Journalistic Standards

"I think there's a certain journalistic standard that should be met and in this instance it was not," said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan today in reference to the Newsweek comment on the desecration of the Koran. "The report has had serious consequences," he said. "People have lost their lives. The image of the United States abroad has been damaged."

Scott is right that there are "certain journalistic standard"s that should be met. Like at all the major news outlets - Fox, CNN, NY Times, etc. Unfortunatley, Scott apparently didn't attend the National Conference on Media Reform in St. Louis this weekend. If he did, he would see that there are a lot of people who are genuinely concerned about "journalistic standards" and the impact of government and corporate control over the media, especially the portion of the media seen by a majority of US citizens. Bill Moyer said while addressing this conference "The story I’ve come to share with you goes to the core of our belief that the quality of democracy and the quality of journalism are deeply entwined."

And clearly to everyone but the Fox audience, the quality today is very low.

And if Scott was really concerned about the image of the US abroad, maybe he would let the President know that "renditioning" people to other countries for torture without being accused or without a fair and open trial is also damaging. And, unfortunately, there's more - Abu Ghraib, Guantamano, Kyoto, Environmental Policies, Condoning Whale Killings with low frequency sonar, fiscal irresponsibility, election fraud, John Bolton as an ambassador ... and the list goes on...