Mr. Kurtz writes a column that is worth reading in Washington Post. I just wanted to add my two cents regarding Mr. Kelley, a used to be reporter for USA Today, who was fired for fabricating his stories.
In my view, there are two possible explanations for this:
#1 Mr. Kelley is working (was working) in an industry that is bent on results and speed. Accuracy is presumed, but it's more difficult to follow up and check up on everything when it's vitally important to get the news out better and faster then competition. Yeah, I've read that no newspaper editor worth his salt will overlook an obvious mistake just to meet a deadline, but what if a quote is attributed to an Afghani villager? To me what Mr. Kelly did is no different from a manager at a bank padding his numbers to meet unrealistic goals that are set by the higher ups. #2 I think that being a journalist with as much experience as he has, Mr. Kelley has a 'message' that he would like to convey to his readers. Unfortunately to 'package' it, he had to resort to fabricating quotes and other inaccuracies. While that is unquestionably bad journalism, and the 'Messenger' may need to be shot, that does not necessarily invalidate the message.

washingtonpost.com: Media Notes Extra

Mr. Kurtz writes a column in Washington Post that is definetely worth reading. washingtonpost.com: Media Notes Extra I just wanted to point out my theory of what is leading all these journalists to fabricate their stories. I'd say that perhaps it is due to competition and ratings that we keep hearing about. With newspapers being run by giant corporations, writers are under ever more pressure to come up with sensational stories, and they better be faster then their competition. So when in a business environment you have managers fudging numbers to meet unrealistic goals, what is a journalist but a peg in a machine? Albeit a slightly different machine, with a slightly different product?

Well, since this is new and exciting to me, let's set out a few issues that are important to me in this blog: US Elections/US Politics and Utah Jazz/NBA in general. When I am able to think of the next most important thing, I will make sure to post it here.
I have been reading a log of blogs lately, and I am more and more bothered by the fact that the general population just doesn't care about what the powers that be are doing to it. Naturally when you are overworked, underpaid, and concerned about losing your job at the same time, who cares about what is going on in Washington. But it DOES matter. Because as long as you do not express your concerns (over and over and over), nothing is going to change. In fact politicians will continue to view you/me/us as the cattle that we are when we do nothing to change our fate. As they used to say in good old Soviet Union "in USSR, there is plenty of interest but no information, in the West, there is plenty of information, but no interest". I mean, come on, just the book by Paul O'Neil(l?) alone should have stirred the discussion of whether this president deserves to be impeached. That alone. Let me see how many scandals I can think of that are connected to this administration, without looking at my notes:
1. WMD
2. Medicare numbers
3. Cheney and Scalia Duck-hunting
4. Cheney and Haliburton
5. Plame outing
6. Economic forecast
7. Bush AWOL
I'm sure there's more, but is anybody paying attention? The media is controlled by a handful of corporations that care nothing about anything but profits. I wasn't around during Watergate, but why did that 'stick' and no news that 'breaks' now is capable of holding the Nation's media outlets' attention for more then a handful of news cycles?
Now, it seems to me that the pendilum swings in the opposite direction of where it has been moving to for the past several years, and Democrats now have a real shot at re-capturing Senate, House of Representatives, and the White House. May be I am totally unrealistic, but we'll see in November, eh? Bush has created a scary record that he can't run far enough away from. Of course he spends his time saying things that are 180 degrees opposite of the truth and therefore are so bold and daring, you have to really do your homework to know that he is lying all over the place. I mean, just about everything he says is the opposite of the facts.
As far as the Senate is concerned, it seems to me, that in a real world, there would be some kind of punishment for breaking into Democratic files and leaking them to the press. I could be wrong, but I really hope I'm right. I mean, hello, wasn't this what Watergate was about? Stealing classified information?
Congress... Democrats could show to the country that Tom DeLay is a 'murderous cyborg' (the Daily Show term) who is much more dangerous then Dennis Hastert. Still, I would bet money that there is a lot of people in this country right now, who have no idea who either one of these guys is. But I am hopeful, that through Blogs and internet in general, enough money will be raised to put up a fight.
So that's enough for now.
Next time: Can Utah Jazz make it into NBA play-offs?

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall