Friday, November 7, 2008

Scarpinato, the transcriber ...

... or the common journalist pretender who's real goal is a passive aggressive attack. Whatever the case Daniel Scarpinato does not elicit much information in Governor won't talk about the Cabinet does he?

But really were these questions meant to acquire information or to put Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on the defensive:
  • Does working on the transition team conflict with negotiating the budget?
  • How does uncertainty about leaving for a Cabinet position affect those negotiations?
I wonder what a transcript would show about the rest of Scarpinato's questions.





Today's QUOTES:

... News outlets are little tiny cogs in giant corporate machines whose business interests far outweigh ratings and news revenue, much less truth and objectivity. GE (NBC) is a defense contractor which benefits from endless war; Viacom (CBS) is a vast media empire which requires lax ownership rules to stay together; News Corp. (Fox) is another vast media empire, and (bonus!) is owned by a right-wing loon.

In short, Republican rule is far more profitable to the media's parent companies than the best and most exciting news programming on Earth could ever be, so that's what they strive for. Their primary objective is not good journalism, not even ratings, but simply to do all they can to get Republicans elected... without making it too obvious.

That's why their relationship with the right-wing "Liberal bias!" screamers isn't really adversarial at all - it's symbiotic. Those accusations provide valuable cover, so that whenever the media get busted shilling for Republicans, they just chuckle with mock exasperation and say that they're getting it from both sides, so they must be doing their job.
--Elephant Pimples by Eli at firedoglake

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