News "judgement"

A million, bazillion times smarter than George W, we're told, who among other flights of idiocy mistakenly referred to someone as having been awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor, when what he meant was the Presidental Medal Of Freedom. After awarding said Presidential Medal himself, not three weeks before.

Oops, that was Obama:

I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow (ph) was around, and so I want to give a shout out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you.

Err, that' Presidential Medal Of Freedom, sir, at least according to the White House:

As a warrior and living legend, history flows through Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow -- High Bird. Born on a reservation and raised by traditional grandparents, he became the first member of his tribe to earn a Master's degree. For his valiant service in World War II, he was awarded the status of Crow War Chief, and his renowned studies of the first Americans and contributions to cultural and historical preservation have been critical to our understanding of America's history. Joe Medicine Crow is a symbol of strength and survival, and the United States honors him for his dedication to this country and to all Native Americans.

So why is this not getting reported, when seemingly every gaff from Bush did? The likely conclusion is that the bias filter is hard at work. In the Mastodon Main Stream Media's defense, wholescale fabrication of stories is very rare - the Bush National Guard stories, or Steven Glass make big stories because they're rare.

Much less rare is a willingness to publish unsubstantiated rumor, when it's something bad about someone they don't like. The media stories about Sarah Palin "making rape victims pay for rape kits" is an example. There's rather a lot of this sort of thing.

But what happens all the time is the news that's not fit to print, at least according to the Columbia Journalism School gradulates. We see this all the time. This story on Obama is a trivial example; John Edward's mistress was another.

The most important reason that I no longer read the newspaper is what isn't reported, but I think is significant. Since I have to find actual important news somewhere else, I can save time because I don't have to also disabuse myself of mistaken notions that I read in the Daily Rag.

The Press thinks this is about Craig's List. It is, but only partially. Google has made it trivially easy to see just how shoddy their product is, to see both their sins of commission and those of omission. At the very moment when they need new models to monetize their product, their product is revealed to be of terribly low value.

UPDATE 15 November 2009 10:42: Boy, that was quick. Watch how the AP "covers" a very tough question Obama was asked at a Japanese press conference.

UPDATE 15 November 2009 14:00: I'm not the first to point this out. I won't be the last, either.