The Today Show has hired ½ of the formerly underage alcohol driven comedy duo Jenna and Tonic, Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of GW Bush, as a correspondent.
Un-dirtyword-believable.
Category: Hack Journalism
Unethical Even by the Standards of the Public Relations Industry*
It turns out that the discovery that Mark Penn’s use of his Wall Street Journal column to pimp for clients and to trawl for new clients is not an issue for their editorial page.
Not surprising, given that the WSJ has the most venal and dishonest editorial OP/ED section in the United States, though Fred Hiatt and the Washington Post offer some competition in that area.
*I cannot believe that I just said that.†
†That may be the first time that I’ve ever said this about a Democrat.‡
‡But it is Mark “The Human Stain” Penn, so it is not a surprise that he would have earned this distinction.
Economics Update
Well, let’s start with the jobless numbers, where the press is reporting that initial claims fell last week, the 4 week moving average fell from 571K to 566.25K, and continuing claims fell by 119K to 6.13 million.
The lede is the fall in initial claims, only the the fall in initial claims was actually an increase:
The NYT article on weekly unemployment insurance (UI) claims carried the surprising headline: ‘first-time U.S. jobless claims fall again.’ The reason the headline is surprising is that claims rose the prior week, from 561,000 to 576,000, a number that was revised up to 580,000 in the new report. So, claims did not fall again.
The 4 week number is much more sound, because this us done all the time: comparing new numbers with revised ones, it’s a pet peeve of mine, along with the fact that no one ever mentions that the fall in continuing claims numbers is largely an artifact of people exhausting their benefits or moving to extended unemployment benefits.
**sigh**
I would also note that the GDP number for the 2nd quarter of 2009 contracted at a -1.0% annual rate, and that this is somehow considered good news.
Still, it looks like the GDP numbers have made people less risk averse, which has pushed Treasuries’ prices down, and their yield up.
Me, I’m more concerned by the fact that the FDIC’s problem bank list has mushroomed to 400.
It appears that the “improving” GDP numbers has reduced the need for a currency safe haven, pushing the dollar down, and they also pushed oil prices up.
Republicans Can Go Cheney Themselves
It appears that the bubble headed bleach blond of DC political coverage, Politico, is reporting that “key conservatives” are warning that liberals may inappropriately politicize Senator Kennedy’s death.
They call it the, “Wellstone Effect,” which I guess means that a legitimate outpouring of grief over the death of a hero will be used by the America hating right wing, and a complicit press, to create the illusion that real human grief is somehow a sinister conspiracy.
As to those right wingers who are somehow all upset that it appears that Kennedy’s name will now go on the healthcare reform bill, let me say this: Teddy Kennedy was at his worst better than your best at their best: Ronald Reagan was not fit to shine the sole of Ted Kennedy’s shoes with his tongue.
Why Does Anyone Hire Juan Williams?
Juan Williams and Tree:
Stupid is in the foreground
When you look at his history, his aggressive opining on Clarence Thomas’ sexual harrassment of Anita Hill when he was harassing an underling him self, lasting about 3 months as host of Talk of the Nation because he was too stupid to do a marginally competent interview, and his reflexive embrace of the right wing talking points of the day, most recently with the idea that passing anything without Republican support is the “nuclear option”, one has to wonder why this man has a job, aside, of course, from Fox News, where he fulfills the critical role as their token “Tom”.
His history of incompetence, dishonesty, lack of knowledge about what he comments on, and ethical lapses, he should he should not be working anywhere near news.
Maybe he can get a job at the AEI or the Hudson institute. It’s where right wing tools go to die.
Bueller???? Bueller????*
Yes, as Felix Salmon notes, with no small amount of exhultation, the New York Times has fired Ben Stein as a columnist.
Of course, it was not his deliberate lies, nor his stupidity that got him, but rather the fact that he was cashing in on his Times gig in a way that did not generate them money:
NYT spokeswoman Catherine Mathis confirmed this, telling Gawker that “Ben Stein’s fine work for us as a columnist for Sunday Business had to end, we told him, after we learned that he had become a commercial spokesman for FreeScore, a financial services company.”
More’s the pity that he got the gig in the 1st place.
*A reference to what was John Hughs’ best movie. The director and writer of teen angst flicks died yesterday.
This is a Sloppy Blowjob
It appears that the mortgage industry has rolled out an industry “self regulation” group to forestall meaningful regulation by the government, and the New York Times presents it as the biggest move towards honesty since the birth of Jesus:
The Fair Mortgage Collaborative, a consortium of lenders, brokers and mortgage technology providers, made its debut in June with financial backing from the Ford Foundation, among other groups. Its purpose, the organizers say, is to make only those loans in a borrower’s best interest and to identify and certify the lenders that adhere to certain strict standards.
Because self regulation has worked so f%$#ing well in the past.
Bob Tedeschi, there is some semen on the corner of your mouth.
Why Friends Do Not Let Friends Link to the Associated Press
So, the AP continues on its jihad against fair use of its work.
They are looking at including “beacons,” which will track just who reads which article, in their work.
When they appeared on Facebook, there was a revolt over this.
I would also note that it appears that their target appears to be Google News, “”The problem we have now is that our stories are getting scraped and reused in large quantities by aggregators who haven’t paid any license fees,” according to Jane Seagrave, Senior VP for global product development at the AP.
You know, if they get what they want, Google news, and other news search pages, will drop them, and they will vanish from the public consciousness with barely a ripple, so go ahead, commit Seppuku.
The problem here is two fold, their clients, the newspapers, are getting their asses kicked by Craigslist and its ilk, and 2nd, major news sources, including the AP, have decided that having the one side tell the truth, and having the other side lie, in an article is balanced journalism.
It’s not, it’s stenography.
This sort of sh&% is why whenever I come across an AP story, I look for an alternate source, using those “aggregators” that they hate so much.
Jon Stewart is a F%$#ing Genius, Part 7734
In this case, it’s really not about laughing stock South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, but rather about the media whores who sucked up to him for the possibility of an interview.
News of the Optimism of “Dr. Doom” Have Been Premature
The wankers at CNBC reported that Dr. Nouriel Roubini said that he saw a recovery this year.
Not so, says the good doctor:
It has been widely reported today that I have stated that the recession will be over ‘this year’ and that I have ‘improved’ my economic outlook. Despite those reports – however – my views expressed today are no different than the views I have expressed previously. If anything my views were taken out of context.
I have said on numerous occasions that the recession would last roughly 24 months. Therefore, we are 19 months into that recession. If, as I predicted, the recession is over by the end of the year, it will have lasted 24 months with a recovery only beginning in 2010. Simply put I am not forecasting economic growth before year’s end.
…
Someone saw a headline from slipping a phrase, and took it.
Colbert Calls Out Keith Olbermann
Keith left him off his “Worst Person’s” list last night for his mash note to Governor Sanford at the start of the scandal, even as he included Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, and Stephen will not stand for it:
Keith, you know what you have to to, because Stephen Colbert is loaded for…dare I say it???? Bear.
The Washington Post is a Sick Joke
They published an OP/ED by the Quittah from Wasillah, Sarah Palin, on global warming.
That’s bad enough, but when the article does not contain the phrases, “global warming,” and “climate change,” are missing from the article.
The problem is not that it is disingenuous, global warming deniers make their case through lying, after all.
The problem is that the article is complete and total crap that should not have passed the editorial pen of the Shopping News, much less the Washington Post.
It’s not even attempting to argue a point, it’s a bunch of red meat for the base strung together.
Michelle Malkin shows more dedication to reasoned argument.
Wanker of the Day
Megan McArdle (Note that this is a link to Barry Ritholtz, not the McArdle article, because friends don’t give friends links to Randroids).
You see, she’s one of those people who read “Atlas Shrugged” in high school (I read the “Virtue of Selfishness, and hated every poorly crafted juvenile word), and never got over it. (She used to blog under the pseudonym “Jane Gault”)
She says that Matt Taibbi is wrong when he fingers Goldman Sachs as a politically connected octopus (OK, “that great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity,”* Goldman Sachs.) that was front and center in gaming and profiting from the regulatory arbitrage and fraud that enriched their principals, and beggared the rest of us, “for the simple reason that no one person or even one group is powerful enough to take down a whole system.”
What’s at the core of this is Randroid objectivist bullsh$#. The markets, you see, are brilliant, and so no one person, nor one organization, can game them.†
It’s the same thing that led Alan Greenspan to tell Brooksley Born that, “Wasn’t a need for a law against fraud because if a floor broker was committing fraud, the customer would figure it out and stop doing business with him.”
You see markets, and all there participants are the epitome of capitalist savvy, and as such, they would never be unaware of others engaging in unsafe activities for their own benefits, and so the only explanation of failure must be collective, so it’s everyone‘s fault, particularly that lay-about mom working 60 hours a week at minimum wage, which makes it no one‘s fault.
I hope she has someone to cut her meat for her, because I think that the safe operation of a steak knife is beyond her.
*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.
†This is despite the fact that the currently unraveling software theft case shows that Goldman Sachs has been front-running the entire stock market.
The Washington Post Tries to Salvage Its (Non) Integrity
So they have published an apology over their pimping themselves out to lobbyists.
I’ve come to the conclusion, based not only on recent actions, but on the recollections of Katherine Graham in the 1960s, that the Watergate story was an aberration.
The Washington Post has always been about sucking up to power and to the DC cocktail party circuit.
Economics Update
Unemployment Rate Actual data vs. the Summers-Geithner Stress Test Assumptions H/T Calculated Risk
The obvious lede is the various corporate measures of job cuts, with ADP Employer Services saying that there were 393K private-sector jobs cut, Challenger, Gray & Christmas saying that planned job cuts in June were 74,393, and the Monster Employment Index (PDF) moderating somewhat for June.
These are a bit better than May, but only in “the 2nd derivative is improving” way.
Jobs are still being cut, when you need to job growth to match the growth of the work force.
In related “2nd derivative” news, there is CNN trumpeting the fact that the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing index rose for the 6th straight month:, while Bloomberg correctly notes that what this really means is that Manufacturing in U.S. Shrank at Slower Pace in June.
Falling less slowly is not improvement.
I am so sick of hack Panglossian journalists.
We also have mortgage applications falling to a 7 month low, which indicates that right now the housing market is in a death dance with economic recovery.
Any recovery will bump interest rates a few points, but that will kill any recovery in real estate……Catch 22.
If you want some good news, industrial sentiment rose in Japan, but it’s a “2nd derivative” thing too, with the index rising to minus 48 in June from minus 58 in March.
The only really good news, is that Calculated Risk’s June Economic Summary in Graphs is out, so there is some good chart pr0n for the wonks.
In energy, we have US Diesel inventories up, along with both oil and gasoline falling on increasing inventories.
Finally, the dollar fell, though I can’t tell if this is China’s suggestion of an alternate reserve currency, or because all the “2nd derivative” stuff make investors feel less of a need for a safe haven.
Post Fires Dan Froomkin
Because it appears that one of their biggest, if not their biggest, drivers of traffic to their site, just too annoying, he had a brew up with the dishonest and delusional Charles Krauthammer about 2 weeks ago, and I’m sure that he and WaPo editorial chief Fred Hyatt comisserated over martinis and vicodin.
Glenn Greenwald is justifiably outraged.
All that I would add is that the WaPo still has space for Paul Wolfowitz.
It’s depressing. They have what I consider to be the finest comics section in the United States.
The Financial Press Really Sucks
This is wack. CNBC interviews Barney Frank, and tries to make a bunch of right wing talking points about how the shareholder shouldn’t have any authority in a company, and then they shout him down when they don’t like the answers that he gives, so Frank terminates the interview.
People Who Do Not Understand that They Are Really Stupid
Yeah, the New York Times is on a real roll.
In an article on plans going through congress about fixing the US healthcare system, reporter Kevin Sack delivers this bon mot:
But critics argue that with low administrative costs and no need to produce profits, a public plan will start with an unfair pricing advantage. They say that if a public plan is allowed to pay doctors and hospitals at levels comparable to Medicare’s, which are substantially below commercial insurance rates, it could set premiums so low it would quickly consume the market.
(emphasis mine)
Ummm….Let me get this straight, the knock on a public option is that it will be too efficient?
The costs will be too low!!!! And the service will be too good!!!!
Horrors.
Dude, that’s the point. Private insurance has utterly failed!!!! Unless you have them compete against something better, they will stay crappy.
I have an idea, how about we start requiring PCB’s in tap water, because it unfairly competes with bottled water.
More Economic Journamalism
Remember when I was talking about economic journamalism on durable goods orders?
Well Bloomberg gets the story right, with U.S. Economy: Durable-Goods Orders Hover Near Lowest Since 1996, but Reuters (U.S. April durable goods orders post biggest gain in 16 months), and CNBC (Durable Goods in Surprise Jump; Jobless Claims Dip), both get it very, very wrong.
Let’s roll the Bloomberg story for what is going on:
Orders rose 1.9 percent in April after a 2.1 percent drop in March that was more than twice as large as previously estimated, the Commerce Department said in Washington. Meanwhile, the Labor Department said 6.79 million people are collecting jobless benefits, and another report showed new-home sales were lower than forecast in April.
(emphasis mine)
OK, this looks like a 1.9% bump, which is a significant bump, but Bloomberg covered this as low numbers.
Why is this correct, and Reuters and CNBC wrong?
That phrase, “more than twice as large as previously estimated,” is why it is wrong.
As Reuters notes a few ‘graphs down:
However, March orders were revised sharply lower, falling 2.1 percent from the previously reported 0.8 percent decline.
So, we are comparing initial estimates for April with revised numbers for March.
If you were to compare apples to apples, you would have 1.9%-2.1%-(-0.8%), or 1.9%-2.1%+0.8%, or a growth of 0.6% comparing apples to apples.
In fact, you get a lot of this out of the government statistic machine, and it’s faithfully echoed by the press.
You have a number that is an improvement over the last month’s (revised) numbers, and it’s really good news…..And then, a few weeks later it’s revised down, and the new figures for the next month come out, and they look really good compared to the downwardly revised previous figures.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Morons Trying to Drum Up Billable HOurs
So, two lawyers specializing in IP litigation have proposed changes in copyright and anti-trust law to bolster newspapers.
Unsurprisingly, their proposals would create an explosion of litigation, which would mean that they could buy that yacht that they have their eye on.
What they propose:
- Ummm….Making search engines indexing web sites a copyright violation?
- The idea here is that creating an index is a copyright violation, which means that things like the old index of periodicals in the library, an essential research tool, would be illegal.
- And allow newspapers to price fix, so that they can all start charging for online content.
- Let’s note that newspapers are not in the business of selling the content called “news”, they are in the business of selling advertising. The cost of purchasing a paper only covers the cost of the ink, paper, and printing. That’s why, when the chains started buying up newspapers, and cutting newsrooms about 2 decades ago, they could generate those 20%+ margins on a much crappier product.
- The threat to newspapers is not people reading their news online, it’s Craig’s List. It’s the loss of classified ad revenue that has put these institutions behind the financial 8-ball
- Oh, yes, there’s also the issue of accumulating insane levels of debt to build these chains in the first place.
- Federalizing the “hot news” doctrine.
- This one is just plain stupid. It’s a 1918 decision which says that a news service cannot take a story from another, rewrite it, and pass it off as it’s own, which is a good idea, but they want to make the reporting that a news source broke a story, like, “The Wall Street Journal reported today that sources in the Treasury have determined
But consider this. Just a few years ago, the average profit margin for newspapers was 20 percent — with some raking in twice as much or more.
“Did they use these astronomical profits to invest in the quality of their products or to innovate for the future?” asked Free Press’ Craig Aaron on Thursday. “No. They just bought up more newspapers and TV stations.” (On May 12 Free Press released a National Journalism Strategy that outlines forward-thinking policies to save journalism, and not merely prop up the creaking old guard.)
(emphasis mine)
I am not concerned about the future of news papers, I am concerned about the future of journalism……Scratch that…I am concerned about the present of journalism, because the professionals out there, whether covering George W. Bush, the housing bubble, or just publishing this bit of crap, seems to be in a state of incompetent free fall.
Professional journalism today in the United States is a captive of those that they cover, and so people like me go to foreign and not-for-profit sources to find our news.