Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy - Los Angeles Times

"Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong."

If Ex-WMAL Host Is Sorry, It's Not For Bashing Islam

"Graham hopes to have the last laugh. ABC is seeking bids for its radio stations, including WMAL, and the overwhelming response Graham has had from other radio companies makes him optimistic that a new owner might put him back on the air here."

WMAL, another train-wreck (err, make that ship-wreck in keeping with the post below) about to happen has in recent memory been a conservative talk show station, although I've continued to think it has been such only reluctantly. WMAL's local talk has been all over the map with an emphasis on early morning wake-up humor and traffic reports. I always got them confused with WTOP and WRC, one a news-only station and the other the original home of Larry Kings radio program before he hit the jackpot of... whatever you call what he does now.

With few exceptions, media companies have two separate agendas, one, "The Agenda" whatever that happens to be, and two, the bottom line. In the past they have been able to keep these two things blissfully unaware of one another. Is the New York Times the powerhouse it is because it is a liberal paper in a liberal city? Probably not. After all, the Wall Street Journal comes out of New York too, and there are lots of more liberal papers in New York.

WMAL's success has been well correlated though with the fact that they were the primary carrier of Rush Limbaugh for as long as I can remember, and they gradually added more conservative talk, as well as shifted their own local talk to a conservative slant, presumably to keep people from tuning away as soon as Limbaugh's 12-3 slot ended.

Thinking that the ABC-Disney combine was more centrally located on the political spectrum than the others I once signed up for a slew of "services" from the company (that my spam filters are still trying to cope with) and among other things checked in at a forum where you could leave comments about their on-air activities.

That is, in fact, what I did: leave a comment about the newly restructured program "This Week" which David Brinkly had turned over to Sam Donaldson and Cokey Roberts (with short appearances each week by token conservative Pulitzer Prize winner George Will). My comment was on the sudden departure of Donalson/Roberts and their replacement with the quite liberal commentator George Stephanopolis, who's main claim to fame was a kiss-and-tell book written after he left the Clinton administration. Nothing has changed my opinion that this fellow has no particular business (i.e. credentials) to host such a national show. And nothing has changed the opinion of ABC News, who promptly deleted my comment. Fair and open, as long as you say nice things about us I suppose.

Well, nothing pleases me more than to see these outfits have trouble. Their reign as arbiters of what we all are supposed to be thinking is long overdue for an end. If WMAL goes under, or gets sold and changes to an all Hari-Crishna format, or whatever, someone else will no doubt pick up the popular programs, even if, in the shuffle, a few good things are lost. In the long run, and in the big picture, the fat-cats of the fourth estate deserve to be taken down a peg, or several. All in all, a good start.

NY Times cuts 500 jobs; Philly papers cut 100 - Boston.com

"NEW YORK --The New York Times Co. and two Philadelphia newspapers announced major job cuts Tuesday as the industry grapples with severe financial problems including weak advertising and circulation declines. The Times said it would cut about 500 jobs, while the Philadelphia papers will eliminate a total of 100 jobs."

Reminding me of my favorite lawyer joke, the punchline of which is: "A good start."

More:

Mercury News plans to shrink newsroom by 52 jobs
"16% reduction ends week of newspaper industry buyouts and layoffs;
Cuts are 'painful,' says editor, but the paper will survive"

The Conservative Brotherhood

" The Conservative Brotherhood is a group of African American writers whose politics are on the right hand side of the political spectrum. Expanding the dialog beyond traditional boundaries, they seek to contribute to a greater understanding of African Americans and America itself through advocacy and commentary."

German Debate Results

In reporting about debate results for the top job in Germany it would seem that the German and international press are as confused as is the US press over who wins our debates:

"BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder beat his conservative rival Angela Merkel in a feisty U.S.-style TV debate on Sunday but may not have delivered the knock-out blow needed to catch her in the polls, surveys showed."

While other reporting claimed that she was a clear winner. Only the polls will tell.