Feral Beast: Sicko-phancy mars the Daily Show

Monday, July 2, 2007

Sicko-phancy mars the Daily Show

Moore was bumped off CNN's Larry King show by Paris Hilton last week, but still looms large on talk show radar after appearances on Letterman, the View, and the Daily Show. Truthdig screens a droll exchange on health care blues between Jon Stewart, the Daily Show cynic, and the "Sicko" director, Michael Moore. Stewart appears a tad sicko-phantic as he jaws away with the shambolic blue-collar, white-bread uber-iconolast from Motown. Visibly less obese now, Moore's been learning medical tips on the docu-trail after shooting 500 hours of medical muddles. The recently released film had a mixed reception from critics; there are some rather cheap shots, like the Gitmo gotcha tactic. E for effort and fierceness of approach.

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Feral Beast? Try Lemming

If the press were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? I’ve got my answer. A legion of lemmings, furry and well-intentioned, but ultimately condemned by their nature to follow each other mindlessly off a tall cliff, over the Paris Hilton peak or into the Invade Iraq crevasse. The words “feral beast” certainly wouldn’t come to mind. It’s not particularly accurate or particularly evocative. But that is how the departing British prime minister, Tony Blair, sees journalists: as malicious tormentors who have tried to tear him limb from limb.

--Gal Beckerman of the Columbia Journalism Review

“Journalism is a form of cartography,” write Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach of Pew. “It creates a map for citizens to navigate society. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map.”

"Journalism is good at solving small problems or taking small bites of a big problem. It’s not good at solving big problems." Adapted from David Simon, creator of The Wire.

Retrospective : five decades of journalism as reported by CJR

Fake AP Stylebook reminds us: Unless you're doing a story on the Muppets, you are not a gonzo journalist.

"The once idealized information superhighway has become a parking lot of error, misinformation, rumor and junk." Poynter Institute, advocating a broader definition of who is a journalist.