John Edwards Scandal Media Coverage
* Using the John Edwards Scandal Microscope to Examine Mainstream Media Fossils
* NewBusters Edwards Scandal Two-fer
* Conspiracies and Caffeine
* Montross: "Not Involved"
BRITISH MEDIA WRITER EXAMINES AMERICAN DINOSAUR
Guy Adams, of the Independent, paints a picture of the American Mainstream Media. [Guy Adams' US Media Diary: The 'scoop' the US papers ignored]
Hint: Adams doesn't use many bright colors.
That old cliché about everything being bigger in America seems especially pertinent when attempting to describe the sheer scale of the crisis currently afflicting the US newspaper industry, which makes all Fleet Street's woes look like a summer picnic.
Last week, The Los Angeles Times decided to flog its historic downtown offices, on top of sacking 150 of its 870 journalists. So did The Chicago Tribune. Almost every title in the land is now shedding staff; a hundred New York Times hacks have been offered voluntary redundancy; Newsweek recently announced cuts. It's a bloodbath out there, as US media companies attempt to claw a pound of flesh from haemorrhaging readerships.
Adams then offers a bit of advice to his American Cousins.
The Edwards story could be selling truckloads of newsprint. It is attracting enormous traffic online, and has been devoured by viewers of Fox, the only TV network to report it. In ignoring the affair, newspapers are sacrificing potential readers and repeating the mistakes of the 1990s, where they loftily decided against reporting Bill Clinton's many bedroom misdeeds, allowing internet sites to claim the Monica Lewinsky "scoop."
One of the top LA Times execs, Tony Pierce, has higher concerns, though. He recently sent staff an edict. "There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair," it read. "Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumours or salacious speculations."
I can't pretend to know what Mr Pierce does with his 870 journalists. But if he'd asked just one of them to check out these "salacious rumours" regarding John Edwards the LA Times might have a few more readers, and fewer of the 870 staffers might have to be cut from its bloated payroll.
Adams is spot-on in his advice. One guess: the MSM has heard, and ignored it all before. The dreary picture he painted at the beginning will only get darker, fueled by the hubris that infects the dinosaur that is the traditional liberal-left mainstream American press.
NEWSBUSTERS JOHN EDWARDS SCANDAL TWO-FER
It was a two-for-one John Edwards Scandal coverage at NewsBusters on Monday.
First, PJ Gladnick examines Guy Adams' examination [British Writer Claims MSM Silence on Edwards Scandal Reflects Newspaper Decline] at NewsBusters:
Perhaps it takes a foreigner looking from the outside in to give us a clear look at the overall meaning of the mainstream media silence on the alleged John Edwards scandal. In this case it is Guy Adams writing in his US Media Diary in the UK Independent about "The 'scoop' the US papers ignored."
Also, in the same piece, Gladnick gives readers their money's worth by revisiting the KC Star's Aaron Barnhart's latest. Gladnick notices that Barnhart had "backtracked" from an earlier statement(more below).
And lastly, Mr. Gladnick comes to our defense(!!!), positing the possibility that Barnhart had, perhaps, mis-categorized DBKP, after our critique [John Edwards Scandal: KC Writer Cites “Veiled Threats”, Denials as Likely] of an earlier piece by Barnhart.
Gladnick finishes with a flourish. We won't provide any quotes on this particular; however, the curious reader may, with a simple click of the wrist, find out for himself what Gladnick said about the brave toilers for truth and profit here at the Worldwide Leader in Weird. Hint: it involves a color.
Got all that?
One wonders that there was anything left for NBs to write about, but Noel Sheppard completed the NB media tag-team by reporting on Lee Stranahan's ban at DailyKos [Daily Kos Bans Blogger For Writing About Edwards Scandal]. Sheppard concluded is article with:
As there are always two sides to these kinds of stories, I look forward to receiving some nasty e-mail messages from Markos Moulitsas telling me how I've completely misinterpreted Stranahan's excommunication. Stay tuned.
DBKP also examined Stranahan's KOS banishment [John Edwards Scandal: DailyKOS Bans Stranahan for Writing About Edwards].
Ryan Tate shined the Gawker spotlight on the Stranahan KOS ban[Blogger Banned Over Edwards Scandal Posts]:
Lee Stranahan's post about lefty blogs ignoring the John Edwards affair was apparently the most highly trafficked story on the Huffington Post for at least two days. But when he crossposted the item to his "diary" on Daily Kos, it was suddenly not so popular! Go figure. The "liberal" militants there excoriated Stanahan in the comments, with one well-rated response declaring, "you are violating site standards referencing the Enquirer [and its Edwards coverage], a bannable offense." That's funny, because just a few years ago multiple Kos diarists trumpeted an unflattering Enquirer story about Bush, including one who said, "Sometimes the National Enquirer reports things better than the Washington Post." That person is still active on the site, but Stranahan is not so lucky!
Is Tate implying that DailyKOS may have flexible standards?
KC WRITER RESPONDS TO DBKP
Aaron Barnhart ["John Edwards and Buck O'Neil: Two stories, some sound, much fury, no action] admits, "Perhaps I spoke too soon about the whole "John Edwards story going mainstream" business."
DBKP reported last week [John Edwards Scandal: KC Writer Cites “Veiled Threats”, Denials as Likely] on Aaron's views on the MSM's John Edwards Scandal coverage [The John Edwards love-baby story: What took so long?]. Aaron good-naturedly concluded:
Reaction to my piece has ranged from the adversarial to the hotly adversarial to off-the-charts, like this blogger whose line-by-line analysis of my story would make any JFK/9-11/TWA 800 conspiracy theorist proud.
But hey, if that's the price I must pay for this kind of traffic ... where do I sign up for auto-debit?
We'll plead the fifth--as in espresso--defense. Writing for the last seven months about the MSM's Edwards non-coverage also tends to have that effect on us after awhile.
True Confession Time: Okay, so our favorite movie is pictured below. What of it?
MONTROSS AT A LOSS
Radar [Eric Montross Would Like You to Know He's Never Met Rielle Hunter, Thank You Very Much] backtracked on their earlier sspeculation about ex-NBA player and Edwards' backer, Eric Montross [John Edwards' Money Man: Fellow Tar Heel Eric Montross?]. Radar reports Montross' reaction to his name coming up in the John Edwards Scandal.
"I don't have anything to do with this," Montross told Radar by phone. "Whatever is going on with Edwards, I can tell you unequivocally that I am uninvolved."
Both are fine reads--not the least because they both mentioned our "John Edwards Scandal: Rielle Hunter Housed by Ex-NBA Player" of December 17, 2008.
We'll just say:
1-We believe Montross;
2-We'll address the subject later today--after some shut-eye;
3=After our fifth espresso.
by Mondoreb
image: horror-wood