Fred Slocombe: olbermann

The printing press was invented around 1440. I'm just throwing it out there as my interpretation of the birth of the Fourth Estate, but it's debatable. The moniker was said to have been used first in 1787.

When Salon reported the suspension of CNN Reporter Elise Labott for a Tweet. I was inspired to create this post. It seems more frequently that Mainstream Media pulls more dirt over itself. They've become terrified sycophants to the rich and powerful.

CNN apparently has fallen out of favor of the Republican candidates, especially the Trump campaign. At a rally Noah Gray was threatened when he almost strayed off the reservation to cover a protester. The mantle of retribution for the mistreatment of reporters is the virility of the Internet.

In a 2011 Rolling Stone interview, Keith Olbermann describes the self-destructive nature of Corporate Media:

They form together in a massive id and they do whatever they want. In a corporate setting, there's nothing to stop Rupert Murdoch or Disney from doing whatever the hell they want with the news.

The Daily Kos brought up Keith Olbermann in a post titled "Is Comcast Quietly Suffocating MSNBC" January 15th of 2015, Just a few short months later, Ed Schultz was fired, Schultz changed his mind about the Keystone XL Pipeline in March of 2014

With the bulk of mainstream media owned by multinational corporations that spend millions if not billions of dollars on politicians, mainstream journalists find them selves in the middle, being crushed into submission, forced into fawning flattery and asking only softball questions to preserve their careers.

Politicians can now treat reporters badly with impunity. Sally Kohn at the Daily Beast asked "Rope-Ghazi: What Difference Does It Make?" If the reporters can be certain of their future income by crowd-funding their own podcasts and blogs, they might start raising the stakes with their questions.

Being fired from the mainstream media will actually give you more street cred.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tonight

It's after midnight. My shift doesn't start until 2pm, but I have to do laundry in the morning. I'm tired but I can't sleep. After watching Keith Olbermann's Countdown, who is right now speaking to Tom Friedman who wrote "The World Is flat" and "Hot Flat and Crowded," Friedman was just earlier talking to Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. What's up with that? He's talking about Barack Obama.

Friedman has a slightly conservative bend so the media producers may think he will appeal to conservatives, an audience they lost over the last few years. But alas, the audiences are not to return so quickly to cable news, as the Internet is a much more appealing lure with all of its choices.

After this I'm going to bed, but I'll be listening to the BBC World Service on WUIS FM 91.9. BBC is on until 4am, then NPR's Morning Edition starts. I listened last night but I can't recall most of it. The sound keeps at bay the thoughts that evoke negative emotions. Waiting in the far corner like a bad smell, the "should have," "would have," and "could have" wait for the silent darkness.

Good night.