THREE GOOD LINKS FROM J. ORLIN GRABBE

It's been a while since I checked out the mysterious J. Orlin Grabbe's page of daily links, so I figured a Real Art post highlighting some of his recent picks was in order:

FCC: Stern's raunchy radio show is a news program

That's right. The Federal Communications Commission ruled Tuesday that Stern's raunchy radio program is a "bona fide news interview" program.

The decision was in response to a request made by New York-based Infinity Broadcasting Operations Inc., which wanted a ruling that its widely syndicated Stern show is a news program and exempt from equal time requirements for political candidates.

The decision will allow Stern to put actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the air without having to offer time to the scores of other candidates running for governor in California.

Well...when I think about it this makes a weird kind of sense, given how crappy most of the "real" news programs are. I mean, Bill O'Reilly is just Howard Stern with a haircut if you get right down to it. Minus the strippers and dwarves, that is.

Click here.

Santa Cruz to ask Congress to consider impeaching Bush

The Santa Cruz City Council has become the first local government in the country to pass a resolution that will call for Congress to look into impeaching President Bush over his handling of the war in Iraq.

"It's time for us to open up this can of worms," said councilman Tim Fitzmaurice.

The resolution, approved Tuesday by a 6-1 vote, authorizes Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly to send a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner asking if Bush has committed any impeachable offenses that could lead to his ouster.

City leaders say Bush violated international treaties by going to war in Iraq, and that the president manipulated public fears to justify the war and undercut Constitutional rights.

I'd like to say that this gives me hope, but the numerous city council resolutions opposing the invasion of Iraq didn't stop the war. I don't know; maybe this will help set the rhetorical stage or something. At any rate, it makes me giggle.

Click here.

Calling a Lie a Lie: The dicey dynamics of exposing untruths

Every day, journalists struggle to reconcile two clashing professional mandates. On the one hand, their stature rests on a reputation for fairness and objectivity; if they appear to be taking ideological shots at a president, their credibility suffers. Yet they also hearken to the muckraker's trumpet, the injunction to scrutinize and challenge the powerful. One principle calls for restraint and evenhandedness, the other for skepticism and zeal.

Almost uniquely, official deceptions allow reporters to align these goals. When a public figure lies, journalists can simultaneously flaunt their adversarial stance and style themselves defenders of truth.

To the axiom that journalists love lies, however, there's one important corollary — and it helps explain Bush's Teflon coating. Reporters like only certain lies. Perversely, those tend to be the relatively trivial ones, involving personal matters: Clinton's deceptions about his sex life; Al Gore's talk of having inspired Love Story; John Kerry's failure to correct misimpressions that he's Irish. Here, the press can strut its skepticism without positioning itself ideologically.

The lies reporters dislike, in contrast, center on what are usually more important matters: claims about public policy — taxes, abortion, the environment — where raising questions of truthfulness can seem awfully close to taking sides in a partisan debate. Most of Bush's lies have fallen in this demilitarized zone, where journalists fear to tread.

This Columbia Journalism Review essay, rather than looking at pervasive news-distorting corporate influences (one of my own favorite topics), analyzes some biases that are inherent in the discipline of journalism, and shows how those biases have given the White House a free ride, for the most part.

Click here.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$