Choosey father, Freedom Forum foundation enabler, blogger and journalism ethicist (!), Neuharth notices that more and more bloggers are getting more and more attention on the Internet."Many deserve it," the 85-year-old dictates, "because they provide interesting and useful news or information. Some don't, because they peddle phony stuff to promote themselves and/or hurt others."
Neuharth continues: "Leaders in public or private activities now often are targets of bad blogging. I've received my share. Some is funny. Some outrageous. Some libelous."
But, darn! "The First Amendment applies to everyone, even if some users abuse it. We in the media not only must try to make sure the press is fair as well as free, but we also must help the public understand the difference between information and propaganda."
(Jeepers: I wonder if it was that question I posed repeatedly at Rosamunda Neuharth-Ozgo's request, while Neuharth was getting hustled into his luxury SUV after last week's shareholders' meeting?)
Al-O-Meter nears $37K!
Chairman from 1979 to 1989, Neuharth, persuaded Gannett's rubberstamping board of directors to hand him a $100,000-a-year lifetime retirement gig. Here's the year-to-date cost of Neuharth's weekly USA Today "blog" under that contract: $36,583.
I can't imagine what (who? whom?) prompted the subject of this column!
ReplyDeleteMy exact thought as I read this post. "Whatever spurred Big Al to jump on bloggers today?"
ReplyDeleteFunny.
He's just mad because this blog is doing something to his company that his company ought to be willing to do on its own: hold itself accountable.
ReplyDeleteWow. This is great.
ReplyDeletePay no attention to that gay blogger -- especially if you share the following opinion, reportedly stated by a senior Gannett executive some years back:
ReplyDelete"I don't like you. I don't like fags, and I don't like dykes. And I don't want them in my newsroom."
Al is such a comedian.
ReplyDeleteHe used the First Amendment to line his pocket with gobs of cash, but now that the internet has cut the cash flow, we need limits and control over people who blog.
The really problem is that for too long the rich and powerful have told employees and the public what to think. Now everyone can tell the elite a thing or two.
For all the big dollars corporate American has handed out to their elite few, the present day economy proves that monetary reward of the elite isn't based on true leadership and value added to the company, but entitlement.
Al is unwilling to admit that he help build this house of cards. We the worker bees were to shut up, do what we were told, and be grateful for the crumbs handed out. Funny how we crumby folk can see right through the BS.
Readers of Nashville's Gannett-owned fishwrap awoke to this above-the-fold, banner headline in this morning's paper. Subhead: "analysis."
ReplyDeleteOf course, our paper doesn't DO any analysis. The story was pulled from deep inside the Washington Post.
Someone needs to explain to me why I should subscribe to The Tennessean when all they give me is crap from other newspapers.
Would love to see Al attempt to create a blog without any help from the Freedom Forum and Gannett.
ReplyDeleteWould be an interesting experiment to see if he could create any following. And no cheating having the Freedom Forum or Gannet internet robots pumping up the hit rate, like how Gannett strategically bought his book to get it on the NY Times bestsellers list.
The founders of this nation intended the First Amendment to be a check on power. The thought that journalists are to talk truth of authority is lost in the Gannett corporate culture. Corporate only cares about the ancillary outcome of the First Amendment – making gobs of money.
The following announcement was previously deleted by the blog administrator. Apparently good news is unwanted here:
ReplyDeleteGannett is a likely survivor as well. In the long run, its flagship national daily, USA Today is probably going to benefit from the wave of closings we have been seeing. Without a local daily, readers will turn to the national paper for news. In addition to the papers, Gannett has 23 network television stations and a new online division. It is by no means exempt from the problems facing the industry, but I believe it survives and emerges from the recession in a strong position. Although the stock has tripled off its March lows, it sells for less than 10% of what the shares fetched just two years ago.
Jim at 10:36....... If they did what the dude suggested it would be like having the pope actually get rid of all gay priests! It would simply be suicidal in either realm!
ReplyDelete8:46 pm: Good news is welcome; lazy readers such as you are not.
ReplyDeleteI keep deleting this item because I posted it on Thursday, on this blog's homepage.
http://tinyurl.com/pv7pog
So, you are wrong about my motives -- and late with the news, too. Please stop wallpapering someone else's reporting on my blog.
More questions:
ReplyDeleteWhere in the First Amendment does it say that "bad" constituents of any sort may be excluded from free-press guarantees?
Why does Neuharth -- or his ghostwriter, if age now keeps him from actually writing his column -- not grasp that concept?
Jim Hopkins said...
ReplyDeletePay no attention to that gay blogger -- especially if you share the following opinion, reportedly stated by a senior Gannett executive some years back:
"I don't like you. I don't like fags, and I don't like dykes. And I don't want them in my newsroom."
5/08/2009 10:36 AM
I've seen this line before. Wait, it was in one of your own threads. What's going on here?? Are you wallpapering your own blog with your comments? Come on, don't trash me for things you yourself do.
I personally think big A makes a good point. Anyone can be a blogger. All you have to do is go to blogspot.com and off you go. It is especially easy if you have no job and blogging apparently gives people purpose.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is difficult enough to trust what you read in traditional media these days, mush less news from a blooger. Reader comments clog up the very bottom of the blogging heap. And even lower - if that is possible - is that portion beneath the heap that includes anonymous comments.
The point is this: who holds the blog owner accountable? Even more important, who holds posters, especially the anonymous kind, accountable?
Yep, AHN makes a good point.
Why doesn't he simply ask Rosamunda for a DNA test? And I'm not hidding behind Anonymous-Libelous! Now that is funny.
ReplyDelete