Archives for June 2009

New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped after being kidnapped and held by the Taliban for 7 months. Fearing for Rohde’s safety, the newspaper asked media outlets NOT to report the story. Is there a double standard?

The death of Michael Jackson is big news. Jackson was a worldwide celebrity known for his incredible musical and dancing talents as well as his bizarre personal life. But how big a story is the pop star's death? Did it deserve to displace other news?

Whether you care about Michael Jackson or not, his death is getting about the right amount of attention. He's arguably the most famous man in the world; known for his mesmerizing music and dance skills, his quirky childlike behavior, the host of creepy child molestation charges against him, his deforming facial surgeries,  and more importantly, his international contribution to bridging the gap between cultural and racial differences.

Compare his coverage to that of the death of Tim Russert just over a year ago. NBC went wall to wall with Russert's death for a week and he got plenty of coverage from other media outlets as well. I'm willing to bet Michael Jackson never heard of Tim Russert, not that that's any measure of how fame translates into coverage.

When Elvis Presley died in August of 1977, I was working at a CBS affiliate in Hartford Connecticut. I was horrified that the network led the broadcast with a mundane President Gerald Ford issue. Even then, we knew the untimely death of a pop icon would become one of those "Where were you moments?"

And like the Michael Jackson story pushing Farrah Fawcett and Governor Mark Sanford off the front pages, I remember the local story Elvis displaced: the murder of Cheryl Bedoin and her 8 children. Such is life.

This appropriately skeptical report by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post on the presidential manipulation of yesterday's White House "news conference" raises a question -- how much longer will this be allowed to go on before the DC press corps quits rolling over and barks back en masse?

Milbank describes how White House staffers arranged for a "reporter" from the pro-Obama Huffington Post website to pop a softball question, and notes:

"During the eight years of the Bush administration, liberal outlets such as the Huffington Post often accused the White House of planting questioners in news conferences to ask preplanned questions. But here was Obama fielding a preplanned question asked by a planted questioner -- from the Huffington Post."

Ugh. Tonight's (potential) bag job is an "ABC News Event: Prescription for America" live from the White House, where the president will field questions about health-care reform. I'm sure those question won't be planted, the way the Bushies used to plant them at his phony "town meetings." After all, we now have change in charge.