Ah, Poop

[duckfoot]

Watching CNN about Dennis Hastert and they are showing old pictures of him and an alleged victim. Up pops a picture of him and the victim in Scout uniforms. Feel like hitting my head on a wall.

[Stosh]

Welcome to the 21st Century Journalism.  People Magazine and National Inquirer used to be the epitome of junk journalism.  Not that they have improved over time, but the rest of the media outlets have pretty much dropped down to their level of profits over truth.

[walk in the woods]

It's not profit over truth if it's true.  He received a distinguished service award from the local council in 2001 for serving 17 years with the explorer post in Yorkville.  He also received the Silver Buffalo in 2004.  It might be agenda-driven sensationalism but that sadly doesn't make it false.

[Horizon]

The recent revelation from a victim's sister is that he had contact with the boy both in his role as a wrestling coach and in the Explorer unit.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/05/politics/dennis-hastert-victim-named-steven-reinboldt/

 

Burdge said Hastert had "plenty of opportunities to be alone" with her brother because he was frequently around during wrestling meets, and was also a member of an Explorers troop that Hastert ran. At one point, Hastert took the group on a trip to the Bahamas.

 

"[steven Reinboldt] was there after everything because he did the laundry, the uniforms. So he was there by himself with [Hastert]," Burdge said.

[Stosh]

It's not profit over truth if it's true.  He received a distinguished service award from the local council in 2001 for serving 17 years with the explorer post in Yorkville.  He also received the Silver Buffalo in 2004.  It might be agenda-driven sensationalism but that sadly doesn't make it false.

 

Well, we don't know if it's true unless we are using the media now as the judicial system. I must have missed that memo.

[Rick_in_CA]

Welcome to the 21st Century Journalism.  People Magazine and National Inquirer used to be the epitome of junk journalism.  Not that they have improved over time, but the rest of the media outlets have pretty much dropped down to their level of profits over truth.

Yeah. Especially broadcast "journalism". They went from "informing the public as part of our license mandated public service" too "our first priority is to sell advertising" (wasn't it Regan that removed the public service requirement for broadcasters? Or was it a later administration?).

[Gone]

Yeah. Especially broadcast "journalism". They went from "informing the public as part of our license mandated public service" too "our first priority is to sell advertising" (wasn't it Regan that removed the public service requirement for broadcasters? Or was it a later administration?).

 

It was the FFC chairman under Reagan. But let's not find the political scapegoat.

 

Leaving cable media out of the debate since they would not fall under the Fairness Doctrine, broadcast journalism could, if they wanted to, conform to the spirit of the Fairness Doctrine and perform actual journalism, presenting both sides of an issue. Let's face it, to play the ratings (read: money) game, even broadcast journalists have given up and sold out. That's no one's fault but their own.

[Horizon]

The media has never been fair and balanced. We can go back to the yellow journalism battle between Hearst and Pulitzer in the late 1800s to see that. Television might have had some semblance of gravitas, but even that was limited. Walter Cronkite's Vietnam War "editorial" in 1968 after Tet - should they have run a counter-argument?

 

Media has also always been dependent on advertisers. You can watch shows get pulled when advertisers pull their ads. If you don't get the eyeballs, you don't get the revenue, and your show dies.

 

The Fairness Doctrine only works if you think that there are only two sides to the story - but that is far from reality. Cable and the Internet provides more than enough perspectives.

 

As for Hastert - this is news because he was being blackmailed to the tune of over a million dollars, money earned thanks to a lucrative lobbying business created after he stepped down as Speaker of the House plus money earned thanks to some questionable activities while still being in the House. Add in that this revolves around a sexual abuse scandal and, as we said, this story has legs. This would have had legs in any generation. Remember grover Cleveland and "Ma Ma Where's My Pa?"

 

There were no good old days, in my opinion.

[NJCubScouter]

It's not profit over truth if it's true.  He received a distinguished service award from the local council in 2001 for serving 17 years with the explorer post in Yorkville.  He also received the Silver Buffalo in 2004.  It might be agenda-driven sensationalism but that sadly doesn't make it false.

Well, we don't know if it's true unless we are using the media now as the judicial system. I must have missed that memo.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suppose that dcsimmons was not saying the allegations against Hastert are true (as indeed, none of us know if they are true at this point) but that he was saying it is true that Hastert was an Explorer leader and that this young man was one of the Explorers. There seem to be photos showing this to be true. Of course, that has nothing to do with whether the allegations of sexual misconduct are true, and in all likelihood there will never be a judicial determination of whether they are true. The young man died 20 years ago and even if he was still alive, the statute of limitations would have run out a long time ago. (I know that some states (at least) have extended or eliminated statutes of limitation for prosecution of this type of offense, but that happened after these events would have taken place.)

 

What surprised me in that article is that this is not even the young man who is the source of the allegations mentioned in the indictment, this is another alleged victim. And the indictment has nothing to do with sexual misconduct itself. Hastert was indicted for making false material statements to federal investigators and for structuring currency transactions so as to evade federal reporting requirements.

[moosetracker]

I wonder if more will come out of the woodwork.. 

 

I guess I can understand a few staying quite if they fear not being believed,  but when one speaks up then the number of people who come out with the "me too" is overwhelming.. Back in the 60/70's when it was seen as the victims fault I know there was a reason for it, but I really sincerely hope things have changed enough that more are reporting and hopefully stopping the molester from victimizing scores of children or women after them.

[TAHAWK]

If there is only one side, is it "fair" to present those facts or do we have to pretend there is no story?

[Stosh]

As a kid I read the paper pretty faithfully every day.  I soon learned to stay away from the opinion page because someone's opinion wasn't really news.  It was just their opinionated slant on spinning the news.  

 

Today I'm down to sticking with the comics, obits and want ads, which fortunately I can get off the internet.  The newspapers aren't making any money off me today and that pretty much the case for most news outlets on the internet and television.  Everything ioday is just opinions, not the facts as they have happened.  

Edited June 6, 2015 by Stosh