media
The new “investigative” journalism
The intensity level of investigative journalism has just hit a new high, well at least compared to the previous eight years. Dreams of Watergate-like fame have returned for brave journalists across the country. They don’t need their own version of Deep Throat, although it would appear that the Trump administration is riddled with sources but without cool code names, just a quick trigger on their smart phones.
A great example is the recent energetic reporter who, gasp, caught Rick Perry reading the Drudge Report. No doubt the reporter snapped away hoping that he’d catch Secretary Perry pulling up a linked copy of Mein Kampf but apparently Drudge was the best, er worst, that it got. See for yourself, below.
The Drudge headline is a little blurry, likely due to the excited shaking as the reporter’s trembling hands held his phone. It actually reads “Great Again: +235,000.” Let’s give Perry a little credit though, he likely knew that surreptitiously browsing Drudge was the best way for positive news on job growth to get into the mainstream media’s coverage.
It’s too bad this hard hitting type of journalism is just now becoming an imposing force, otherwise perhaps a few these would have been reported.
Valerie Jarrett: Jihadi Weekly
Lois Lerner: Communist Manifesto
Erik Holder: humming the RAP classic “F**k tha Police” as he wanders the Justice Department halls
Barrack Obama: Nero Fiddling for Dummies
Nancy Pelosi: pamphlet for Witchcraft Spells of the Month Club
Hillary Clinton: Playboy
Optimism on Thanksgiving? Compare the Washington Post and Washington Times
The Thanksgiving 2015 editions of both the Washington Post and the Washington Times covered some of the same traditional territory that all national papers seem inclined to cover. Two examples are Obama’s turkey pardoning and holiday traveling. Beyond that though, there’s a glaring difference in the tone and content of each paper’s coverage of this uniquely American holiday.
Below are the Thanksgiving-related articles from 11/26/15. A few more in the Times than the Post, which might not be startling. But in addition to having more content, there’s a decidedly brighter tone to the Times’ articles as a whole. Each Thanksgiving article listed in this table is highlighted in green if it had a positive, optimistic or heartwarming emphasis. It’s clear at a glance that the Times provided its readers with words of encouragement far beyond those of the Post. Also of note is the size difference in both papers; 54 pages vs 26.
In 54 pages the Post put a positive touch to only four of its articles related to Thanksgiving. Over three times the number of articles in the Times were positive (13) in a paper that was less than half the size.
All of this may be of no interest, but clearly one paper lives by the motto that “bad news sells” and hence not much room left for positive and uplifting content. If you want positive, you can always check out the Post’s horoscopes.
Confederacy of Drones 