Media Musings, Take 7

The death of Hunter S. Thompson and this week's retirement of Dan Rather have served as a mighty inspiration for The New York Times' Frank Rich. Although we think he has coasted for months on the fumes of anti-Bushisms, his latest column is an extraordinary lament of modern-day journalism.

Rich writes:

"Today you can't tell the phonies without a scorecard. Besides the six 'journalists' we know to have been paid by the administration or its backers, bloggers were on the campaign payrolls of both a Republican office-seeker (South Dakota's Senator John Thune) and a Democrat (Howard Dean) during last year's campaign. This week The Los Angeles Times reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, 'taking a cue from President Bush's administration,' had distributed fake news videos starring a former TV reporter to extol the governor's slant on a legislative proposal. Back in Washington, the Social Security Administration is refusing to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests for information about its use of public relations firms - such as those that funneled taxpayers' money to the likes of Armstrong Williams. Don't expect news organizations dedicated to easy-listening news to get to the bottom of it."

Read the entire piece here.

Speaking of Dr. Thompson, The Smoking Gun slums it this week by posting the police report on his suicide. Yeah, yeah, I read it.

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Kneel before "The Daily Show" and Rob Corddry. For its low-down on the New Journalism, click here (thanks to Media Matters).

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Well, here's an interesting blog: Regret the Error is a compendium of mistakes and subsequent corrections in the nation's newspapers and magazines. Some people are such sticklers.