THE TENSION: Counterbalance for Sat 7 Oct

What follows are some recent desussions involving the media and events.

John F. Harris, writing in the Washington Post, says new media is a weapon in the new world of politics. Harris proclaims, "At first glance, three uproars that buffeted American politics in recent weeks have little in common." The lengthy piece includes this great tidbit about Bill Clinton:

He said Democrats of his generation tend to be naive about new media realities. There is an expectation among Democrats that establishment old media organizations are de facto allies--and will rebut political accusations and serve as referees on new-media excesses.
"We're all that way, and I think a part of it is we grew up in the '60s and the press led us against the war and the press led us on civil rights and the press led us on Watergate," Clinton said. "Those of us of a certain age grew up with this almost unrealistic set of expectations."
Bill Clinton is an doesn't miss a clue, ay? Many conservatives made essentially the same argument many times--including with reference to Clinton's own recent outburst on "Fox News Sunday." The former president, used to fawning interviewers like Larry King, was unprepared for a tough question and lashed out, delivering an angry, paranoid rant.

Charles Krauthammer, writing in the Washington Post about the real message of the leaked National Intelligence Estimate also makes an observation about what the news says about the news:

Lost between the Foley tsunami and the Woodward hurricane is the storm that began the great Republican collapse of 2006. It was only a few weeks ago that the Republicans were clawing their way back to contention for the November elections, their prospects revived by the president's strong speeches on terrorism around the Sept. 11 anniversary, the landmark legislation on treating and trying captured terrorists, and a serendipitous fall in gas prices.
Krauthammer asks if the Iraq war increases or decreases the world supply of jihadists? The answer is complicated, but keep in mind:

Ah, but those seers in the U.S. "intelligence community," speaking through a leaked National Intelligence Estimate -- the most famous previous NIE, mind you, concluded that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, slam-dunk -- have peered deep into the hypothetical past and found the answer. As spun by Iraq war critics, the conclusion is that Iraq has made us less safe because it has become a "cause celebre" and a rallying cry for jihad.
Krauthammer concludes:

Does the war in Iraq make us more or less safe today? And what about tomorrow? The fact is that no definitive answer is possible. Except for the following truism: During all wars we are by definition less safe -- and the surest way back to safety is victory.

When you're not the lead dog, the view never changes. Thus, James Poniewozik, writing in a Time/CNN piece says, Fox news, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, has changed the face of television. You're watching it, even if you don't think you are. Being a CNN piece, Poniewozik must cover the corporate bases by pointing out several times that Fox News ratings are slipping. However, if Fox is down, that probably means all of cable news viewership is currently down, a seasonal drop while viewers are tuning into their favorite prime time shows like Lost and CSI. In any case, Fox inspires passions on both sides of the political spectrum, not just with those left-of-center journalists who are in a state of denial about their own biases:

Fox remains the network against which competitors define themselves. And not just news competitors. After Bill Clinton got off an on-camera harangue against Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, for an aggressive line of questioning about his administration's anti-terror efforts, the New York Times reported that prominent Democrats, from Howard Dean to Paul Begala, had begun an open campaign of attacking Fox as a covert Republican shill.
The fight was a win-win. Mainline Dems can bash Fox to win points with the confrontational Daily Kos wing of the party. (Including Clinton, whose wife is vulnerable on the left for her support of the Iraq war.) And Fox? As the Times noted, "The news channel has highlighted the contretemps on many of its programs, boosting the ratings in the process." Say what you want about Fox: in this midterm year, no one is out there campaigning against CNN or MSNBC.
In the end, however, Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch outFoxed them all.

NewsOK.com reports that the lawyer of a former page identified by the Passionate America blog as an individual involved in the Foley scandal sends threatening e-mail to blogger. William “Wild Bill” Kerr, 32, posted a copy of an e-mail he received Thursday from Rod Nixon, a partner in Stephen Jones law firm. Jones is representing Jordan Edmund, the Istook staffer Kerr connected with sexually explicit instant messages sent by Foley.

Laura Parker, writing in USA Today, discusses legal battles between bloggers and the courts. A key principle that courts use in determining whether someone has been libeled is what damage the offending article did to that person's reputation in his or her community. Unlike writers on the payrolls of media outfits, more times than not, bloggers are without editors, fact checkers and legal representation. What's the best defence against legal entanglements? Always tell the truth.

Perhaps corporate structure is why journalists tend to have the best blogs. Speaking at the Online News Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., Friday, Washington Post editor Len Downie looked back on the changes in newsgathering and production over the past decade, and listed some of what he thought would be the biggest challenges for news organizations in the near future, reports E&P. Downie said that when it first became apparent that the Internet would change the news business, executives and editors worried that its influence would erode the quality of journalism, increase competition, and become a distraction for the reporters and editors working on the print edition of the paper. But he said instead that the increased focus on the Web has improved journalism.

Reporters love newsroom blogs, said Downie, because they put writers in better touch with their readers: "Everyone in our newsroom wants to be a blogger."