Media Matters

Media Matters, a liberal group has now declared a war on FOX news. The group, which normally keeps a close watch on various media outlets, searching for conservative biases and misrepresentations has decided to ditch their usual job of policing the media and instead focus on FOX news, declaring the network to be their number one priority.

The link to the Politico article is here but definitely check out the Media Matters website and watch as the "guerrilla warfare" unfolds. It promises to be interesting.

The irony is, that the same finger Media Matters is pointing at FOX can be pointed right back at Media Matters about FOX.

Quick Follow-up on Placement

Unlike the Itamar massacre, I was pleased to note that only 15 minutes after the bus bombing, which took place in Jerusalem this morning, Drudgereport.com and NYTimes.com posted articles on their websites in noticeable spots. Drudgereport.com even offered feature articles to go along with the news of the bus bombing including an article about recent attacks on Har HaZaysim and about rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel.

The Importance of Placement

By now the Glenn Beck clip on his reporting the Itamar Massacre has gone viral, especially among the American Jews. I know other blogs have posted the link and commented on his accurate word of "butcher," one that may seem to shape the media, but I happen to believe it is extremely accurate since throats being slashed with a knife to me sounds very similar to what our butchers do with chickens.

But he brought up a good point, which I had been thinking about for a while. The Itamar Massacre hasn't really been soaking up news space and it is very possible that it's because Japan (with the tsunami and now the radiation issues) is hogging all the limelight. 

But even still, I checked a couple news websites, including DrudgeReport this past Saturday night and I was kind of shocked to see that the link to the Israeli newspaper article on the recent attack was all the way in the right column near almost the end of all the headlines! Definitely not a place that eyes would quickly notice. 

I think it's important that we remember that biases can be done not only with words or coverage, but with placement as well. News stories which don't make the front lines often don't get noticed and layout editors know this little trick and never hesitate to use it.

Senator Carey?

Lately there has been talk of political activists attempting to recruit Drew Carey to run for the Ohio seat in the Senate. This would be another classic example of actors moving political, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan.

Carey has made political comments in the past that have earned him support in the libertarians hearts, stating that he believes the laws must come from the people not Washington. He served in the Marine Corps for six years and was born in Ohio, though he isn't a current resident.

Carey would be running against the long time incumbent democrat Sherrod Brown and though the Price is Right host hasn't publicly stated anything, his fans have. Check out http://draftdrew.wordpress.com/ for the official site of the libertarian activists.

A Quoted Conundrum

Here is the link to an article posted on the english version of the Al-Jazeera website.

The title reads: Yemeni army 'fires on protestors'

After reading the article, I'm still kind of confused as to why the article has sporadic bursts of quoted phrases... later in the article a heading reading "smooth exit" is again in single quotes.

I'm not sure if this is merely a translation blunder or if Al-Jazeera is using quotes to actually portray a message, perhaps someone else knows better?

The Importance of the Positive Press

For the analytical report I chose to read "Managing the Press", a book which shows the significant role media can have on a president's public ratings, for the good and bad. 

Taft was notoriously known for not being a huge fan of the media and press corps and some historians say that the bad relationship played a huge role on Taft only serving a single term. 

Apparently, Obama is following in Taft's footsteps and limiting the press more than his predecessors did. At this point in the presidency (about half way in) Obama has done only 75 "Q&A" conferences with the press, while Bush had done over 200 at the same time and Clinton over 400. 

But Obama's press secretary isn't about to let him become the next Taft and so the president opts out of Q&A sessions, but instead holds longer and more intimate "sit-down sessions" with various reporters. 

Good thinking Mr. President.

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