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Category Archives: journalism

Credibility

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Scott Gurvey Leave a comment

* THERE IS AN UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM 3/27/2024 *

If you are a journalist, at the end of the day, that’s what you have standing behind you. You either have credibility, or you don’t. And in the 21st century, it is often a debatable subject. The debate has turned into an insurrection at NBC, following the announcement that the company has hired Ronna McDaniel, the former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), as a political news contributor.

NBC News senior vp politics Carrie Budoff Brown wrote her staff, “I’m pleased to announce Ronna McDaniel is joining us as an NBC News political analyst. She will contribute her expert insight and analysis on American politics and the 2024 election across all NBC News platforms.”

Charles Osgood

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Scott Gurvey Leave a comment

I heard him long before I met him. I remember sitting in the cafeteria CBS had set up in the basement of New York’s Madison Square Garden to feed the hundreds of staff members it had brought to the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Believe it or not, in those days the political conventions meant something and, in part because of legal requirements, they were extensively covered by broadcasters.

Just two years out of journalism school, I had been sent by my employer, WBBM-TV, the CBS owned station in my hometown Chicago, to manage our coverage. Along with me was a terrific video crew and a wonderful reporter who needed no supervision and little assistance, and an anchorman who definitely needed both. Those are stories for another day. Today, I just want to talk about the voice.

Tommy Smothers

Posted on January 2, 2024 by Scott Gurvey One comment

His mother always liked his brother best. That was his go-to line. Tommy Smothers (left above) was an American comedian, actor, composer, and musician, best known as half of the musical comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, alongside his younger brother Dick. He was born in 1937, in New York City, and passed away on December 26, 2023, at the age of eighty-six in Santa Rosa, California.

When I look back over my blogs, I see that the few obituaries I write are always about people who have had a significant impact on me. Smothers is one of those people. When I think of Tom I think of the Sixties. This was my coming-of-age decade, and one that stands out as a turning point in American history.

Yes or No?

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Scott Gurvey 3 comments

Embed from Getty Images

(L-R) Dr. Claudine Gay, President of Harvard University, Liz Magill, President of University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Pamela Nadell, Professor of History and Jewish Studies at American University, and Dr. Sally Kornbluth, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building on December 05, 2023, in Washington, DC. The Committee held a hearing to investigate antisemitism on college campuses.

Let me give you a piece of advice. If someone asks you if calling for the genocide of the Jewish people violates the standards of your organization, the answer is “Yes!” Do not equivocate. Do not hesitate. Do not turn to your lawyer and ask for a legal brief balancing the right of free expression against the fighting words involved in a call for the violent elimination of a race of people. Just say, “Yes!”

Fox Settles

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Scott Gurvey One comment

It would have been glorious. Can’t you just imagine the theater? Picture the big mouths of the Fox empire on the witness stand, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Rupert Murdoch and the lessor lights being cross examined. Answering questions from lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems. Knowing that the judge had already determined that the Fox personalities had lied about Dominion. Knowing that emails they and other Fox employees wrote, released to the public in various pre-trial motions, showed that the Fox operation was anything but a traditional news organization with a goal of informing the public as to the truth of events. Rather, the evidence demonstrated that the self-named “Fox News Channel” is a sham, pursuing ratings and the loyalty of its right-wing audience at the expense of all else.

We’ve seen plenty. But we will be denied seeing the next act of this long running drama. Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News for pushing false accusations that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election. The trial was set to last six weeks. But just after the swearing in of the 12-person jury in the Wilmington, Delaware courtroom, before the lawyers could make their opening statements, Judge Eric Davis announced a settlement had been reached.

The Fox Lies Channel

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Scott Gurvey 2 comments

Here’s a shocker. The people on the Fox News Channel lie. They knowingly lie. They lie all the time. Anyone with the common sense to distinguish between fact and fiction has known this for a long time. But the facts were never so clear as they are in a recent court filing by Dominion Voting Systems.

Here are the basic facts:

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion for spreading false claims that Dominion rigged the 2020 presidential election.
A new court filing shows that Fox anchors and executives privately ridiculed former President Trump’s lies about the election even while promoting them on air.
The filing also reveals that Fox ignored warnings from its own staff, experts, and lawyers that the claims were baseless and harmful.
The filing includes internal emails, text messages, and transcripts that show how Fox hosts and guests knowingly spread misinformation to boost ratings and appease Trump.