(The End of) Journalism Thread

DC47 · Post by **DC47** » Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:35 pm

Sweet. I'm an internet pal with someone who rates a parody twitter account. Fame. Next, fortune.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Thu May 28, 2015 10:37 am

Shhh...

Post by **Shirley** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:25 am

I'm curious what your "shhh..." implies. I would argue that Fox got the coverage level about right here. The past actions of a minor character on a third-rate reality show really shouldn't dominate our national discourse.

Granted, I'm sure Fox filled those minutes with equally stupid shit, but still.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:31 am

What would their coverage be if this happened in say, Dan Savage's family?

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:33 am

Or Lamar Odom

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:34 am

Shirley wrote:I'm curious what your "shhh..." implies. I would argue that Fox got the coverage level about right here. The past actions of a minor character on a third-rate reality show really shouldn't dominate our national discourse.

Granted, I'm sure Fox filled those minutes with equally stupid shit, but still.

Really?

Did you miss the part about the Duggers having crossed over into political animals and who they support and are championed by?

Post by **brian** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:34 am

Shirley wrote:I'm curious what your "shhh..." implies. I would argue that Fox got the coverage level about right here. The past actions of a minor character on a third-rate reality show really shouldn't dominate our national discourse.

Granted, I'm sure Fox filled those minutes with equally stupid shit, but still.

Not going to defend CNN too strenuously, but an average of 15 minutes a day over a holiday weekend when there wasn't too much else going on isn't exactly dominating the national discourse. Your overall point is well-taken though. Even that was probably way more than it deserved.

Post by **Shirley** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:40 am

tennbengal wrote:
Shirley wrote:I'm curious what your "shhh..." implies. I would argue that Fox got the coverage level about right here. The past actions of a minor character on a third-rate reality show really shouldn't dominate our national discourse.

Granted, I'm sure Fox filled those minutes with equally stupid shit, but still.
Really?

Did you miss the part about the Duggers having crossed over into political animals and who they support and are championed by?

No, but if that's the level of connection to politics necessary to be part of national news coverage, you're probably talking about tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

Brian's point about it only being about 15 minutes a day is a good one. If that's all it was, that's actually pretty reserved by cable news standards.

Post by **brian** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:44 am

That's how I interpreted that chart. If it was an hour a DAY then that's another story.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu May 28, 2015 11:48 am

Shirley wrote:
tennbengal wrote:
Shirley wrote:I'm curious what your "shhh..." implies. I would argue that Fox got the coverage level about right here. The past actions of a minor character on a third-rate reality show really shouldn't dominate our national discourse.

Granted, I'm sure Fox filled those minutes with equally stupid shit, but still.
Really?

Did you miss the part about the Duggers having crossed over into political animals and who they support and are championed by?
No, but if that's the level of connection to politics necessary to be part of national news coverage, you're probably talking about tens or hundreds of thousands of people.

Brian's point about it only being about 15 minutes a day is a good one. If that's all it was, that's actually pretty reserved by cable news standards.

I guess when a family champions itself as the paragon of family values and is endorsing candidates like Huckabee and is the standard bearer for the religious right on a lot of issues, their hiding up molestation within their weird family unit might warrant more coverage than Fox is all of a sudden interested in giving it.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Thu May 28, 2015 12:14 pm

Alright fellas...gather around. Dave and Brian, you guys sit right up in front.

This country is in the middle of an enormous civil rights debate. Soon the Supreme Court is going to decide whether we should continue to view homosexuals as second class citizens or provide them with all of the marriage rights that everyone else has including the fucking name. Josh Duggar is (was) the executive director of the biggest organization that lobbies against homosexual marriage. It's an organization that leads people to believe that having their right to oppress certain people taken from them is in fact, oppression in and of itself. One of this organization's key arguments is that gay families are unhealthy and will result in fucked up kids with issues such as molestation and incest and even bestiality. They argue that the cure for this is more Jesus. That we need an army of Christians to combat these people who have the audacity to want to be treated equally. Who represents this ideal more than the Duggars?

Oh by the way, there's nothing fringe about it. Every single current GOP candidate supports this organization and others like it. Why does that matter? Well if Howard is right and 2016 is their year, the person who wins the presidency in 2016 will likely be appointing FOUR new supreme court justices. What sane person thinks to themselves, "Ya know what we need? FOUR more Scalias!

So I submit to you that this is in fact a huge story.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Thu May 28, 2015 12:56 pm

If the Duggars weren't so active in politics, specifically suppressing gay rights because the Bible and fear tactics based on complete lies and mischaracterizations. One example is Mother Duggar's robocall using fear tactics about transgendered sexual predators changing from men to women in order to sexually assault your daughters in a bathroom. The ordinance would have prevented businesses from discriminating based on: race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, familial status, marital status, socioeconomic background, religion, sexual orientation, disability and veteran status. How many transgendered women in Fayetteville Arkansas with a history of sexually abusing girls would this ordinance provide an opportunity to prey on girls in public bathrooms? I'm going to venture a guess that this number is less than the number of girls Josh sexually assaulted.

And Josh makes frequent public appearances arguing that honosexuals are a threat to society, are seeking to recruit children into their "lifestyle" of moral depravity and all that other shit. If you are going to go out and make yourself a public persona whipping up support for denying rights to others because you think they are a sexual threat to society, you deserve to get called out for hiding your history of sexually abusing children. Ordinarily I would agree that the news shouldn't give a minute of time to a reality star, but these people made themselves into public political figures based on sexual morality, so they deserve to get publicly humiliated. I do feel bad for his victims having this dragged through the mud. Then again, they are so cut off from society and reality, at least his sisters, they may not even realize this is in the news. Oh, and how could I forget their preaching of no kissing until marriage, no hand holding until being engaged and chaperones required at all times when a courting couple is together, even the day before their wedding, because they are morally superior. Hell, they aren't even allowed to hug; side hug only. This sets off my frustration with the push for "abstinence only" sex education. Because high school kids only have sex when they are taught how to engage in safe sex.

Post by **Shirley** » Thu May 28, 2015 1:09 pm

I'm in no way defending any of these people or their beliefs. I'm just saying that the Duggars themselves are a relatively small part of one particular branch of the crazy Christians. There are many hundreds or thousands just like them - even if you only count the actual elected officials.

In my opinion the majority of these extreme right-wing Christian types are hypocrites covering up for some sort of crazy behavior that they feel guilty about. So while I enjoy the schadenfreude every time one is uncovered, I just don't think this one was particularly special. It is only getting that treatment NOT because this dude had some sort of role in one of zillions of groups, but because these mouth-breathers have a reality TV show.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Thu May 28, 2015 1:23 pm

Shirley wrote:I'm in no way defending any of these people or their beliefs.

I didn't think for a second that you're defending them. If my rhetoric somehow implied that, I apologize. You're like the last person that would defend them.

Post by **brian** » Thu May 28, 2015 1:35 pm

Yeah, I echo Dave here. If it was some other batshit crazy asshole with a right-wing hate group like the Duggars (but again, NOT them) it wouldn't even move the needle on the national news. The bigger issue is why these people have any traction with the mainstream wing of the GOP given that something like 60 percent of the US now supports gay marriage.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Thu May 28, 2015 2:02 pm

Can't.

tennbengal · Post by **tennbengal** » Thu May 28, 2015 2:07 pm

Jerloma wrote:Can't.

Nice work on the post above - I completely get where you are coming from and why this is a huge deal.

Post by **brian** » Thu May 28, 2015 2:12 pm

Guys, I get it. It should be a big deal, but the "liberal media" can't be seen as tearing down these loony, batshit crazy evangelical groups. The media is fucked up. They'd rather report on some tart's fucking bra cup size. What do you want me to say?

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Thu May 28, 2015 2:45 pm

That's what I wanted you to say. Exactly like that but with maybe a couple more eff bombs.

The Sybian · Post by **The Sybian** » Thu May 28, 2015 2:55 pm

brian wrote:Guys, I get it. It should be a big deal, but the "liberal media" can't be seen as tearing down these loony, batshit crazy evangelical groups. The media is fucked up. They'd rather report on some tart's fucking bra cup size. What do you want me to say?

I totally get your point. I am as pissed as anybody about the TMZification of the media. Well, maybe not as pissed as one specific person, but close to it. The Family Research Council is a big enough organization that it would be news if their Executive Director admitted to molesting kids even if the Exec Director was not a Reality TV personality for however many years. The FRC has been in the news and vocally spewing their garbage for a long time. Wiki says the organization was formed in 1983 as a wing of James Dobson's Focus on the Family. Both of these groups wield an enormous amount of influence and are able to drive the media into blowing up issues and they have the ear of the GOP. Looking at Forbes' list of largest charities, they have a revenue of $139 Million. They make huge donations to the most extreme religious nutjobs in office.

OTOH, this story would not have gained nearly the attention it has from blogs, Facebook users etc... if the Exec Director wasn't a reality star who grew up on TV. It also wouldn't be a big story if they didn't hold themselves out as a beacon of morality while demonizing and working to deny rights to others because of their sexual proclivities.

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Thu May 28, 2015 4:09 pm

As referenced in the Facebook thread, and via Jerloma's pictures, the fact that a Republican candidate for president issued a statement about said person says plenty about the significance of the discourse.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:28 pm

I thought about posting this in the Science! thread. Or, perhaps the MLB thread. But, I settled on this one.

h/t SB Nation

Bensell · Post by **Bensell** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:09 pm

sancarlos wrote:I thought about posting this in the Science! thread. Or, perhaps the MLB thread. But, I settled on this one.

h/t SB Nation

That made laugh more than anything I've seen in weeks. Do they even have an editor at that paper because that is just fucking dumb

Brontoburglar · Post by **Brontoburglar** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 7:55 pm

I wish I knew what paper that was

rass · Post by **rass** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:11 pm

East Oregonian

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:17 pm

Amazing how many people "accidentally" make that mistake so often.

Jerloma · Post by **Jerloma** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:43 pm

Oh man. That's fantastic. Auto-correct?

mister d · Post by **mister d** » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:47 pm

Phillies Randy Ready to Pirates Andy Van Slyke regarding Phillies switch-pitcher Greg Harris "he's amphibious", Van Slyke responds: "What does that mean, he can pitch underwater?"

Craig Carton this morning did the same skit. Kardashian level "ha ha ha look at my dumb thing I did by total accident whoops".

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 5:44 am

Hope the cops are better informed...

howard · Post by **howard** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:48 pm

CNN reports that an ISIS flag was displayed at Pride Parade in London.

Flag was not Arabic language, but line drawings of dildos. CNN is a fucking joke.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/embed/5y6qTLf0AI4[/media]

Pruitt · Post by **Pruitt** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 8:11 am

That is straight out of "South Park."

Johnny Carwash · Post by **Johnny Carwash** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 2:29 pm

Not that it was really "journalism," but Kissing Suzy Kolber's editor is stepping down, possibly spelling the end of the site.

This site has a long history of riffing on news, culture, politics and just about any issue where satire works, which is basically most issues. Bowing to fears of offending advertisers or losing access felt like a betrayal to what KSK stood for. We’ve criticized other writers and sites for that very behavior. Condoning it would be incredible hypocrisy on my part. Make a gag about ethics in football humor if you want; KSK didn’t get this far by compromising that initial mission.

e: rass covered this in the Link Dump thread.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:11 am

Chicago Tribune editorial...wishing for a Hurricane Katrina...

Sorry...can't link directly to the editorial itself....but this is beyond tone-deaf...

I find myself wishing for a storm in Chicago — an unpredictable, haughty, devastating swirl of fury. A dramatic levee break. Geysers bursting through manhole covers. A sleeping city, forced onto the rooftops.
That's what it took to hit the reset button in New Orleans. Chaos. Tragedy. Heartbreak.

Wait..there's more...

That's why I find myself praying for a real storm. It's why I can relate, metaphorically, to the residents of New Orleans climbing onto their rooftops and begging for help and waving their arms and lurching toward rescue helicopters.

Post by **brian** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:13 am

Not only is it appalling, it basically is just ripping off Travis Bickle.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:46 am

brian wrote:Not only is it appalling, it basically is just ripping off Travis Bickle.

Great reference to a great movie.

howard · Post by **howard** » Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:36 am

Paul Schrader wrote:Someday a real rain will come, and wash all the scum off the streets.

She would've done better with a Noah metaphor

rass · Post by **rass** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:19 pm

P.D.X. · Post by **P.D.X.** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:49 am

Rupert Murdoch now owns a controlling stake of National Geographic.

sancarlos · Post by **sancarlos** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:15 pm

P.D.X. wrote:Rupert Murdoch now owns a controlling stake of National Geographic.

DaveInSeattle · Post by **DaveInSeattle** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 4:55 pm

Lupica out...

The bloodbath has begun at the Daily News.
Long-time columnist Mike Lupica is among those who are heading out the door, as owner Mort Zuckerman desperately swings his cost-cutting ax, The Post has learned.
Lupica, one of the highest-paid editorial employees on the staff of the troubled tabloid, was personally recruited in the mid-1990s by the 78-year-old owner after New York Newsday was shut down and the sports columnist was out of a job for a day.
Lupica balked at a low-ball contract offer lobbed at him by Zuckerman, according to sources, and is expected to depart when his current deal expires this year.
His impending exit is a strong indication that even decades-long friends of Zuckerman cannot survive the relentless cost-cutting amid swelling losses.

Mike Lupica is definitely one of the most annoying people in the sports media world...