THE US REPORT

That's me on a New York visit, taking in the view from atop the Empire State Building.The Talking Points Memo blog is probably getting record page views today, after an admission from The New York Times that neo-liberal columnist Maureen Dowd lifted some lines from a neo-liberal blogger at TPM. This is really just another sorry chapter in the decline of media standards.

But Dowd's infraction will have short legs—Dowd is part of pomp media and they always give themselves a pass. The NYT has already worked in the attribution that should have been there in the first place. If Dowd were a conservative writer, inflammatory stories would be passed from blogger to blogger and even to publications perhaps such as The Columbia Journalism Review. Funny thing is the conservative wouldn’t even have to be guilty for that to happen. For pomp media, only rumor is required when the target is a conservative.

Such is the state of pomp media today, declining with the velocity of a stone thrown from the Empire State Building. Dowd’s transgression is one of many that have happened lately. The Denver Post has the full reportage of a Wikipedia implosion, courtesy of the Associated Press. A nod to Instapundit for pointing this out.
 
Last week an Irish student conducted an experiment using Wikipedia. He fabricated a quote, attributing it to a French composer who had just died. With the speed of alleged carbon emissions from coal plants, websites and media outlets around the world used what amounted to a very smarmy quote. Yet the AP story run at Yahoo doesn’t cite specific publications. Ah, media never did love to police itself. The AP makes claims but cites no examples.

There’s more. This time The Denver Post did the digging. Seems a veteran who was a front man for a number of Democratic Party politicos, a man who even spoke at a pro-Obama event, wasn’t a veteran at all—he was a pure fabrication for political purposes.

We hereby congratulate The Denver Post on doing some real journalism.

But as we offer kudos to The Post, we also point out the extreme bias towards any conservative figure and the red carpet pass given to any offending neo-liberal. Remember Joe the Plumber? He asked then Sen. Barack Obama a question during the campaign—Joe wasn’t seeking attention. In fact, Obama approached him. Pomp media and neo-lib comics like Keith Olbermann had a field day—Dem sympathizers working for the state even intruded on Joe’s private records. Yet no outrage came forth from prime media outlets. Rather, they continued to attack him. Where’s the attack and investigation of a purely fake veteran?

How about Miss California, most lately ribbed by none other than ‘Dem-Meister’ David Axelrod. Axelrod suggested the Obamas name their dog “Miss California” after she took exactly the same position as President Obama on the issue of gay marriage. Carrie Prejean got that tough question during a beauty pageant from judge and tabloid blogger Perez Hilton. Instead of digging into the story, or even perhaps tossing out a few slings toward Hilton who did a character assassination on this woman, media joined the character assassination. Really, if you think about it, Axelrod should’ve suggested the president name the dog ‘Perez.’ Or better yet The New York Times.

We were the first, by the way, to tell you Prejean was set up. A few other big media outlets came up with that idea after we dug into Prejean’s evangelical upbringing and education.

Pomp media is declining with virtually every traditional outlet falling on hard times. There are still some real papers in the land, but I’d suggest they won’t be in the top 5 majors, and the longtime major networks are the same. They only dig when it suits their political fancy. Note: we exclude The Wall Street Journal from our wrath. The WSJ is one of the only majors doing real reporting.

Tell your friends and family so they get an idea that when media tells them something is true, it’d be a good idea to seek an opposing source for verification. And whether you’re a blogger or a reporter making a living from a media outlet, give a little link love. It’s a longtime tradition among those of us who write on the Web. It's that entity called truth.

 Dowd's plagiarism one of many instances of declining media standards by Kay B. Day