Article

2009-07-25 Fifth Column

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Frank G 2009-07-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11130 views ] Top

#1 Well, these useful idiots will end up with less influence than the other useful idiots.

Posted by gorb 2009-07-25 01:41|| 2009-07-25 01:41|| Front Page Top

#2 They are going the way of the RIAA in subcontracting both discovery and threatening email approach. However, wits are already innovating ways to screw up their game.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-07-25 10:42|| 2009-07-25 10:42|| Front Page Top

#3 One type of suicide serves the purpose about as well as another. Maybe if they hurry they can catch up with NYT on the road to oblivion.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-07-25 14:16|| 2009-07-25 14:16|| Front Page Top

#4 with stupid snark as I do

Bullshit, Frank. You write better and smarter than the AP (not that that's saying much.) Not half bad for an engineer.

Posted by Matt 2009-07-25 15:55|| 2009-07-25 15:55|| Front Page Top

#5 Not half bad for an engineer.

considering how bad so many write, that's a backhanded compliment, but thanks :-)

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2009-07-25 16:10|| 2009-07-25 16:10|| Front Page Top

#6 Hurray! This apparent suicide is heaven's gift to advocates of a genuinely free press as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

AP, along with Reuters and a few now extinct dinosaur wire servies, created the myth that the media are, or even should be, unbiased. The idea of an unbiased press would have seemed quite alien to the Founding Fathers. Every rag proudly blared its agenda right from the masthead. Only with the wire services, feeding the same news to a number of different outlets, did the pretense of neutrality become important. Since this is impossible by its very nature, the wire services had to keep their biases subtle. Eventually, as the primary sources, they came to set the agenda themselves for lazy subscribers. The superficial pretense of neutrality is also effective cover for the contrarianism and nihilism that characterize the internal culture of the media-industrial complex: Their affinity for terrorists and criminals can be effectively disguised as "presenting the other side" and the "other point of view" without the messy consequences of admitting that this is, in fact, their own point of view.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2009-07-25 17:31|| 2009-07-25 17:31|| Front Page Top

#7 So we can't use AP propaganda anymore?
Geez, there goes half our stuff...

Posted by tu3031 2009-07-25 22:13|| 2009-07-25 22:13|| Front Page Top

23:32 Redneck Jim
23:13 Redneck Jim
23:08 bman
23:07 Rambler in Virginia
22:18 Cornsilk Blondie
22:16 Cornsilk Blondie
22:13 tu3031
21:54 abu do you love
21:49 tipper
20:59 Nimble Spemble
20:43 Frank G
20:43 lotp
20:41 CrazyFool
20:40 lotp
20:35 Frank G
20:28 rammer
20:07 ed
20:06 ed
19:58 rjschwarz
19:58 Frank G
19:45 Mizzou Mafia
19:39 CrazyFool
19:16 Chemist
19:16 NoMoreBS