Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Drew Peterson plays Hardball: "The Press is the Enemy"




In Hardball Chris Matthews writes:

"You may be one of those cocky types who watch some guy getting fried to a crisp on 60 Minutes and wonder why anyone with a brain larger than a moth's would consent to be interviewed."

Later he writes in advice to Pols, "There are only two kinds of media-wise politicians: Those who are born fearing the press, and those who learn to fear it the hard way.

"Matthews also says of the press: 'Their mission is to produce a good story, and in their business it's generally the bad news that makes the best headlines. Failure, misery, disaster — that's what makes the bells go off in a journalist's nervous system: the kind of story where somebody gets hurt.'

"Matthews' key point on the subject of journalists was: 'Like policemen, they're always on duty.' He's right.

Richard Nixon used to say the "Press is the Enemy." I thought of that and how common that scapegoating claim is used by seemingly anyone in trouble.

Former Mayor of Washington D.C. Marion Barry blamed the press for ruining his career after he was filmed smoking crack.

A National Home Builder says the press is to blame for poor home sales:


And now former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson is baming the media for having the public believe he murdered his missing fourth wife, and possibly his late third wife as well. But does the public by the press scapegoating?

Apparently not, according to this tracking done by MediaCurves.com of Peterson's interview with Matt Lauer, which did not post correctly on an earlier blog. While this polling does not pass traditional scientific polling muster, it is interesting in our Time when, You is the "Person of the Year."

This is good video, after my previous Peterson video clip did not work.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The press needs to watch it on scapegoating, but it is good to keep politicians on their toes. Just knowing what a scandal can do is usually enough to keep most politicians in line. Nice thing about blogs is, they can take down a corrupt politician, but they can also slam the press if they're messing up (read: Dan Rather and the fake Bush reprimand).

Mr Wolak said...

Blaming the Press for not doing its job is another matter. With example after example of a complient and 'scripted" press coverage leading into the war in Iraq, Bill Moyers takes are nation's supposed fourth estate to task in "Buying the War." This from the PBS Bill Moyers Journal website:
______________

Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit and delivered a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neo-cons now;" NPR's Bob Edwards said, "The war in Iraq is essentially over;" and Fortune magazine's Jeff Birnbaum said, "It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really was in the broadest context."


How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? "What the conservative media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the President — no questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended skepticism and scrutiny remains an issue of significance that the media has not satisfactorily explored," says Moyers. "How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?"

You can watch the program in its entirety at:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

Anonymous said...

Although the press has given disappearence of Drew Peterson's wife an extraordinary amount of attention, it is not fair to say that the press is the enemy and that they have put the public against him and labeled Mr. Peterson as a murder. The press' job is to report the facts and the feeling of the public and that is what they did in each of the cases. Although, it is fair to say that the news outlets, especially televisised newscasts often pick a side even though they are supposed to be neutral.

Jenny

sry. i forget my password and it won't let me log in!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I normally don't leave comments but I just thought I'd let you know that this blog is great. I write too, but I can't
write as well as you do. Here are some of my writings. If you want to look at them, if not it's ok. anyway, thanks.

Stihl Chainsaws
Husqvarna
Morocco Blogs

Anonymous said...

Hey thanks for all the great information on this blog. I don't have a blog yet but I'm writing for a website right now. I'm just very new to
the blogging and Internet writing thing, but if you want, you can check out some of my articles! Thanks a lot and I hope we can become
blogging buddies sometime when I start a blog.

World of Warcraft Goblin Race
Cutting Down Trees
Plants World

Anonymous said...

I love politicalwarriorwv.blogspot.com! Here I always find a lot of helpful information for myself. Thanks you for your work.
Webmaster of http://loveepicentre.com and http://movieszone.eu
Best regards

Anonymous said...

dating services in phila http://loveepicentre.com dating pool of fish
dating top referrers 2008 [url=http://loveepicentre.com/testimonials/]dating in casper wyoming[/url] canadian dating site plenty of fish
griswold and wagnerware dating by logo [url=http://loveepicentre.com/success_stories/]dating violence and abuse[/url] teen dating sitess [url=http://loveepicentre.com/user/yearningandeager/]yearningandeager[/url] internet dating addiction

jasonbob said...

pandora charms
yeezy
yeezy
curry 7 shoes
nike lebron 15
curry 7 shoes
chrome hearts online store
adidas yeezy
birkin bag
pandora