Crony Journalism

We've all heard of crony capitalism, you know, the less than desirable state of affairs that we have now in which corporations become yet another tentacle of the Big Mommy federal government REGIME in exchange for not being shut down. However ugly that may be, there's something even uglier than crony capitalism.

 

 

Crony journalism.

 

 

In the April 15th edition of  South Florida's Daily Worker...I mean Sun Sentinel, the following yellow journalism found its way onto the front page, just under the fold:

 

"Coffee Party seeks civility in discourse" with bylines that read "A movement with manners" and "Activists find tea party too bitter for their taste"

 

Gee--I wonder what side the Sentinel is on.

 

The article, written by an unperson named Anthony Man, does the usual moan about the Tea Party Movement, how they're uncivil, use heated rhetoric, the Tea Party is alienating people, blah, blah, blah, Progressivevik whining, blah,blah blah. That obviously isn't news, we've heard all of that since Rick Santelly had his famous blow up on CNBC. I'll give credit where credit is due, in the story at least Man didn't call the folks "teabaggers", Rachel Maddcow's endearing term for patriotic Americans who stand up to the bloated pig we call government, but it was a vicious hit piece masquarading as journalism nonetheless.

 

In this insult to free journalism, Man claims that hundreds across South Florida were flocking to coffee joints all over to show homage for the Big Mommy REGIME in Washington. He reports with due reverence that 30 people showed up at some joint named Brew Urban Cafe. So, a moderately busy day at Starbucks is now front page news (Don't worry, the Tea Party was given a blurb right next to this article that says their protest will block traffic and cause delays.), but the thousands who have been to Tea Party events throughout South Florida is never front page news. To quote any random 12-year old: "WTF ?"

 

To make matters worse, much worse, Man writes: "...Coffee Party activists want to show that many people still have faith in government and that it's possible to diagree without being disagreeable" Now, he's not quoting Annabel Park, the documentary filmmaker who came up with this lame Coffee Party idea (It should be noted that Park was a Chairman Obama volunteer during the '08 Popularity Contest.), he's actually opining, and that should never, ever happen on the front page of any newspaper. Any reasonable scan of Gallup, Rasmussen, Quinnipiac, or any other respected poll shows the exact opposite, from the leftiest of liberals to the Rightiest of Conservatives, almost everyone with two functioning brain cells is losing faith in the federal government. That's an undeniable fact, just like it's an undeniable fact that one can't use the word "many" to descibe 30 people at a coffee joint.

 

If this is what journalim has devolved into, God help us all. A functioning, non biased press is vital to the survival of the Republic.