tagged w/ Big Media
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Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's founder Jeff Cohen knows about bias in news sourcing firsthand. He weighs in on the latest revelations by the New York Times about the Pentagon's program to groom retired military as analysts for the networks in the selling of the invasion of Iraq.
"Except for the brazenness and scope of the Pentagon spin program, I wasn’t shocked by the recent New York Times report exposing how the Pentagon junketed and coached the retired military brass into being “message-force multipliers” and “surrogates” for Donald Rumsfeld’s lethal propaganda.
The biggest villain here is not Rumsfeld or the Pentagon. It’s the TV networks. In the land of the First Amendment, it was their choice to shut down debate and journalism.
No government agency forced MSNBC to repeatedly feature the hawkish generals unopposed. Or fire Phil Donahue. Or smear weapons expert Scott Ritter. Or blacklist former attorney general Ramsey Clark. It was top NBC/MSNBC execs, not the Feds, who imposed a quota system on the Donahue staff requiring two pro-war guests if we booked one anti-war advocate — affirmative action for hawks.
I’m all for a Congressional investigation into the Pentagon’s Iraq propaganda operation — which included an active-duty general exhorting ex-military-turned-paid-pundits that “the strategic target remains our population.”
But I’m also for keeping the focus and onus on CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, even NPR — who were partners in the Pentagon’s mission of “information dominance.” And for us to see that American TV news remains so corrupt today that it has hardly mentioned the Times story on the Pentagon’s pundits, which was based on 8,000 pages of internal Pentagon documents acquired by a successful Times lawsuit."
It should be noted that PBS has broken the network blackout on the story on it's daily show Newshour with Jim Lehrer.Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's founder Jeff Cohen knows about bias in news... more
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"Modern journalism’s lowest moment," noted one viewer online.
ABC News' April 16th Pennsylvania democratic debate was the most-watched contest to date with 10.7 million TV viewers. But here's what's fascinating: ABC News has received almost 20,000 (!) online comments about their handling of the debate as of Monday, April 21st. Most of them are high quality, coherent arguments, not YouTube scatology, and the vast majority are negative, critiquing Stephanopoulos and Gibson. Will we look back on this as one of the key moments that mainstream media fell apart?
Some choice excerpts:
"The debate was a debacle for ABC news...Charlie and George's National Enquirer version of journalism is even more pathetic...they all assume that the "complainers" are Obama supporters. I, for one, am/was undecided. Aren't journalists suppose to refrain from making assumptions?”
"It was just plain insulting to voters who actually care about life and death issues, such as American troops dying abroad, veterans not receiving adequate care, the state of our planet, and our rapidly deteriorating economy...Everyone involved in staging this farce this should be ashamed. It was a disservice to the voters, the candidates, and frankly, to journalism itself."
"This debate was an utter embarrassment to the ABC news division and will continue to haunt you for many years to come...As a past avid viewer of your news programs, I will be boycotting the entire ABC news division and advise others to boycott them and Disney, as well as the news program's advertisers until substantial change is made to fix this situation."
"After watching that sorry display of a debate you might as well plan on having Charlie Gibson and George Sthephanopolus on Dancing with the Stars.""Modern journalism’s lowest moment," noted one viewer online.
ABC... more
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Chloe
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4 years ago
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The Daily Show's John Oliver put togther a stunning smackdown of Fox News on last night's show, punctuated by some damning clips showing egregious comments from some anchors (John Gibson, natch) and some — gasp! — flip-flopping on certain positions (like, say, executive privilege). Watch as Oliver tries to sneak into Fox HQ dressed as the Statue of Liberty, hosts a pundit shoutfest, and waves many flags.The Daily Show's John Oliver put togther a stunning smackdown of Fox News on last... more
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Chique
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4 years ago
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Jason Linkins - - What if they disclosed a torture memo and nobody cared? This week, an 81-page memo, authored by John C. Yoo, who was a deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice at the time of its creation, was declassified and made public. The memo, which, among other things, was used as the rationale for authorizing the torture of government detainees, has long been held to be a savage reimagining of the structure of the Executive Branch and its authority, hostile to the traditional checks and balances that circumscribe the President's authority. And that's stating the matter diplomatically. A less kind observer might conclude that the memo was a legal abomination which tortures the accepted body of Constitutional law along the way to glibly authorizing a Grand Guignol of authoritarian power that our nation's founders would find abhorrent. With these high stakes as the prologue, you'd have to imagine that the disclosure of the memo would be of pre-eminent importance to the media.
Jason Linkins - - What if they disclosed a torture memo and nobody cared? This week,... more
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Chique
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4 years ago
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This is David Straithairn giving a tremendous performance as Edward R. Murrow in the film Good Night, And Good Luck. Edward R. Murrow was a man of integrity who showed America what true journalism was all about. In this day and age when those lights in a box have mesmerized our society into becoming more distracted by froth than educated and informed, it is crucial to remember men like Edward R. Murrow who challenged us to never lose sight of what this Democracy is all about and where we could take television with the right vision.This is David Straithairn giving a tremendous performance as Edward R. Murrow in the... more
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Montel Williams turned the question around on live television when he chose to focus on the soldiers dying in Iraq rather than the passing of Heath Ledger.
He did not return for a further segment. Montel Williams turned the question around on live television when he chose to focus... more
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What are going to do about the media not even acknowledging John Edwards is a candidate for President? We better get it figured out and do it soon. He needs overwhelming support or their overwhelming blackout is going to work. We can't afford eight more years of what we've had for far too long. We have to have an honest President to rebuild our country.What are going to do about the media not even acknowledging John Edwards is a... more
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Remember this horrifying story?
According to the link below it it hasn't changed.
Where is our outrage?
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FDA and Drug Approval Overview
Vioxx was one of the most widely used prescription drugs in the world and, for many, it may have been a killer. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to guarantee the safety of the medicines we take, but some say it may have disregarded warnings from its own scientists about this looming public health disaster. NOW's BAD MEDICINE explores the drug approval process and talks with FDA whistleblower, Dr. David Graham, who reveals how his FDA managers tried to silence him and quash evidence that indicated Vioxx was unsafe.
Approval Process
The drug approval process overseen by the FDA has been subject to complaints from many sides. In the 1990s it was criticized for being too slow ? keeping potentially life-saving drugs off the market and adding to development costs. The most recent controversies come from another perspective, questioning whether the process is too quick and relies too much on information from the pharmaceutical industry.
Approving prescriptions drugs is the job of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). The process begins when a manufacturer has tested a new drug on animals and concluded three phases of testing on humans. The results from this process forms the basis of a "new drug application" (NDA), which the company submits to the CDER.
The NDA is then reviewed by CDER scientists who evaluate both the efficacy and safety of the drug and its risk/benefit ratio. The CDER reviewers may request more information from the developer and seek additional opinions from outside experts. CDER also checks the label information and investigates the manufacturing plant. The CDER director completes a final review and decides if the drug is ready for market. View an interactive graph of the process from CDER.
Some of the criticism Dr. Graham has leveled at the FDA process relates to what happens after a drug is approved. The FDA is also charged with monitoring drug safety of drugs on the market. The FDA tracks "adverse events" or negative "side effects" of drugs through the Office of Drug Safety, also a part of CDER. An adverse effect is a reaction which "results in death, disability, hospitalization, is life-threatening, causes a congenital anomaly, or requires treatment to prevent permanent damage."
Doctors and other healthcare personnel usually report these occurrences to the drug companies which are in turn required to notify the FDA of any serious incidents within 15 days of the original report. If a drug is new, the company must forward all reports quarterly for three years. After that time, all reports are filed annually. In addition, the FDA maintains a system of voluntary reports called MedWatch. Here, consumers and health care workers can submit reports which are then sent on to staff for evaluation.
In his November 2004 testimony before Congress, Dr. Graham suggested that the FDA is reluctant to admit that there are problems with drugs it has already approved. The FDA responded to Dr. Graham's testimony with a public rebuttal. In December 2004, THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) echoed some of Graham's criticism, publishing a series of papers which question the relationship of drug companies to the approval process. According to THE ECONOMIST, the makers of some of the drugs mentioned by Dr. Graham are feeling a financial effect. AstraZeneca's share price fell by 10%. Shares in GlaxoSmithKline fell by 6%. And as for Merck, the maker of Vioxx, traders have made a $40 billion reduction in the company's value. (Read Dr. Graham's testimony and the JAMA articles.)
Remember this horrifying story?
According to the link below it it hasn't... more
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There is exciting news in American Health care today! http://hddrugworks.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=52
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There is exciting news in American Health care today!... more
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Here we go...the Web allows the first opportuniy in history for writers and creators to end-run the major distributors, and sure enough that's what's happening now with the strike moving into a multi-month drama...Here we go...the Web allows the first opportuniy in history for writers and creators... more
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"It's not the intelligence community's job to "object" to the Iranian program, it's their job to evaluate factual evidence. And the entire declassified portion of the NIE was less than a thousand words long. Nothing got more than a few sentences of emphasis.
You can decide for yourself whether you believe the NIE, but its actual conclusions are straightforward: Iran wants a nuclear bomb; it has the scientific capability to produce a nuclear bomb; it's continuing to enrich uranium; and it might decide to restart its bomb program in the future. But for now, based (apparently) on new intelligence collected earlier this year, the program is halted and there's evidence that international pressure and sanctions might keep it that way."
Quoted from Article
This link will take you to the article on this issue. It appears that the Intelligence Community has addressed all the issues that the experts are saying haven't been addressed.
It seems the war drum beat is persisting and getting louder."It's not the intelligence community's job to "object" to the... more
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jubal
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4 years ago
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In the midst of what should have been a major controversy, BIG MEDIA chose to keep us distracted and uninformed. As if to prove their belief that we are sheep, mindlessly waiting for our next feed, they continue to distract rather than report.
They will only stop if WE stop buying the mental Novocain they continue to supply.
BIG MEDIA continues to fail us.
In the midst of what should have been a major controversy, BIG MEDIA chose to keep... more
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