This is Your Father's Blog

Jeff at Notes on the Atrocities (no permalinks) talks about ABC's The Note tearing apart the liberal press. Jeff doesn't see much real life support for what The Note claims is the curent state of the media. And neither do I.

But I never really got The Note:

Here are a few quotes from it that capture the whole effort for me:

This one is about how they covered Congressman Kuchinch more than anyone else:
(emphasis and whining tone are The Note's)

12.12.03 If there is criticism to be made regarding news organizations failure to devote resources to taking the Kucinich candidacy seriously, we believe ABC News should be last in line for that, not first.

Okay. As long as we agree that they should be in that line.

This one is about the capture of Saddam:

15.15.03 Did anyone come up with anything beyond "good for the president, (maybe) bad for Dean" analysis: not really.

Is The Note going to do any better: no.

I have no idea what this one is about:

02.10.04 That a certain network's Sunday morning anchor with a long name and a knack for politics is celebrating his 43rd birthday today.

And they hate Howard Dean:

12.09.03"As for Dean, for a "normal" candidate, on a normal day, getting word of the endorsement of the NEA of New Hampshire or raising over a million dollars would be news to shout from the rooftops.

David Brooks' must-read New York Times column says Howard Dean is "incoherent and contradictory," and those are some of the nicer things he says about him, in calling him "Internet Man."

Read all of the Notes that lead up to the Durham Debate - what they persisted against all better judgment in calling "The Dust-Up in Durham". They plugged it relentlessly and foolishly - the slew of ABC ads at the top of the site just weren't enough promotion I guess.

The Note is a corporate, faux-hip, blog that adds nothing to the coversation and takes time out for unfunny jokes and to celebrate mystery newspeople's birthdays in a cutesy gossip column way. And they hate Howard Dean. But maybe it was all ironic. They do a lot of irony ... or they don't. The only way to know for sure is if the next day the headline is forced to explain that they were kidding the day before.

Which brings us back to the beginning and their post about the liberal media. They had run a satirical poll the day before. And then, when nobody got their joke, they got very serious - - home-late-on-a-school-night serious. We needed a good talking to. Thanks ABC. We'll never be so dense again - unless - are you kidding now, because that would just blow our minds.

I don't like or respect the work the Note does. I trust nearly nothing that comes out of the Disney-ESPN-ABC monolith. I don't believe the nonsense they're peddling about the liberal bias of the press and I don't think that they are in any kind of position to make a judgment about press bias in the first place. The most generous thing I can think to say is that the writers may have developed a kind of Stockholm Syndrome working so closely with ABC. They should get out more. Like to FOX News, or any cable news show, or the the Wall St. Journal, or the Washington Times, or to any talk radio show ...

UPDATE: 2.13.04: Atrios has this on ABC:

"ABC AWOL
So, I'm watching ABC's coverage of the AWOL issue and Terry Moran just said that the Dentist document "disproves" Terry MacAuliffe's charge that Bush was AWOL. What the hell? No one ever claimed that Bush never ever ever ever ever showed up for any Guard duty ever. The point is that he missed a medical exam in Texas, was grounded from flying, appears to have missed at least 6 months of duty at some point, left Texas without getting permission, got retroactive permission after he arrived in Alabama, and then potentially didn't show up as promised in Alabama, even if he did get his Teefers checked.

Liberal media my ass.

...Peter Jennings also reported a bunch of crappy poll numbers for the administration, but then made sure we all knew that this was only because the Democrats have been getting lots of positive coverage ."

Comments

[Jeff]

I knew the Note existed, but I hadn't really ever followed it. Like so many other sites, it floated just beyond the reach of my consciousness. Well, now I know.