Glenn Beck, People Person (and Other Media News)

Still an upgrade over Par So Buscaglia had to be “outed” for her resume lie. At least she didn’t arm herself with a squadron of attorneys and spend oodles of company money trying to defend her ethical lapse.

Admitting when caught is right down there with apologizing when caught. But it’s still way better than stealing corporate info, raiding a rival’s work force, lying with semantics, playing fast-and-loose with legal documents and then scrapping like hell on someone else’s dime to save your own sorry butt — in the process, validating how unfit you truly are for such a lofty job while exposing your ownership’s utter lack of standards.

Interesting . . . Your link to the incident where Glenn Beck supposedly called Katrina victims “scumbags” leads to something called “the Feed” at tampabay.com, where the exact same claim is made, and the link for that claim goes right to Media Matters . . .

Media Matters . . . hmm . . . now, where have we heard of that before? 

With all due respect to Mary Lahammer… …I guess she missed Larry Oakes’ report on the Iron Range cancer hearing in the Star Tribune. For her benefit, here’s the link:

http://www.startribu…

I assume that will quell her disappointment a bit.

Hmmm, indeed. Joel: Did Beck call Katrina survivors “scumbags” or didn’t he?

Do your homework, please If you read the transcript, you’ll find that he characterized “about ten” that way. 

I answered your question, please answer mine:  why did the Minnesota Monitor use a cutout rather than linking directly to Media Matters? 

I did my homework: Those ten people are Katrina victims as well, and as you admit, Glenn “We, the People” Beck calls them scumbags.

As an aside, I don’t find Media Matters to be a disreputable media outlet, especially when they’re documenting sources so well. They don’t resort to namecalling (no “scumbags” there), and while their aim seems to be rooting out rightwing bias in the media (i.e. their perspective is progressive), they don’t, to my knowledge, stoop to the kind of gutter rhetoric I see from people like Beck. I’ve linked to them in the past and I likely will in the future. Not because of whatever nefarious relationship you think we have with the organization — I’m not aware of one, honestly — but because they seem to document their concerns. I’d link to the Strib, Crooks & Liars or — hell — Little Green Footballs, if they delivered news without vitriol that they could verify. (And I have: see my links to Powerline or Lileks.)

This time, I chose to link to a source that has a broader discussion of these kind of pundits. And I stand by it.

I’m sure you’ll have a grand retort to this — I’ve seen your attempts at fisking ’round these parts — but I’m not interested in that kind of conversation with you.

But thanks for the comment.

Thanks for the link. Seems like she might have been referring to her local TV competitors, but she did say “metro media outlet.”
 

I can understand why a disreputable quasi-journalist… … would want to, unless press, leave out the number of people — “about ten” — that Glenn Beck called “scumbags,” or use a cutout in a a lame attempt to conceal that the source of this — and that you left out the number — was Media Matters.

But I still don’t understand why you, a highly ethical New Journalistic Fella — I know that you’re such, because your ethics statement says so –  would do so, and your apologia for the cutout between your piece and theirs doesn’t doesn’t clarify it, or much of anything. 

That said, I do understand why you, despite being one of those highly ethical new journalist fellas, wouldn’t find even my minimal attempts at fisking to be pleasant. 

Like you, I’m not sure what the connection is, precisely, between Minnie Mon and Media Matters, and — perhaps like you; I dunno — wish some reporter would clarify it. 

as has been stated repeatedly CIM previously rented office space from Media Matters when first hitting the ground.

I’m not sure what more I can say or how many more times I can say it to make this clear.

I myself personally enjoy Joel’s “fisking” however.  It would be nice if he could manage to do it without always adding in the requisite vitriol, however mild, that seems to be a signature of many of our commentors, but at the very least I feel it shows he is engaged with our pieces, even if his tone tends to turn people off from wanting to actually continue to discuss with him.

Thanks for visiting, Joel.

Another miss by Mary… Perhaps she didn’t count Minnesota Public Radio as metro media because we sent a reporter based in Duluth, but our Twin Cities audience (indeed, our Minnesota audience) had ample access to Stephanie Hemphill’s report on the meeting. And our audience knows that Stephanie led with the news about the U of M study, the very point Mary scolds the MSM for overlooking.

-Bill Wareham
News Director
Minnesota Public Radio
http://mpr.org

You’re welcome, of course I don’t think it’s a matter of controversy that Minnie Mon and Media Matters used to share office space, although I had not before heard that Minnie Mon was renting the office space from Media Matters. 

I don’t, though, know if that’s the only connection, and your message, Robin, doesn’t clarify that, or the nature of that relationship, or another relationship — if any — beyond that.  For me, it just raises other questions — how long did this office space sharing go on?  Did Minnie Mon pay standard rent (whatever that might be) for this office space, or was it more, or less?  Is that the only connection?  Are — and I’m not saying this is so; I simply don’t know if the rumors are true — both Minnie Mon and Media Matters Soros-funded?  If so, what’s the nature of the funding?

I’m curious.  Just to be clear, I don’t have any problem with Minnie Mon being funded by one of George Soros’ organizations — if it is — just as I wouldn’t have any problem with MDE being funded by Richard Mellon Scaife — as I believe it is not.  I think it’s perfectly possible to do ethical advocacy journalism and/or ethical ideological muckracking while being funded by a gazillionaire with a political agenda. 

In fact, those who do that — and there are those who do that, I’m sure; I’m just not at all sure that Minnie Mon’s among them, or not — have my envy, and if there’s any gazillionaire out there who would like to throw me, say, $100K / year to do the advocacy and reporting that I’d like to do anyway and sometimes manage to do anyway, I’d be happy to accept that . . .

. . . but my own sense of ethics and propriety would require me to be transparent about that — to clearly disclose both the amount and the source of such funding — even without being asked.

Might save me from having to suffer through some vitriol, even. 

Still an upgrade over Par So Buscaglia had to be “outed” for her resume lie. At least she didn't arm herself with a squadron of attorneys and spend oodles of company money trying to defend her ethical lapse.

Admitting when caught is right down there with apologizing when caught. But it's still way better than stealing corporate info, raiding a rival's work force, lying with semantics, playing fast-and-loose with legal documents and then scrapping like hell on someone else's dime to save your own sorry butt — in the process, validating how unfit you truly are for such a lofty job while exposing your ownership's utter lack of standards.

Interesting . . . Your link to the incident where Glenn Beck supposedly called Katrina victims “scumbags” leads to something called “the Feed” at tampabay.com, where the exact same claim is made, and the link for that claim goes right to Media Matters . . .

Media Matters . . . hmm . . . now, where have we heard of that before? 

With all due respect to Mary Lahammer… …I guess she missed Larry Oakes' report on the Iron Range cancer hearing in the Star Tribune. For her benefit, here's the link:

http://www.startribu…

I assume that will quell her disappointment a bit.

Hmmm, indeed. Joel: Did Beck call Katrina survivors “scumbags” or didn't he?

Do your homework, please If you read the transcript, you'll find that he characterized “about ten” that way. 

I answered your question, please answer mine:  why did the Minnesota Monitor use a cutout rather than linking directly to Media Matters? 

I did my homework: Those ten people are Katrina victims as well, and as you admit, Glenn “We, the People” Beck calls them scumbags.

As an aside, I don't find Media Matters to be a disreputable media outlet, especially when they're documenting sources so well. They don't resort to namecalling (no “scumbags” there), and while their aim seems to be rooting out rightwing bias in the media (i.e. their perspective is progressive), they don't, to my knowledge, stoop to the kind of gutter rhetoric I see from people like Beck. I've linked to them in the past and I likely will in the future. Not because of whatever nefarious relationship you think we have with the organization — I'm not aware of one, honestly — but because they seem to document their concerns. I'd link to the Strib, Crooks & Liars or — hell — Little Green Footballs, if they delivered news without vitriol that they could verify. (And I have: see my links to Powerline or Lileks.)

This time, I chose to link to a source that has a broader discussion of these kind of pundits. And I stand by it.

I'm sure you'll have a grand retort to this — I've seen your attempts at fisking 'round these parts — but I'm not interested in that kind of conversation with you.

But thanks for the comment.

Thanks for the link. Seems like she might have been referring to her local TV competitors, but she did say “metro media outlet.”
 

I can understand why a disreputable quasi-journalist… … would want to, unless press, leave out the number of people — “about ten” — that Glenn Beck called “scumbags,” or use a cutout in a a lame attempt to conceal that the source of this — and that you left out the number — was Media Matters.

But I still don't understand why you, a highly ethical New Journalistic Fella — I know that you're such, because your ethics statement says so –  would do so, and your apologia for the cutout between your piece and theirs doesn't doesn't clarify it, or much of anything. 

That said, I do understand why you, despite being one of those highly ethical new journalist fellas, wouldn't find even my minimal attempts at fisking to be pleasant. 

Like you, I'm not sure what the connection is, precisely, between Minnie Mon and Media Matters, and — perhaps like you; I dunno — wish some reporter would clarify it. 

as has been stated repeatedly CIM previously rented office space from Media Matters when first hitting the ground.

I'm not sure what more I can say or how many more times I can say it to make this clear.

I myself personally enjoy Joel's “fisking” however.  It would be nice if he could manage to do it without always adding in the requisite vitriol, however mild, that seems to be a signature of many of our commentors, but at the very least I feel it shows he is engaged with our pieces, even if his tone tends to turn people off from wanting to actually continue to discuss with him.

Thanks for visiting, Joel.

Another miss by Mary… Perhaps she didn't count Minnesota Public Radio as metro media because we sent a reporter based in Duluth, but our Twin Cities audience (indeed, our Minnesota audience) had ample access to Stephanie Hemphill's report on the meeting. And our audience knows that Stephanie led with the news about the U of M study, the very point Mary scolds the MSM for overlooking.

-Bill Wareham
News Director
Minnesota Public Radio
http://mpr.org

You're welcome, of course I don't think it's a matter of controversy that Minnie Mon and Media Matters used to share office space, although I had not before heard that Minnie Mon was renting the office space from Media Matters. 

I don't, though, know if that's the only connection, and your message, Robin, doesn't clarify that, or the nature of that relationship, or another relationship — if any — beyond that.  For me, it just raises other questions — how long did this office space sharing go on?  Did Minnie Mon pay standard rent (whatever that might be) for this office space, or was it more, or less?  Is that the only connection?  Are — and I'm not saying this is so; I simply don't know if the rumors are true — both Minnie Mon and Media Matters Soros-funded?  If so, what's the nature of the funding?

I'm curious.  Just to be clear, I don't have any problem with Minnie Mon being funded by one of George Soros' organizations — if it is — just as I wouldn't have any problem with MDE being funded by Richard Mellon Scaife — as I believe it is not.  I think it's perfectly possible to do ethical advocacy journalism and/or ethical ideological muckracking while being funded by a gazillionaire with a political agenda. 

In fact, those who do that — and there are those who do that, I'm sure; I'm just not at all sure that Minnie Mon's among them, or not — have my envy, and if there's any gazillionaire out there who would like to throw me, say, $100K / year to do the advocacy and reporting that I'd like to do anyway and sometimes manage to do anyway, I'd be happy to accept that . . .

. . . but my own sense of ethics and propriety would require me to be transparent about that — to clearly disclose both the amount and the source of such funding — even without being asked.

Might save me from having to suffer through some vitriol, even.