Media News

From an article in Politico by Joanna Weiss, 8/11/2024

Headline:  “Send Snoop to the Convention: What Political Media Can Learn From the Olympics “

“Let’s face it, political TV is in a rut. Nine years after former President Donald Trump burst on the scene, upending every political convention, his behavior has become familiar, and the countdown to the next election has started to feel stultifying for many voters — especially after months when Americans seemed bored by the most recent iteration of a race between the same two old white guys.

“Now, there’s an opportunity to build on the energy of Vice President Kamala Harris’ entrance in the campaign — and perhaps make the coverage of the next few weeks even livelier and more revelatory than before. ”

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/08/11/celebrities-political-coverage-convention-olympics-00173462

Media pundits know best!  Always believe the pundits!

Article by Jennifer Rubin in her weekly ‘live-chat’ session in the Washington Post on 8/14/24.

Answer to a reader’s question in regard to the recent over-reaction of most media to the stock-market dip:

“‘How does an old guy in Wisconsin, with a modest but very real portfolio, understand the economy better than the would-be “experts” on the East Coast? Why are the pundits and “experts” so quick to shout “doom.” It can’t all be clickbait…or is it?

“The negative news bias and hysteria-to-induce-alarm might get eyeballs and clicks in the short term, but they undermine the credibility of the press. The latter winds up misinforming the voters. It would help if major outlets brought back competent ombudsmen.”

response by another reader:

“Yes, the mainstream media continues to lose credibility and this past weeks’ market reports prove that. No way would there be a collapse, though it was reported as such. The market recovered by the end of the week. Those of us “little guys” out there know this. It’s the media (and the Trumpers) that look for disaster around every corner, looking for that needle in a haystack, and yet they largely overlook Trump’s alarming mental deterioration (Re: his Harris/Brown fantasy helicopter trip).”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/14/jennifer-rubin-live-chat

From the New York Times 8/11/24 by Catie Couric

Headline:  Katie Couric: News Networks Need to Better Reflect America

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/opinion/katie-couric-network-anchors-women.html

Article from Media Matters 8/9/24 by Chloe Simon & Noah Dowe

Headline:  “Right-wing media continue abhorrent racism and xenophobia as they try to push baseless ‘migrant crime’ wave narrative”

“Right-wing media’s fixation with an alleged “migrant crime” wave has continued in 2024, even while violent crime and border crossings decline. In trying to make migrant crime a key election issue . . . ”

Link to article:  https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-media-continue-abhorrent-racism-and-xenophobia-they-try-push-baseless

From an article in The Guardian 2/30/24 By Eric Berger:

Headline: “Deluge of ‘pink slime’ websites threaten to drown out truth with fake news in US election”

Sub-head: “News sites pushing misinformation are proliferating, aiming to look like reliable sources as local newspapers close down”

“Political groups on the right and left are using fake news websites designed to look like reliable sources of information to fill the void left by the demise of local newspapers, raising fears of the impact that they might have during the United States’ bitterly fought 2024 election.

“Some media experts are concerned that the so-called pink slime websites, often funded domestically, could prove at least as harmful to political discourse and voters’ faith in media and democracy as foreign disinformation efforts in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.”

http://web.archive.org/web/20240716221159/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/20/fake-news-websites-us-election

Drought monitor from US.Gov

From The Guardian 6/7/24 by Dharna Noor  – Beware of “advertorials” disguised as “news”.

http://web.archive.org/web/20240610215520/https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/07/united-nations-fossil-fuel-ads-news-tech-media

Headline: “News and tech media mostly quiet after UN chief calls for ban on ads for oil and gas”

For example, “‘Geoffrey Supran, an associate professor and scholar of fossil-fuel industry messaging at the University of Miami, said ‘there is also potentially a concern about the outlet’s editorial staff being exposed to the ads’ claims’. In a 1980s internal public relations assessment, ‘oil giant Mobil indicated that it believed its advertorials in the New York Times had shifted the outlet’s position in its favor,’ he said.

“‘The fossil-fuel industry’s advertising campaigns are state-of-the-art propaganda developed in partnership with public relations experts, executed via media outlets, and based on almost a century of collaborative experience,’ said Supran.”

According to The Nation quoted in The Guardian article, “Many outlets are not only accepting fossil-fuel advertisements, but also have arms that are producing them. Reuters, the New York Times, Bloomberg, Politico, and The Washington Post all count oil majors as clients of their in-house production studios, events businesses and other branded content . . .”