The Grey Lady - Still the Best of the Best.

Once again, the New York Times has done what great newspapers do: shine the white hot light of publicity on people wanting to remain hidden in the dark.

In a lengthy story appearing in today’s paper, the Times reveals that Wal-Mart executives in Mexico repeatedly paid bribes to public officials in order to smooth the way for new retail stores all over that country. Payoffs went to top officials in the government at all levels and included ordinary salaried civil service workers dealing with bureaucratic issues such as zoning and building permits.

What a surprised, right? But wait! The real story is that Wal-Mart brass in the U.S. got wind of these shenanigans and an internal investigation was opened. The essential facts were verified … that this illegal bribery was rampant – even routine –had been going on for years, and involved Wal-Mart’s very top management in Mexico.

And today, the Times reports that as soon as those facts had been determined beyond question, Wal-Mart’s investigation was very quickly closed … quashed … covered up.
But it looks like the greedy bastards aren’t going to get away with it … thanks to great work by a great newspaper.

Yearning to Unlearn? Watch Fox News.

Rolling Stone has done an outstanding piece on Fox News. Here’s what they say about the people who watch Fox News. It’s probably to most significant quote in the story … and it’s sure as hell the most distressing:

“According to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers. They are 12 percentage points more likely to believe the stimulus package caused job losses, 17 points more likely to believe Muslims want to establish Shariah law in America, 30 points more likely to say that scientists dispute global warming, and 31 points more likely to doubt President Obama’s citizenship.”

Hear the loud whirring noise? It’s Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer and a host of other great and principled reporters of the past … spinning in their graves.

Fox News Disagraces Itself -- AGAIN!

Fox News does not know where Egypt is located.

Fox News has mistakenly placed Egypt where Iraq should be, so we can probably assume that Fox is uncertain as to the location of the country where more than 4,000 American service personnel have died.

Fox News is a joke and a disgrace. Somewhere, Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite are weeping.

.

Unfair and Way, Way Out-of-Balance

Conservatives love to wail about the MSM – their shorthand for “main stream media” – and claim all of the major networks and almost all of the country’s finest newspapers slant their news coverage to push the “liberal agenda.”

Horse pucky!

But if you want a host of examples of a news outlet that shamelessly and deliberately distorts the news to suit their political biases, take an objective look at Fox News.

Just one example: On a recent broadcast, a Fox host claimed Al Gore personally profits from his efforts to promote environmental awareness. To support this accusation, they ran a video clip of Gore’s testimony before Congress in which he acknowledged that money is generated by his activities.

What Fox did NOT show was Gore’s statement, coming just minutes later during that same testimony, that he donates all the money raised from his activities to a non-profit organization that works to develop solutions to climate-change.

Much of today’s media produces superficial and often slip-shod work that is embarrassing to serious journalists.

But Fox News is a disgrace.

How Much Value Do We Put On Information?

There has been more and more talk – including a feature story in a recent issue of TIME magazine – about the plight of newspapers in this country. Almost all are struggling and some of the more venerable ones are either facing the prospect of bankruptcy or are already there.

This has been a topic of conversation for a while around our house because directly and indirectly I’ve been involved with the media for many years and my daughter is a staff writer for The Maui News, our local daily newspaper.

The problem is that more and more people are getting their news from the internet … and they’re getting it for free. So, they ask, why should I pay 50 or 75 cents a day for the print version when I can get all the same stuff and a lot more on line for nothing?

Good question.

The trouble is, someone has to pay for the gathering of all that news, and those costs keep going up along with everything else.

Meanwhile, because of the free internet access to their content, newspapers are losing subscribers and, as a direct result, revenue from advertising is declining.

There’s real irony in all this because the demand for news and information has never been greater … and the internet is the reason for that, too!

An interesting (though probably unrealistic) idea has been floating around media circles: What if every newspaper in the country shut down its on line edition for a solid week? Wow! In my case, that would mean losing access to articles from the New York Times or the Washington Post or the Honolulu Advertiser. And I wouldn’t be getting anything from Google News or Yahoo or even the Drudge Report, because all their news comes from the newspaper web sites.

Do you suppose that would induce enough of us to pay a modest fee for daily access to some of these newspapers?

I’d sure like to think so.

.