SCLM stands for So-Called Librul Media. Read an expert takedown of their role in setting the topic of the campaign: "...Campaign Desk has written many times about the perils of 'he said/she said' journalism, the practice of reporters parroting competing rhetoric instead of measuring it for veracity against known facts. In the wake of the first SBVFT spot early this month, cable news programs for the most part offered viewers two talking heads, one on each side of the issue, to debate the merits of the claims. Verifiable facts were rarely offered to viewers -- despite the fact that military records supporting Kerry's version of events were readily available. Instead of acting as filters for the truth, reporters nodded and attentively transcribed both sides of the story, invariably failing to provide context, background, or any sense of which claims held up and which were misleading. And sometimes even that was asking too much. According to Media Matters, the Aug. 4th editions of FOX News Channel's 'Hannity & Colmes' and MSNBC's 'Scarborough Country' both reported and aired the ad without mentioning (1) that despite the ad's claims, those featured in it did not serve on Kerry's boat, (2) that the SBVFT was wrapped in Republican ties, dating all the way back to former Nixon protege John O'Neill, or (3) the fact that the doctor who claims to have treated Kerry in the ad was not the medical official who signed his medical records.
Why was the press complicit in keeping afloat a story so easily debunked?..."
Thanks to Atrios
PS -- you gotta love this bit at the end of the piece:
"...The most telling comment on that front may well have come from the unlikely duo of Jon Stewart and Ted Koppel, who shared a telecast during the Democratic convention. Koppel, by way of introducing his own viewers to Stewart, complained that 'a lot of television viewers -- more, quite frankly, than I'm comfortable with' -- get their news from Stewart's 'Daily Show' on Comedy Central. Stewart, almost as if trying to reassure Koppel, responded that his fans were watching him not for news per se, but rather for a 'comedic interpretation' of the news. Koppel was unmoved. People watch Stewart 'to be informed,' Koppel insisted gloomily. 'They actually think they're coming closer to the truth with your show.'
With that, Stewart pounced. 'Now that's a different thing, that's credibility; that's a different animal.'
Yes, it is."
different voices
10 years ago