It's all true! Amy Ridenour's "The Sad Truth About Media Coverage, and a Modest Plan for Reform"; Andrew Breitbart & the Norah O'Donnell contretemps

Smart Girl Summit: Andrew Breitbart on the MSM's Absurd Accusations About Tea Party Activists. August 1, 2011.

http://youtu.be/3I19td8cfWM

National Center for Public Policy Research

The Sad Truth About Media Coverage, and a Modest Plan for Reform

by Amy Ridenour

August 7, 2011 at 5:06 PM

The sad truth about media coverage is not just the bias, but the focus.

The country has just had its credit rating downgraded for the first time ever. The cable networks are all over it. So do you suppose the focus is on how to fix it? Only a minority of the coverage, and a small, superficial minority at that, goes in that direction. Mostly, news interviewers want to know: which political party's fault is it?

Read the rest of Amy's spot-on essay at:

http://www.conservativeblog.org/amyridenour/2011/8/7/the-sad-truth-about-media-coverage-and-a-modest-plan-for-ref.html

Meanwhile, former MSNBC-er and new CBS News reporter Norah O'Donnell was part of a contretemps the other day about bias accusations at a recent White House press conference over the subject of the national debt limit, a fact that Andrew Breitbart noticed, too.

But in the current environment, no good deed goes unpunished.

AdWeek

Huffington Post Caves to Breitbart Retracts claim that he doctored video of WH press conference

By Emma Bazilian

August 2, 2011

Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart is celebrating a victory over the Huffington Post after the site retracted an article alleging he may have doctored a video clip from a White House press briefing to make it look like CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell was upset about the recent debt compromise.

In an article posted yesterday, HuffPo said that Breitbart was being accused of doctoring video of an exchange between O'Donnell and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.adweek.com/news/press/huffington-post-caves-breitbart-133838

Patterico's Pontifications had the two warring versions of said video in their August 2nd post:

http://patterico.com/2011/08/02/huffpo-smears-breitbart/

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Pajamasmedia

http://www.nationalcenter.org/

Wash. Post's Juliet Eilperin corrects the record re BP spill: Gulf shrimpers, NOT oil, causing death of so many Kemp’s ridley sea turtles

Sea Turtles in NOAA's Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

http://youtu.be/VwcFMjgK35M

Dana Gattuso over at Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog, a conservative blog that's the official blog of the National Center for Public Policy Research, had a delicious bit of insight last Thursday into a powerful corrective piece by the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin that while not actually on American journalism in the 21st Century, per se, says volumes about it by examining a recent huge story -last year's BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Going against the Mainstream Media grain re BP, Eilperin reports on environmental groups false claims and let's the facts speak for themselves. In this case, Shrimpers, not oil, causing hundreds of turtles’ deaths along Gulf of Mexico, scientists say.

To those paying close attention, the BP spill and the subsequent well-publicized clean-up has actually revealed the shockingly low level of honesty and forthrightness coming from many of the leading environmental groups that have been quoted as "experts " in the U.S. news media since last year. In many cases, it's fair to say that they're coasting on laurels earned by others many years ago.

I guess these interest groups know from past experience that despite the advent of so much wonderful technology to help journalists tell the story after letting facts speak for themselves -not the case here- they could still largely say whatever they wanted -that it's all BP's fault- with little concern that reporters would actually be inclined to do their own research, check what was said with the actual facts, and then report back.

Gattuso closes by saying:

Makes one wonder how many more unsubstantiated—and harmful—claims these interest groups make on important environmental issues before considering the evidence…

It sure does.

Connect-the-dots for yourself here:

Washington Post Reports Oil Spill Not the Culprit in Turtle Deaths

by Dana Gattuso

May 27, 2011 at 7:52 AM

http://www.conservativeblog.org/amyridenour/2011/5/27/washington-post-reports-oil-spill-not-the-culprit-in-turtle.html

Washington Post

Shrimpers, not oil, causing hundreds of turtles’ deaths along Gulf of Mexico, scientists say

By Juliet Eilperin

May 25, 2011

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/shrimping-not-oil-causes-hundreds-of-turtles-to-strand-in-the-gulf/2011/05/25/AGmOPXBH_story.html