White_Male_Canada
04-15-2007, 06:50 PM
Media watchdogs a tipping point for Imus' downfall
By Abigail Tucker
April 15, 2007
The morning Don Imus uttered the phrase that appears to have ended his career, Ryan Chiachiere was watching. The veteran shock jock's comment was so incendiary that the 26-year-old researcher for Media Matters in America, a liberal media watchdog group, took the rare step of removing his headphones and repeating the slur to his co-workers in the room, who were also glued to various forms of programming.
But the rest of what happened April 4 at the group's Washington office was fairly routine. Media Matters workers packaged a video clip of Imus' statement along with a written transcript and several paragraphs of contextual information. Then they e-mailed the material to hundreds of journalists and interest groups.
It is a process that happens more than a dozen times daily at the Web-based nonprofit, often without any clear progress toward Media Matters' stated goal of "correcting conservative misinformation."
There have long been journalism watchdog groups, but "what Media Matters clearly has learned is that the Web is the way to get it done quick," says Charlotte Grimes, the Knight Chair in political reporting at Syracuse University's communications school.
Founded in 2004 by David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal author who often writes about the press, Media Matters' purpose is to correct falsehoods and omissions, especially those that seem to have a conservative spin, according to its Web site. It analyzes conventional news output and controversial media personalities, such as Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and others.
Media Matters will also keep experimenting, Frisch says. The group has opened an office in Colorado, home of several conservative news outlets, to see how Web monitoring works on a statewide level - quite well, according to Frisch.
Frisch says the group is keeping a particularly close eye on global warming skeptics, as well as on the rest of the world's sharp-tongued morning show hosts. It hopes to use its current moment in the limelight.
"It's not just Imus," a subsequent e-mail release from the group said this week, above a list of offensive comments from other, mostly right-wing, hosts
www.baltimoresun.com
MediaMatters-Get Imus,Gibson,Beck,Boortz,Limbaugh,etal
http://www.hungangels.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=18373
By Abigail Tucker
April 15, 2007
The morning Don Imus uttered the phrase that appears to have ended his career, Ryan Chiachiere was watching. The veteran shock jock's comment was so incendiary that the 26-year-old researcher for Media Matters in America, a liberal media watchdog group, took the rare step of removing his headphones and repeating the slur to his co-workers in the room, who were also glued to various forms of programming.
But the rest of what happened April 4 at the group's Washington office was fairly routine. Media Matters workers packaged a video clip of Imus' statement along with a written transcript and several paragraphs of contextual information. Then they e-mailed the material to hundreds of journalists and interest groups.
It is a process that happens more than a dozen times daily at the Web-based nonprofit, often without any clear progress toward Media Matters' stated goal of "correcting conservative misinformation."
There have long been journalism watchdog groups, but "what Media Matters clearly has learned is that the Web is the way to get it done quick," says Charlotte Grimes, the Knight Chair in political reporting at Syracuse University's communications school.
Founded in 2004 by David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal author who often writes about the press, Media Matters' purpose is to correct falsehoods and omissions, especially those that seem to have a conservative spin, according to its Web site. It analyzes conventional news output and controversial media personalities, such as Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage and others.
Media Matters will also keep experimenting, Frisch says. The group has opened an office in Colorado, home of several conservative news outlets, to see how Web monitoring works on a statewide level - quite well, according to Frisch.
Frisch says the group is keeping a particularly close eye on global warming skeptics, as well as on the rest of the world's sharp-tongued morning show hosts. It hopes to use its current moment in the limelight.
"It's not just Imus," a subsequent e-mail release from the group said this week, above a list of offensive comments from other, mostly right-wing, hosts
www.baltimoresun.com
MediaMatters-Get Imus,Gibson,Beck,Boortz,Limbaugh,etal
http://www.hungangels.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=18373