Another little "media thing"

Here's an interesting article I read today on washingtonpost.com: "Obama Wrote Federal Staffers About His Goals." It begins: "In wooing federal employee votes on the eve of the election, Barack Obama wrote a series of letters to workers that offer detailed descriptions of how he intends to add muscle to specific government programs, give new power to bureaucrats and roll back some Bush administration policies." (emphasis mine) The piece doesn't give the date the letters were written so I don't know exactly what "eve of the election" means, but it does mention one letter written October 20. Another great "strategy" I guess. But here's what I wonder:

1. What media organizations knew this?
2. When did they know it?
3. Did they agree to wait until after the election to disclose it?
4. In exchange for what? Guaranteed access so they can continue to give us even more of those "according to government sources" stories we've read for the last eight years?

Given the fact he wrote letters to employees of seven different federal agencies, I find it hard to believe that nobody knew this before now.

According to the article:

"He made it clear that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would have an enhanced role in restoring public confidence in the housing market, shaken because of the ongoing mortgage crisis."

Hm-m-m, think he had Ms. Jarrett's prior "urban development" experience in mind when he made that clear?

The "all-things-Obama" media love-fest continues: The Valerie Jarrett appointment

It's been exactly a week since Washington Post ombudsman, Deborah Howell wrote her piece admitting bias in the coverage of "all-things-Obama" during the campaign. This particular sentence elicited such a loud, "Ya think???" from me, I scared my damn self:

"But Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago."

And wonder of wonders, here we are with the mainstream media engaging in gushing, leg-tingling ObamaLove yet again, still not scrutinizing the President-elect's recent appointee. Lord! It feels like the Bush Administration/Iraq war, parrot-the-company-line coverage all over again!

At least the conservative, Judicial Watch is paying attention. Oh I'm sure some esteemed journalists will characterize them as conservative wing nuts or something, but through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, they've got documents backing up what they say in their November 14, Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett Linked to Real Estate Scandals! (She reminds of another Black woman I know who sold a great idea of "revitalization and restoration" of the Black community and then used the cash to unjustly enrich herself and her family for years. The city council finally paid her off to bow the hell out this year as I recall.)

Even Lynn Sweet (whose work I followed because it always had the "balance" clearly missing from the corporate shills of the large print, radio and television media organizations), seems to have soft-pedaled on Valerie Jarrett. Her November 15 piece, The Valerie Jarrett Story. Named senior Obama White House advisor, was certainly not the kind of truth-telling I'd come to know and love. I mean, if you're going to tell "The Valerie Jarrett Story," shouldn't it be the whole story? Judging from the comments section, I'm not alone in my disappointment.

Were it not for Ms. Sweet's prior reporting on the Chicago crew, The Boston Globe's investigative piece to which I linked in my last post and Ryan Lizza's well-written and informative, "Making It, How Chicago shaped Obama" in The New Yorker last July which was swallowed up in the smoke-screen of outrage at the satirical cover - subjective hype and sketchy, yet masterfully presented voting records would've been all I had to begin trying to objectively quiet that nagging feeling of being worked by the man who looked Black like me.

At this point, I don't expect much from most mainstream media outlets. They've got too much invested in holding up this new administration as the "Second Coming" rather than holding them accountable.

Iraq - 5 Years Later...

Lest we forget... The Washington Post - "Faces of the Fallen"

"Real Time with Bill Maher" is Real Time for Hillary Clinton

Just finished watching Real Time with Bill Maher and though I'm really not into the "vote for the Black guy because I'm Black or vote for the woman because I'm a woman" meme, one thing I know is true - we women have lived in a patriarchy all our lives in America and I'm sick and damned tired of it. Bill's guests tonight were actor Adam Goldberg, NPR's broadcast and digital media journalist Farai Chideya (whose show, "News & Notes" I absolutely love!), Joe "Morning Joe" Scarborough, Real Time correspondent Jeremy Scahill and via satellite, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe. As I watched the panelists and Bill discuss the election and Iraq (great clip and insight from Scahill on this), I bristled every time Farai tried to make a point. Though she had been invited, presumably because she had something of value to offer to the conversation, the men acted like she did not even exist. On several occasions, she tried (to no avail) to politely interrupt Scarborough's patronizing lecture about what was happening in the election or what was going on in Iraq, by saying over and over again, "Excuse me, I just have to say..." - at least, not until she finally said forcefully to Scarborough, "No! You listen!" at which point Adam Goldberg dryly interjected, "I was told at the pre-interview, there would be no yelling." I could not help but equate what I was seeing to the Democratic race for the nomination. Like Sen. Clinton, Farai is an engaging, talented and intelligent woman. Like Farai, she's often forced to say, "No! You listen!" to the patriarchal, condescending American media (which, by the way, includes a sprinkling of women like Maureen Dowd or The Washington Post's insufferable, guest columnist, Charlotte Allen who feel they have to grab their proverbial "balls" and insult other women in order to be "one of the boys" or work out some deep, Electra complex childhood wounds) and even Sen. Obama himself. I totally agree with essayist and author, Katha Pollitt in her rebuttal (to Ms. Allen's self-hating opinion piece in the Post), "Dumb and Dumber: An Essay and Its Editors" In it, she said, "Misogyny is the last acceptable prejudice, and nowhere more so than in our nation's clueless and overwhelmingly white-male-controlled media. . . ." Sen. Clinton is repeatedly lambasted by both the mainstream media and Obama supporters whenever she holds her ground or actually goes on the offensive against the senator from Illinois. It seems she's damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. I'm sure she's sick and damned tired of it too.