(nicked from Frank Rich NYT 2/15/08…talking to Axelrod in re Obama getting the Stimulus passed)

“It’s why our campaign was not based in Washington but in Chicago,” he said. “We were somewhat insulated from the echo chamber. In the summer of ’07, the conventional wisdom was that Obama was a shooting star; his campaign was irretrievably lost; it was a ludicrous strategy to focus on Iowa; and we were falling further and further behind in the national polls.” But even after the Iowa victory, this same syndrome kept repeating itself. When Obama came out against the gas-tax holiday supported by both McCain and Clinton last spring, Axelrod recalled, “everyone in D.C. thought we were committing suicide.”

The stimulus battle was more of the same. “This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking,” he says. Once the frenzy got going, it didn’t matter that most polls showed support for Obama and his economic package: “If you watched cable TV, you’d see our support was plummeting, we were in trouble. It was almost like living in a parallel universe.”

For Axelrod, the moral is “not just that Washington is too insular but that the American people are a lot smarter than people in Washington think.”

Doggone it, I feel smarter already.

At least some of our LAT machines take all coins.

but as paper after paper close out-of-town (or local, for that matter) bureaus, there is less original reporting happening – with no end in sight as the bleeding continues. for instance today i read at laobserved.com that the chicago trib is shutting its jerusalem bureau. while citizen journalists in israel can (and will) provide text and video reporting in the future, this is rarely a substitute for journalists employed by a news organization – especially at news-worthy moments when emotions are running high. it doesn’t mean that citizen j’s are bad – they add an amazing new element to how we can understand events in the world. but they shouldn’t be depended upon to substitute for what we’ve had in the past – especially if they want to be.

the problem is two-fold: there’s a question of training – the quality of the reporting. and there’s money, because it takes $$ to underwrite investigation, to sustain a reporter, etc.

the staff of an endeavor like neon-tommy – j-students, i think – can fill some holes in l.a., because it’s got a staff whose business it is to stay on top of things. but on larger, far-flung issues and events, we – readers or all kinds, bloggers, you, and me – depend on news organizations that sponsor, screen, and distribute content.

i attended the november conference at usc – slow food or slow journalism, or whatever it was called. and it was hopeful as far as promoting a focused, diy approach to the future of journalism. but i felt it still left a lot of questions unanswered when it comes to floating important ventures, no matter how sharp the insights or how strong the will of any individual.

http://www.inyork.com/state/ci_11582202

http://games.latimes.com/

Unfortunately the LAT racks only take quarters. Wish it weren’t so.

As for Mr. Rainey, he is no doubt conscious that today’s “real” journalist is tomorrow’s “citizen” journalist. Even as he waves the flag for the former, he is one bad corporate quarter from the latter. I’m sure he has been in touch with his former colleagues who have been crushed under the weight of the free market economy. That said, he seems to be fending off “survivor’s guilt” rather successfully.

Myself, I preserve my amateur status zealously.

This recession thingy has hit our household, in re news and media. In the past month my girlfriend and I decided that some things had to go. Cable subcription — nixed. Hello Hulu Free TV. 75 cents for the LA Times — don’t they realize that that’s a serious problem with one’s ability to horde away laundry quarters. Reading it on line without the burden of recycling.

Not having the quick access of the remote to dial in cable news had created some withdrawal cravings, but those passed within a few days. On the other hand, our Bookmark Menus have gotten very, very long. There’s piles of good stuff out there. We’ve got our favorites well honed.

Imo, a few of the newspapers have actually gotten better by adding the on line component, even as they financially suffer at the news racks. The Detroit Free Press is a good example (although to be honest, having a huge target like the human crime wave that was Mayor Kilpatrick probably made it easier.) Meanwhile the venerable Cleveland Plain Dealer seems to have slipped quite a bit.

The world would be a better place – and the world of journalism would be raising its standards – if Michael Green, of whom the only thing I know is that he shows up periodically to comment at Marc’s blog, was put in charge of the Washington Post editorial page.

Be more entertaining and be real…like these news guys.

Because they earned it and deserve it.

What I find so offensive in Rainey’s lament is his reference to the presumptive needs of a democracy. It’s hard for me to imagine a democracy that could be more poorly served than by the press that we have now.

I got directed to this piece by a commenter in a thread of a different blog yesterday. MJ Rosenberg was describing the interchange between Obama and Helen Thomas. Ms. Thomas had the audacity to ask, does he know of any Middle Eastern state with nukes? Obama didn’t answer with what every marginally intelligent blog reader knows; Israel. And, why not? Rosenberg asserts,

Simple. Because if he did, the media would have reported it as a gaffe. Reporters either know nothing about the Middle East or, for the most part, have adopted Israel’s perspective.

Had Obama spoken the truth, the media would have made his “blunder” the story of the night.

Our folly in the middle east is a critical issue for this democratic society in which we presume to participate. And, long before we were pouring dollars into the gaping maw of the banks, we were pouring dollars into the military adventure in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, before that Israel. Dollars we can ill afford.

I’d be most pleased if I could find a decent discussion of our middle east policies in Rainey’s newspaper. Maybe he could step up and see if he could discuss Israel within the context of nuclear proliferation the next time someone decides it’s time to get hysterical over Iran.

The fact is that, while most blogs obviously suck, so do most newspapers – even most major metro ones (I won’t mention any names – “Bay Area”…oooops) which is far more disgraceful than the fact that Joe the Plumber is an idiot or some LaLaland schmuck who apparently can’t get his screenplays produced anymore sent him to Israel to taunt Israeli reporters.

The truth is what Judith Miller did to the reputation of the New York Times is worse than anything anyone could do to the reputation of PJMania. And I’m a faithful reader of the Times, which is IMHO the only printed paper left in the US worth reading or that serves as a truly global information resource – although other “old media” resources such as the McClatchy Bureau (ironically a chain of small city papers whose reporting I’d take over the LA Times or Chicago Tribune in a minute) and the Christian Science Monitor – now web-based – provide some excellent journalism. WSJ is obviously a very mixed, erratic bag.

So yes, “nuevo” journalism has to prove itself. And at this point I’d consider Josh Marshall/TPM a pro operation, not an amateur blogger, precisely because they have proven themselves. It should also be noted that some of the best political and general commentary blogs are operations that have been adopted by “professional” journalistic enterprises like Washington Monthly, American Prospect, the Atlantic and Mother Jones. And the Washington Post snatched up some very good talent from TPM, while TPM hired a well-known professional journalist away from Time. So these are not totally seperate worlds anymore in the upper echelons. Also various web operations serve different purposes – Kos is an attempt to organize, energize a political network, while TPM is a news-investigative site with clear political leanings (although it’s sub-site TPM-Cafe is an effort to create an interactive blogging community.)

It’s an interesting world – one in which an upstart “blogger” (in fact, a paid reporter who files very respectable copy) for the crazy-quilt (and I mean that in a good way) Huffington Post asks an incisive, challenging question at the Obama press conference and some serious, schooled sage from the Washington Post grins and asks the President about A-Rod in the midst of the most serious economic crisis in decades and two wars. So, yeah, people have to earn respect in their chosen field, earn their audience, demonstrate their skill and evolve sustainable business models – some of which will be non-traditional in the evolving wired media world, such as non-profits – if they want to work full-time and be paid. Who knew ?

regards and salutations,

-Omar