Newsesque

Looks to me like it's time for a blogger ethics panel:

"Did your local news recently do a two-minute clip on music copyright infringement? If so, you can thank the RIAA. They sent out a video press release to local news stations as part of their 'holiday anti-piracy campaign.' In it, they warn people that the best way to avoid counterfeit music is to avoid 'compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan' and to trust their ears, because illegally copied music usually sounds 'atrocious.' Instead, they encourage watchers to buy ringtones for Christmas."

The hard-working, diligent reporters of America who shed light on the dark corners of the world's most powerful institutions and let people know what's really happening beyond the superficial flow of events deserve -- and, I think, often receive -- all the respect in the world. But the fact of the matter is that such work is a minority of what takes place under the banner of "journalism" in America.

Comments

The hard-working, diligent reporters of America who shed light on the dark corners of the world's most powerful institutions and let people know what's really happening beyond the superficial flow of events deserve -- and, I think, often receive -- all the respect in the world.

I guess that if you work for an economically unviable institution like the Atlantic, cashing checks each week at the forbearance of your multimillionaire owner, you have to think such reporters "often receive" "all the respect in the world."

But of course that's insane. Usually good reporters receive little respect and sometimes they have their careers crushed. (And they're lucky -- in many other countries they're murdered.)

On the other hand, you're correct that such reporting is a tiny minority of what's called journalism in America. Maybe if you thought about it for two seconds you'd understand there's a connection between this and the career punishment that good reporters generally receive.

Posted by 65432 | December 22, 2007 10:42 AM

Sounds like a handy guideline. Illegally copied music sounds atrocious (presumably the bits are magically corrupted by the evil copying process), so anything that sounds good should be legal.

Posted by KCinDC | December 22, 2007 10:51 AM

Is Matt really this dumb? Good reporters lose their jobs, because good reporters don't shy away from stories involving advertisers and powerful friends of their editors. The only reporters that get anywhere are the Kit Seeyle and Mike Isikoff's of the world. Sure, not everything they do is crap, but it's all within a very careful realm of what their editors consider 'acceptable'.

Posted by Soullite | December 22, 2007 11:17 AM

The number of items/stories that are run, unchanged, from a press release are probably relatively small. The more interesting cases are when a story is "pitched" by someone with a political or financial interest in seeing that story widely publicized. I imagine the relative number of the latter sort of story is rather higher.

Posted by kth | December 22, 2007 11:18 AM

Speaking of long-lost journalism, here's more information - detailing what I consider to be a simply stunning turn of events considering the stakes involved, and the lack of background reporting of a similar nature from any reporters employed by major publications - about Tuesday's egregious vote by the United Nations Security Council to extend its democracy-hostile "mandate" for our Armed Forces to occupy Iraq for another year:

On Tuesday [12/18], the Bush administration and [American-selected] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed a resolution through the U.N. Security Council extending the mandate that provides legal cover for foreign troops to operate in Iraq for another year.

The move violated both the Iraqi constitution and a law passed earlier this year by the Iraqi parliament -- the only body directly elected by all those purple-finger-waving Iraqis in 2005 -- and it defied the will of around 80 percent of the Iraqi population.

Earlier in the week, a group representing a majority of lawmakers in Iraq's parliament -- a group made up of Sunni, Shiite and secular leaders -- sent a letter to the Security Council, a rough translation of which reads: "We reject in the strongest possible terms the unconditional renewal of the mandate and ask for clear mechanisms to obligate all foreign troops to completely withdraw[] from Iraq according to an announced timetable."

We don't know if it was even read by members of the Security Council, but we do know that it, like previous communications from the Iraqi legislature, was completely ignored.

James Paul, director of the Global Policy Forum, which follows the United Nations' intrigues, said that while "there's concern in many delegations at the United Nations about what is going on," Security Council delegates "are under instructions from their governments to lay low and pass the U.S. resolution." According to Paul, the move "shows the despotic power of the U.S. government to force everyone to knuckle under, no matter how much the law is violated."

It was an egregious assault on Iraq's nascent democracy, as well as its supposed "sovereignty," and can only encourage more bloodshed. Yet the commercial media has so far ignored the story entirely, reporting only that "Iraq" had requested that the mandate be renewed.

The real picture is dramatically different.

http://alternet.org/story/71144/

Rep. Bill Delahunt plays a starring role for democracy, here. I've seen zero coverage of the hearing Delahunt held on Wednesday this week to examine this U.N. mandate renewal effort. Where are the career reporters and editors, and why did they ever enter the journalism profession in the first place...?

Posted by pow wow | December 22, 2007 12:42 PM

"Journalists" contributed to the housing /mortgage bubble by regurgitating mortgage brokers' and Realtors'(tm) talking points.

"Advice" columns touted the benefits of flipping houses, moving up and cash-out refinancing. Sunday readers put down their newspapers with the idea that a house is an investment and an ATM.

So when the mortgage broker told them their house would appreciate enough to pay for itself, a new car and their kids' college education for the same monthly payment, it actually sounded plausible to lots of people.

Posted by Jalmari | December 22, 2007 1:27 PM

Of course, since local news broadcasters are busy planning the Christmas party, they're likely to slap such flackery straight into the bulletin.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | December 22, 2007 1:36 PM

"In it, they warn people that the best way to avoid counterfeit music is to avoid 'compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan'..."

If that was indeed a quote from the RIAA, do they realize that it sounds like they're making a vote of no confidence in their own official products? It's like, "Sorry music fans, we don't make any of those super-cool albums you've been dreaming to have, with all the songs you love. But we'd like to sell you this lame stuff you don't care about. Only $15.99 a disc!"

Posted by Posted by | December 22, 2007 9:36 PM

"Sorry music fans, we don't make any of those super-cool albums you've been dreaming to have, with all the songs you love. But we'd like to sell you this lame stuff you don't care about. Only $15.99 a disc!"

Oh, come on! Get with the times. Our grandparents had Miles Davis and/or Leonard Bernstein; our parents had the Beatles and Bob Dylan; and we, the children of the 21st Century, have access to a wide assortment of reasonably-priced ringtones.

Posted by James Gary | December 23, 2007 10:30 AM

I, for one, would never ever think that a record company would put out a compilation CD that a music fan would dream about.

Posted by Meph | December 23, 2007 1:35 PM

From the press release:

Watch for Compilations that are “Too Good to Be True": Many pirates make “dream compilation” CDs, comprised of songs by numerous artists on different record labels who would not likely appear on the same legitimate album together.

Further from the press release:

Furthermore, if the record label or movie studio listed is a company you’ve never heard of, that should be another warning sign.

English translation: FU Indie labels!

Posted by Ken Houghton | December 24, 2007 3:36 PM