Investigative Journalism is Dead in the Fringe Media

Good investigative journalism is dead in the mainstream media. Journalism schools in our colleges and universities do not teach good investigative journalism anymore. All they do is to indoctrinate journalism students to write in a way that only supports liberal causes. The mainstream media (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and other such sorry excuses for the media/press) do not report the news. All they report is falsehoods, propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation for the Obama administration.

If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.~ Mark Twain, American author & humorist

Dan Frisa (2003), who represented New York in the United States Congress and served four terms in the New York State Assembly, wrote that the mainstream media have once again glaringly shown themselves to be void of any sanity and rationality – not to mention impartiality (hah!)—that they have crossed an important threshold from which they will never recover. Despite their boldest efforts to chastise, castigate, and undermine the commander-in-chief and the United States military, the American public shut them off, tuned them out, and demonstrated the refreshing reality that individual citizens have reclaimed the ability to form their own conclusions in spite of such a direct onslaught to the contrary. Their lies, mischaracterizations, and misquotes didn’t cut it because the American people could sense the truth for themselves.

Frisa (2003) went further to state that their attempts to sow dissention within the administration fell flat because the American people saw through their transparent, feeble tales. The lame-stream media (LSM), with their short attention spans and inflated sense of importance, seem, in retrospect, to have already forgotten September 11 and the 3,000 innocent souls ripped from us on that fateful day. The lame flotsam and jetsam of the media flow not in the main of the stream of the American public; they now float aimlessly in the stagnant, still and decaying waters of waste, sinking ever downward, at their own hand, not unlike the last remnants of the dying, wicked regime their words had inexplicably attempted to protect and prolong.  We can understand why the lame-stream media has been drastically losing viewers, listeners, and readers over the past decade.

Only Fox News, conservative talk radio, conservative newspapers and magazines, and conservative websites such as GOPUSA and NewsMax produce good journalistic information. Glenn Beck and his superb research staff provide the greatest news such as the exposure of the commies, Marxists, and other extremist radicals in the Obama administration. Glen calls the lame-stream media the “fringe media” because they are on the fringes of the neo-mainstream media comprised of Fox News, conservative talk radio, conservative newspapers, and conservative Internet websites (Newsmax and GOPUSA, to name a couple). Ellen (ashamed of her last name; 2009) posted in News Hounds (an extreme left-wing blog) on September 19, 2009, that Glenn Beck declared that what he used to call “the mainstream media” is now, in his opinion, “the fringe media.”  Therefore, the mainstream media now has equivalent nicknames as “elite media,” “lame-stream media,” and now the “fringe media.”

‘Media’ is the plural for ‘mediocre.’ ~ Rene Saguisag, New York Times, 22 Jan 87

The Pulitzer Prize Committee should award a Pulitzer Prize to James O’Leery and Hannah Giles for their outstanding journalistic investigation and reporting in exposing the criminal dealings of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). They should be hired by one of the leading conservative media/press. Besides Matt Drudge and his research staff, these two young people have done more good investigative journalism than all lame-stream or fringe media combined. ACORN and its voter registration fraud is what got Obama elected president.

Conservative investigative teams are knocking on the White House door where the nexus of all of these problems reside. The democrats and liberals are getting nervous because the house of cards is about to collapse and crumble. Then, instead of taking Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers to court, impeachment may be in order.

Fox News Has Filled the Gap. As a former producer for CBS News, famous in its glory days for journalists like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, Marcia Segelstein (2009), wrote an article in OneNewsNow.com. She was particularly interested in a newly released poll by Sacred Heart University (SHU). Segelstein (2009) related that the SHU Polling Institute recently conducted its third survey on “Trust and Satisfaction with the National News Media.” It’s a national poll intended to answer the question of whether Americans trust the news media. Briefly, the answer is a resounding “No!” The results are stunning, and don’t bode well for the future of the mainstream media, including my former employer. However, they point to the perceptiveness of the American public.

Segelstein (2009) further wrote that pollsters asked which television news organizations people turned to most frequently. CBS News didn’t even make the top five! Who did? Fox News was first by a wide margin of 28.4 percent. CNN was second, chosen by 14.9 percent. NBC News, ABC News, and “local news” followed, while CBS News lagged way behind with only 7.4 percent. On the question of media bias, a whopping 83.6 percent agree that national news media organizations are “very or somewhat biased.” In addition, the American public seems to recognize that the bias specifically reflects in coverage of President Obama. Of those polled, almost 90 percent say that the national media played a “very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama.” Of those polled, close to 70 percent believe that the news media “are intent on promoting the Obama presidency.”

Segelstein (2009) asked the question: Which media outlet is most trusted to be accurate today? Again, Fox News took first place with a healthy margin of 30 percent. CNN followed with 19.5 percent, NBC News with 7.5 percent, and ABC News with 7.5 percent. It’s clear that Fox News fills a niche. It was viewed as “mostly or somewhat conservative” by a 4-to-1 margin. Nonetheless, it’s also the most watched and most trusted. That’s especially impressive considering that it’s still the new kid on the block when it comes to television news, having started in 1996.

Segelstein (2009) further wrote that the mainstream media see themselves as somehow above bias, as holier-than-Fox standard-bearers of truth. Only 24.3 percent of the SHU respondents say they believe “all or most news media reporting.” They also overwhelmingly (86.6 percent) believe “that the news media have their own political and public policy positions and attempt to influence public opinion.” The SHU poll shows that people perceive Fox News as being conservative. It also shows that by a 3-to-1 margin, the public perceive CNN as liberal. Fox News is the most watched among those polled, beating out CNN by a margin of almost 2 to 1. We are a divided country. However, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. We are a mixed bag of people who identify ourselves as conservatives, liberals, and independents. Thank goodness, the news media perceived as liberal no longer maintains a monopoly.

Couple of Bright Spots from the Left. Bob Woodward and George Stephanopoulos are two good, recent shining lights that begin to indicate that the dead investigative journalism in the lame-stream or “fringe media” may be reviving itself after all of the shame thrust upon it by Fox News, Glenn Beck, talk radio, and the dynamic duo—James O’Leery and Hannah Giles—who exposed ACORN for what it is and brought that corrupt, criminal organization to its proverbial knees. In addition, as expected from any criminal organization, they are now going after the dynamic duo with lawsuits. Stephanopoulos asked President Obama some pointed questions regarding ACORN, and Obama answered his questions with weasel answers. Shameful! Bob Woodward’s expose of the Administration’s leak of the Afghan War Report from General Stanley A. McChrystal indicates that all is not well in the Obama administration. “Breaking News” happens on a daily basis!

Another Bright Spot from the Left. Larry Johnson (2009) of No Quarter reported that Jon Stewart (CNBC satirist on “The Daily Show”) cuts to the heart of the issue, i.e., the media’s abdication of its job to be the “Fourth Branch” of government. The staunch refusal of the mainstream media to do even a cursory investigation of ACORN is despicable and ultimately poses a threat to our democracy. Thank God for Andy Breitbart and the balls to do a serious investigation. An article from Politico minimizes the scandal at the same time revealing the depravity of the elite media. The executive producer of “World News,” Jon Banner called the scandal “noise” and the anchor of that program, Charles Gibson, was not even aware of the scandal. The Politico article is a mish-mash of condescension towards the Fox News Network and the ACORN sting operations and of getting flat-footed about reporting on the burgeoning scandal stories. I hope more people like Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe step up in place of where traditional news people used to be. There has never been a time when the mainstream media has been so derelict and irrelevant as it is now. Nevertheless, Jon Stewart did get this one right!

Evidence of a Dead Fringe Media. Ex-ABC News anchor Charles Gibson’s dismissive comments about the recent undercover videos shot at ACORN offices around the country. Employees of ACORN, an organization that receives millions of federal dollars annually, appeared to advise a couple dressed as a pimp and a prostitute about how to set up a brothel in one instance. It was Fox News who first aired the videos, eventually attracting not only the attention of the viewing public, but Congress as well. Well after the story broke, a radio show asked Gibson about it. He claimed not to be familiar with it, but may be “just one you leave to the cables.” Did you ever wonder why they fired Charlie? It is because he is an incompetent television anchor and journalist. He does not believe in investigative journalism. That is why investigative journalism is dead in the mainstream media. When anchors possess that mindset, they do not report anything of significance.

In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do. ~ Hugo L. Black, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, Concurring opinion in 6-3 ruling that upheld the press’s right to publish the Pentagon Papers, 30 Jun 1971.

References

Anonymous (2009, September 20). In another unhinged witch-hunt, Beck renames mainstream media “the fringe media.” News Hounds. Retrieved from www.newshounds.us/2009/09/20/in_another_unhinged_witch_hunt_beck_renames_mainstream_media_the_fringe_media.php#more.

Frisa, D. (2003, April 10). The lamestream media. Newsmax.com. Retrieved from archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/4/10/13222.shtml.

Johnson, L. C. (2009, September 16). Jon Stewart gets it! No Quarter. Retrieved from www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2009/09/16/jon-stewart-gets-it/. 

Segelstein, M. (2009, October 6). Do Americans trust the news media? OneNewsNow.com. Retrieved from www.onenewsnow.com/Printer.aspx?id=711694.