Howard Kurtz and his guests on this Sunday's Media Buzz took a walk down bizarro-lane and made believe they themselves and the network they work for are not exactly what's wrong with our corporate media these days.
Driftglass already did a very fine job going after Kurtz for this debacle, which I'll share a portion of here:
"What Is Dead May Never Die" Edition.
For sheer yardage gained in the direction opposite of reality on a single play, I've got to give it to Howard Kurtz of Fox News this week.
As you may know, Mistah Kurtz's career as a third rate purveyor of media insider gossip was in ashes, until Roger Ailes came to his rescue and added Kiurtz to his vast stable of street-corner dung-hustlers.
Usually Mistah Kurtz's soap whittlings are too trivial to mention, but this Sunday he really elevated the ambient level of completely fucking surreal at Fox by conducting a puppet show with a couple of other Fox News nobodies about what a God Damn Crying Shame it was that "the media" had lost so much credibility with Real Murricans since the Age of Cronkite.
According to Mr. Ailes' script as it was recited by these persons, the main reasons Real Murricans don't trust the media are, in no particular order...
Chelsea Clinton!
No one in "the media" is ever held accountable for anything!
Twitter!
Did I mention no one in the media who lies or fucks up is ever held to account for it?
And, of course -- Liberal. Media. Bias.
Also too, "Frank Luntz asked a focus group..." and, when all else fails, Both Sides.
As the scattered members of the Lost Tribe of Gilliard will recall, for most of this career Mistah Kurtz was just one more Republican shill embedded in the Mainstream Media, using his position to flak for horrible people with bad ideas and cover their escape route with a thick schmear of "fairness" concern trolling.
Much more there so go read the rest of his take down of Kurtz and our horrid Sunday bobble head shows in general. Here's how Fox covered the segment above at their blog: 'Media Buzz': Americans Doubt That the News Is Being Delivered Straight:
In a recent study by Frank Luntz, two focus groups were asked what they thought about the credibility of the news business. The responses revealed the American public is losing trust in the media and doubts that the news is being delivered straight.
David Zurawik and Joe Concha appeared on Media Buzz today to discuss what this might mean for the news and how it is reported.
Zurawik said the media has been battered in recent years by technology and economics and has lost a sense of higher purpose, of serving democracy. He added that losing nerve and confidence doesn’t help either.
Concha pointed to an explosion opinion journalism as another cause of growing distrust in the media.
"We’ve never been more polarized than we are now. Audiences, therefore, are more polarized, as well," he said. "If the messenger, host, anchor is giving an opinion and half the audience may disagree with it, that's where the distrust comes in."
An additional problem for traditional news organizations is the rise of social media, which often leads to rushed or inaccurate reporting and many other issues.
Concha used football as a metaphor: Social media is a blitzing linebacker, forcing the quarterback - or regular news organizations - into releasing the ball early because they're afraid of getting beat to the punch.
“We’ve lost our sense of being a watchdog for the people," Zurawik concluded. "People are really suffering in this country, and they don’t see us as on their side, trying to get them information.”
So say the shills over at GOP-TV. Karoli already took Concha apart for his ridiculous views on media bias and what the job of someone who wants to call themselves a journalist is here: Is This What They Teach In Journalism School These Days?
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