Matlin to Imus: Whenever admin is criticized on air, they call to complain

[Rose Siding]

I don't think I've ever seen this "policy" admitted to so plainly before. She just spells it out as SOP.

snip>
Other than you, and maybe this has happened to you, when anyone else who purports to be an objective analyst goes on the air and bashes your principle as they're called, and in this case it was the vice president, then you call the bureau chief and you complain.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_02_04_atrios_archive.html#117093712379564271

Maybe job security is as much a consideration as cocktail weenies in some of the media's timidity.

[watrwefitinfor]

1. Geez, why didn't Clinton think of that? n/t

[Cass]

2. Intimidation of the press.

Too bad the press just didn't do their jobs instead of kowtowing to WH pressure. If the press as a whole refused to cave into intimidation, the bullying wouldn't have worked. The media turned into a bunch of simpering enablers. Hope they are proud of themselves.

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. Oh YEAH! This is and always has been SOP. It was going on back during the 2000 election

I remember reading a Newsweek article about KKKRove calling CNN to complain about them covering the psycho's AWOL story. KKKRove threatened them. If they didn't stop it, they would pay dearly. They probably have people who do nothing BUT watch the news coverage and when they see something that 'bashes their priniciple' they immediately pick up the phone to complain about it. It's been going on from DAY ONE....actually, BEFORE day one because the psycho hadn't even stolen the 2000 election yet when KKKRove made that call to CNN.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. you're off by at least 35 years:

<Washington Post Publisher Katherine>Graham presided over the Post at a crucial time in its history. The Post played an integral role in unveiling the Watergate conspiracy, and ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Graham and editor Bradlee first experienced challenges when they published the content of the Pentagon Papers. When Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought the Watergate story to Bradlee, Graham supported their investigative reporting, and Bradlee ran stories about Watergate when few other news outlets were reporting on the matter.

In conjunction with the Watergate scandal, Graham was the subject of one of the best-known threats in American journalistic history. It occurred in 1972, when Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, warned reporter Carl Bernstein about a forthcoming article: "Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published." The two words "her tit" were cut on publication.

[gratuitous]

4. Another difference between the GOP and the Dems

They get on the horn for every slight, real or perceived. They're always "working the refs" as the saying goes. Democrats seem to hold their fire for just the "big" things, and we really need to change that tactic. Matlin says it right out, and as we've seen from major media coverage, it works. A piece that's even perceived as critical toward Republicans rarely gets a second airing, and the language gets softened in any subsequent discussion of a topic.

Let's all keep this in mind when someone goes off on bad or biased coverage. If it's no big deal to you, then it's no big deal to you. But don't tell someone else it's no big deal. Let someone else make their complaint, and stay out of the way. In some individual cases, it can be argued that a complaint about coverage hurts our cause because it looks petty or picayune; but the totality of the effort is what brings about the change in reporting.

Reporters already do a lot of the Republicans' job for them, because in the course of filing their report, they have that little voice in their own heads saying, "Now, what kind of objection is this going to draw from Mary Matlin or Karl Rove or some other GOP operative? Can I re-work this so that it's less likely to offend?" And before you know it, even a story about a corrupt piece of shit like Duke Cunningham makes you think he might have been railroaded.

[spanone]

5. We USED to call that itimidating the press. Now it's business as usual.

This will be the true legacy of this mal-administration.

[Robbien]

6. Which is why they would rather have GOPers on air. Dems don't call

and complain.

[Orsino]

7. Implicit in this practice are the apparent facts...

...that modern "journalists" take those calls, and that the calls keep coming because they accomplish something. You and I, on the other hand, can't call those same journalists. Bias is inevitable.

Damning.

[Rose Siding]

8. Bureau chiefs take the calls

Then "journalists" take calls from their bosses.

[Orsino]

9. Sure, but those chiefs are also journalists.

Or nearly as much as are their flunkies.