OxBlog

Thursday, December 13, 2007

# Posted 3:58 PM by Taylor Owen  

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE JOURNALISM: A classic example from the front page of the WaPo. The story is entitled In Iowa, a Scrambling Lesson for Clinton and here's how it begins:
DES MOINES, Dec. 12 -- When senior advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton awakened to the fact that they faced a serious problem in Iowa, they knew they needed a summit. For the divided staff, the question was where.

It made sense to fly to Iowa, where support for Clinton (N.Y.) was flagging and her aides were scrambling to make up ground. But a key member of her inner circle, Harold Ickes, warned that a crowd of Arlington-based operatives descending on the Plains en masse might set off alarm bells, triggering "campaign in panic mode" stories, according to two people with inside knowledge of the Clinton operation.
A journalists finds out that political operatives are afraid of stories about panic. So what does she do? She writes a story about it. It's amazing how journalists pretend to be observers, rather than participants, in the political process.

On Iowa, I also recommend taking a look at Joe Gandelman's comments on the cocaine issue. Hillary -- the one woman who can bring together Republicans and Obama supporters. As the saying goes, she's a uniter, not a divider.

Posted by David
(2) opinions -- Add your opinion

Comments:
I think the biggest travesty to the American political system is the nature of journalists. At the beginning, before corporate interests dictated news, journalists were crusaders, correcting wrongs they saw in society. I think back to the "How the Other Half Lives" books in the early 20th century by a journalist and the impact it had on our urban landscape since. The people who write now don't even deserve the title.
 
It's funny had David didn't seem Huckabee coming.
 
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