UT Chancellor defends journalism

All I can say is good on you, Chancellor – http://www.utsystem.edu/offices/chancellor/blog/journalism-essential-democracy

Did she really just say that?

More info here.

Fox’s Chris Wallace comes to Obama’s defense

Fox’s Chris Wallace Takes Fox And Friends ‘To Task’ For ‘Two Hours Of Obama Bashing’

Hey listen, I love you guys but I want to take you to task if I may, respectfully, for a moment. I have been watching the show since 6:00 this morning when I got up, and it seems to me that two hours of Obama bashing on this typical white person remark is somewhat excessive and frankly I think you’re somewhat distorting what Obama had to say.

(There’s a video of the exchange at the above link.) I’m honestly just surprised that anyone at Fox News has a conscience at all. Bravo, Mr. Wallace; you may have found a tiny speck of journalistic integrity. Hold on to it! Don’t let Rupert take it away! This was also pretty nice of him:

Far be it for me to be a spokesman for the Obama campaign, and I will tell you that they would laugh at that characterization, but you know, the fact is that after giving a speech on race earlier this week, on Tuesday, he gave a major speech on Iraq on Wednesday and a major speech on the economy yesterday. And so, I think they would say that in terms of deflecting attention away from the issues people really want to hear about, maybe it’s the media doing it, not Barack Obama.

Your own web radio station

Use Anywhere.fm to upload your entire music collection and listen to it anywhere via the web. It’s free for now, so I’m gonna git to uploadin’.

How media has failed us

I think I (and many others) have made the point before that our major media outlets have failed us in tremendously significant ways. Consistently the only accurate, in-depth, intelligent reporting I see is from PBS, NPR, or other countries. Part of me wishes I had pursued a career in journalism so that I could somehow make a positive impact in the field, rather than just rail against it weakly (though that’s most likely what I would have done from the inside, as well).

See, big media needs to sell ads to survive. To sell (the right) ads, they have to meet certain ratings and demographic numbers. To draw in those numbers, a lot of work goes into targeting audiences, a lot of market research. Market research is a process of distillation, a precision instrument. When you’re honing in on your target, there’s no room for externalities. When you’re drawing in the subject, you can’t risk boring them with depth or complex discourse. You’ve got to offer the most stories with the highest impact in the least amount of time – I hear CNN is now advertising more stories per hour:

But I digress. The real point of this post was to link to this article, which offers insight into the inner workings of a major network. It sheds light both on its failure to uphold the standards of old media and to keep up with new media. I love the way the article opens, so I’ve quoted that as well as some other salient points (after the jump):

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto

The New York Times has a photo story with images leading up to and immediately following Bhutto’s assassination. The images are shocking and haunting, but they are an important testament to her dedication and sacrifice, as well as that of her supporters.

[There is audio during the slide show – it’s worth listening to; via]