TheMillerCircle.org

Over the weekend of June 6-8, 2008 the National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR) was held at the Minneapolis Convention center in downtown Minneapolis. This is a group that is committed to media reform and has an organizational scheme to recover our once "free press" as an institution of objective journalism. This was the fourth annual meeting organized by FreePress.net and was attended by about 3500 people from many walks of life, but mostly by those associated with some aspect of journalism or activism. FreePress itself is a relatively new organization, but has had impressive leadership during its short existence. The emphasis for this movement has come about during the GW Bush presidency and is directed towards reshaping American political journalism and especially broadcast journalism which has gotten off the beaten path as almost everyone can attest. In general, this is a very progressive liberal movement. But, as Arianna Huffington emphasized, "we are not the left, we are mainstream. Every major issue we are emphasizing about the war, our health care system and the direction our country is going is supported by 60-80% of Americans."

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While I am not motivated to subscribe to Time Magazine under any circustance, it is gratifying to learn that they have not renewed the contracts of Bill Kristol or Charles Krauthammer, two proponents of the neocon options, including the war in Iraq and just about every other interventionist neocon ploy. But I am seriously thinking of unsubscribing to NewsWeek for hiring Karl Rove. How did integrity get lost in political journalism? Isn’t ethical behavior a qualification for a job at Newsweek? Even as a columnist? Does the purposeful outing of a CIA agent, an illegal act by Congressional law, still leave you with all the options of those less ethically challenged? Are the job options enhanced?  One would think so. Would you consider reading the Karl Rove story to your children as a bedtime story? What is it that Karl Rove has done other than abuse those with religious convictions to naively support a movement which favored the abolishment of our constitution? He brings a long list of unethical behaviors to the table: winning is everything. It must be that he’s a great writer and that someone other than me or millions of others will be interested in what he has to say. I thought he was perhaps qualified to be a tour guide at the new Creationist museum in Kentucky. There at least you don’t have to know anything. For that job the less you know the better.

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