Journalism Today: Never Let Timeline Get In The Way

Media 42 Comments

Update: He’s having server problems, but the post linked to below can be accessed here for now
In a lengthy entry, Jeff Goldstein begins by quoting Jack Kelly in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a report that takes dead aim at Katrina reporting;

It is settled wisdom among journalists that the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was unconscionably slow.
“Mr. Bush’s performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever during a dire national emergency,” wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in a somewhat more strident expression of the conventional wisdom.
But the conventional wisdom is the opposite of the truth.
Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:
“The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne.”
For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.
Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.
So they libel as a “national disgrace” the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

Jeff then goes on to rip into Newsweek, page by page;

We know that Bush watches ESPN.� We know that the Iraq War is a failure.� We know that the President surrounds himself with yes men.� And all these things-when coupled with his “failure of imagination” (a more “imaginative” President presumably would have shredded the Constitution and dropped active duty troops into New Orleans over the objections of a sitting governor, and would’ve done so on Tuesday as the levees were breaking-in effect, anticipating what the local government was unable both to anticipate and prepare for) – highlight Bush’s failure.
In short, the dumbest, Chimpiest, most fascist President ever failed to be the most prescient, creative, Constitutionally “proactive” President ever.
This, my friends, is “journalism.”

Especially for those of you new to SDA and the blogosphere, I suggest you read Jeff’s entry. In his disassembly of the Newsweek article, he exposes that much of the coverage we’ve been treated to on Katrina and the responses of the various levels of government is, at best, pathetically superficial and selectively factual. At worst (and most of it falls into the worst category) it’s intentionally politicized and misleading.
Journalists, take note. This is why increasing numbers of Americans – and Canadians – are turning off their network news and cancelling subscriptions. The “art of omission” is a dangerous ploy in an age where the media consumer has near instant, unfiltered free access to legal and constitutional experts, transcripts, archival material, and witnesses on the scene.
When viewers and readers discover you are ignoring the details – in this case, details like the limitations placed on presidential powers by the US Constitution – in a transparent ploy to score political points, you damage the relationship with the information consumer on a multitude of levels.
That you inflict long term damage on your own professional credibility goes without saying. What seems less understood by your profession is that your actions convey a profound contempt for your readers and listeners. Disingenuously superficial and/or inappropriately politicized versions of current events are an insult to our intelligence – and we know it.
As frustrating as this facade of journalism is to those of us who have the time to seek out a variety of sources to sift fact from half-fact, there are sobering implications that go beyond immediate reporting. Subverting the legitimate public policy debate that should arise out of this disaster (both in the US and here – where Vancouver awaits the “big one”) places lives at stake. Our lives.
If you, as a member of the general public, don’t feel a little uneasy at the eagerness of a crocodile media whose tears mix with saliva as they report rising ratings “rising death tolls” , if you don’t realize that our lives are no more valuable to these people than those in a Baghdad cafe or New Orleans street, you’re deluding yourself.
Disaster and terrorism fatalities serve a political purpose for a significant number of people who are posing as journalists while they pursue a higher ideological purpose. In their eyes, we’re just so many potential body parts for the next Pulitzer Prize winning illustration of their world view. These people are not on our side. They’re on theirs.
Related: Katrina timeline, plus this Hugh Hewitt inteview with Mark Steyn.
Update: Ben Stein says “The real story is that the mainstream media rioted.”

42 Replies to “Journalism Today: Never Let Timeline Get In The Way”

  1. I noticed the difference in Katrina reporting myself with the contrast offered between CNN and FoxNews…CNN was mainstream liberalism; doom and gloom, blame government, negative stories and negative commentary…pictorials of dead floating corpses, impressions of massive wide spread anarchy, poverty and human suffering…the reporting was narrowly focused on the negative and the solution offered: wade in a puddle of your own detached sanctimony, blame Bush and throw money at everything.
    Fox was a refreshing change, there were plenty of stories of heroism and the prevailing human spirit which was presented in survivor stories…stories filled with hope and human effort…there was some gloomy stories but for the most part these involved the cosmic injustice of lives taken before their time by nature’s fury.They refused to play the blame game and focused on reporting facts.

  4. Jason van Steenwyk – Attack Dog On Media Wearing Milkbone Underwear
    Apologies for the gratuitous Cheers reference in the title…
    Jason van Steenwyk, MilBlogger and media watch dog, has taken the media hounds to the kennel.
    Go now and read “All Right You Bastards! I’m Calling You Out!”.
    (link via Instapundit)
    Posted by Blackfive | May 25, 2004 in Current Affairs | Permalink >>>> more
    http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/05/jason_van_steen.html

  5. wwltv.com has been giving live coverage from both Baton Rouge & New Orleans and seems fair. wdsu.com is giving similar (relatively unbiased) coverage. NBC has been surprising me.
    People (particularly the media) don’t seem to get how huge this is. The highway between BR & NO is approximately 50% over water. How safe is that? And no wonder a one-&-half-hour trip is now taking 4 hours. BR to Grand Isle was, if I recall correctly, about a 2 hour drive. Biloxi was about a 3 hr drive. These are all “day trips” that aren’t day trips anymore.

  7. Drudge is reporting that CNN coached people about to appear on air to “get angry.”
    Little do the Moonbats know, this has all been orchestrated by Karl Rove. How else could this be? Does anyone honestly believe that the Lefties are SO STUPID?
    Well, maybe.
    Muhahahahahaha! (Karl Rove laughter)

  9. The media (I truly do hate that term because it implies that there is actually one mass entity out there) is doing what it always does: sensationalize tragedy and blaming government (of any stripe) whenever humans suffer. CNN’s coverage is no different than other tragedies (and certainly not “liberal” WLMR). The only difference is that the Republicans are in power federally so any critique needs a hurried response from the minions on both sides (Dems quickly pointing to Bush instead of to the Governor where more (not the only) blame seems required; Repubs quick to defend 110% and accept no responsibility when clearly there were significant federal failings as well – see Kate’s earlier post). (And you know what, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was Bush, Faux – er, I mean – Fox News would be no different. In fact, the early coverage by Fox and Washington Times, etc. was just as focused on the tragedy and anarchy, until the Republican/conservative talking points came out, so don’t give me any glory-be-to-Fox; they suffer all of the same failings and they are just as mainstream.)
    Kate was bang on with her strikethrough of the ratings-diggers. This kind of tragedy is almost made for news. Since the beginning of the uncensored printed word, media have focused and sensationalized tragedy because we keep buying it. Just like the rubber-necking on the highway. Like a good capitalist company, every broadcaster and newspaper is out to grab dollars and this does it for them. There’s a lot less politicizing than supposed. In a way, their focus on tragedy in the pursuit of personal reporting glory (Geraldo’s two-takes is just the worst example), is partly a reflection of ourselves. As Radwanski wrote in his excellent Friday Post column (excerpted here), every different political viewpoint has tried to edge its way into this tragedy and ultimately it says “a great deal about the polarized, dumbed-down nature of North American political debate that on all fronts, the opposite happened. There is little room for nuance. Little room for concessions. Only shots fired from one side of every endless debate to the other. Even the most ghastly crisis imaginable, it seems, can be reduced to the fodder it produces.”
    The media is ripe for mistakes: by its nature, it is a deeply flawed medium. The rush for story deadlines, beating the others to the scoop, the grab for readers/viewers, the shortness of space for details (worse on tv obviously), individual biases and personal flaws, misleading or misinformed witnesses. Add to that our own saddistic desire to hear the bad news when it is far away.
    This is why the internet is proving so powerful: the old, lazy, sloppy habits cannot stand the rigorous scrutiny of millions of amateur journos. Even aside from politics, their integrity will stand or fall on their ability to raise the standard of their content.

  10. Yet it is still amazing how powerful the MSM is.
    At the local pub, the general consensus is GWB is “gonna fry for this”.
    Personally, I think that in the long run, the Dem’s are going to find themselves with the net loss.
    Particularly the NOLA Governor and Mayor.
    Mike Messina
    Aptos Ca.

  11. There is a lot I agree with in your comment TB – but you’ve left out one important detail. In every survey of political affiliation in the US media, the ratio of declared Democrats to Republicans is overwhelming, and completely unrepresentative of the American population at large.
    When that “lack of diversity” of thought extends up into the highest levels of editorial control, then when these events strike, there is no balance, because there are so few interested in seeking it.
    Too many journalists get into their profession to “change the world”. That’s a mistake. If you want to change the world, get into politics proper, or into opinion writing. But your first duty as a journalist is to present facts, present them as accurately as possible, and place them in the context.
    So long as we have celebrities dotting our newscasts, wall to wall coverage on the Cindy Sheehan’s of the world, and “better reporting through opinion polling”, any argument that mainstream journalism is a serious profession is wasted on me.

  12. The current state of Canadian “journalism” is excessive expression of personal hatred and bias.
    Dare to question one of the journalists and if you get a response at all it will be gratuitous insults.

  15. AFP uses the word “Palestinians” as if there is a country named Palestine, e.g., Canada=Canadians. There is no country named Palestine; ergo, there is no Palestinian nationality. Should they be called: Gazans?
    OTOH, AFP uses the word: “loot”; calling a spade, a spade (cliche, but appropriate). Imagine: Muslims looting in the Gaza; looting by Muslims; Muslims looting. AFP has it right.
    AFP uses “swim”: “swim and loot”. In the Mediterranean? Salt water? Float and loot, perhaps, would be clearer, no?
    Five drowned! No lifeguards? AFP says it was “a tragic twist”. Wasted words. “Five people flocked”: is five a flock?
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1482908/posts
    Palestinians swim and loot on Gaza’s first day of freedom [Hurricane Jihada]
    Posted by Alouette
    On 09/12/2005 9:54:10 AM PDT � 32 replies � 731+ views
    AFP ^ | Sept. 12, 2005
    NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (AFP) – Palestinans celebrated the first day of the “liberation” of Gaza, scavenging through abandoned settlements for booty and taking joyous dips in the once off-limit Mediterranean sea. If idyllic beach scenes paid testament to the Palestinian people’s desire for normalcy, the grim scenes of men looting the settlement rubble revealed the dark side of the Gaza Strip as Israel ended its 38-year occupation. The day also had a tragic twist for five people who flocked to the seaside, drowning in the waters that were for so long forbidden to them. The minute Israeli troops started…

  16. To extend a litte on Kate’s observations of the bending of our news.
    Polls are journalism also, as they have been proven to sway at least some percentage of public opinion.
    When you buy a toaster, it is certified by Underwriter’s Laboratories.
    When you buy into the findings of a poll you are either extremly trusting or you you would buy into horoscope *facts*.
    I look forward to when pollsters always provide proof of a wide cross section sampeling, provide the true context pre-amble and quote the question exactly. How often do you see the exact question asked?
    A professional certification board would add a measure of public trust in polling results too. 73s TG

  17. Fair enough, Kate. I do agree though that a reporter should not be out to change the world, but explore and discover. (Mind you, if it wasn’t for reporters who wanted to change the world, how many would be willing to risk their lives reporting the suppression by truly totalitarian states like China, Cuba or the former USSR.) I also agree with TG that polling is a weak and lazy way of reporting and, even without kicking their addiction to polling, they could do a lot better job of it, using polling as a part of the analysis but not an end unto itself.
    I’ve heard that comment before about “overwhelming” Democratic registration vs Republican registration among journalists, but what is the ratio? and, more important and tellingly, what is the ratio of non-affiliated, i.e. not registered at all, reporters. I never hear tell of that stat (though, being registered doesn’t prevent bias). I don’t doubt for a minute that more print reporters are registered as Democrats than as Republicans. For one, more print journalism is conducted/published out of New York, Washington and LA, so just on demographics that’s not surprising. But I suspect that the vast majority, even if tending to the small “l” liberal side, are non-partisan. I also hardly think there are a lot of Democrat registered reporters among the Texas reporting classes so, a propos of TG’s comment, I wouldn’t mind knowing which papers got canvassed for that poll.
    Think what you will of the Washington Post, I do admire the likes of its Executive Editor, Leonard Downie, Jr. who (if memory of an interview I read serves) declared that as a journalist he had an obligation to not vote at election time. Men and women like that are, unfortunately, a rare breed indeed.
    TB
    Cerberus

  18. In Canada we are not immune. I was amazed at the shlock that was presented in this weekends Globe and Mail in the commentary section. It was moonbat central, all doom and gloom about this is the first concrete proof that the American Empire is crumbling, that it is the Republican policies of Environmental Degradation and lust for oil in the gulf that laid the groundwork for the disaster. Many of the commentaries could be used as exhibits in logic courses to show the major fallacies and flawed logic that can be used. I thought about writing a letter to the editor, but then thought about the fact that these same editors were the ones who decided to print this crap, so what would be the point.

  19. Kate,
    I agree with your thoughts on mainstream journalism. Our good friend and blogger, Monte Solberg, has a good one regarding jounalism and Stephen Harper in the Post today. You might want to check it out.

  20. Right, old squid, but to turn that sloppy reporting around and elevate it to the claim of bias and an example of the “media out to get Harper” you have to ignore the counter-complaints of many Liberals that they too have been badly mis-quoted and conclusions against them were based on such sloppy reporting. (Or, in the case of Chretien, complaints that he was accurately quoted.)
    TB
    Cerberus

  21. Cerberus: Re your 3:28 comment about Texas. When I’m down at Harlingen the locals tell us to stay away from Austin because “they’re a bunch of damn liberals up there”. Even Alberta, that right wing bastion can only garner 60% conservative vote. In other words, 40% liberal,dipper, socialist. That allows for a pile of journalists. Also your admiration for the WaPo editor who does not vote is misplaced. It is one of the responsibilites of the citizens of a democracy to exercise their franchise.

  23. Yes, data does exist, and has for years (as it does for university faculty, which is even more skewed.)
    “Evidence of how hard journalists lean to the left was provided by S. Robert Lichter, then with George Washington University, in his groundbreaking 1980 survey of the media elite. Lichter’s findings were authoritatively confirmed by the American Association of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) in 1988 and 1997 surveys. The most recent ASNE study surveyed 1,037 newspaper reporters found 61 percent identified themselves as/leaning “liberal/Democratic” compared to only 15 percent who identified themselves as/leaning “conservative/Republican.”
    http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/welcome.asp

  24. “Bush also has been criticized for his leadership in the Katrina relief effort. According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday, a majority of those interviewed — 54 percent — said they disapproved of the president’s handling of the crisis.”
    From CNN.com

  25. Thanks. It’s hard to track this stuff down when you are at work.
    Not to make you do my work for me, but has there been a more recent study than 1997? I’d be surprised if the numbers are still the same (though still slanted, there has been such a surge with the increasing polarization in US politics since 2000). Also, is anyone aware of a study that looks at Canada or the US without the binary liberal/Democrat and conservative/Republican? I know a ton of US liberals who dislike the Dems even more than the Repubs. The whole binary split makes even less sense in Canada where you have a purported labour party supported less and less by labour, a Conservative Party increasingly (if you read the blogosphere) less conservative and the Liberals, let alone how such a poll would work in Quebec with separatism an over-riding issue/ideology, but I’d still be interested to know what attempts have been made.
    TB
    Cerberus

  26. “the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history”
    Jack Kelly has never written an honest thing in hs life.

  27. When manpower and aid arrives at the U.S south coast from Canada ,before any U.S. government presence of any kind, blogers nor the Whitehouse have much to brag about…
    Darryl Clarke

  30. What a load of crap.
    “Mind you, if it wasn’t for reporters who wanted to change the world, how many would be willing to risk their lives reporting the suppression by truly totalitarian states like China, Cuba or the former USSR” – virtually none. How many reporters are “reporting” on mugabe, human rights in China, reported on Saddams mass killings, the goings on in North Korea. Happy to report on abu ghuayb and guantanamo though.
    “Bush also has been criticized for his leadership in the Katrina relief effort. From CNN. – gee, a shining example of even handed reporting.
    To call the bias in Canadian and US reporting sloppy reporting is to be completely disingenuous. Is it any wonder that Fox news has grabbed such a share of cable ratings? More than all the other cable news outlets combined. To do so in such a short time must be representative. For too long things have been so out of whack. In Canada, can anyone name one news outlet that has a Conservative bias? All lefty, all the time.

  31. It’s kind of a shame that all these lefties who are so compassionate and caring don’t care enough to face the truth and accurately analyze what went wrong and what went right. It’s pathetic how they use a disaster like this to further their political agenda and then claim to actually care about anyone else’s suffering. To them Katrina is a Godsend, its another opportunity to twist the truth to make Bush look bad.
    If they really cared as much as they claim, they would have the moral and intellectual courage to honestly look at the facts in the hope of preventing another such tragedy.
    Not much chance of that, though.
    I guess the people who needlessly die in the next disaster as a result of the lefty media pushing their political agenda will just be collateral damage in their war against George W.

  32. Darryl Clarke,
    I am thoroughly grateful to the Canadians who came to help, those who wish us well, and those who consider us a friend. In a few communities Canadians were the first responders in a few areas of expertise. They saved a lot of lives and brought comfort to untold thousands of devastated and traumatized people, and I am truly and deeply thankful.
    I do not mean in any way to diminish what these great people have done, but you are simply ignorant about the width and depth of massive destruction wrought from just west of Pensacola, Florida to just east of Texas. Have you ever driven this route on I-10? I haven’t either, cause it’s too damn far to DRIVE.
    The damage in the cities of Mobile, AL, Bilouxi, MS, and New Orleans, LA, is catastrophic. Communities throughout Coastal Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have suffered devastating damage. Roofs are blown off houses as far north as Tennessee. Farmers throughout the Southeast are concerned about being able to salvage a crop. Hundreds of thousands are still displaced and don’t know what their coming home to, if anything.
    Did you engage in such snarky gloating over the tsunami victims? There are examples all over the international press with people like you apologizing for the performance of barely democratic, barely liberal, thoroughly corrupt governments of South East Asia during the aftermath of the tsunami? I’m sure too much scrutiny of the civic and federal devices of Tsuanmi victims would have been obscene (not to mention dangerous).
    I suppose it never would occur to you that the US avoided a tsunami-like event because the American people, in cooperation with their directly elected government, chose to invest in the development of technology. And that now we’re capable of taking pictures of hurricanes from space, and statistically model the data to provide about 48 hours of spotty notice on the “when, where, and how hard” scientific guesses. All so state and local directly elected officials, scientists, and media have the ability to tell us to get the hell out of harms way as soon as possible.
    Please do all humanity a real favor, and focus your amazing crystal balls and microsopes on someone more worthy for a change. Go obsess about someone else’s “system” and gloat over their dead for a change.

  33. Fox was a refreshing change, there were plenty of stories of heroism and the prevailing human spirit which was presented in survivor stories…
    =================================================
    what the hell fox where you watching? you must not have tuned in till at least 5-6 days after landfall…otherwise you woulda seen fox news people sobbing on camera. do you think you can really write crap like this to people from the US who were glued to the tv and computer from the moment we heard NO was being evacuated? do you think we will forget what we saw with our own eyes? what we know about our own country? are you Kanukistani that stupid?

  36. RTR Grindstone Edition

    September 11th has come and gone, Katrina clean up is under way and OIF is still going…………Back to the grindstone Cowboy Blob has a roundup on blogs participating in Project Valor IT a terrific program you should have a…

  37. Perhaps CNN’s Anderson Cooper should head to the Crowsnest Pass to find out “Why these people still do not have power after 45cm of snow? Who is to blame for this tragedy? Why is the Bush Administration not responding fast enough?” Perhaps Sean Penn could organize another photo-op with a ski-doo and shovel

  38. When that “lack of diversity” of thought extends up into the highest levels of editorial control, then when these events strike, there is no balance, because there are so few interested in seeking it.

    Too many journalists get into their profession to “change the world”. That’s a mistake. If you want to change the world, get into politics proper, or into opinion writing. But your first duty as a journalist is to present facts, present them as accurately as possible, and place them in the context.

    The MSM’s pronounced shift to the political left, as well as its general sneering cynicism, have both grown over the past 20 years because the media has become increasingly taken over by journalism school graduates.
    As a j-school graduate myself, I can recall being reminded constantly that my role was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. But I was not to question who the actual afflicted and comfortable were.
    The MSM doesn’t need j-school graduates; it needs people who actually know something about politics, history and economics, and for more specialized reporting, a good education or vocational background in their specialties.
    J-school produces either opinionated ignoramuses who can’t do anything but journalism, or disillusioned graduates who’ll do anything but. I fell into the latter category, thankfully.

  39. Some points lest Canadians feel too superior. When the electricity failed in Ontario in 2003 the federal emergency operations centre in Ottawa (at the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness) was unable to function as it had no independent back-up electricity supply.
    During the 1998 Ice Storm the response by the federal bureaucracy was coordinated by Emergency Preparedness Canada (the predecessor of the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness) through that operations centre; the federal ministers who were taking the political lead for the response were not even aware of what was being done through the operations centre.
    When it was EPC, the organization was an autonomous civilian unit within DND reporting to the Vice Chief of Defence Staff. OCIPEP is now one of many parts of the new Department of Public Security and Emergency Preparedness, and one of the least prominent–sort of like the position of FEMA (in normal times) within the US Department of Homeland Security.
    Mark
    Ottawa

  40. Trust Mark to put Ottawa things together clearly and up to date.
    Thanks Mark, I didn’t know that and that applies to other things you have shed light on in other comments elswhere also. 73s TG

  41. Oh, forgot to say…. Ottawa based Federal emergency Centre.. that’s EMERGENCY CENTRE! had no back-up power? Roll your eyes and say ..Par for the course.. or Is this a National comedy? No it’s a Canadian security disgrace. 73s TG

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