Fighting Words: More on Media Personalities, "Infotainment"...

Check out: Lawrence Pintak on "The Fog of Cable," which notes a particularly disturbing interview by Kyra Phillips' fellow CNN airhead, Tony Harris; Danny Schechter on the state of broadcast media, noting that "much of the new investment in journalism today is in disseminating the news, not in collecting it" (emphasis mine); and a yearly report from the Committee on Excellence in Journalism, which states:

Reporting on cable is highly focused around either the personality of the program hosts or sending a camera and correspondent to an event and having them pass along what they are seeing at that moment. The effect, more so than in other media, is that the audience’s role is passive. There is less effort here to tell how these stories involve the viewers, what to do about them, how they relate to their lives, or how viewers can do or learn more.

All justified criticisms aside, there are still some good ones out there in broadcast journalism, as noted by Larisa Alexandrovna. In particular, check out this fantastic clip of Keith Olbermann (via MediaChannel) giving commentary on Rumsfeld, and channeling the spirit of Edward R. Murrow. I'm going to have to start watching his show more regularly...