James O’Keefe: Do conservative news sites have credibility issues?

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Too often, conservative sites have failed to distinguish between solid scoops and feverish conspiracy theories, between methodical reporting and harassment, thereby damaging their credibility.
Daily Beast columnist Benjamin Sarlin • Regarding the James O’Keefe arrest in the grander scheme of things. Which is to say that many conservative Web sites excel at opinion but completely fail at credible reporting. O’Keefe’s take on gonzo journalism is interesting, but definitely not ethical. And other conservative Web icons – including Powerline (which broke the Rathergate saga) and Michelle Malkin – have had shining moments but inconsistent results. BigGovernment.com, which paid O’Keefe, may now be headed down that road. Sarlin gives credit to Tucker Carlson of the just-launched Daily Caller for trying to raise the standards to the likes of The Huffington Post. Will it work? We’ll see. source

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08 Dec 2009 23:03

What Gotti understood, albeit at some primitive level, is that the news media abhor a vacuum and that if you don’t face them on your own terms, they will create the terms for you.
Reuters columnist Charles Feldman • In a column titled “What Tiger Woods Can Learn From John Gotti,” which looks at Woods’ mishandling of the media. Feldman is making the very argument we’ve been making for the last week and a half. Which is that Woods is so concerned about his privacy that he’s doing the opposite of everything he should be doing as a public figure. Woods isn’t afraid to accept the public’s money for his success, so he shouldn’t be afraid to come clean when he’s done wrong. He’s completely allowed the press to write the terms of his failings, so now the fall from grace is even more spectacular and painful as a result. (David Letterman clearly knew this, BTW.) source

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My column has been popular around the country, but now it was really going to be impossible for people outside Long Island to read it.
80-year-old former Newsday columnist (and lifelong newsman) Saul Friedman • On his reasons for suspending his popular “Gray Matters” column for the newspaper. They all have to do with Cablevision’s decision to start charging $5 a week for non-subscribers to read the paper online. Friedman’s column wouldn’t be able to reach outside of its Long Island home base as a result, despite the fact the column has a national audience. Friedman himself lives in the D.C. area, so he would have to pay, too. Where does Friedman go next? The blog “Time Goes By,” which seems like a much better place for an 80-year-old guy who understands the internet better than a cable company. • source

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He is, so to speak, the son Alfred Nobel never had (minus the dynamite fortune), the best and most significant spokesman for everything the Peace Prize has stood for these 108 years.
Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens • Describing why Barack Obama may, in fact, be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. Stephens notes that the award, minus a few oddball exceptions (Yasser Arafat) and obvious winners (Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.), has largely been given to “Goodists,” people who have made an effort to be seen as good and to see problems as solvable misunderstandings between well-intentioned people. An interesting perspective, for sure, written by someone who knows what he’s talking about. • source

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It’s a bold approach to take. Newspapers across the U.S. have felt the devastating effects of the economy on their business, and the San Jose Mercury News is a microcosm for the whole mess. Caught in the center of more than one major storm – the merging of Knight Ridder with McClatchy (which destabilized the entire industry), its purchase by MediaNews, and the ensuing cuts – the paper went from crown jewel to shell of its former self in a few short years. Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy asks for help from readers in today’s paper – it’s frank, it’s honest and it hides nothing. Good for them. source

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Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory has the merit of clarifying the situation within the Islamic Republic. The choice is now between a repressive regime based on a bizarre and obscurantist ideology and the prospect of real change and democratization. There is no halfway house.
Conservative commentator Amir Taheri • In a column for the Wall Street Journal, where he points out how Iran’s election has made the line between democracy and sorta-democracy clear. In other words, sorta-democracy doesn’t exist. Taheri ends his column by saying, regarding Ahmadinejad and his hard-line approach to victory, “hubris may turn out to be his undoing.” Hopefully it isn’t ours. • source

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