Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Quick bytes

You know the religious right are taking over the political landscape when when CNN names a full-time faith and values correspondent. This is why the fringe fundies have more power than they should. Twenty years ago their noisy bigotry would have dismissed as lunatic ravings. Now they cover every blessed idiot pronouncement they make as if it were important news rather than insane gibberish.

Another ill effect of media consolidation - the caste system. This is why you get 24/7 coverage of pap like the Holloway investigation for weeks after it's news and next nothing on the Plame investigation. If the holy grail of profits over public service hadn't become the norm in this enviroment, perhaps the MSM would have picked up on the Times-Picayune coverage of the levee problems and the whole NOLA disaster could have been at least mitigated, if not avoided.

Speaking of the MSM, the essential Molly Ivins proposes a Media Accountability Day. She suggests it runs in conjunction with the annual release of the 10 Most Censored Stories of the Year, which she kindly lists for those who may have missed them. I would note in passing that I blogged at some length on at least 6 of these stories myself, but I don't count since I'm just a blogger - not a journalist, as those who can't refute my arguments in a debate like to remind me.

The world's most powerful address is not 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, it's K Street inside the Beltway. The Hill tells us that there's a new business model cropping up among the lobbyists who find their profits are not obscene enough yet. Some firms have been already doing this for years but it now has an official label.
The name is now the “Transactional Risk Assessment Specialty.” It is billed as a “rapid-response team” of lobbyists, lawyers and former government officials who will jointly help clients understand and smooth any obstacles that may arise inside the Beltway.
They must have been inspired by Karen Hughes newly formed Department of Propaganda. They have rapid response PR teams as well to convinvce foreign countries that having their citizens murdered and their infrastructures destroyed is really a good thing.

I hope this posts as I've been having technical difficulities this week. It happens a lot around here. The broadband goes out regularly and Blogger has had some quirky problems publishing in the last couple of days.
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