Journalism

Death Of Journalist Michael Hastings At Age 33 A Loss Of Massive Proportions!

Ronald 1 Comment

It was a shock to discover yesterday that journalist Michael Hastings, age 33, the person who exposed General Stanley McChrystal’s open criticism of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, forcing his retirement from the military, had been killed in an horrific auto accident in Los Angeles.

A journalist for Rolling Stone and Buzz Feed, Hastings had reported from Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a man of courage and convictions, and the author of two books on public affairs. It is ironic that he avoided harm in both wars, and was killed in Los Angeles by a traffic accident.

Hastings represented the best in journalism, true muckraking, exposing people in power for their short comings. The potential of his future contributions is impossible to measure! This death really has shaken the journalism community, and the author as well!

The Takeover Of Major News Media By The Koch Brothers A Menace To Journalism!

Ronald 23 Comments

Charles and David Koch, the infamous Koch Brothers, who promote libertarianism to the extreme, wanting no government regulation of business, and sponsors of the Tea Party Movement, as their dad was the promoter of the John Birch Society in the 1960s, are now attempting to buy up a whole group of newspapers that are in financial trouble, and need buyers to survive.

These newspapers include:

The Los Angeles Times
The Chicago Tribune
The Baltimore Sun
The Orlando Sentinel
The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
The Hartford Courant

These six papers and three smaller ones are all under Tribune ownership, which is in receivership, and it seems likely that these right wing extremists will come to control the fourth and ninth largest newspapers in the nation (Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune), as well as the others, and in so doing, will destroy American journalism as we know it!

Added on to the control of Fox News Channel and Rupert Murdoch over the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, it means we will see a growing extreme rightward tilt in news coverage, and the end of independent,, muckraking journalism over time!

This Koch Brothers takeover will deal a death blow to the distinguished field of news coverage, and all of us will be the losers, if that event, which seems likely, occurs!

The Coming Right Wing Takeover Of Most News Media: A Threat To America’s Future!

Ronald 6 Comments

The right wing LOVES to claim that the news media are overly liberal, when that is a massive falsehood, and has been so for many years.

YES, the New York Times and Washington Post, and CBS, NBC, ABC and MSNBC are liberal, and there are others.

But talk radio has been dominated by the right wing for twenty years; Fox News Channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch and operated by Roger Ailes, has been spewing right wing propaganda for 17 years; the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post are also owned by Murdoch, and now the greatest threat to the promotion of truth over propaganda is emerging with the report that David and Charles Koch, the infamous Koch Brothers, who tried to fix the Presidential Election of 2012 with their engagement in spending hundreds of millions of their assets on Congressional races and the Presidency, allowable under the disgraceful Citizens United case of the Supreme Court, are now attempting to buy the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, along with other smaller papers owned by the bankrupt Tribune Corporation!

This will mean that the Koch Brothers will be able to extend their evil influence, already affecting our political and legal system,. our educational system, and having worked against health care and labor as part of their goal to control the American future in a deleterious way!

Of course, our system allows anyone to use their wealth to purchase and use their influence in any way they wish, but it is a sad day for American journalism, nevertheless!

Losing Major Party Presidential Nominees And Their Futures: A Summary

Ronald 1 Comment

Losing Presidential nominees usually go on to a future public career, with a few exceptions.

William Jennings Bryan, three time nominee in 1896, 1900, and 1908, went on to become Secretary of State for two years under President Woodrow Wilson.

Alton B Parker, the losing candidate in 1904, went on to become temporary chairman and keynote speaker at the 1912 Democratic National Convention.

Charles Evans Hughes, the losing nominee in 1916, went on to become Secretary of State under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

James Cox, the losing nominee in 1920, built up a newspaper empire, Cox Enterprises, which would become very influential in the world of journalism, and still is, as the publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Palm Beach Post, as well as cable television and internet enterprises under his heirs.

John W. Davis, the losing 1924 nominee, had a distinguished career as a lawyer who argued cases before the Supreme Court, including being in the losing side of the famous school integration case, Brown V. Board Of Education Of Topeka, Kansas in 1954, and the Youngstown Steel Case of 1952, ruling against President Truman’s seizure of the steel mills during the Korean War. He was on the side opposing school integration and Presidential power, being a true Jeffersonian conservative throughout his life.

Alfred E. Smith, the 1928 losing nominee, became head of the corporation which built the Empire State Building in 1931, and was an active opponent of Franklin D.Roosevelt and his New Deal.

Al Landon, the losing 1936 nominee, spoke up on foreign policy issues as World War II came on, but spent his life in the oil industry, playing a very limited role in public life after the war.

Wendell Willkie, the losing 1940 nominee, proceeded to write a book about his vision of the postwar world, and was thinking of running again in 1944, but died early in that year.

Thomas E. Dewey, the losing nominee in 1944 and 1948, continued to serve as Governor of New York, and was a power player in the Republican Party after his time in office.

Adlai Stevenson, the 1952 and 1956 losing nominee, went on to serve as United Nations Ambassador under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Barry Goldwater, the losing 1964 nominee, went back to the US Senate, and served three more terms in office.

Hubert Humphrey, the losing 1968 nominee, went back to the Senate and served seven more years in that body.

George McGovern, the losing 1972 nominee, went on to serve eight more years in the US Senate, and kept active in work for the United Nations in various agencies.

Walter Mondale, the losing nominee in 1984, went on to serve as Ambassador to Japan under President Bill Clinton.

Michael Dukakis, the losing nominee in 1988, went back to two more years as Governor of Massachusetts, and also has served as a professor at various institutions, including Northeastern University and Florida Atlantic University.

Bob Dole, the losing 1996 nominee, has engaged in much public activity, including fighting hunger with fellow former nominee George McGovern, and is seen as an elder statesman who is greatly respected.

Al Gore, the losing 2000 nominee, went on to become an advocate for action on climate change and global warming, and also created the cable channel called CURRENT.

John Kerry, the losing 2004 nominee, has continued his distinguished career in the Senate, and may be tapped to join President Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense.

John McCain, the losing 2008 nominee, has continued his career in the Senate, being last reelected to a six year term in 2010.

The question is what, if any role, Mitt Romney will have in public life, with no hint at this point that he intends any, even after his White House meeting this week with President Barack Obama.

A Day To Celebrate! New York Times At 161 Years And Counting!

Ronald 2 Comments

The best newspaper in America, the one no scholar or serious student can do without, became 161 years old today!

The New York Times is often under attack by conservatives because it dares to investigate, to question, to challenge the views of the Right.

But it is still the most respected news source, the most thorough one, the one that can be counted upon to examine all sides of any domestic or foreign policy controversy.

And its Week in Review, its Magazine, its Book Review, its Entertainment section, its Business Section, are unmatched by any other Sunday newspaper.

The New York Times has adapted well to the digital age, and all readers and researchers on public affairs owe a debt to the New York Times, with its fantastic Annual Index, which makes investigation of any topic manageable!

So Happy 161st Birthday to the newspaper with “All The News That’s Fit To Print!”

Mike Wallace: The Death Of A Journalistic Icon

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This coming Sunday, CBS’s Sixty Minutes, the longest news “magazine” in television history (since 1968), will pay tribute to its longest lasting correspondent, and a true journalistic icon, Mike Wallace.

Wallace died last weekend at the age of 93, after having served with CBS News for more than half a century, and being one of the originators of Sixty Minutes, which set a standard for journalism that has not been matched anywhere for hard hitting, investigative, and controversial news coverage.

Mike Wallace was famous, or infamous depending on who was giving an opinion, for aggressive, challenging and persistent questioning of famous, and not so famous, people, including Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, and every American President since Gerald Ford.

Wallace was not shy or reserved in any form, and that was what was most admirable about him. He made a lot of enemies, and wore their hatred as a badge of honor.

He represented the best in American journalism, believing that his job was to expose evil, wrong doing, and scandal, no matter where or who it fell on. He never apologized for his hard hitting style, and became a model for future journalism.

Journalists are not what they are to glorify or cover up for those who govern in any nation. They are not there to support wrong doing, or be concerned about attacks by politicians or foreign leaders. They are not there to do the whim of an employer, and are not to play politics themselves. Wallace was always true to his principles and beliefs.

Journalists are there to promote truth, and inform the public of that truth!

Mike Wallace set a standard for others that will not easily be matched in the future, but we are far better for his commitment to his profession! He will not be forgotten!

Rick Santorum Attacks The New York Times: A Losing Crusade!

Ronald 2 Comments

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has decided to attack a New York Times reporter, Jeff Zeleny, a very respected journalist, for misunderstanding his statement regarding Mitt Romney being the worst possible Republican candidate for President against Barack Obama, because of the Romney health care plan he devised for Massachusetts while its Governor in 2006.

Santorum cursed at Zeleny, and later said that a Republican would have to prove his mettle by attacking the New York Times.

No one has ever said that the New York Times is perfect, and that it has not made mistakes in its history in its reporting of the news.

But feeling a need to attack the New York Times for political reasons is counterproductive, as no matter what one thinks, that newspaper remains the BEST newspaper in coverage of political and foreign policy news, with the possible exception of the Washington Post.

Being the newspaper of record, with the best and most thorough coverage and research index, any intelligent citizen or voter should look askance at Rick Santorum, when he feels a need to attack legitimate journalism, as it not a positive image of Santorum that he leaves by such an attack.

159 Years Of The New York Times: No Better Historical News Source!

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Today, September 18, in the year 1851, the venerable New York Times began publication!

It became the “newspaper of record” early in the 20th century and has remained so ever since!

Without the NY Times, scholars in all fields, and particularly historians such as myself, would have been unable to do the writing and publication of much human knowledge!

It has always been the most thorough, most complete source of national and international news, as well as local New York City news, the arts, business, and sports!

It has been the source of the best book review, and a much respected Sunday magazine, as well as a succinct review of the week’s news on Sunday!

It has been the only newspaper to have an index that covers the entire history of the newspaper, from 1851 to the present, and without it, one cannot mine the paper, or compare coverage to other newspapers!

It has won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other newspaper, 101, throughout its history!

The NY Times has been the center of controversy over its long history, sometimes for reporting stories that were considered secret, such as the Pentagon Papers, and other times for deciding not to publish information that many feel should have been published in the national interest!

Also, the NY Times has had its cases, as many newspaper and other journalism sources, of created news stories having no factual basis, due to poor journalistic ethics of some of its reporters over the years!

The NY Times has been attacked by every Presidential administration, and by members of Congress and state and local officials, but that has only proved the value of this exceptional newspaper!

Sadly, the New York Times has had problems in recent years, with advertising revenues down, circulation of its paper having troubles, and the undermining of all newspapers by the reality of the internet! The availability of the internet has really hurt the long term prospects of the paper in print form, and it seems likely that soon the NY Times will start a policy of charging for online access, which would be a blow to many readers and scholars who might choose, or be forced for economic reasons, to lose the ability to stay in touch with the best print source in America!

The author personally cannot imagine doing without the NY Times, so will have to shell out for access, as this newspaper is simply a national treasure that cannot be allowed to dwindle in public availability, as that would be the undermining of the knowledge base, the exposure of truth, and the education of the American people about their world and their constantly evolving democracy, through good and bad times!

In any case, Happy Birthday, New York Times, and many, many more years of excellent work in the future! 🙂

Two Losses To Journalism: Don Hewitt And Robert Novak

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This week saw the death of two major figures in journalism: producer Don Hewitt of Sixty Minutes on CBS, and Chicago Sun Times and CNN journalist Robert Novak.

Hewitt was associated with CBS for sixty years, and worked with the greats, including Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and numerous others. His production of Sixty Minutes from its inception in 1968 until his retirement in 2004 was masterful, and Sixty Minutes is still recently rated number two in television audience, and has long had a loyal fan base, and is one of the longest lasting news shows on television.

Robert Novak had a fifty year career with the NY Herald Tribune of old and the Chicago Sun Times, and was for many years the conservative protagonist on Crossfire on CNN, and also on the Capitol Gang on that cable network. He infuriated many liberals and independent minded people with his views, including myself! 🙂 But he was always interesting and stimulating and thought provoking. He could make fun of himself and call his memoir in 2007 “The Prince of Darkness”, with tongue in cheek!

Both men added immensely to the field of journalism and will be missed. They are part of the generation of newsmen beginning in the 1950s and 1960s which educated, entertained, and informed us. It is always to be mourned when we lose such giants of news coverage!