Journalism you simply aren’t seeing in the traditional media anymore: Bill McKibben’s “Global Warmings Terrifying New Math” is telling truth to a society that doesn’t want to hear it. Our grandchildren will loathe us for this and other thefts from their future, and they will be right.
Category: Kudos
Rolling Stone Ahead of the Crowd, Again, on Financial Sleaze
Once again Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi has been ahead of the rest of the financial journalists covering the sleaze of Wall Street and its pet regulators in Washington. The latest piece shows how the SEC has remained almost totally in Wall Street’s pocket during the Obama administration — yet more proof, not that we needed it, that this president isn’t interested in rooting out the crooks, public or private.
It’s also disgusting to see that some media organizations, notably the Wall Street Journal, are reluctant to credit Rolling Stone. I read a follow-up to Taibbi’s piece in yesterday’s print edition, and it failed to mention that this was a RS scoop. The online edition didn’t credit RS until the 11th paragraph.
I recently resubscribed to Rolling Stone after many years of not getting the magazine. The work of Taibbi and his colleagues is a key reason.
A Wise Warning, and Real Journalism from an Unexpected Source
My friend and occasional colleague Scott Rosenberg warns in a CNN column that we all need to be careful of the “gotcha” stunts of people like James O’Keefe, a protege of the infamous Andrew Breitbart. In this case Scott is discussing O’Keefe’s successful efforts to get NPR to panic in the face of some off-putting remarks a fundraising executive (who has resigned) made about Tea Party supporters. (Scott also makes kind mention of Mediactive in the column.)
Meanwhile, the best analysis so far of the O’Keefe stunt comes not from NPR supporters or traditional media. Rather, it’s in this detailed examination of the video on Glenn Beck’s site, The Blaze — and the bottom line is that the NPR exec’s statements look much more benign and O’Keefe’s tactics look (if this is possible) even worse. Who’d have thought this might happen? Not me, I confess — and I’m going to start paying more attention to the site as a result.
ProPublica’s Pulitzers (and Other Great Work)
I’ve had my issues with ProPublica in the past, and haven’t changed my mind on what I said back then.
But the organization, as I also have said, is doing brilliant work — and I don’t mean solely the great stuff by Sheri Fink that won a Pulitzer Prize today and was a finalist for another.
Last week, ProPublica and NPR released a report that everyone should read and listen to. It exposed some of slimest financial dealings known to date about the financial bubble that nearly brought down the global economy: in this case, a hedge fund’s working both sides of a street in ways should make you sick, and absolutely furious.
Kudos to all. This is journalism at its finest.