“Media in the Obama Era:Is Journalism Dead” was one of the more interesting panels we had the good fortune to attend. It was a busy day. The last day of CPAC and the only way any one was going to get into any of the Main Events to hear the likes of Coulter or Limbaugh was to stand on long-lines hours before that speaker was scheduled to go on…so… many of us chose what might be thought of as low-profile but THIS panel was well worth the side-trip. Sorry not to have gotten video of this one (like the Al Franken -ACORN Panel).
The panel: John Gizzi -Human Events; John Zeigler-“How Obama Got Elected”;R. Emmet Tyrrell-The American Spectator;Peter Roff-Institute of Liberty and Terry Jeffrey (moderator) of CNS News Service.
John Gizzi talked of the death of our print media over the decades, largely due to the printers unions, but with the flourishing electronic media, time has marched on . The “olden days” when we would enjoy tearing out articles to share with others…it’s a dinosaur…the tactile reading experience has been replaced, but that does not mean journalism is dead by any means….just changing…
Zeigler was a bit heavy-handed promoting his film about Sarah Palin and how the media mistreated her evenso, Zeigler did talk of how we need a FAIR media and we must educate (a common topic at CPAC) and the TRUTH is required to educate….
Tyrrell, with the demeanor of the Senior Statesman , had a slight moment of impatience with Zeigler’s heavy promotion of his film ( a polite scolding possibly) but then moved on to his topic. Tyrrell is known for his meticulous research. He talked of Investigative Journalism , REAL investigative … not lazy journalism that goes for the cheap story. He mentioned Clinton as well as Obama. Clinton was described as an incompetent President and then he said that Obama is so disorganized that we will see within two years we will see what a disastrous President he will be. The Liberal media is breaking up and even though it covers up Obama’s failings and weaknesses now, he will be in very big trouble and there will be no covering that up.
Peter Roff spoke of how the press ignored all of the BHO personal stories that would have exposed him yet dug deeply into the personal lives of McCain and Joe the Plumber. (nothing new) Opinion writing was mentioned then he described Wendy Westside and Larry Liberal who he feels are no longer reading the NY Times. No one, not even these Westside Liberals, wants to read about how THEY are the greedy, white racists (the problem)…over and over…so you stop reading what makes you feel bad… the newspaper.
Wrap up and Q and A: We live in a bubble…all of us…we read our own press . (Right reads Right/Left reads Left)but reporters read each other…they influence each other. Criticism of Talk Radio is that it would sell its own mother for half a rating point…
No solutions here…just EDUCATE. EDUCATE. EDUCATE.
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