The Froomkin Effect

[RaulGroom]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/12/14_froomkin.html



As avid WashingtonPost.com readers know, Dan Froomkin has for years been doing the job that Howard Kurtz is allegedly paid to do, thereby embarrassing Kurtz and the reporters for whose pathetic lack of professionalism and competence Kurtz spends most of his "media critic" columns making excuses. Political editor John Harris has finally had enough of Froomkin's shenanigans, and has apparently leaned on website editor Jim Brady (using the laughable rubric that the title of Froomkin's long-running blog is "confusing" to readers) to rein Froomkin in, suggesting ways to chastise Dan by forcing him to change the name of his blog and to "balance" the website by providing a companion blog to serve up reheated conservative talking points alongside Dan's biting and witty analysis.

None of this will stop Dan from continuing to ruin the party, of course, at least in the short term. But the point of all of this isn't to silence Froomkin or even to dilute his ideas; it's to remind him and all the other budding young muckrakers in the D.C. media game just exactly what the rules are.

It's a minor matter, of course, as these things go. After the Post gives Froomkin his slap on the wrist, the sun will still rise over the Chesapeake. But if we step back for just a moment, is it so difficult to see how this ethos of punishing those like Froomkin, who work hard to bring a vibrant and contentious perspective to their reporting, while rewarding stenographers and blathering stuffed shirts like John Harris with plush editorial desks, has created a country in which a president can openly take the country to war on false pretenses and then be reelected by voters who are largely ignorant of this most salient fact? In the name of "objectivity" we are deprived of objective reality, instead fed equal helpings of spin and counterspin.

Can we not see in this institutional sclerosis the roots of a national disorder? Every year we turn on the television to hear publisher after publisher bemoaning the decline in newspaper readership, the erosion of demand for TV news, or the declining market for serious books on public policy.

[KoKo]

1. Thanks for making this point.

I'm so upset over the attack on Froomkin I went over to WaPo to add a comment to Harris in support of Dan last night...and found I couldn't write a word. I'm just so angry that I had to click off.

It was so blatent and "in your face" pulling that stunt with Froomkin that what you say adds the perspective I was missing in my anger.

It was a warning. And, we've seen that since the Libby indictment the all out war on us with Propaganda has ramped up. The amount of entertainment frills interspersed with AP headline news on both cable channels has ramped up. The political "discussion show" with Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley on MSNBC Daytime was cancelled (not that it was excellent journalism}..but it did cover some issues we have a need to know. Chris Matthews seemed to be hitting hard at Bush until it became obvious he was really allowing VanderHei and others to spin for Rove.

It's an all out war to get Bush's poll numbers back up and to cover up the public's "right to know." Payback time for all those Corporate Breaks Bush has given them. Media Dereg., Tax Breaks cover for whatever they want to do. Payback time....

[grasswire]

2. can you post a link to the attack on Froomkin?

I missed it -- was away. I am one of his biggest fans. He's been telling the truth for too long, I guess.

[RaulGroom]

3. Links to most of the relevant writings are here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2005/12/13/publiceye/entry1123368.shtml

[radio4progressives]

4. excellent post - i see it the way you do too.

that's why i posted my rather dour - half pessimistic and half hearted attempt to gather the troops and 'focus like a laser' on the diebold lawsuit and electronic voting issues BEFORE the 2006 election, yesterday. just reading the tea leaves, it just keeps getting worse. and the washington journalists are dangling teasers to keep us in a constant state of high drama but of no consequence.

At progressiveindependents.com people are talking about starting up a new party, abolishing the electoral college system and implementing some form of proportional representation. but i've been in these discussions for too many years and it's getting old... If I remember right, Short mentions Eugene McCarthy with fond terms of endearment and high esteem as to Mccarthy's prescient vision and perceptions light years ahead of the Democratic Party or the Washington press corp.

geese, it's too painful to contemplate further.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Why isn't the WP concerned about Kurtz's wife's job as RNC fund raiser?