The Reticulator

Michael Gormley of the AP tries to excuse the unprofessional behavior of the media:

The difference in treatment could also be explained by the position each woman had been seeking. Palin was hoping to become the nation’s first female vice president, just second in command to 72-year-old Sen. John McCain. Meanwhile, Kennedy is vying to be named one of 100 Senators.

Actually, the difference in treatment could NOT be explained that way. If that were a factor, the MSM would have sent hostile investigative teams to sneer at Barak Obama, who has difficulty speaking other than in cliches and platitudes. And they would have given McCain the treatment for his muddled ideas.

URL here.

“U.S. Throws Lifeline to Detroit”

That’s the miserable, Murdochized headline on the lead story in the weekend issue of the Wall Street Journal. It’s typical Murdoch — uninformative and opinionated, telling us things that nobody could possibly know.

I googled for other stories on what happened Friday to see if other newspapers did a similarly wretched job in describing the action of the Bush administration. I selected stories that purported to tell what the Bush administration did and omitted any that seemed mainly about peoples’ reactions. If there seemed to be two such stories from any particular news agency, I picked what seemed to be the main and best one.

Here are the results:

• Bush throws lifeline to US automakers (Reuters)
• Automakers grab loans, look to Obama White House (The Associated Press)
• Auto bailout plan rolls in (Lake Expo, MO)
• Chrysler, GM win a federal lifeline (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• Bush approves $17.4 billion in aid to automakers (Los Angeles Times)
• Loans give GM, Chrysler 3 months (Detroit Free Press)
• GM and Chrysler Will Get $13.4 Billion in US Loans (Bloomberg)
• Bush announces auto rescue (CNNMoney)
• Bush Approves $17.4 Billion Auto Bailout (New York Times)
• Bush’s lifeline offers car firms the fuel to survive (The Age, Australia)
• Bush orders auto bailout (London Free Press, Canada)
• Bush unveils $17.4bn carmaker rescue (Rediff, India)
• $17.4B bailout will halt automakers’ hemorrhaging (Indianapolis Star)
• After Congress Refuses, Bush Gives $17.4 Billion Loan To US Carmakers (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic)
• Bailout approved: Automakers to get $17.4B (Salt Lake Tribune, United States)

I hate to have to say anything good about these two, but the Los Angeles Times and New York Times both had headlines worthy of the news profession. So did the Salt Lake Tribune, Radio Free Europe, and Rediff of India.

Note to the Indianapolis Star: You can stop the sales pitch and wild promises now. It’s a done deal.

Were any of these headlines worse than the WSJ’s? No, but Reuters and the Minneapolis Star and Tribune were just as bad. Maybe The Age of Australia should be in there, too.

It’s a good thing the WSJ buried this story on page A13: “France Credits Deregulation for Cushioning its Economy.”

It’s a sacrilege. It’s heresy. Will the reporters (Sebastian Moffett and David Gauthier-Villars) ever get any of those awards that journalists give each other if anyone finds out what they’ve done?

Speaking of the incestuous system of journalistic awards, here‘s from the latest issue of The Weekly Standard:

We mention this not so much because of our admiration for Leonard Downie Jr.-more about him in a minute-but by virtue of our interest in the ancient journalistic practice of logrolling, back-scratching, mutual admiration, or whatever it is you want to call the business of news insiders shamelessly awarding prizes to each other. Downie, as we mentioned, was editor of the Washington Post from 1991 until this year; his predecessor at the Post (as readers might have guessed) was the same Benjamin C. Bradlee for whom the Benjamin C. Bradlee Award is named. Which, of course, was just awarded to Leonard Downie Jr.

THE SCRAPBOOK infers a couple of things from this. First, it explains why, year after year, Pulitzer prizes in journalism are equitably divided among deserving recipients at, oh, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Second, it gives THE SCRAPBOOK some measure of hope. If this year’s Benjamin C. Bradlee Award goes to Benjamin C. Bradlee’s successor as editor at the Post, it stands to reason that, somewhere down the line, the coveted William Kristol Award might go to THE SCRAPBOOK! Of course, the fact that there is, at the moment, no William Kristol Award is not an obstacle: We’ll just establish something called the Scrapbook Foundation, and make its principal business the yearly presentation of the William Kristol Award, complete with a thousand-dollar-per-table banquet, C-SPAN coverage, and celebrity comedian/speaker.

Here’s the word “refute” in the lead sentence of a Fox News article:

Patti Blagojevich’s father, sister and brother are refuting the foul-mouthed portrait that’s been drawn of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s wife since his arrest, saying the first lady has been living in a pressure cooker.

Here’s what dictionary.com has to say about the meaning of the word “refute”:

Refute – verb (used with object)

1. to prove to be false or erroneous, as an opinion or charge
2. to prove (a person) to be in error

I read that whole article. In it I learned that Patti Blagojevich is “a mother, a sister, and a devoted wife.” I learned that “she is particularly protective of her family.” I learned that she is “loyal to a fault.” She will sometimes “jump down [our] throat” if you argue with her husband. She is going through a rough time. Her family is angry about the scrutiny she is getting.

But nowhere did I find the slightest refutation of the “foul-mouthed portrait that’s been drawn” of her. In fact, her father even corroborated it somewhat.

You’d think that a news article that starts off with an assertion like this one did would then try to back it up.

Earlier today there were Google Top Stories about some substantial gains for Franken in the Minnesota recount. This had followed a long drought of Top Stories about the recount, ever since the news started turning sour for Franken. But tonight on Drudge I found a link to a story about some even more recent gains for the Coleman side. There is not a peep about that one in Google’s Top Stories.

For those who like parades, this is great. There are two competing parades, each with its own bandwagon.