Working to Spin Distrust of Media Into Votes

Sunday, October 12, 2003

By Jim Rutenberg

New York Times Writer

"We stand by our story", it seems, will no longer do.

"We are now getting a faceful of rotten journalism -- journalistic pornography, actually -- in which ratings are everything and truth is nothing."

-- John Carroll/L.A. Times Editor

NYT
When The Los Angeles Times published articles just days before the California recall election detailing reports of inappropriate sexual behavior by Arnold Schwarzenegger, its editor steadfastly defended the timing.

"It is a paper's job to disclose anything it knows that bears on a candidate's fitness for office -- before Election Day, not after," the editor, John Carroll, said.

But Republicans on talk radio, the Internet and some cable television talk shows accused the newspaper of shilling for Gov. Gray Davis. And many voters agreed. "This is a Davis ploy -- he's the king of dirty tricks," one Schwarzenegger voter said, adding, "If anything, it made me want to vote for him more."

Mr. Schwarzenegger's election put more than incumbent politicians on notice. It also gave pause to the establishment news media, with implications that go beyond a single governor's race, political and media analysts said. Other candidates running as outsiders -- like Howard Dean and Gen. Wesley K. Clark -- are proving they can overcome potentially damaging coverage by positioning the news media as part of the establishment they are fighting.

They are being helped by two increasingly important factors. More outlets are available on radio, cable and the Web where partisan commentators can make their cases, unfiltered, to ever-larger audiences. And polls show that the public's perception of the mainstream news media is growing more negative.

"The media couldn't stop us because the people are becoming savvy to the media," said Jesse Ventura, the former wrestler who was governor of Minnesota from 1999 to this year, referring to Mr. Schwarzenegger and himself. "They're realizing the media's dishonest."

Mimicking the Schwarzenegger campaign's line that the Los Angeles Times articles about groping were a result of "puke politics" by the Davis campaign, Rush Limbaugh, the radio talk show host, told listeners on Election Day that the newspaper's journalists were "dastardly political assassins who use ink instead of bullets to hit candidates under the cover of objective journalism."

Mr. Carroll said such commentary stoked the anger of the paper's readers, more than 1,000 of whom have canceled subscriptions in response to the articles, according to the newspaper. "False stories about the newspaper were circulated locally, and instead of having the obscure death they deserved, they were picked up by the talk shows," Mr. Carroll said, citing a rumor that an article had been held for two weeks, for effect.
(More: FreePublic.com)
2003 © The New York Times Company.

The above is linked to a FreePublic.com page to alleviate any issues some might have with supplying the Times with ID info and the need to accept their cookies.

Well, anyway, there’s more than just one (1) side to the ever vaunted “truth”..There is also “the rest of the story.” The above, I think, seems to illustrates an interesting example of denial -- on the part of Rutenberg and the Times, and the rest of the print-media in particular. Seems the Vatican and our own President Bush are seeing eye-to-eye on this -- though they likely haven’t noticed it. The media has a strong focus on the bad, a somewhat weaker focus on the good, and completely ignores the middle ground they should be covering. Recently, sites have been flooded with stories regarding the Pope’s failing health, and before that on groping church officials, and recent complaints have been aired from the Catholic quarter about why so much is lacking in the good Pope John Paul and the church has managed to do, and not just on his eventual death and the standing law suites.

Naw, there’s no media’s corruption, and they’re not glossing over the good for the bad. No, all they publish is the straight “truth”.

Right,

Dan