This isn't The Onion; it's for real (HT Hot Air; bold after title is mine):
Sun, Jan. 13, 2008
Burke named executive director of ACLU in Texas
Terri Burke, former editor of the Abilene Reporter-News, has been named executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Burke, 56, will begin work at the ACLU of Texas on Tuesday. Her duties will include lobbying, fundraising, administering the organization and communicating with the public.
Burke said her new job seems like a continuation of her work in the newspaper business.
"I wanted to be a journalist because I thought journalism was a way to further the democratic process," Burke said. "At its heart, journalism is about the First Amendment. All my life, I've been interested in those kinds of issues."
I will suggest that no one in Old Media will think of Burke's move as the least bit odd.
Funny, that's not how they saw it in 1998 when the late David Brinkley retired and became a spokesman for a large corporation.
Here's how the New York Times's Brinkley obituary in 2003 described the reaction to his post-retirement move (bolds are mine):
In 1998, he surprised many of his admirers in the news business when he agreed to become a spokesman for Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant. He had retired from ABC only months earlier. Archer had gotten itself into serious difficulty with the federal government in 1996, paying a $100 million fine for the price fixing of food and feed additives.
Some of the most esteemed figures in television news, including Cronkite, the retired CBS News correspondent and anchor, expressed reservations and puzzlement, since representing a corporation appeared to be in conflict with Brinkley's image of independence as a newsman.
When the commercial turned up only on the program that Brinkley had just retired from, ABC pulled the ad, but it reinstated it a few months later.
Isn't Terri Burke's in conflict with her "image of independence" as a newsperson, and call into question the fairness and balance in her coverage of First Amendment and criminal defense matters during her career? Or does "independence" only become an issue when an ex-newsperson becomes a spokesperson for an eeeeevil capitalist company or an unfavored cause?
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters
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Comments Policy
Dark Age
January 15, 2008 - 09:08 ET by allanfThe Main Stream Media is truly in a new Dark Age.
While always liberal the media was once overseen by hard nosed editors who demanded reporters back up assertions with verifiable facts. Now it is enough to quote an unreliable source.
Once opinion was for the editorial page. There was still a slant and the other sides message did not get out as easily. But there was no fawning adoration as seen by the Diane Sawyers and Harry Smiths or emoting Ann Curry's of today.
Today's "journalist" is more ideologue than reporter.
Journalists think their revolutionaries.
January 15, 2008 - 09:18 ET by dronetekI used to b e ajournalism major, but changed it when I realized it had nothing to do with reporting facts. Today's journalist thinks they are there to push politcal agendas for what they beleive is a better life. It doesnt even cross their minds that they are just pushing their politcal views.
School
January 15, 2008 - 09:27 ET by allanfThe problem is so widespread that it must reflect how journalists are trained. Someone is teaching journalism students to be advocates instead of disinterested reporters of fact.
That is a shame.
school
January 15, 2008 - 09:38 ET by dronetekWhen I was in school, the teacher would regularly bring in common dreams articles that were just nuts. I'd spend half the class everyday, countering the trash in the article he passed out.
Of course I eventually realized he was just using the oppurtunity to pile on with the rest of the class, to make me look like the lone outsider. Its one of the reasons I decided to get out of that field.
Can testify to that
January 15, 2008 - 09:54 ET by reasonsjesterAt least second-hand. My good friend is a journalism major at a major midwest college and there is a chorus of liberalism that conditions every discussion. Fed up with the nonsense, he switched to criminal justice. Its really is a shame because he is a very bright guy, a U.S. veteran, and his father is a very successful journalist and photojournalist. My friend should be able to pursue the career he wants unobstructed by socialist ideologues. Our universities have become a disgrace - in line with the socialist-Gramscian scheme to take over the institutions that control knowledge and information. These include: The media, universities, law and the courts (see ACLU), and even talk radio {see the Fairness Doctrine and punks like RFK Jr. who think that the radiowaves belong to the public, therefore free speech is moot [see 5:50 to the end of vid for specific reference - and btw Stossel, a libertarian, bewilderingly agrees on this quote, not thinking about the implications]}..
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. - Marcus Aurelius
Reason, That's the
January 15, 2008 - 09:55 ET by LeonReason,
That's the problem with journalism and bias.
Every story I hear about conservatives/moderates in journalism involves them being sickened by the liberal domination and then quitting journalism to pursue another field.
And then we wonder why the media has a liberal bias.
If young conservatives are concerned about the state of the media, become journalists. Even out the field. That will end bias immediately.
Your friend should have stuck with journalism in order to fight back against the status quo.
Let's think about this a
January 15, 2008 - 10:16 ET by taterLet's think about this a bit. Okay say a conservative stays in the journalism field...one of two things will happen, liberals will berated the person until he either conforms to their beliefs, or he stays true to his character and graduates as a journalist.
The person wants a job...starting out shouldn't be a problem but what if he wants a big job at network. NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC are all run by libs. They would probably not hire the person (or fire the person the first time they don't conform). FOX news would probably be the person's only chance.
Plus the tv biz just isn't good from a financial standpoint (which is why I'm planning on leaving within a year or so).
Do you realize how much it costs to run for office? More than any honest man could afford. -Montgomery Burns
It's a new form of
January 15, 2008 - 11:36 ET by ahusserIt's a new form of blacklisting. Liberals practice this more than the McCarthyites ever did. I went to a local Community College after I came back from Viet Nam, I was interested in history and a liberal (ha ha) arts degree. The history professor, a self-proclaimed ex-jesuit priests never taught history unless it was to highlight his anti-war and anti-veteran stance. The anthropology professor was the wife of a Unitarian minister. Instead of learning anthropology I was continually subjected to socialist diatribes. even getting extra credit if we attended socialist "documentaries" movies or rallies etc. This was 35 years ago if anything it has gotten worse and these liberal idiots are firmly entrenched in Academia.
Ahusser, Nothing like
January 15, 2008 - 13:38 ET by LeonAhusser,
Nothing like using a nearly half-century old story to try to make a point about today.
If you don't like it, change it. Get more conservative journalists. There are plenty of newspapers and media outlet for which your extreme generalizations don't apply.
The ACLU, standing up for
January 15, 2008 - 09:06 ET by Hunter12The ACLU, standing up for the Rights of Americans, ... sorry I mean the Lefts of Americans. I hope Terri can raise the money it takes to keep NAMBLA members out of jail.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill
Brinkley
January 15, 2008 - 09:37 ET by allanfI don't remember Brinkley saying that the ADM gig was a "continuation of his work". Mike Wallace hosted a game show in the fifties. It was routine for on air talent to do live commercials in the early days of TV.
There is a difference between a commerical gig and an advocacy position.
Which Makes
January 15, 2008 - 09:51 ET by Tom Blumer..... which makes the criticism of Brinkley vs. the silence on Burke even more hypocritical than originally presented.
Allan what are the
January 15, 2008 - 10:18 ET by Dan The Man 2Allan what are the differences between a comercial gig and an advocacy position? Are you saying by that statement all the MSM is advocating something and being biased? You are really obtuse with taht statement. I contend everything you do is advocacy for one thing or another.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Brinkley
January 15, 2008 - 12:44 ET by allanfBrinkley was hired to do public image commercials for ADM. . Since the earliest days of televison journalists have been doing commercials for sponsors. The practice only stopped in the 1970s or 1980s
Burke on the other hand is taking a policy position at the ACLU to continue her work. Brinkley was just paid "talent".
It would be interesting to
January 15, 2008 - 10:06 ET by Hunter12It would be interesting to do a FOIA inquiry and find out how much Terri's salary jumped with her move from the newspaper to the ACLU.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill
When I was a journalism
January 15, 2008 - 10:09 ET by BDWhen I was a journalism student in 1981, my professor who taught intro to journalism had a classroom of 200 students in fron tof him and asked the question "Who in here wants to become a journalist to make the world a better place?
About half of the hands in the classroom went up.
He then informed us that making the world a better place is NOT the role of a journalist. He said that reporting factually, and dispassionately IS the actual role of the journalist.
So when I hear a journo say " I wanted to be a journalist because I thought journalism was a way to further the democratic process, At its heart, journalism is about the First Amendment. All my life, I've been interested in those kinds of issues."
I realize, she did not get the memo....
One of the core problems with the MSM
January 15, 2008 - 14:15 ET by greenfairieMy undergraduate degree is in journalism and I've done reporting for print, radio, and t.v.. One of the biggest problems with the profession is that it is full of people who get into this field to "make a difference." Yes there are those who are in the business because they are news junkies or, in the broadcast field, they want to be famous. But the ideologues are everywhere. "Experts" who are hired to be journalists are often activists, advocates, and former political staffers (guess from which party). They have no idea how to be objective or fair. To them, there's only one correct view and it's their mission to use means of communication to influence the public.
Concur, see comment
January 15, 2008 - 15:11 ET by BDConcur, see comment immediately above.