Blogged by Brad Friedman from San Francisco…
If you had any doubt, this seals it.
A more shameful display of “journalism” we don’t believe we’ve ever seen. As our friend Susie Madrack of Suburban Guerrilla just wrote in an email, about the new low for corporate mainstream media, appallingly displayed at the link above…
THIS was why they wanted Clinton’s White House schedule? This is what passes for investigative journalism at ABC News?
I don’t care who you’re supporting in this primary election – if we let them do this now to Hillary Clinton, it will only embolden them to do worse later. What a piece of trashy, superfluous, truly MEAN excuse for journalism.
I was an investigative journalist for 15 years, and I’ve NEVER been so ashamed of my former profession.
Should you wish to organize a reader action, this is the phone number for Brian Ross, head of ABC News Investigative Division. I’ve already left my own message – feel free to share: 212-456-7612 [ed note: Previous number was incorrect, ABC’s main switchboard is: 212-456-7777.]
What she said. And then some.
Meanwhile, today marks the 5th Anniversary of the War on Iraq. How many lie dead? And for what?
Heckuva job, Mr. Ross. You, and “the ABC NEWS INVESTIGATIVE UNIT” — as our friend the Freeway Blogger might say — are all wearing the blue dress now.
UPDATE 3/20/08: Glenn Greenwald, as usual, has more cogent thoughts on this, as AP joins Ross and “the ABC Investigative Unit” in covering this “story”. Greenwald writes aptly: “It just isn’t possible for this country to have a more depraved and wretched press corps.”
He goes on to write of previous Ross failures as a “reporter”, as does our own Alan Breslauer in this video. And as long as we’re piling on, I’ll point out that while ABC was more than happy to find the journalistic value in this “story”, the same unit took a pass on an exclusive interview with Sibel Edmonds for reasons that we’ll let them justify. Elsewhere, the ABC News division had previously spiked a number of important stories on Election Integrity.
Wonder why this country is in the mess that we’re in? Look no further than our Corporate Mainstream Media. The links and stories above tell you all you need to know. It all begins and ends with them. Period. They have abused both the public trust and their First Amendment obligations to this country.
For damn sure.
Is there any doubt that they are out to “get” Hillary? Is there any doubt that they will be out to “get” Obama if he wins the nomination?
I agree, Brad. That’s a stunning misuse of limited investigative journalism resources.
Here’s the thing, though. Articles like that must sell newspapers, otherwise they wouldn’t direct scarce resources toward them. What does that say about our citizens?!
We can’t keep blaming the corporate-controlled media for our choices in what we read.
And given this little piece of news, I find it hard to believe that ABC is intentionally smearing Clinton, in order to get Obama on the Nov. ticket, in order that McCain will win.
Linda, they are not about the bottom line anymore. They’re all owned by huge corporations that prefer using their media outlets to enhance their profits on their other holdings. Mainstream investigative journalism is long gone. We just haven’t gotten over freaking out about it yet.
I’m an Obama supporter, but I find this little piece of “news” absolutely disgusting. I thought the MSM had hit a new low when they started taking pieces of Obama’s Tuesday speech completely out of context and missing the entire point of it–but this bit about Hillary and the…I’m not even going to say it–is completely absurd.
Thank you, MSM, for turning the whole world into one giant episode of Jerry Springer.
Here’s another classic Brian Ross moment that I turned into a mashup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SYyBUCDOU8
Linda –
Yes. We can.
I suspect we’d all tune in if ABC decide to shoot someone in the head on live television too. Doesn’t mean there would be any journalistic value to it.
Throwing Christians to the lions was also very popular once. I suspect it would be again. Our news media, however, knows better than to put that on television (for now.)
This absolutely appalling, and I don’t believe I need to state whether I’m an Obama or Clinton (or none of the above) supporter to say that.
It’s absolutely disgusting and offers ZERO journalistic value or anything within the realm of legitimate public interest. None.
Period.
I wonder who paid for that shit?
Big Pharma?
The insurance industry?
The new and improved privatized Republican DOJ through corporate funding?
This looks like another DOJ hit piece, who else would have slipped ABC this info?
If you can stand Dan Abrams new show “V” after Olberman, he has a new segment called “Teflon McCain” about how he gets to skate on shit like this.
A couple of video mash-ups of that show wouldn’t hurt (Alan, 😉 )
If this doesn’t get congress to start enforcing the fairness doctrine, they are dumber than shit…oh wait, never mind.
That seals it, now I’m an Obama/Clinton supporter
Brad mentioned the 5th
aniversarymessiversary of the Iraq war.They are still trying to sell that pig in a poke, and fewer and fewer Americans are buying it:
(CNN).
Another way of saying it is that preznit blush’s UNpopularity Hits New Highs!
There was another birthday that went unnoticed by the Amurkan MSM, and that is the birthday of the PEACE SIGN.
Peace out.
The AP president makes a valid and condemning assessment of the blush regime, pointing out that if the press prints the “wrong story”, their lives can be in danger from the fascist in chief.
hmm, I wonder if he likes teh “vetting and testing” now?
Link
or… it could be ABC’s way of having people feel sorry for Clinton.(My first reaction and I don’t even like her)MSM would prefer Clinton nominated so that McCain can win it.
Lots of people enjoy seeing people humiliated. It’s what TV is about today. American Idol, Survivor, Springer, even Dr Phil etc.
Imagine a world where there was no competition…imagine the peacefulness.
I hate how cynical I am becoming. Hate it, hate it, hate it!!
Going to go out in the sun and watch the snow melt on this first day of Spring.
I thought Hillary was the veteran fighter of the famous smear machine who has been fully vetted and she can take anything the Pubs throw at her. I guess not.
We didn’t want to hear about this garbage the first time and we really don’t have time for it now when the US is facing such problems. Would the H. Clinton candidacy or an H. Clinton presidency be hamstrung by the amazing Clenis? If you google events of 1998, you’d find that all hell broke loose internationally while Bill was distracted by the Monica imbroglio. What has Bill been doing since he left office in 2001? With Spitzer and all the other recent sex scandals, the MSM won’t hesitate to bring out a string of bimbos claiming they were victimized by the Clenis, since he left office.
If there were a chance of her winning the nomination, without sliming Obama and arguing he is unelectable and that McCrazy is better prepared to be president, it might be different. She should bow out of her futile campaign now. Spare us a rehash of Monica and Bill. Please.
Go Hillary. Go away!
Did any of you ever hear the old saying”Whats good for the goose is good for the gander”?Its about time somebody uncovered some trash on ole hillary.Shes painted herself as a”commander in Chief” with lies.By the way,who do you think was responsible for those old tapes appearing from the Reverend Wright?Shes been out to ruin Barack Obama from the start.He is a Leader and speaks from the heart.Everybodys entitled to their opinion and this is mine.GO OBAMA!!!!!!
NOt too shabby ABC. Although CNN was just as horrible that day. They sent a reporter all the way to Iraq to ask the President (or whoever) “With Iran training and aiding terrorists in Iraq, when AMericans and Iraqis are so closely working together…is that a slap in the face to America?”
5 years into an endless war which was unneccessary and bankrupting the country, and the best CNN can do is ask “Is Iran slapping America in the face?” Did they really need to fly someone to Iraq to report live if they were just going to continue beating Bush’s war drum, spread propaganda and ask rhetorical questions?
Considering Iraq is almost completely out of the news lately, I don’t think ANY news channel has done their damn jobs. And certianly NONE of them provided a useful or substantive look at 5 years of the worlds biggest mistake.
What a disgusting display! I don’t know what we can do to stop them, but we have to do it soon! The M/SIC now controls the media and the voting process, in addition to the entire government. The killer is that if it came down to simple numbers (how many of them versus how many of us) they wouldn’t have a chance. As Bob Dylan noted, “Money doesn’t talk, it swears!”
uhhh, where was your outrage when the Rev. Wright videos were peddled by ABC?
You don’t think the GOP would have brought Monica up in a McCain/Clinton election? Get real.
Also, we need to heed Hillary and her campaigns own words when they stated during the repeated attempts to skewer Obama that ‘We need to vet our candidates for the Superdelegates’, so suck it up HRC supporters, this is only the beginning.
So Hillary enabled a serial aldulterer, the document dump makes that painfully obvious, but let the voters decide wether she is going to be able to answer those 3am calls, or be too tired to answer because she’s so busy keeping bubba’s fly zipped.
HRC supporters, let’s all say it together,
“Irony is the New Black”
Betty Kosegi #14 said:
And what “trash on ole hillary” was “uncovered” here? That she “may have been” in the WH on one of the days her husband cheated on her?
That’s not “trash on” her, that’s “trash on” her husband, and long-ago irrelevant trash to boot.
Whether she did or didn’t, has nothing to do with this wholly inappropriate article, and what I would call a clear abuse of journalistic “power”.
Um, Sean Hannity?
This is why I don’t get it when Clinton people say she is “vetted” …
Just because Obama’s run a clean campaign (unlike some people) doesn’t mean the GOP or media will.
We have to boycott the media. Rely on Public Radio and Television and good blogs and stop watching tv. No news, no Lost, no Grey’s Anatomy, No CSI and tell all the advertisers what we are doing. They have to be stopped or our democracy (what’s left of it) will be lost. All progressives have to post this call on all the progressive sites, tell friends and family and make it work. This is not about Hillary or Obama, it’s about saving ourselves.
Linda
You’re right on target, Linda Meadows! They’ve stolen so much, and we have to start clawing it back, a chunk at a time, just as they took it from us while we weren’t paying attention. The logical place to start is with the media – after all, in any revolutionary handbook you’ll surely find that the first command is to seize the radio station! OK, that’s a bit out-dated, but it’s what this junta (I dunno – would cabal work better?)clearly set its sights on, and it has, by and large, succeeded. So let’s take back the media, first, and at all costs protect the Internet at the same time, for the Internet provides the vehicle for our ideas. Boycots can be good – they can work – but let’s keep the Internet free of their meddling. Slip a few bucks to BradBlog!
Hey, folks: Please do not call the # posted for ABC News. It is the private phone of a very nice young lady. The correct # is 212-456-7777. You will then get a grumpy guy at ABC News, who will abruptly transfer your call to a series of recordings about digital TV, etc., then an option to leave a recorded message, then your call will be cut off before you can leave the message. My comment: I am not a Clinton supporter, although I used to be. I am also not a giggling adolescent, a paparazzi or a peeping tom, so the ‘news’ about Mrs. Clinton’s whereabouts conincident with Ms. Lewinsky’s visits to the White House is really not of interest to me.
Why is this so important, who really cares after 24 hour cycle?
An unemployment rate which is growing, a government which supports the international corporations before the massive crisis of foreclosures of 1 in 10 home owners, an economy that has slid into a recession because of an illegal war predicted to cost a trillion dollars, a third term Bush administration, ARE THESE NOT THE REAL ISSUES?
ARE THESE NOT THE ISSUES THAT LAST BEYOND THE NEWS CYCLES?
Brad, I wish you would focus on the serious issues and stop playing the magical games. If enough of us took such a direction, this trash would not have the space!
Ahhh she can take it. I say throw the kitchen sink at her. It was/is a marriage of convenience anyway. She knew what he was doing. She didn’t want the world to know though. All for her agenda… that’s Hillary. (I shed not a tear for her. I had a “flash” of sympathy for her when I read the headline but for less than 1/16 of a second)
She and her team will come up with much more ugly gossip about Obama before she is gone and SHE will make sure it’s all over the MSM. Mark my words.
She is not genuine. IMO
Where are her tax returns, why is she hiding them?
She wants a recount in Michigan but her comment in 2007 was “It’s clear, this election they’re having is not going to count for anything.”
(My ugly personality coming out. I didn’t stay in the sun long enough and the snow isn’t melting fast enough. I’ve got “snow rage”)
I wonder what the msm has to say about this guy’s opinion:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/A..._for_0319.html
I would add, we all need to pressure all candidates on reinstating the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE!
The airwaves are ours and ABC is supposed to perform a public service. So why are we not suspending their broadcast license? Or at least a boycott of ABC.
The general public eats this stuff up, you say? Of course, since blood and love all taste the same, we give them what their masters have trained them to want. As for Brian Ross, he’s laughing all the way to his bank in the Cayman Islands.
Boycott the MSM and buy a TIVO so when you watch the Daily Show, Olbermann, or sports you can bypass all the commercials.
Gave up on mainstream news a long time ago, suggest the rest of you do the same. Most of my information comes from various sources on the internet. Haven’t watched a national news program on TV in probably at least a year. If you can only believe 50% of what they report is true or not slanted… how do you know which 50%? You have to accept that all is garbage. Just turn off the TV.
Here’s a major slap in the face and kick in the teeth for anyone who hopes to promote election integrity. MSNBC’s Chris Mathews is having Ken Blackwell – the former Ohio SoS on his program as a “political expert”.
Let’s just gather all the bu$hCo criminals and give them a big bear hug on the national media and convey the message that suborning democracy and trashing America with acts of treason is commendable conduct that places you on the pedestal warranting of the utmost respect and admiration.
What is the national media thinking to put these clowns, criminals, charlatans, crooks, and anti-American democracy haters – front and center where we are expected to worship their every utterances and opinions.
Could the reason be that the media has grown more fascist corporatist, anti-American and treasonous as some of the hardcore political operatives ?
Same reason they have Sara Taylor on,
same reason CNN has Beck,
same reason NYT hired Bill Kristol,
same reason Fox hired Rove,
same reason Newsweek hired Rove,
same reason Tweety slobbers all over Tom Delay,
same reason they keep bringing Dick Morris on,
same reason they keep bringing Newt on
same reason they keep bringing the Matalin/Carville trainwreck on,
same reason Pat Buchanan is all over every pundit program….
same reason Coulter was featured for so long,
…..corporate media is the vast repuke criminal rehabilitation machine.
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Ken Blackwell appeared as a talking head on Hardball with Chris Matthews the other night. He was introduced as a Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council. Of course he’s best known as the former Secretary of State of Ohio, where he spent precious little time running the Department of Motor Vehicles and handing out driver’s licenses ““ he was far too busy making sure that the state’s electoral votes would go to George W. Bush in the 2004 election. That’s a polite way of saying he was dedicated to rigging the election.
—
Blackwell professed to see no inherent conflict during the 2004 election between simultaneously serving as secretary of state and co-chairman of Bush’s Ohio campaign. As the arbiter of election rules, Blackwell issued a series of rulings that limited the use of provisional ballots, a tactic that undermined traditionally Democratic inner-city voters. At one point, until he finally rescinded it, Blackwell tried to maintain the absurd position that only voter-registration forms on heavyweight 80-pound paper would be accepted.
-Walter Shapiro,
—
Actaully, “rigging” is too polite a term to describe Blackwell’s blatant attempts to suppress Democratic voter turnout. He was named in more than sixteen lawsuits alleging voter disenfranchisement and conflict of interest. No, “stealing” is more like it. You could argue that the man’s criminal behavior could label him something of a thief, a crook. Call him whatever ““ his actions should hardly merit him a place on television. He epitomizes partisan politics at its very worst ““ disgustingly dishonest and immoral.
But yet here he is, with Chris Matthews gushing over him, referring to him as “Mr. Secretary”. He even closed out the segment with a chummy, “When are you gonna run again, Ken?”
http://purpleminded.com/2008/02...ur-broadcasts/
*
Mathews also has Armstrong Williams on the show often. It’s disgusting beyond belief’ The media is just sadistic. They like to see liberals lose more then life itself. It’s just a habit now and they can’t stop themselves.
And, of course, they are picking up big checks.