Post-Election Reflections

I guess he can't win on the ideas alone, PR alone so now he's taken to bribing journalists to say it his way.

What strikes me as most disturbing is not the petty thieves, er, minor league "journalist"/columnists that have been exposed so far. It's the inevitable molten mass below the surface, the Conservative Media Organized Crime Bosses. How much has been paid to Rush Limburger, InSeanHannity, Neil Borscht, Ann Coldhearter, or for that matter, Neutered Gingrich? And, will this bring down Ketchum the way Enron brought down Anderson?

This of course is a distraction that keeps the focus off of journalists who are paid by the CIA, a long time practice, evidently.

Will every newscast, every live remote from the White House, every newspaper column now be preceded or followed with an announcement disclaiming that no funds were received from the government in connection with this report? Or will the disclaimer read that they may have received payments from time to time, much like a stock analyst disclaimer?

In fact, this raises the issue of whether "news analysts" should be regulated the same as stock analysts - by registration and disclosure. There are no ethics on Wall St. and obviously no ethics in PR and among many in the media, so why not? Theives, cheats, frauds and conmen abound in both industries, apparently, so why shouldn't their speech activities be regulated accordingly? I don't like the idea, but then I was in the PR business for 15 years, so why would I? Never bribed a journalist though. Didn't have to - and that's the point.

# posted by RNS @ 9:23 AM