Greetings from the new blog! I hope to have a lot of fun ripping apart the conventional wisdom that permeates through what is called journalism in St. Louis.
This site is about accountability about the local broadcast outlets in the St. Louis Metro area. I will point out the good with the bad, and I will decode and analyze what they do and how they do it.
Of course, we all have pre conceived notions about how the media may or may not act in deceptive ways. Rush Limbaugh made a career out of lying about who was responsible for the lies made to the general public.
You got it folks; The Limbaugh Liberal Media HOAX. Sure, there are some liberals in the media and they're in papers who cater to the liberal point of view. However, there are two facts you have to be aware of. First, there are as many conservative media outlets out there as liberal, if not more in rural areas. Secondly, even the liberal media outlets are still corporations, and the last thing corporattions want you to hear about is corporations doing bad things, or (gasp) holding them accountable for those bad things.
You know, bad things like the Fox News "Talking Points" memos, or Jack Welsh's freak out in 2000 when he learned W was really losing Florida. Full recount: 3 votes, Gore wins.
Ain't that a flashback?
How's this one: The Bush administration changed the way the unemployed were officially counted when they took office so the percentage of recorded as unemployed is only the number of people collecting unemployment. If you don't find a job, and your unemployment runs out, you are no longer counted. In other words, we really don't know how many people are under or unemployed altogether. Yet, the local and national news outlets use phrases like, "lowest unemployment since 1997" or liken it to the Clinton record, when the assertion is a lie on its' face because how the government compiles the numbers are hopelessly flawed.
And Leisa Zigman does a story on "safe tanning" for sweeps. No study on the local job market, no fancy scmancy polls from USA Survey, no stories on the street about the effects of this "policy change" from six years ago.
Yet the Post Dispatch publishes columns from Michael Barone telling us how great the economy is doing. Liberal Media? RIGHT.
Try Corporate Media.
A Corporate media run from the sales office and not a newsroom. You wanna get CBS off your back, Wal Mart? Buy airtime on the CBS Evening Report or the NBC Nightly News!
Oh wait, that's what they did. Not only did Wal Mart by airtime, but they use the airtime to plub their new food outreach program.
Ironically, Fox 2 news had a story about a St. Charles Food Bank closing a couple of months ago. Where' Wal Mart to send her food to keep it open? They don't need to care about a county that votes the way Jack Welsh does.
Then again, that was Fox News before the Emmon Burns chase and the new set. Oh, and the Geraldo lead in.
We know what you're up to, Rupert. Wanna Foxify Channel 2? TOO BAD.
If you had forgotten, the public owns the airwaves. If you're going to use them, then We will hold you accountable to what you put on our airwaves.
To put it succinctly: Bring it on. I got your number.