, satellite, digital broadcasts, there are more messages than the left ever thought possible getting just about everyplace. The main problem now is that journalism has shifted from pure ideology to a hybrid of ideology and speed. Everyone wants to get the story first, but not correct. So the first story everyone hears is an ideologically slanted bunch of lies. Only the intelligent will seek the balance, that's why Fox does such a great job, they tend to balance their coverage while still managing a fairly good track record of honesty and speed.
"We're closing overseas
May 2, 2008 - 23:40 ET by bigtimer"We're closing overseas bureaus - although Newsweek is not.
Give it time Howie...give it time....
"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill