Saturday, February 12, 2005

Update: Going, going...

Several posts below, Lex explains why the MSM is going, going and soon to be gone. As the new media continues to cut into the MSM’s market share the Liberal MSM’s only reaction has been to raise their ad rates for ever declining circulation and rating numbers. There is nothing the MSM can do stop the slide. Technology is going to have its way. But the MSM can speed the process along. Take for example the lying Eason Jordan story. MSM ignored the story a la Dan Rather. Bloggers were unrelenting. The result was Jordan’s resignation from CNN.

Washington Post scribbler Howard Kurtz reports the lack of media coverage on the Jordan story making Jordan's resignation a bit difficult to explain to media customers by the MSM that failed to report the story in the first place:

“Blogs operated by National Review Online, radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt and commentator Michelle Malkin were among those that began slamming Jordan last week after a Davos attendee posted an online account, but the establishment press was slow to pick up on the controversy. The Washington Post and Boston Globe published stories Tuesday and the Miami Herald ran one Thursday. Also on Thursday, Wall Street Journal editorial board member Bret Stephens, who was at Davos, published an account accusing Jordan of "defamatory innuendo," and the Associated Press moved a story. As of yesterday, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and USA Today had not carried a staff-written story, and the CBS, NBC and ABC nightly news programs had not reported the matter. It was discussed on several talk shows on Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC.”

So what are the MSM bigs to do now? Here is what the story of Jordan’s resignation might sound like;

CNN heavy Eason Jordan resigned today. He has been under fire from right-wing nuts called bloggers. (Insert trite MSM definition of blogger here, as if there is anyone outside the MSM that doesn’t know what a blogger really does.) Jordan was attacked after criticizing the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq. We have ignored this story because we felt it was baseless. As a result we now appear to have been caught flatfooted on the story. Let me assure you, we were all over this story and chose not report it because…well…we just don’t report bad news about ourselves. Trust us that we are providing the correct spin on all of the day’s top stories.

How else could they report the story? The truth – naah.

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