I don't know about your local newspapers, but mine fully fits the bill.

[urlhttp://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081017light.html][/url]

Although it talks about reps and dems and Obama/McCain, the jist of this article is about truth in journalism - period!.  

I think this should apply not only to all newspaper, local and national, "journalists", but to televsion networks, cable networks, satellite station - everybody who is providing information to the American public.  

If you are a "journalist", you are obligated to tell the truth to the American public.  If you are a format for disemanating information and news to the general public, you are OBLIGATED to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing BUT the truth.

Sadly, there are no more true "journalists" in this country, those who put aside their own personal political leanings, and report to the world the truth, no matter what.

Is it no wonder that the American electorate is so uneducated and so lacking in basic knowledge of how the American govermnent is supposed to work, they get absolutely nothing but the false from every paper, network, etc.

Off soapbox now.

Sandy


s

Unfortunately his words make me think of the old Simon and Garfunkel song "Sound of Silence".  It will fall on deaf ears, either that or on ears with fingers in them to shut out the sound.

Jerry

Sandy,

I'm a journalist. I was educated to believe in 3 truths about my work: make it accurate, make it fair, make it quick. And personally, I follow those principles.

Also, here in Finland, all the journalists have their own guidelines to follow, and the will be punished if they do not. Here are the guidelines:

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Sanna

I know that my newphew and his girlfriend were falsly tried in the media for the death of her baby.  They had protesters outside their home, death threats, bomb threats, had to bury the baby in an unmarked grave, etc. because the people had boughten into what the media was feeding them.  Witholding many facts.  Needless to say when it went to trial and they were found innocent the media had caused many scars in the small community.  I wouldn't have believed it if anyone would have told me that but I wittnessed it with my own ears and eyes knowing the facts of the case and what they chose to release making them look guilty.  Personally I would have sued for defermation of charicter.  But after all that they just wanted to put it behind them.  I do not believe a word the media prints now.  

The failure of "journalists" and "news"papers to be objective is one of the major reasons papers circulations are falling so badly according to several recent polls.  Ad revenues are also down and this has been cited.  I feel for people like Pegg who have nothing to do with this, but get caught up in it anyway, but I can't say I'm sorry to see these papers going down.  I know I will not allow our local gossip sheet in my house any more.  It isn't just political either.  Like Karla said, they print whatever they think will draw buyers, and ruin lives in the process.

Jerry

Quote:

The failure of "journalists" and "news"papers to be objective is one of the major reasons papers circulations are falling so badly according to several recent polls.  Ad revenues are also down and this has been cited.  I feel for people like Pegg who have nothing to do with this, but get caught up in it anyway, but I can't say I'm sorry to see these papers going down.  I know I will not allow our local gossip sheet in my house any more.  It isn't just political either.  Like Karla said, they print whatever they think will draw buyers, and ruin lives in the process.

Jerry, do I have your permission to plagerize you in a letter to the editor of the local rag I subscribe to....just before I cancel my subscription?

I couldn't have worded that any better.

Linda,

I would be honored!


Jerry

The press is in the tank for Obama. Some of it is money. The corporate conglomerates that own the press know what they're doing. Obama is exciting, McCain isn't and doesn't hold the audience, pro or con. Either works for Obama and he sells a lot of erectile dysfunction pills.

The Kennedy-Nixon campaigns were somewhat similar but not to this degree. Nixon was old hat while Kennedy was the exciting candidate and the press was ecstatic when he won. It was great though. The Kennedys were FUN. Turns out that the press was right on that one.

The press always tends to be liberal. They have to be in order to not wind up with Big Brother.....although they rolled over for the incredible lack of competence on WMD. Dangerous stuff.

Charlie

We surely heard a lot about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake that was shipped from Iraq to Canada in August didn't we?  Oh yeah, it didn't exist.  Joe what's his knees said so.

Jerry

pardon my ignorance Jerry, but what is "yellowcake"?

Melissa wrote on Oct 29^th, 2008 at 9:30pm:

pardon my ignorance Jerry, but what is "yellowcake"?

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Mel,

Yellowcake is the processed uranium ore that is then further processed to make either nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons.  It is the stuff Valerie Plame got her husband, Joe Wilson, sent to Niger to find out if Sadaam was trying to purchase.  The head of Niger said he was, but Wilson came back and said Bush was lying about WMDs, and that Sadaam had no nuclear program.  

Sadaam was not able to procure any more from Niger, but what he had in the system was a good beginning for a nuclear program that he already had active.

George Bush has been vilified for almost 8 yrs over this, but kept his mouth shut until the yellowcake could be gotten out of Iraq and away from terrorist threats and attempts to steal it.  Say what you will about his policies, that takes character.  He could have publicized it years ago and defended himself, but chose to take the safe way and protect us from the danger instead.

Jerry

Oh, ok, thank you Jerry for the explanation.


and Jonny, LMAO!

Callico wrote on Oct 29^th, 2008 at 9:50pm:

It is the stuff Valerie Plame got her husband, Joe Wilson, sent to Niger to find out if Sadaam was trying to purchase.

It is not the same stuff.  There was no deal during W's administration.  The yellowcake removed last July from the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center was left over from when the Israelis bombed the site in 1981 and was bombed again during Desert Storm in '91.  It's from before the Gulf War, there is no evidence of any yellowcake unknown after Desert Storm.
 
Bush's sixteen words are still misrepresented and incorrect.

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."


Recheck sources, a dismantling and disposal program has been underway at the site, Iraq budgeted $10 million and started July 1, 2008.


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Kevin, you will ote if you read my post again that I stated that "Sadaam was not able to procure any more from Niger".  I did not imply that he had.  I know all of the material there was older, but he also had an active program going.  Not to the extent he had before the Israeli's bombed him, but still active.  The biggest concern going at the time was that he would distribute some of the material for terror uses.  Nobody thought he would be able to build a fully capable nuclear weapon for his own use.

Jerry

Quote:

Sadaam was not able to procure any more from Niger, but what he had in the system was a good beginning for a nuclear program that he already had active.

Active nuclear program and GWB are about 10 years apart.  


This previous post sort of set the tone for the intermingling of eras:


Quote:

We surely heard a lot about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake that was shipped from Iraq to Canada in August didn't we?  Oh yeah, it didn't exist.

It did exist and was known, well before GWB took office.



Quote:

I know all of the material there was older, but he also had an active program going.

Not without facilities or scientists after 1991.  


I did not understand how when speaking of events prior to 1991 when it was known to exist, you can tie in GWB being "vilified"  his character, his policies, his taking the safe way, and protecting us from danger when asked what yellowcake is.



Quote:

The biggest concern going at the time was that he would distribute some of the material for terror uses.

I don't know how concerned, being known, it sat there prior to and for practically his two full terms until Canada bought it.

 
The radioactivity is intense well before a bomb is exploded and would put terrorists at very great risk assembling and delivering before they dropped from radiation sickness, while of course unlikely to be manufactured anyway.  
 A greater lean for terrorists is the explosive capacity of gasoline or natural gas rather than exhibiting a dud (Korea) or bragging about the number of premature cancer victims over many years.  
 It's a site needing cleaning up.  Locals took the barrels, dumped the stuff in the surrounding area and sold the barrels for $2.00 for washing clothes and other assorted uses, an obvious hazard.

They're being bought back for $3.00.  ::)   :)



The Iraqi participation in this project is very encouraging progress though.  

"Between 1980 and 1982, Iraq procured more than 400 tons of yellowcake from Portugal and Niger which remained in a storage complex close to Tuwaitha. The facility and its yellowcake were monitored and frequently inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the 1991 Gulf War. About 1.8 metric tons of "yellow cake" and 500 tons of unrefined uranium went missing when the Iraqi guards left Tuwaitha unattended during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.  When the facility was first encountered by U.S. Marines, they believed they had stumbled upon an illegal weapons cache; according to nuclear experts, however, they actually wound up breaking the IAEA seals that are "designed to ensure the materials aren't diverted for weapons use or end up in the wrong hands."  The Pentagon dispatched a team to survey the site "after a month of official indecision", finding it heavily looted and said it was impossible to tell whether nuclear materials were missing. This material was later sold by the new Iraqi government to Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp."

Character and George W. Bush do not belong in the same category.  Character is not a president that used forged documents and lies to get us in a war.  Character is not a president who rips apart our Constitution and freedoms.  Spying on our own soldiers, journalists and Red Cross workers is not character.  Our military using depleted uranium ammunition on the Iraqi's; therefore making all of Iraq a radioactive area.  Character is not crossing borders into sovereign nations and killing civilians without even attempting to work with the country's government.  Character is not trying to do whatever possible to go to war with Iran, even though they don't have wmd nor are they creating any nor are their intentions to create any.  Character is  not torture.  I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea; Bush has no character.

If I'm reading between the lines Andre, you think President Bush has no character. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to put words in your mouth.

Well, anyway, it would be unfortunate if explanations for understanding were given regarding history that had been circulated by politically motivated e-mail scams such as this one from August about events from July and fell accidentally on a thread "Truth from "journalists".





Quote:

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. See anything wrong with this picture? We have been hearing from the far-left for more than five years how,Bush lied. Somehow, that slogan loses its credibility now that 550 metric tons of Saddam's yellow cake, used for nuclear weapon enrichment, has been discovered and shipped to Canada for its new use as nuclear energy. It appears that American troops found the 550 metric tons of uranium in 2003 after invading Iraq. They had to sit on this information and the uranium itself, for fear of terrorists attempting to steal it. It was guarded and kept safe by our military in a 23,000-acre site with large sand beams surrounding the site. This is vindication for the Bush administration, having been attacked mercilessly by the liberal media and the far-left pundits on the blogosphere. Now that it is proven that President Bush did not lie about Saddam's nuclear ambitions, one would think the mainstream media would report the story? Once the AP released the story, the mainstream media should have picked it up and broadcast it worldwide. This never happened, due in large part I believe, to the fact that the mainstream media would have to admit they were wrong about Bush's war motives all along. Thankfully, the AP got it right when it said, 'The removal of 550 metric tons of yellow cake, the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. Closing the book on Saddam's nuclear legacy? Did Saddam have a nuclear legacy after all? I thought Bush lied? As it turns out, the people who lied were Joe Wilson and his wife. Valerie Plame engaged in a clear case of nepotism and convinced the CIA to send her husband on a fact finding mission in February 2002, seeking to determine if Saddam Hussein attempted to buy yellow cake from Niger. The CIA and British intelligence believed Saddam contacted Niger for that purpose but needed proof. During his trip to Niger, Wilson actually interviewed the former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki. Mayaki told Wilson that in June of 1999, an Iraqi delegation expressed interest in 'expanding commercial relations' for the purposes of purchasing yellow cake. Wilson chose to overlook Mayaki's remarks and reported to the CIA that there was no evidence of Hussein wanting to purchase yellow cake from Niger. However, with British intelligence insisting the claim was true, President Bush used that same claim in his State of the Union address in January of 2003. Outraged by Bush's insistence that the claim was true, Wilson wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in the summer of 2003 slamming Bush. Wilson did this in spite of the fact that Mayaki said Saddam did try to buy the yellow cake from Niger. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence disagreed with Wilson and supported Mayaki's claim. This meant nothing to Wilson who was opposed to the Iraq war and thus had ulterior motives in covering up the prime minister's statements. It was a simple tactic really. If the far-left and their friends in the media could prove Bush lied about Hussein wanting to purchase yellow cake from Niger, it would undermine President Bush's credibility and give them more cause for asking what other lies he may have told. Yet, the real lie came from Wilson, who interpreted his own meaning from the prime minister's statements and concluded all by himself that the claim of Saddam attempting to purchase yellow cake was 'unequivocally wrong.' Curiously, the CIA sat on this information and did not inform the CIA Director, who sided with Bush on the yellow cake claim. This was made public in a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report in July 2004. Valerie Plame also engaged in her own lie campaign by spreading the notion that the Bush administration outed her as a CIA agent. Never mind that it was Richard Armitage -- no friend of the Bush administration -- who leaked Plame's identity to the press. Never mind that Plame had not been in the field as a CIA agent in some six years. The truth is, due to their opposition to the war, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, the mainstream media and their left-wing friends on the blogosphere engaged in a propaganda campaign to undermine the Bush administration. Now that Saddam's uranium has been made public and is no longer a threat to the world, do you think these aforementioned parties will apologize and admit they were wrong? Don't count on it. The rest of the American people should hear the truth about Saddam's uranium. It is up to you and me to inform them every chance we get. As far as the anti-war crowd is concerned, the next time they say that, Bush lied, we should tell them to, 'Have the yellow cake and eat it too'.

 




Callico wrote on Oct 29^th, 2008 at 9:24pm:

We surely heard a lot about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake that was shipped from Iraq to Canada in August didn't we?  Oh yeah, it didn't exist.  Joe what's his knees said so.

Callico wrote on Oct 29^th, 2008 at 9:50pm:

Mel, Yellowcake is the processed uranium ore that is then further processed to make either nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons.  It is the stuff Valerie Plame got her husband, Joe Wilson, sent to Niger to find out if Sadaam was trying to purchase.  The head of Niger said he was, but Wilson came back and said Bush was lying about WMDs, and that Sadaam had no nuclear program.   Sadaam was not able to procure any more from Niger, but what he had in the system was a good beginning for a nuclear program that he already had active. George Bush has been vilified for almost 8 yrs over this, but kept his mouth shut until the yellowcake could be gotten out of Iraq and away from terrorist threats and attempts to steal it.  Say what you will about his policies, that takes character.  He could have publicized it years ago and defended himself, but chose to take the safe way and protect us from the danger instead.

With the amount of campaign money spent in the media, came the death of truth in journalism.  

Agostino Leyre wrote on Oct 30^th, 2008 at 5:39pm:

With the amount of campaign money spent in the media, came the death of truth in journalism.

.....And the start of the protection racket!

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Agostino Leyre wrote on Oct 30^th, 2008 at 5:39pm:

With the amount of campaign money spent in the media, came the death of truth in journalism.

I told myself that I would avoid political threads here from now on, but I just I have to say that, IMHO:

The number one problem in this country isn't the economy; it isn't illegal immigration or any of the usual suspects. It's the lack of REAL and HONEST reporting - including the classic “telling lies by omission” , i.e. telling only half the story with a slant.

When the people don't get the whole story, how can you blame them for making uninformed decisions.

THAT is the biggest problem of our time.

Respectfully,

Marc

Don't worry; the way the press caved after 9/11 they will be back.

God help us no matter who wins.

Charlie

Charlie wrote on Oct 30^th, 2008 at 7:23pm:

Don't worry; the way the press caved after 9/11 they will be back. God help us no matter who wins. Charlie

I saw it happening way, way before that. which is why I don't think that they will be back.

I have a Daughter who is a big time news producer - the person who actually writes the stories that the talking heads read on-air. I am continually amazed at the things that she tells me regarding the "explicit hints" that come down from the top in terms of what stories to run, what stories to bury and how to slant them. She see's fresh new talent coming in with high ideals of seeking the truth and they quickly learn to tow the line or get fired. She's been at this for years and worked all over the country - not just the small stations when she started - and it's always the same for the network affilliates.

It's become a way of life - it's now the norm. They aren't coming back......

News has become "entertainment" - Walter Cronkite is dead.

Walter Concrete was one of the first.  Look back at his reporting of Tet.

I've had no use for him since his "reporting" of that.

Jerry

Since monster corporations took over news......lots of papers too, we are subject to whatever the owners decide makes tons of money for them. They completely destoryed radio. Art Bell type stuff is all we get. Even our local talk show was dumped for some bland BS syndicated thing.

I remember the Cronkite broadcast. I also knew that we didn't believe him at the time. Cronkite is an unabased liberal. Liberal: Good.

Charlie

The funny part of all this is that the liberals run the TV media but only use it aggressively at election cycles, and in off cycle times complain that their voice isn’t fairly expressed by talk radio. Liberal talk radio is always dumped for lack of listeners. To me this means that the liberals have a lack luster commitment to the expression of their values.

Conservatives on the other hand have a far steadier and constant need to express their values and they stay the course year in and out.

Fairness in the 21st century media is an Orwellian venture at face value.

Roland.

Liberals no longer have control over tv news that doesn't conform to corporate, nor everything you see comedy shows like SNL. Money always trumps liberalism. If not, SNL would have weekly skits on infomercials. I've never seen a skit on the Kevin Trudeau types. TV news is pretty thin. You need to go to outside the beltway news services to find real journalism. Knight-Ritter is one.

I haven't seen it in awhile but The Charlotte Observer was one of the better papers.

Charlie