Great guest on C-SPAN...ex-Newsday Journalist.....exposing the corp. media

[Roxy66]

Wow...it's so nice to see a REAL journalist talking about the down-fall of the MEDIA!!!!!!! O.K....Laurie Garrett is now my favorite journalist... Go watch!

[Skidmore]

1. I'm listening to her now. She has nailed many of the

points we discuss daily at DU, from corporate dominance of the media, to the lack of coverage of issues that affect the working class, to the focus on celebrity over subtantive issues. She is excellent.

[acmejack]

2. Laurie is kicking Ass!

Someone with the gumption to tell the truth about what passes for media anymore...

[Roxy66]

3. She's my new hero!!!..I hope she makes some huge waves!!

[rodeodance]

4. the focus on celebrity is a big issue these last few years--I so tire

of it!!

[rodeodance]

5. they mentioned Judy W. bogus wmd!!

[ChiciB1]

18. So HOW Do You Flame A Thread??

Sorry, but I never have done it!!!

This is something I feel passionately about.

[CottonBear]

6. Laurie is amazing!

We should e-mail her and let her know we support her work to report the truth!

[Hissyspit]

7. I thought the Martha Stewart release-watch was the low point, and then...

the clock graphic on MSNBC counting down the minutes until Michael Jackson would be arrested yesterday. My jaw dropped.

Horrific...

[Skidmore]

8. Wow! She's taking on the technique of "some say....."

the floating and "exploding rumor" technique.

[Leilani]

9. Watching Her

& she's fantastic.

Only problem is that she's leaving journalism.

But she has really nailed it.

[Skidmore]

10. I wonder where she's going next.

We need people like her on journalism faculties.

[Leilani]

21. She's going to one of the Think Tanks

she reports on science, disease, etc.

Think it's Brookings, but not sure.

[hatrack]

11. Anybody here ever read her books?

"The Coming Plague" and "Betrayal Of Trust - The Collapse Of Global Public Health" - brilliant political analysis and solid science writing.

[Skidmore]

14. Thanks. I was searching for her name on Amazon and

couldn't find anything. I'll try again.

[Pithy Cherub]

19. Both are EXCELLENT and scared the hell out of me!

[tinanator]

12. not the "F" word!!!

You can skate around the notion of a fascist state, but you absolutely have a fascist media.

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. That caller spoke the TRUTH! "We live in a Fascist State"

He is so right. :(

[Roxy66]

15. She is making great points......we need the facts in the "Media"....most

people dont have time or wont take the time to investigate every story they say, to find the truth.

[Skidmore]

16. Nice summary of what this means for the average consumer...

literally. She tied the current ability of the consumer of news into his/her role as consumer of corporate products and an eroding labor environment. People are too busy working and worrying in today's corporate owned climate to think through how the political system works and how the policies coming out of it really affect their lives. THIS is what we need to focus on. How to get the message out succintly.

[ChiciB1]

17. Just Connected To Post This...

But you beat me to the PUNCH.

Just recently I mentioned this at another thread. How we are being spoon-fed a "Dumbing Down" version of News through the stupidity and insipid quest for ratings in today's MEDIA. If that's what one really wants to call NEWS these days.

Laurie Garrett was so very explicit and refreshing and said what I've been thinking for so long now. Just yesterday on Anderson Cooper 360 I was walking by and heard them saying that the Michael Jackson trial had generated the MOST interest at CNN lately! I kind of did a double-take because I found the statement to be so... Well, STUPID!!

We as grand-parents, parents, older sisters & brothers et al need to start NOW by engaging the kids of today in governmental issues, or as it was taught to me, Civics!

We have dropped the ball here by only entertaining our kids with "feel good" toys and games AND Graphic Video games that teach violence! I'm no Pollyanna, but kids today don't seem to have much sense of community or what's going on outside their circle of friends. But this is not an indictment of kids. We as adults are really responsible. Certainly there are many kids who are informed, but I don't feel it's the norm.

I make every effort to educate my grandkids, as I did with my kids, about what I feel are pertinent news worthy issues of today. And two of them are 9 & 10 yrs. old.

I took them with me to Kerry/Edwards rallies during the last election and they had a ball. They were invited to hold signs in the grand-stands behind Kerry & Edwards.

And when they visit with me, many times C-Span is on. My one grand-daughter asked me once... "is that the only kind of TV you watch"? It made me laugh as I told her "No, but explained to her how important I felt it was to know what was going on because it affects us all in the end". I also take them to donate their unused toys and clothes to the less fortunate, and to charities and animal shelters.

These were things taught to me by my parents back in the late 50's and early 60's and why I'm still a Democrat!

I also think this is one way we as Democrats can spread our message. By starting early and setting that example for them. Maybe then, we won't have to put up with all this simplistic sensationalism. Oh, it may not stop but at least I can guide them in another direction.

Last Saturday there was a young man on C-Span named Adrian Talbot, founder & executive director of Generation Engage. I was impressed and thought "good for you"! You can check it out at www.generation.engage.org. While stating it was TRI-Partisan, and it may be, he sounded many of the Democratic Party themes.

[kcass1954]

20. Link to her memo...

I watched most of it before I went to work - I was actually a little late. Ms. Garrett was kicking ass and taking names, saying all the things that we've been saying here about the media, but on TV in front of God and everybody!


http://www.c-span.org/journal/lauriegarrett.doc

<snip>

Honesty and tenacity (and for that matter, the working
class) seem to have taken backseats to the sort of
"snappy news", sensationalism, scandal-for-the-sake of
scandal crap that sells. This is not a uniquely Tribune
or even newspaper industry problem: this is true from
the Atlanta mixing rooms of CNN to Sulzberger's offices
in Times Square. Profits: that's what it's all about
now. But you just can't realize annual profit returns
of more than 30 percent by methodically laying out the
truth in a dignified, accessible manner. And it's
damned tough to find that truth every day with a mere
skeleton crew of reporters and editors.

This is terrible for democracy. I have been in 47
states of the USA since 9/11, and I can attest to the
horrible impact the deterioration of journalism has had
on the national psyche. I have found America a place of
great and confused fearfulness, in which cynically
placed bits of misinformation (e.g. Cheney's, "If John
Kerry had been President during the Cold War we would
have had thermonuclear war.") fall on ears that absorb
all, without filtration or fact-checking. Leading
journalists have tried to defend their mission,
pointing to the paucity of accurate, edited coverage
found in blogs, internet sites, Fox-TV and talk radio.
They argue that good old-fashioned newspaper editing is
the key to providing America with credible information,
forming the basis for wise voting and enlightened
governance. But their claims have been undermined by
Jayson Blair's blatant fabrications, Judy Miller's
bogus weapons of mass destruction coverage, the media's
inaccurate and inappropriate convictions of Wen Ho Lee,
Richard Jewell and Steven Hatfill, CBS' failure to
smell a con job regarding Bush's Texas Air Guard career
and, sadly, so on.

<snip>

[ailsagirl]

22. Wow is right-- I just turned on CSPAN and caught it.

Was just going to log in and let everyone know but Roxy66 got there first.

I hope they re-air it-- it's so fantastic to hear people calling in and hailing Garrett and condemning the MSM!!

Garrett's got guts

:)

[ailsagirl]

23. Garrett does NOT think we're a fascist state

One caller said this country has turned into a fascist state because of what the rethugs are doing, and she responded by saying she did NOT think that the U.S. could be considered a fascist state.

Frankly, I was surprised.

I didn't see the whole program-- only the second half-- but did she say anything about the media being owned by the Right in the first half?

I believe she also said that Fox has always been upfront about speaking for the Conservatives. (Or it could have been Brian Lamb who said this-- I don't recall now.) I thought that Fox claims to be "fair and balanced." ??

Regardless of who said it, it was allowed to stand.