Why, hello Blog Watchers! I haven't forsaken nor forgotten you! I know it's been ages since any activity. But, guess what?! A new VLOG!
Charlie, Danny and I embarked on the Appalachian Trail. Not the whole thing, mind you. Just for a week. In New York State and Connecticut. But, we had loads of fun and it is all documented in the VLOG below. Enjoy!
Get ready for a super exciting piece of interactive journalism. This is a short news piece I made for the newspaper I write for in the Bronx, www.huntspointexpress.com
I went to DC this past weekend with a few Yale friends; Jim Noonan, Joe Cermatori, and Tommy Russell. Tommy drove us all down in his car on Saturday. We arrived in DC that afternoon and did a quick tour of the mall and monuments before getting dinner and then going out for a gay night on the town.
Jim, who moonlights for The Martha Stewart Show, brought along a ton of supplies for us to make signs for the march. They were amazing and the hit of the march. One of them was actually voted #1 sign of the march!
I can't apologize enough for leaving you all hanging without a new post for so long. I got re-inspired by watching Julie & Julia. I saw how much Julie meant to all her readers and I knew I was just as important, if not more so, to all of you! The amount of desperate emails I got from all of you was staggering.
Well, its payback time! A new video blog!!! Can you believe it?!? Enjoy!!!
"A political economic analysis stresses that the reasons for lousy journalism stem not from morally bankrupt or untalented journalists, but from a structure that makes such journalism the rational result of its operations. Hence if we are serious about producing a journalism and political culture suitable to a self-governing society, it is mandatory that there be structural change in the media system. This means explicit and major changes in the public policies that have created and spawned the media status quo." ROBERT W. McCHESNEY
David Barstow, of The New York Times, recently was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for(according to the Pulitzer website) "his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended." The article:
Basically, Barstow shed light on the fact that the major networks; CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC, all utilized these military analysts in their coverage of the Iraq War. None of the networks disclosed the fact that many of these analysts reaped huge monetary benefits from the Iraq War. Most of them also worked for military contractors who directly benefitted from US military contracts. The analyst's access to the administration was vitally important in order to obtain and retain contracts for their companies. Many of these analysts were also paid for their appearances on the networks.
When Barstow's article appeared, the lack of attention from the major networks was appalling. The fact that no network picked up an 11 page cover story in The New York Times is not a coincidence. In fact many of the very same analysts still appear regularly on the news programs with still no disclosure of their ties.
Barstow's article appeared more than a year ago. The controversy of his discovery had died down with the chaos of the election and inauguration of Obama. However, the Pulitzer for his piece was just announced last week. Surely, the networks, a year later, would make mention of Barstow, his piece and his award. Uhm, not so much:
It seems that the networks are trying their best to completely avoid mentioning this report. The networks were able to admit their mistakes in the handling of the 2000 election night coverage. Why can they not admit that there is some sketchy business going on here? They have become a story in themselves. They were complicit in the Bush administration's propaganda machine. I think the McChesney quote from the top of this post sums up the problem well. Is it because the TV media, being controlled by only a few huge corporations, has become too intertwined with big business and the government? Are the networks too embarrassed by their oversights? Did they know of the pentagon's analyst PR program and look the other way? One thing is clear; there must be a better separation between the media and the administration they are reporting on. TV media is so obsessed with ratings and who has the best access that they have forgotten what great journalism is. In Alexandra Pelosi's docu "Journey's With George", we can see what happens when reporters are more interested in better access and a chummy relationship with the people they are reporting on. It is time for a complete realignment of news. There couldn't be a better time then now.
It began as a travel blog when my good friend Celia and I drove cross country in 2007. It then documented a 3 week camping/roadtrip with my two friends Charlie and Tommy. Now the possibilities are endless...
