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Survey results released Monday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reveal that public trust in the US media is eroding and increasing numbers of Americans believe news coverage is inaccurate and biased.
Ths poll revealed that 29 percent of 1,029 adults surveyed believe that news organizations get their facts straight.
"Sixty percent of those polled said the press is biased, up from 45 percent in 1985. Just 26 percent in the latest survey said that news organizations are careful their reporting is not politically biased.
"Seventy-four percent said news organizations tend to favor one side in dealing with political and social issues. Eighteen percent said they deal fairly with all sides."
RAW STORY published the APF's report on the historical aspects and the political breakdown of the poll at this link.
An article appearing in the Martinsburg Journal today by Naomi Smoot, "Officials: PATH not without benefits", quotes a single power company official touting the benefits of building one large transmission line compared to "30 lines at 138 kilovolts each."
This is like a mad doctor saying, don't complain about your healthy arm I'm about to amputate--just be happy I'm going to cut it off with one swipe of an axe instead of taking thirty slices with a meat cleaver.
Why did this story appear on this day in the paper? Best I can tell, it is because American Electric Power and Allegheny Power scheduled a media day--complete with helicopter rides--to showcase their PaTH joint venture. A paper with a better editor would use the media day as a launching pad for a much bigger picture on the project.
Does the story, as reported, have news value? No. The article is indistinguishable from a corporate press release. It only quotes a single source, an official from American Electric Power. It doesn't meet the Wikipedia standards for a neutral point of view. This article is much closer to advertisement copy than a newspaper story.
What would a news story on PaTH look like? There's a strong clue right there in the story:
The line has prompted concern for area residents and county officials. In all, 120 citizens, businesses and governmental agencies in Jefferson County have filed as interveners in the West Virginia Public Service Commission case to determine whether the line should be approved.
But, this paragraph raises more questions than it answers (Is 120 a lot or a little? Why are they concerned?). The article says nothing else about what the concerns are.
The entire remainder of the article are about benefits of building the transmission lines. Unstated is, inasmuch as those benefits even exist, they are almost exclusively benefits to the electrical utilities, not to residents of the newspaper's reading area!
The real news is the unprecedented number of "citizens, businesses and governmental agencies in Jefferson County [who] have filed as interveners." I bet there's never been more than a handful from Jefferson County before in any case at the PSC. Just imagine how many papers you could sell if you started telling the stories of these engaged local citizens.
Reader reaction
There is one small silver lining today. With 120 petitioned interveners in Jefferson County, the newspaper has an increasingly well informed audience. (With no thanks to the paper.)
The reader responses are priceless. Here's a flavor of the negative responses:
JournalReader - 07-30-09 6:04 AM
Why does the Journal roll over and play fetch for AEP? This reporter consistently is a mouthpiece for any corporate propaganda -- never seen her apply critical thinking skills to any story. In the age of shrinking newspaper revenues, the purchase of full page ads by AEP/PATH must be like manna.
FERCYOU - 07-30-09 6:34 AM
Lies. 1. This power will not be used in the eastern panhandle. PATH's own maps prove this. 2. Who cares how many 138kV lines it would take to equal PATH? If the east coast provides its own renewable power, we won't need ANY new transmission lines (AKA extension cords). 3. Height of towers. I guess they didn't bother looking at their own application to the PSC. Tower heights are much higher in the application. 4. Nothing can "blend" 180 foot towers into the landscape. Get real! 5. Cost = over $1.8 billion, with 14.3% profit for Allegheny and AEP paid for by you. 6. 140 intervenors from Jefferson Co. 7. These lines are creating a new 275 foot right of way adjacent to existing lines, hardly "a couple of feet". 8. PATH land agents are busy in Jefferson Co. trying to swindle folks out of their land for a song. Just say NO.
jbchris - 07-30-09 8:41 AM
ChEwNo, you are exactly right about the extension cord concept, that is precisely what PATH is, a huge extension cord supplying dirty coal fired electricity to the eastern seaboard where they don't want it, does that make sense to you? Renewable energy systems both large and small will solve our nations energy needs now and into the future. Why invest millions in an obsolete technology? We should build renewable systems that are clean alternatives and wait for the smart grid technology to be instituted in order to plan for the nations future electrical needs. Don't be fooled by fear and free advertising as reported in the Journal, use your mind and embrace the future of electrical generation.
Sesame - 07-30-09 4:04 PM
First: I have documented all comments by Mr. Allen Staggers, Allegheny Energy Spokesperson, stated in past Journal Articles. Now I will update/add Mr. Gogol's comments. In the near future I will publicly address the comments.
Second. PATH representatives are telling on one side of the story,not the whole story, which equates to lying,is very poor business ethics and is not within any code of conduct I have ever worked under either in private or government industry.
Examples of half truth or one side of the story. Mr. Gogol states that they are in Jefferson County simply asking for rights to survey. He fails to mention surveying/taking core samples requires bringing heavy equipment onto the property and drilling down as much as 30 feet. Huge disruption to the property and homeowner. Running tandem to the existing 500 and 138 volt lines is considered as of no consequence, when in fact it now increases the electric field to 1403 kilo-volts of electricity. No Issues?
houner - 07-30-09 6:06 PM
The so-called "fact box" (actually a xerox of a power company press release) contains the statement that "80 percent Amount of the project that will parallel existing 500 kilovolt power lines." Besides making absolutely no sense grammatically, this statement is not a "fact". Very little of the PATH line will parallel existing lines. I all cases where that happens, the PATH line will require an additional 200 right of way. There is at least one lie in the "fact box." Many more in the quotes from power company hacks.
Maybe it's time to update that old saying by Mark Twain: "If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed." If you read newspaper Internet comments, you're un-mis-informed.
The sheeple of the United States are being taken in again by a combination of the media and the right wing noise machine. The press has made it clear that the Democratic Party can't hang together on health care and problems with what is referred to as the high cost to taxpayers.
Just take a quick look at this article from Reuters that illustrates the negative effect that opponents to the "cornerstone" of President Obama's platform have achieved. The article can be read by clicking here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Public support for President Barack Obama's strategy to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system appeared to waver as Republicans stepped up attacks on Monday on a plan they say is costly and unworkable.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called Obama's efforts to push healthcare legislation through Congress before the August recess "a reckless experiment."
"The president is rushing this experiment through Congress so fast, so soon, that we haven't had a moment to think if it would work -- or worse, to think about the consequences to our nation, our economy and our families' economic future if it doesn't," he said at the National Press Club.
The real truth about the CBO's estimates regarding the cost of the President's plan can be read here. In reality the program is deficit neutral!
We didn't learn when Hillary and Bill took a shot at it, and it appears we can't control the frame now. How do you get the message out when even your own party can't and won't support you. The President is getting more aggressive in taking on his own party members. He must name those like Max Baucus and John Kerry that are taking huge money from the Militant Health Industrial Complex. Note that the compliant press that rarely if ever spoke out about the recklessness of the Bush years now has no problem taking on Barack Obama with impunity. Check out the diary at Crooks and Liars regarding John King on CNN and his attacks on Democrats attacking Democrats by clicking here.
King: So Donna, what is happening? You know, we had an election in November. What we thought we got was united government, a Democrat in the White House, a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. Instead it seems that we just have a different kind of divided government. You have a Democratic President that's fighting with wings of his own party in congress, including, this is from Democracy for America. It's an email. It's a liberal organization. It is now sending an email to its supporters essentially saying send us money so that we can "run tough ads pressuring Democratic Senators who've taken millions of dollars from the health and insurance interests while standing in the way of one of President Obama's top priorities".
I support the Blue America PAC in running ads against the Blue Dogs and others that are not supporting the Public Option, and have given my fair share. We all need to get on board and let Congress and the press know that health care for all is the answer not the crap we are being fed now. Learn more from Howie Klein by clicking here.
Continuing with the same old BS health care in our country will only result in what is now the most expensive health care system in the world dropping even further down the ladder relative to the health of our citizens.
Long time readers of West Virginia Blue are aware of our many complaints about the Martinsburg Journal (here's one example). It's embarrassing to say a (Hagerstown) Maryland paper covers the Eastern W.Va. Panhandle much better than the home town West Virginia one does.
The Martinsburg Journal's political coverage fails to meet basic standards of journalism and regularly favors Republicans. Over many years, the Martinsburg Journal has shown a right-wing slant it many aspects of its operation.
An identical diary and comment appeared today by a commenter claiming to be Matt Bieniek, the former city editor at the Martinsburg Journal. (There's no reason to doubt that; the comment history is consistent with the author being Matt Bieniek.) DINO69, a.k.a. Matt Beineke, lays blame on the paper's owners and senior managers for an overt bias to Republican candidates and decisions inconsistent with basic standards of journalism.
Hello all,
I (Matthew Bieniek) am no longer employed by The Journal(I know some of you are cheering!).
Therefore, I feel I'm under no obligation to conceal what I know and in fact, feel an obligation to let people know what is going on at the local newspaper in Martinsburg. Before I move on in my job search, I'll be posting afew items of interest. The first is from an internal complaint I filed in March 2009:
Work of employee Jenni Vincent the Saturday before Election Day, Nov. 2008.
Employee Jenni Vincent was called into work by Publisher Craig Bartoldson on her day off and required to work to produce either one or two stories after extensive interviews with two local Republican Delegates, Craig Blair and Jonathan Miller. I am not sure whether the delegates may be personal friends of the publisher. I was the Saturday supervisor in the newsroom that day. The story was their response to charges in an ad apparently opposing their elections, essentially allowing them an unpaid ad at the last minute before the election... .I made my objections on this matter clear to several individuals and eventually to Bartoldson, who became angry and responded by falsely accusing me of unethical practices. The publisher was aware that Saturday was not a scheduled work day for Vincent.
Required suppression of news items
Matthew Burdette sent an email on Feb 25 or 26 to the city editors and copy editors, apparently with the approval, direct or tacit, of Henline and Bartoldson, requiring suppression of news about the newspaper industry and other media and suppression of most global warming stories. This obviously unethical practice is a disservice to readers, would bring ridicule to the company if it became generally known, and probably will fail to meet whatever bizarre goals it is designed to accomplish.
(I made slight formatting changes for readability.)
Who will be the first reporter to get one of our elected officials on record with an answer to this question?
"If West Virginia wants to maximize coal mining employment, doesn't more underground mining do that instead of more mountain top mining?"
Lots of reporters are writing lots of stories about coal mining right now, maybe one of them can ask the question...
Update: In stark contrast to other reporting thus far, Ken Ward Jr. deserve credit for acknowledging the question--he's probed this contradiction on his blog. Be sure to read this excellent post for a summary: Mountaintop removal or something completely different?
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito came into office at the same time as President George W. Bush. [With any luck, she'll depart at the same time, too.] Now in her fourth term, she's desperately trying to raise her national stature. In fact, she's getting some traction with more frequent mentions in national press.
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