Nov 14th article, by CNN.
"Tonight on CNN: ...... nothing. We have nothing to report. This entire network has no idea what's happening anywhere around the world. We don't even know who our own reporters are. In fact, for the last six months, we've just shown tapes of random New Yorkers acting like journalists and 'reporting' something that sounds remotely like it could be a story.
And, on Larry King Live: Live coverage of CNN's reenactment of Howard Dean's fall from grace. We also have a scientist explain why that fall from grace appeared to triple the force of gravity. Yes, for the first time in years, one of our stories has some gravity. Even though real journalists prefer the other definition of gravity, this minor error is well within our standards."
I believe I’ve already debunked the article. In short: Big Media complains that blogs published the early exit polls. The media is doing this to draw attention away from their own horrendous coverage, and blame their new competitors (bloggers) for the network’s failures. However, the mainstream media didn’t clearly announce the exit poll numbers (they danced around them, which actually ticks off the viewers who want actual data and facts) because they didn’t want to repeat the Florida 2000 fiasco. If not for the fear of Florida 2000 Version2.0, the media would be singing the numbers. Fox, the first network to call Florida or Ohio, didn’t even call the states until Bush’s lead was far greater than the number of uncounted ballots.
I should note that the networks called Pennsylvania within a few minutes, even though it was quite obvious that only some of the Philadelphia votes were counted at the time (it was 85% Kerry, 15% Bush. Obviously, that violates the “swing state” status of Pennsylvania). Kerry’s victory in Philadelphia was closer than Bush’s in Florida or Ohio, I believe.
Let me quote CNN, then rip them apart in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Kahn:
Ana Marie Cox and others who maintain "blogs" were criticized after the November 2 presidential election for posting exit polls throughout the day -- a practice frowned upon in the mainstream media because the data could sway the outcome.
No one criticized the blogs, except the mainstream media. That’s like me stating “there are reports that CNN was overrun by retarded monkeys two years ago, and the monkeys have controlled the network ever since”, when those ‘reports’ are an earlier post by me stating “CNN’s been controlled by monkeys for two years”. The original post would be an obvious lie. However, the post describing the ‘reports’ from that obviously-BS article would be true – there are reports that retarded monkeys control CNN.
Networks have used methods like this for years to manufacture a story when there wasn’t anything worth reporting in the first place.
Now, the media doesn’t frown upon releasing election data. Networks called Florida for Gore when Florida had several hours of voting left. They didn’t say “there is data leading us to believe that Gore won Florida”, they said “Gore won Florida” outright. They even called New Jersey and New Hampshire for Kerry before any votes were counted in those semi-swing states. CNN actually states that the media does not try to “sway the outcome” of the election. The 2000 report that Bush had been arrested for drunk driving was certainly an attempt to sway that election outcome. Need I mention the entire CBS-MTV-Viacom conglomerate that was forging memos and trying to convince people that Bush would reinstate the draft? MTV’s Rock The Vote (which has hired former Clinton and Gore staff members, I believe) actually sent fake draft notices to people in swing states, hoping to scare them into voting for Kerry. How about ABC’s Mark Halperin, who claimed that the media should ignore Kerry’s numerous lies (‘because they aren’t critical to his campaign’, which is complete BS, they were the foundation of his campaign for months, and were important right up to election day) to go after Bush whenever possible? CBS stopped doing actual interviews with anti-Bush authors at least a year ago, and they turned the reports into Bush-bashing festivals – where both the author and the journalist would take turns insulting the president. The only non-cable network that didn’t try to commit suicide in this election was NBC. And, guess what; NBC had the highest ratings on election night. ABC came in a somewhat-close second, and CBS was nowhere to be found.
Want to know why blogs have become so popular? It’s because the major media has memorized the DNA sequence of Scott Peterson, and everything else slightly related to him. NO ONE CARES about Peterson, Mark hacking, Michael Jackson, or Mike Tyson. And, the only people who care about Kobe Bryant are the ones who have him on a fantasy basketball team. You all ignored monumentous elections in Afghanistan to investigate the artificial flavoring of Scott Peterson’s dinner on the Sunday before he killed his wife. Peterson won’t get the death penalty for any crime-related reasons, he’ll get the death penalty because everyone on earth would rather kill him than see another useless “wife-killer update: Peterson wears olive-colored socks, and ties his left shoe before his right”. Peterson’s been convicted, it’s about time we give him the electric chair! Strap him into Ol’ Sparky and flip the switch!
AND, WE DON’T CARE ABOUT SOME STUPID BOAT WITH SIX PEOPLE THAT MANAGED TO FLIP OVER, EITHER! If the only weekend story you can find is a boat off the coast of Oregon or New York that managed to flip over, and some passengers didn’t wear life jackets, then you should try to hire a journalist and buy a computer with a 56k internet connection. You’re getting clobbered because the internet provides much better news than you; there’s a lesson to be learned from that. It’s not hard to find ‘fresh’ stories on Sudan, because you never mention Sudan, so any story is still fresh!
You claim it’s unethical to interfere with the election on Election Day, but you do nothing except interfere in the Scott Peterson and Kobe Bryant cases. What’s next? Are you going to interview O.J. Simpson and ask, “If you were Scott Peterson, how would you kill the wife?” Actually, they’d probably have OJ on with Mark Hacking, as they are both wife-stabbers.
CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, fnCNN, CNN Headline News, and CNBC; start acting like decent journalists! From this point on, the internet will whack you over the head for every error you make. It’s not hard for billion-dollar networks to beat a few college kids with a Dell and DSL internet connection. Simply start finding good sources and resources, have journalists and analysts who know what they are doing, fire the Jason Blair-esque morons who write pure fiction, stop paying talking heads 50 million per year, cut your advertising budget because advertisements do nothing when everyone knows you suck, and – finally – show some backbone. You are afraid to call states for Bush when it’s obvious Bush will win, you won’t mention that Arafat was the founding father of modern terrorism, and you clearly are afraid of everything around you. The only people you attack are Bush and his administration! For the first time in years, don’t focus on ratings, start actually reporting the
news!