Glenn Greenwald v David Gregory - The state of journalism these days

Earlier today on NBC's Meet The Press, David Gregory had on as a guest, Glenn Greenwald, the man who broke the stories of NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

This was always gonna be interesting...

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now, let's be honest here. Neither of these two people were starting from an attitude of trying to find the truth.  Both are basically political operatives, especially Glenn Greenwald.  Most journalists that operate in the Beltway bubble, are basically too close to Government to be truly independent of it, we've seen that before between 2001 and 2003.  And Glenn Greenwald has a history of attacking people who challenge him on his stories.  Trust me on that one, I've been on the recieving end.  He doesn't debate people, he just tries to humiliate them, which totally debases and devalues whatever points he was trying to make.

The fact is, the real story is getting lost in this "Where In The World is Edward Snowden?" nonsense, and also being lost in Glenn Greenwald's egomania.

The real story is this.  Why did two parties flip positions on this whole idea, just because a Democratic Party president is now in office as opposed to a Republican president?  Why do politicians think it's okay to have people spying on innocent civilians?  If it wasn't right for George W Bush's administration to do it, then it still isn't right for Barack Obama's administration to do it.

In Britain, our government is not really run by politicians, but by civil servants.  They keep the machinery of government operating all the time.  They're not called civil servants in the US, but basically, there are government workers, who are employed to keep the US Government operating, and basically, these people are not elected, they are employed, and basically, they, like most other workers, will do whatever it takes to justify their existence.  And there are similar individuals in most governments around the world.  That's who really runs your government.

There is no Illuminati, no secret organisation that controls governments worldwide.  It's much simpler than that.

But that's not what makes for good journalism these days.  Truth does not sell newspapers.  Truth does not sell advertising on talk radio stations.  Truth does not help the bottom line of media companies.  So, here's the truth about journalism these days.  Journalism is not about truth any more.  Journalism these days, is about supporting a political agenda, and using that agenda to make money from it.  Most so-called journalists these days are nothing more than political operatives supporting agendas that are designed to make money for their political and economic masters.  Reality and actuality have very little to do with journalism these days.  From Fox News, Sun News, The Daily Mail and The Daily Star on one side, to the Mirror, The Guardian, Current and MSNBC on the other, journalists these days are just about making money, and not about telling the truth. 

That's the reality of journalism today.

“Hope For Haiti Now” – a global telethon.

“Hope For Haiti Now” is something of a first.  A global telethon that  will truly be seen worldwide.

CNN International will be airing the 2 hour telethon at 8pm ET / 5pm PT / 0100 GMT / 0200 CET.  It is also being aired internationally on National Geographic Channels around the world and MTV channels around the world, including China.

In Canada, the CBC and CTV are both airing the telethon.  So far, I have heard nothing about any UK or Irish terrestrial broadcasters taking the telethon.  US Local broadcasters, including affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and PBS, are airing the telethon at 8pm local time, except in the Central time zone where it airs at 7pm. 

Any further news on broadcasters airing the telethon, I’ll let you know.

PETA's SuperBowl ad rejected by NBC.

The Huffington Post reference a New York Post article about NBC rejecting an advert from PETA. The ad is available to view at the Huffington Post page, and why it was rejected.

To be honest, I reject PETA, because it does not act like responsible people do. Instead of actually working towards preventing animal cruelty, they criticise celebrities who do not agree with them, recruit celebrities to promote them and waste their time and money on ads that rival Republican party candidate ads and teleshopping infomercials on the stupidity meter.

PETA is a protest group, pure and simple, and such groups should be cosigned to where they belong, on the lunatic fringe.

Dick Martin 1922-2008

Not many double acts that launch on the comedy circuit actually last.  Some of the most successful have been Eric Morcambe and Ernie Wise, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and then there was Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.

They'd started in the 1950s as a double act on the circuit, and had managed to last, despite a failed attempt at a Hollywood movie in 1958.  Then NBC tapped the duo to act as hosts for a summer replacement show in 1966, replacing temporarily "The Dean Martin Show", which by the way continued until 1974.  As a result of that summer replacement, came in 1968 what is regarded as a legendary American comedy show.  "Rowan & Martin's Laugh In"

Through 6 seasons, Rowan & Martin, and their ensemble cast, including announcer Gary Owens, and actresses Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin, laughed and smiled there way through many different types of sketches, including The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award, The Mod Mod World, The Farkel Family, and Laugh In's Look At The News, which somehow, and don't ask me how, managed to correctly predict that Ronald Reagan would be president in 1988, and that the Berlin Wall would be destroyed in 1989!!!

Laugh In's 6 season run ended in 1973 when the show was axed.  But the show had made a star of Goldie Hawn and when it was revived as a series of specials in 1977, made another star in Robin Williams who went on the next year to star in "Mork And Mindy"  It also paved the way for "Hee Haw", "You Can't Do That On Television" and "Saturday Night Live".

So, to round off the tribute, I'll present, courtesy of YouTube, some highlights from the show.

Say good night, Dick!

Worst Person In the World: Dick Morris

Last night, was another special edition of Countdown, on NBC. And as usual, it featured some of the MSNBC regular features, such as Worst Person In The World. The Bronze, for the third edition in a row, went to WalMart, who own Asda in the UK. They've sued a former employee who was broadsided by a semi, and claimed over $400,000 in compensation which was being used to provide 24 hour care for her, since she was brain damaged as a result of the broadsiding. WalMart sued and won in court a claim for all the money this woman had in the world. I understand that Keith will continue awarding Bronzes every night to Walmart until they atone, which they should do VERY quickly, since this is generating tons of negative publicity for the company.

Silver went to Rush Limburger, I mean, Rush Limbaugh, and former Clinton advisor Dick Morris got the gold. Check out the video below.

Open Thread: Wednesday 21st November 2007

NBC has made the first hour of the Today show (7am ET) available to download as a podcast,in both audio only and video forms. Is there a show that is currently not available as a podcast that you would like to see made available as a podcast?

A new Knight Rider!

Digital Spy have reported that a new lead has been cast for a re-imagining of Knight Rider,which will be a 2-hour TV movie, airing on NBC in the US.

If you remember Knight Rider, it starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight and William Daniels as the vocie of KITT, the supercar that accompanied Michael on his adventures. There was a spin off movie as well, Knight Rider 2000. I would like to see this, but I am always sceptical about producers bringing back ideas like this. Sometimes it works, and sometimes, it falls flat as a pancake. I sincerely hope it doesn't.

Dubious Awards for Dubious News!

I have some awards to hand out to "newsmakers" and organisations, who have the dubious distinction of creating some very dubious news stories.

The Backpedalling Bicycle Award goes to Idaho Senator Larry Craig (Republican) for stating that if he can get the disorderly conduct case overturned in court in Minneapolis, he will NOT resign his Senate seat. Of course, once you've pled guilty, getting that plea overturned is very, very difficult indeed.

The Award for the Most Desperate Attempt at Momentum Scuttling is shared between Newsbusters, the blog of the Media Research Center, and The Mark Levin Show for the desperate attempt at stopping MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann's current momentum, which resulted in a week of great numbers, including the most total viewers who have ever watched the show, and the first victory ever for Countdown against The O'Reilly Factor in the key 25-54 advertising demographic.

Newsbusters uses the Mark Levin Show site as proof that Keith Olbermann, or as Mark Levin seems to like to call him, Keith Overbite, is a mysoginist. The trouble is that the links on the page, the links that Newsbusters seem to highlight as being proof of his mysoginy, are in fact on the New York Post website, which is owned by the same person who owns Fox News. Yes, you've guessed it, your friend and mine, Rupert Murdoch. And guess what, the stories highlight what is said against him, and are treated as fact, when in actuality, all we really have in those articles, is one person's side of the story. No hard and fast facts here for the Truthseeker to find.

So, possible lies, and nothing offered in the way of proof. Can we believe the stories to be undeniable fact? No, plainly we cannot, because of the lack of proof, and because the New York Post, much like it's broadcast cousin Fox News, has a definite agenda against Keith. It was the New York Post, if you recall, that trivialised the story about the white powder that was sent to Keith Olbermann's home. Keith later set the record straight on his own newscast.

So, why did Newsbusters highlight this? Simple, to try and slow down the momentum that has built up since NBC aired a live edition of Countdown with Keith Olbermann on a Sunday Night not too long ago. Nothing more than that.

Congratulations to our rather dubious award winners!

Is NBC News being tabloidy or being responsible?

There has been a lot of criticism aimed at NBC News for airing the video sent to them by Cho-seeung Hui, the student who killed 31 people at Virginia Tech, before committing suicide.

Some of it came from more predictable sources, such as Accuracy In Media, whilst others have been less expected. Media Bistro's TV Newser reported some of the other sources.

Whilst I have some sympathy for the view that we shouldn't be giving publicity to these people, I also believe that we as a society need to understand what motivates these people to do what they do.

I can also understand the criticism that this kind of coverage is tabloidy and irresponsible. However, I would answer this by asking a question. What is responsible journalism?

Is it responsible to only cover stories and angles that we as a society, country or group of individuals feel safe in covering, or should we actively be covering stories and angles that do make us feel uncomfortable?

I would argue that it is essential that we do cover angles to these stories that do take us out of ouor comfort zones, and make us face up to things that we dislike. In fact, to actively avoid these angles because of this, would in my view be very irresponsible. You would have to handle these angles with tact and discretion and avoid sensationalising it. But you should cover them.

Was NBC right to air the video? Ultimately yes, but did they handle it right? Well, I'm not sure. Perhaps they could have handled it better, but they could have handled it a lot worse as well.