24 Comments

1. Terrye:

I don’t know about everybody else but I think Michael Jackson and CNN deserve each other.

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:39 pm 2. BurbankErnie:

Just as bad Dept.:

Fox News Channel interrupted the White House Press Conference today while reporting the good news from Lebanon….. for Michael Jackson Coverage… I think he was “squirmish” in the Courtroom… I don’t know, I shut off the TV at that point.

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:48 pm 3. Knucklehead:

Terrye,

There’s a gale wind blowing in the east and the MSM thinks a silly snow storm is more important.

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:53 pm 4. yama-arashi:

I never thought I’d be saying this, but CNN International has been pretty good. Lots of interviews with the players and a reporter in the square doing live coverage.

Feb 28, 2005 - 2:59 pm 5. Patrick Tyson:

As do the websites of MSNBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and Drudge. Try the New York Times.

Feb 28, 2005 - 3:06 pm 6. tim4808:

Sadly, I see the FoxNews web site also has Jackson coverage as the top story. No sense of history, I guess. MJ will utlimately fall to the same fate as Fatty Arbuckle while school children in Syria will learn that their grandparents didn’t used to have the right to vote.

Feb 28, 2005 - 3:10 pm 7. Huan:

NPR had nothing to say about the Lebanese revolution either.

Feb 28, 2005 - 3:29 pm 8. Adrian:

CNN international website has the Lebanon as the main story. But not CNN US website.

Feb 28, 2005 - 3:35 pm 9. Splashman:

One week before the Iraqi election, “125 people killed by suicide bomber” would have been the top story, accompanied by the obligatory “elections are doomed” predictions and anti-Bush rants. Now this horrific event is an also-ran to a one-man freak show.

More evidence (as if we needed any) that death and destruction are not considered “news” to the MSM; death and destruction are simply tools for promoting the leftist agenda.

Feb 28, 2005 - 3:47 pm 10. John Lynch:

Fox goes from Jackson to BTK.

The world is changing, and the Cable News, always crying about having to fill 24 hours of broadcasting with news, is giving us irrelevant crime drama coverage. Argh.

Feb 28, 2005 - 4:11 pm 11. Becky Swann:

Sad though it is, probably far more people are interested in MJ than in the ME. No one in my office had heard about Lebanon today (’cept me, but I’m a news junkie who checks a dozen blogs every day) which probably means it was not mentioned on noon newscasts.

Feb 28, 2005 - 4:13 pm 12. Rick Ballard:

Screw the MSM

Lebanon/Syria Links:

Caveman in Beirut

Across the Bay

Naharnet

Syria Comment

via Wretchard

Feb 28, 2005 - 4:35 pm 13. socalgal:

I’m just dumbfounded – and was when I first saw the headlines on Drudge. As a percentage of the populace, the turnout (in the face of a ban on protests) in Lebanon is just amazing. I mean, it’s amazing anyway, but when you look at it like that – it’s overwhelming. I would like to think that the left-leaning media is just too embarrassed and angered at the democracy flood to mention it – but et tu, Drudge? Fox? I don’t get it. Are they just “tired” of all the pro-democracy news? Is it so common it’s BORING? When the dust settles, we will have a new world – for good or ill it will be quite different. (I believe it will be good, but it’s too soon to tell.) How can we be in the midst of such an historic time and the biggest headline is Michael Jackson?

There is a strange dichotomy at work in the media. On the one hand, they’re always telling us that they are helpless in what gets coverage – it’s all about ratings and money (that doesn’t explain CBS keeping a ratings losing albatross like Dan Rather around for so many years, but that’s their public story) “if it bleeds it leads” and they’re just oh so sorry that’s the way it is – they’d much rather report the “serious” news, but it just doesn’t get the ratings (boo hoo). On the other hand, they’re always congratulating each other and preaching to journalism students about the tremendous burden they have to properly “frame” the news to get us trogs to understand the big picture – and save us from our pedantic selves. So which is it? I guess we can see which one THEY really think it is. I think they underestimate our interest.

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:21 pm 14. Knucklehead:

Socalgal,

When the dust settles, we will have a new world – for good or ill it will be quite different.

Interesting times to be alive. Even if Fukuyama is correct and we’re witnessing the end of history, these last couple innings are gonna be one wild and crazy ride.

Here’s pretty much what it must feel like for the MSM.

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:37 pm 15. ahem:

You know, it’s quite possible this discovery represents one of the hidden dimensions physicists have been seeking, where parallel universes join, thereby proving the existence of multiple universes. Someone, phone Michio Kaku!

Feb 28, 2005 - 5:37 pm 16. richard mcenroe:

In a related development, CNN announced today that “they know for a fact” Jackson trial bailiffs have been targeting US journalists…

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:00 pm 17. socalgal:

knucklehead – HA! how long have you been hoarding that link, waiting for the right moment… It’s great.

It IS going to be a wild ride – it already seems like one and it’s just the beginning.

ahem – yeah – I had such hopes for some insight… but in the end, there isn’t any dichotomy. It seemed to exist only in the minds of the media elites, but apparently it doesn’t even exist there – as they show by their unwillingness to produce news that they think we don’t want to hear. Of course, if that is true, I suppose that makes them even MORE disconnected from the mainstream than is generally thought, given the news that they do produce… wait, my head is now spinning… does not compute! argh!

(I think somewhere in there WAS my point – but it’s hopelessly convoluted… )

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:05 pm 18. Knucklehead:

In a related development, CNN announced today that “they know for a fact” Jackson trial bailiffs have been targeting US journalists…

Alas, Richard, there is no end of perfidy in the US system. How many have they murdered so far?

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:06 pm 19. Knucklehead:

Socalgal,

There is nothing that can happen in this world but for which some bit of The Wiz is apropos.

Like many others I have no doubt we need to temper our glee. What we are seeing in Lebanon is, IMHO, undoubtedly a good thing. But the murdering splodyedopes will not just pack up and get with the program. They will redouble their efforts and they will kill many, many more people before this is through.

But… but… I believe it was Krauthammer I saw this evening who made the observation that what we are seeing is people who no longer be oppressed by fear. That’s “all” it will take, ultimately. If the people of the ME are ready to fight even in the face of their fears, the battle is inevitably won. I think we’ve reached the tipping point. Streets will run with blood but the tide of the battle has irrevocably turned.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:15 pm 20. Barbara Skolaut:

CNN’s Website thinks Michael Jackson is more important than what is happening in Beirut.

In their pathetic, blinkered, self-centered, lightweight world, he is.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:20 pm 21. Terrye:

I remember back in the days of communism, the Pope said to the people of eastern Europe: be not afraid.

I think the people of the Arab world may be coming to the conclusion that they are tired of living in fear.

But knucklehead is right. The attack in Hillah demonstrates that the enemies of Arab democracy have the means and the willingness to do great harm. And they ain’t done yet.

Feb 28, 2005 - 6:34 pm 22. rastajenk:

MSNBC’s question of the day is about Jackson. And I tuned into Hardball tonight looking for some Lebanon reactions, but the lead was about yet another vague communication from O’Sammy about keeping the pressure on. Does O’Sammy watch the news? How can he (assuming he’s still alive) believe his worldview can win? He’s getting steamrollered by his own street.

Feb 28, 2005 - 8:19 pm 23. richard mcenroe:

rastajenk ó As I posted over at Tim Blair’s, right now Bin Laden is like the Saudi Kenneth Mars, looking around at the lighting striking ALL the castles around his village, with no idea where to send the pitchfork-wielding mob first…

Feb 28, 2005 - 9:15 pm 24. PJ:

“My world, my world…” cries the Witch. Indeed, Knucklehead, their world is ending with a bang, not a whimper.

Go Lebanon!

Mar 1, 2005 - 7:42 am

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