“I GENERALLY VOTE REPUBLICAN, AND I’M ASHAMED OF THE REPUBLICANS:” Here’s video of Dave Ramsey savaging the bankruptcy bill. “You’ve got a bad business model because you give dead people, dogs, and people who shouldn’t have credit cards, credit cards — then quit giving them credit cards! . . . This is bought and paid for by the bankers, baby, and it is anti-consumer — a real bad plan. I am positive that the backers of the plan had their back pocket in mind. . . . It’s wrong.”

A LOT OF PEOPLE are noticing this story from the New York Times about prepackaged fake news from the Bush Administration. But if you read the whole thing, to coin a phrase, you come upon this passing acknowledgement:

The practice, which also occurred in the Clinton administration, is continuing despite President Bush’s recent call for a clearer demarcation between journalism and government publicity efforts.

Funny, but I don’t remember much of a stink about it when it happened during the Clinton Administration. However, Peter Morgan and I wrote about the practice in The Appearance of Impropriety and you can read a slightly-different version online here:

Those who followed the uproar of Senator Biden’s speech, or for that matter the more recent flap over Joe Klein’s false denial of authorship with regard to the novel Primary Colors, might have been surprised to know how little of the content in their daily newspaper or newscast actually originated with the producers and editors.

News stories, to a degree seldom appreciated by the general public, are often the product of press releases generated by trade associations and interest groups. Often those releases are converted into news stories by the simple expedient of placing a reporter’s byline on top. Television news stories (especially those appearing on local stations) are often supplied fully produced, with blank spots left for the local news reporter to insert commentary that makes the story appear his or her own. Opinion columns are often “placed” by businesses or interest groups to support a particular point of view — often, they are even written by those groups and then run with the byline of distinguished individuals, or even regular commentators, who have barely read the piece, much less written it. Indeed, the Sasso “attack video” was something of this sort, for the journalists who broke the Biden/Kinnock story did not at first disclose their source.

Most readers and viewers have small appreciation of how little of what they see on television or read in newspapers and magazines is original with the reporters, editors, and producers involved. Yet in fact news organizations are highly dependent on predigested information from public relations firms, government officials, and advocacy groups, information that is often passed on to their readers and viewers with no indication that it is not original. That problem is not new, but it has gotten worse in recent years. . . .

Although a “video news release” is still more expensive to produce than a standard paper press release, they have become much more common. According to a recent poll, seventy-five percent of TV news directors reported using video news releases at least once per day.

These releases, with their high quality images and slick production, are produced by companies and groups who want to get their message across, but don’t want simply to purchase advertising time. They are designed so that television producers at local stations or (less often) major networks, can simply intersperse shots of their own reporters or anchors (often reading scripted lines provided with the release) to give the impression that the story is their own. Their use has been the subject of considerable controversy within the journalistic profession, although some commentators have claimed that they are used no more often, or misleadingly, than written press releases are used by the print media.

A recent scandal in Britain involved network use of a video news release produced by the group Greenpeace that some considered misleading. But of course for every video news release, or VNR as they are called in the trade, that comes from an environmental group there are hundreds that come from businesses or government organizations. Though a keen eye can usually spot a VNR (hint: the subject matter wouldn’t otherwise be news, and it usually involves experts and locales far from the station that airs it) most viewers probably believe that today’s story on cell-phone safety or miracle bras is just another product of the news program’s producers – and hence, implicitly backed by the news people’s public commitment to objective journalism. The truth, however, is different.

It is fair to say that the wholesale use of others’ work is a major part of modern journalism. But news officials are quick to distinguish that from plagiarism. In a mini-scandal at the San Diego Tribune, a reporter’s story was cancelled when editors noticed that it looked very much like a story that had already appeared elsewhere. At first, presumably, it was thought that the story had been taken from the other publication. Then it turned out that both stories were simply near-verbatim versions of a press release. According to the Tribune’s deputy editor, that wasn’t plagiarism. “If you look up the definition of plagiarism, it is the unauthorized use of someone’s material. When someone sends you a press packet, you’re entitled to use everything in there.”

Follow the link, if you want more, including a quote from Daniel Boorstin demonstrating that fake news goes back a long way. Suddenly, however, it’s controversial. Perhaps if “real” news were, well, better, it would be harder to pass off the fake stuff . . . .

UPDATE: Here’s an earlier column of mine on this phenomenon, in the non-profit context.

ROGER SIMON quotes Moon Zappa.

MORE NEWS FROM KYRGYZSTAN: Mixed reports.

HEH. Indeed.

JOHN HAWKINS SHILLS FOR AN ADVERTISER: More than they thought they were buying, I suspect.

INTERESTING ARTICLE ON LIFE EXTENSION in Sunday’s (London) Times. Aubrey de Grey and Leon Kass are featured; you can read my interview of de Grey from a while back here. Meanwhile, Dr. Tony looks at medicine in 2030. Bring it on!

STEPHEN GREEN JOINS THE CULT, having purchased a 30G iPod Photo.

Quoth Stephen: “Did I mention how tiny, shiny and pretty it is?”

UPDATE: How can you resist when Nostradamus predicted the iPod? Or was it the “iSpud?” [The “iSpud” could be a powerful anti-terror weapon! — Ed. Just call ’em “Freedom Fries.”]

GREYHAWK OF THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE has put in his 20 years. In an email, he observes:

As an Active Duty guy this means I can retire and get half my pay (or from another angle, that I’m now actually working for only half my pay) – a figure that can be called ‘modest’ at best. But that and some small advertising income may allow me to devote full time energies to blogging, and I’m seriously considering it.

I wouldn’t quit my dayjob for blogging, but then I’m not eligible for retirement. If you’d like him to go fulltime, be sure to patronize his blog advertisers, buy things via his Amazon links, hit his tipjar, send him positive email, etc. In other words, do what you’d do for any blogger you like.

He’s certainly on a hot streak — just keep scrolling. Maybe pro-blogging will suit him!

I STILL MISS WILL VEHRS’ PUNDITWATCH, whose hiatus appears to have become permanent. But this roundup of the Sunday shows from RedState is pretty good.

A RATHER NEGATIVE REVIEW of the CBS RatherGate report, in the New York Review of Books.

TODD ZYWICKI continues to defend the bankruptcy bill.

OUCH: Lance Frizzell photoblogs some reasons to keep the U.N. out of Iraq.

STEVEN LEVY SAYS that the blogosphere needs more diversity:

Law professor Susan Estrich has been hammering Michael Kinsley, the editorial-page editor of the Los Angeles Times, for not running a sufficient number of op-ed pieces by women and minorities. Though the e-mail exchange between the two deteriorated into a spitting match, both agreed that extra care is required to make sure public discussion reflects the actual population.

The top-down mainstream media have to some degree found the will and the means to administer such care. But is there a way to promote diversity online, given the built-in decentralization of the blog world?

I don’t think I like the mainstream media method of achieving diversity, though:

I remember visiting Bob Berger, the op-ed editor, back in the early ’90s. An old-style newspaperman, Bob didn’t like the paper’s demands that he demonstrate “diversity” on the op-ed pages. I especially remember his complaint that he not only had to find gay writers but gay writers who would mention that they were gay. No gay foreign policy experts need apply.

Of course, you don’t get to be an editor in a giant, bureaucratic newspaper if you don’t do what you’re told. Bob not only complied but posted a chart on his door to prove what a good job he was doing. It showed each day’s op-ed page as a line of five boxes, one for each article slot. The boxes were colored either blue or pink.

That’s the LAT! Think inside the box! But if you look at the kind of hate that Zephyr Teachout got from her fellow Deaniacs (see the comments to this post), and if you believe, as Ann Althouse seems to, that women are more sensitive to that sort of attack than men are, then more politeness might help.

But is there really a difference there? If I were a woman, would I have been more hurt when Steven Levy called me an “ankle biter?” Should I have been?

I know that a lot of women feel that men are clamoring to get ahead of them, but on the other hand, I know that a lot of men are afraid that women will pile all over them — and play the double-standard “you’re hitting a girl” gender card — if they say the wrong thing. (And there’s evidence for this — ask Larry Summers.) That’s gender dynamics.

Christine Hurt has thoughts on this phenomenon, and observes:

In the blawgosphere, one thing that I have noticed is that a lot of disagreement goes on among fellow blawgers. I was initially uncomfortable with this and would get nervous, “Oh, no — X just criticized Y’s post! What is Y going to do?” Then I realized that life would go on, and next week Y might agree with X. This is the way of intellectual discourse, but I don’t think it comports with the way that women build relationships.

So, we do we change law school and legal practice and the blawgosphere to conform to the way that women are raised to be sweet and build consensus? No. I think we should teach our girls to speak up without fear. To raise their hands and volunteer, even though they may be completely wrong. To disagree with each other without fear of losing respect or friendship. To not fear having others disagree with them. I have noticed that although there are few female law professor blawgs, there are plenty of female law student blawgs. I think the tide is turning.

Me too. This issue seems to appear more or less annually in the blogosphere. At the very least, we’re doing a better job of dealing with it than Bob Berger.

UPDATE: LaShawn Barber has thoughts on the power of email. Don’t be a pest (there’s one guy who emails me every time he updates his blog, which as a consequence I’ve never visited) but don’t be too shy, either. I try to get around, but there are a lot of blogs. I’m more likely to discover your blog if you send me a link to a post that I’ll be interested in. For more useful advice, I recommend Ambra Nykol’s How to Blog Like a Rock Star, which I mentioned a while back.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Chris Nolan blames Big Media: “Big Media reporters prefer to deal with the ‘top-tier’ bloggers and folks in their own part of the world – the East Coast. That’s who they call for TV. That’s who makes it onto dial-a-quote lists. Those appearance reinforce Big Boy Bloggers’ bigger numbers. On Charlie Rose’ blog show, the guest were Glenn Reynolds, Anna Marie Cox and Andrew Sullivan, no one west of the Mississippi. No minorities. Now that’s diversity Big Media style.” I’m an “East Coast blogger?” This is starting to sound like rap . . . .

Meanwhile, Sissy Willis says I am Blogger, hear me roar . . . “

MORE: Reader Anthony Forte thinks that Levy’s view of diversity is too narrow:

I thought that Steven Levy’s complaints about gender and racial diversity were kind of interesting, considering how diverse the “white males” that “dominate” the top bloggers are. A look at, say, the TTLB Ecosystem reveals people with very different political opinions, life experiences, day jobs, and perspectives. To complain that that this is meaningless because they are the same race/gender seems rather narrowminded.

He’s got more on his blog, with an amusing post title.

STILL MORE: Roxanne is merciless. She’s not afraid to speak out! And Gerard van der Leun notes that it all comes back to the Law of the Blogger in the end.

HERE’S A COOL PHOTO BLOG FROM IRAQ, by a civilian who’s working there.

EGYPTIAN OPPOSITION LEADER AYMAN NOUR has been released.

Egyptian blogger Big Pharaoh is happy, but also reports that the Mubarak regime is responding with a barrage of anti-American propaganda in government media.

Thanks, Hosni, for playing into our hands. When your regime is toppled, people will give us the credit, now, instead of blaming us for propping you up!

I’M AT THE CAR WASH (FREE WI-FI!) watching Henry Kissinger and Richard Holbrooke talk about Syria and Lebanon on CNN. Kissinger expects Syria to play “cheat and retreat,” while Holbrooke seems a bit more hopeful.

MORE BOLIVIA NEWS AT PUBLIUS: “The people have spoken. Thousands of Bolivians in many cities have come out and rallied behind President Mesa. Gratifyingly, the news photos showed lots of Indian faces. President Mesa’s victory from his ‘resignation’ seems to have forged a fragile consensus across the country in favor of freer markets, foreign investment and more openness to the world.”

But what will Hugo Chavez say? Or do?

MORE NEWS from Kyrgyzstan and Riyadh.

SUNNY AND IN THE 60S: Went for a walk in Sequoyah Park (pictured here) with the Insta-Daughter. I didn’t get as much exercise as I would have if I had gone alone, but there were other rewards.

BUT I THOUGHT BLOGS DON’T DO ORIGINAL REPORTING? Austin Bay interviews Benazir Bhutto.

INSTAPUNDIT’S AFGHANISTAN PHOTO CORRESPONDENT, Major John Tammes, has come to the end of his deployment. That’s good news for him, but bad news for InstaPundit readers, as his photos and reports have provided a view of Afghanistan that Big Media folks haven’t. (And they’ve wound up in some big media outlets!) Please join me in thanking him for his service to the nation, to the world, and to the blogosphere. Meanwhile, here’s his final report:

I actually got a chance to go “outside the wire” one more time – so this will be my last report before redeploying home. On the way back from Charikar, I saw this remnant of the old “Hippie Trail” days. I gather that hippy-types used to stumble off of Chicken Street in Kabul into buses like this, and head up to Charikar for further “enlightenment”. As I leave here, I hope Afghanistan can one day be a tourist destination again – if for more, er…sober type individuals. . . .

I could not believe that 20 years and one day ago, I had enlisted as a private in the Illinois Army National Guard – and now here I was, one last time, staring out over the Afghan countryside. There is so much more I could tell – I have seen so many things here that break your heart, and many that gave renewed hope – but that will be for another time. I will limit myself, in conclusion, to thanking you for letting one citizen-soldier tell the world at least some of what is happening here.

As I said, thanks are due to you, Major Tammes, and not the other way around. And we’ll see tourism sooner than it seems now, I predict. It’s fitting, perhaps, that an Afghan blog has appeared just as Major Tammes is leaving.

Here’s a self-portrait that Major Tammes sent me a while ago, along with a few of his photos. In most cases you can click on them for the original report.

UPDATE: Some people wonder what kind of camera Major Tammes was using. As I mentioned before at some point, he’s been using an Olympus C-750. I resized his photos, and applied a bit of color-correction and sharpening sometimes.

And at the risk of being snarky regarding the “blogs don’t do original reporting” claim, I’ll note that thanks to Major Tammes, InstaPundit had more correspondents in Afghanistan than most major U.S. newspapers.

HERE’S A REPORT ON HAPPENINGS IN BOLIVIA.

OOPS:

The facts seem simple enough. A rather hum-drum late nineteenth century novelist, Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins (1863-1938), finds late twentieth century cachet when she is identified as an African American author. . . .

Holly Jackson’s discovery shows that Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins was white. Her family knew that all along. Her novels included no people of color. Only the scholars believed Kelley-Hawkins was an African American writer and that her novels betrayed no race consciousness became a matter for interpretation. But why would scholars not have taken the relentlessly white novels of Kelley-Hawkins as a signal that she was white? Did we read them and do the archival research about her or did we simply rely on an earlier authority’s word for their author’s ethnicity?

Sounds like a case of “too good to check.” Or maybe Hollywood is right, and people are just easy to fool.

LIKE CIVILIZATION: Except with mirror balls.