The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Secrets of Neutral Objective Journalism: Deadline Stress and Lots of Coffee

Posted on | November 21, 2012 | 10 Comments

Today, for reasons that need not be explained, I was looking through my American Spectator coverage of the Republican National Convention:

Five columns in five days, about 5,000 words in all, a good week’s work. The quantity included some genuine quality, considering that all of it was produced in a frenzied deadline rush late at night, during a week when I never got more than five hours of sleep a night. Re-reading those columns, I think the Aug. 28 entry was one of the fiercest all-out assaults on liberal media bias I’ve ever written:

TAMPA, Florida — The Republican Party has spared no expense to accommodate the hundreds of journalists who have come here to write dishonest stories aimed at preventing the GOP from winning this year’s election.
If you’ve been following major media coverage of the Republican National Convention, you know that the party’s presidential candidate is Todd Akin, who will campaign this fall on a platform of undiluted hatred and evil, with the able assistance of his running mate, Martin Bormann Jr. The Akin-Bormann ticket was personally selected by RNC Chairman Rush Limbaugh and endorsed by Karl Rove after consultation with a secretive cabal of right-wing Mormon billionaires. The Republican delegates who are assembling this week in Tampa are mere dupes hired by the Koch brothers to provide the superficial appearance of a “political convention” debating a platform and nominating candidates.
Such is the narrative subtext of most of the GOP convention coverage, which is provided by a political press corps that is overwhelmingly composed of people who would never vote for any Republican under any imaginable circumstance. . . .

Please read (or re-read) the whole thing.

 

Category: American Spectator, Neutral Objective Journalism

Comments

10 Responses to “Secrets of Neutral Objective Journalism: Deadline Stress and Lots of Coffee”

  1. mtranquilnight
    November 21st, 2012 @ 9:58 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Secrets of Neutral Objective Journalism: Deadline Stress and Lots of Coffee http://t.co/0LjLBDbi #TCOT

  2. dkmkc2000
    November 21st, 2012 @ 10:08 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Secrets of Neutral Objective Journalism: Deadline Stress and Lots of Coffee http://t.co/0LjLBDbi #TCOT

  3. Adobe_Walls
    November 21st, 2012 @ 10:34 pm

    Have a great Thanksgiving in your new home Stacy, and a happy Thanksgiving to Wombat, Smitty and the readers of this fine establishment.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    November 21st, 2012 @ 11:15 pm

    Great articles then, great articles now. Happy Thanksgiving to Stacy, Smitty, Wombat, their families, and the commentators here.

  5. Bob Belvedere
    November 21st, 2012 @ 11:38 pm

    That was a well done Righteous Rant.
    HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO THE WHOLE OTHER MCCAIN CREW!

  6. MrPaulRevere
    November 21st, 2012 @ 11:38 pm

    When the chief operatives of the GOP refuse to go on those idiotic Sunday morning shows for their weekly interrogation session you’ll know they are serious about politics again.

  7. Sharon Mitchell
    November 22nd, 2012 @ 8:57 am

    I agree. With a mobilized minority class I am not sure it would have made a difference anyway. They were out to prove something else, education on the issues were not of importance.

  8. Dianna Deeley
    November 22nd, 2012 @ 12:27 pm

    Happy Thanksgiving!

  9. Bob Belvedere
    November 23rd, 2012 @ 5:42 pm

    I think it would be the healthy and most productive thing if we conservatives and Classical Liberals would adopt the attitude of Howard Roark to Peter Keating [putting aside any negative feelings towards Ayn Rand you may possess]:

    Peter: What do you think of me, Howard?

    Howard: Peter, I don’t think of you at all.

  10. Bob Belvedere
    November 23rd, 2012 @ 5:43 pm

    Back at ya, Dianna.
    [PS: Are you on Twitter?]