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Media Tag

Bill Maher has some ideas about what really destroyed Brian Williams' credibility with the American people...and it has absolutely nothing to do with his recent suspension. From Mediaite:
See, what “destroyed” Brian Williams’ credibility in Maher’s eyes was “ten years of wasting precious news time with bullshit stories.” It really bothers him that national nightly newscasts shirk their “sacred responsibility” to report the news in favor of viral YouTube videos, cutesy human interest stories, and lots and lots of weather coverage. He called it “journalistic malpractice” for Williams to spend so little time reporting on climate change and instead covering east coast blizzards “like white Godzilla is on the way.”
Watch:

The same mainstream media that refused to demand Obama's (still undisclosed) Columbia University records in 2008 (while reassuring us that he was brilliant) has taken a keen interest in the academic pedigree of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Professor Jacobson repeatedly reminds us that the MSM always tries to kill Republican candidacies in the cradle. The Washington Post did it with Rick Perry's hunting property rock. Jeb Bush's high school antics are fair game, as were Mitt Romney's. Now they're trying to play the same game with Scott Walker's unfinished college degree. David A. Fahrenthold of the Washington Post wrote this yesterday:
As Scott Walker mulls White House bid, questions linger over college exit Scott Walker was gone. Dropped out. And in the spring of his senior year. In 1990, that news stunned his friends at Marquette University. Walker, the campus’s suit-wearing, Reagan-loving politico — who enjoyed the place so much that he had run for student body president — had left without graduating. To most of the Class of 1990 — and, later, to Wisconsin’s political establishment — Walker’s decision to quit college has been a lingering mystery. Not even his friends at Marquette were entirely sure why he never finished. Some had heard that a parent had fallen ill, or maybe there was some financial strain. Others thought he had simply had enough of school. Walker clearly liked college politics more than college itself. He had managed to line up 47 campaign endorsements, including ones from the ski team and the varsity chorus, but he had trouble showing up on time for French. And, after four years, he had faltered on both fronts. He’d lost an ugly race for president. And he apparently had far too few credits to graduate.
Allahpundit of Hot Air notes that journalists are already playing the requisite "gotcha" games with Scott Walker from which Democrats are always exempt.

It certainly looks that way. NBC News Anchor Brian Williams has long claimed he was on a helicopter forced down by RPG fire while reporting from Iraq in 2003. An exclusive report in Stars and Stripes, a military publication, tells the story of Williams' indiscretion. Williams was forced to recant when a soldier protested Williams' rendition of the story. As recently as Monday, Williams claimed, on national news, that he was under fire on a Chinook. Take a look: It was during this commemoration that those involved in the incident stepped up to correct the record:

I don't watch CNN anymore, but I'm very familiar with Don Lemon from all the times he's appeared on conservative news sites seeking to correct something he said. According to The Hollywood Reporter, lots of people have noticed Lemon's work:
CNN's Don Lemon Named to 'Worst Journalism of 2014' List Don Lemon has picked up a dubious honor: ranking in a Columbia Journalism Review fellow's list of the "worst journalism" of 2014. The anchor has made headlines throughout the year for controversial moments during his tenure as a CNN newsroom anchor. In a post written by David Uberti, the CJR fellow makes a case for why Lemon deserves to be ranked along with other missteps in journalism over the past year. "As one of the most recognizable anchors on CNN, Don Lemon has helped lead the cable network’s coverage of the biggest stories of the year. Live television is exceedingly difficult to produce, of course, but Lemon’s gaffes this year offer a case study in how to choose words wisely — or not," Uberti wrote.
The fine folks at Twitchy think they may have uncovered the reason for Lemon's new distinction:
Don Lemon’s report on black holes and missing plane help him win ‘Worst of 2014′ award CNN anchor Don Lemon has taken his share of hate on Twitter: a former Miss Teen USA called Lemon a “modern day house negro,” hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons labeled him “a dangerous talking head” and MSNBC’s Goldie Taylor accused him of being a “turn coat mofo.” And those are just the racial attacks; there’s also the matter of Lemon’s skills as a journalist.

There’s only one man in the world who is in journalism to get rich. That man is Shane Smith, the CEO and co-founder of Vice Media, Inc. 20 years in the making, Smith's growing media empire has amassed him an estimated $400 million fortune, and according to widespread reports earlier this week, Vice is planning a “deal spree” in 2015 to be possibly followed by an IPO. With a $500 million “war chest,” Vice is looking to acquire “content, technology, and distribution deals” according to CNBC. The spending money comes from dual $250 million investments from A&E Networks,  in part owned by Disney, and Technology Cross Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture firm with notable stakes in Netflix and Facebook. These investments brought Vice’s valuation to $2.5 billion, doubling the company’s valuation previous valuation of $1.4 billion back in late 2013 when Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox bought a 5% stake for $70 million. This year, Vice is expected to report revenues of $500 million, and according to Smith that figure could reach $1 billion by 2016. Smith has also said that Vice’s profit margins are currently at 34%, though he wasn’t specific as to which measure this was (i.e. net income, pre-tax income, etc.). The New York Times, in comparison, has a net income margin of just 10%. So what exactly is Vice?

What's the problem with an extra ten or twenty thousand dollars for a journalism degree? It's not like the public's trust in journalists is at an all time low or anything. The higher education bubble is a subject we've covered extensively at College Insurrection. This new report from Kaitlin Mulhere at Inside Higher Ed is special because it also involves the future of American journalism. It seems the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is in dire need of cash:
Jacking Up J-School Tuition A proposal to raise tuition at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism has some faculty members, alumni and students worried about destroying the school’s distinctive character. Faced with a half-million-dollar budget gap, Dean Edward Wasserman announced plans to recommend a tuition increase for the 2016-17 academic year in a memo to campus members earlier this month. He said the increase is necessary given the school’s financial standing, and that the amount students pay doesn’t actually cover what it costs to provide that education. He also said that the school would remain devoted to affordability and dedicate a large portion of the sum raised through the new fee to financial aid. Much of the online response to the idea has been negative, with several people questioning how journalists can afford to pay an additional $20,500 over two years for a degree in a troubled industry with historically low pay.
One student quoted in the column knows she won't make much money in journalism but she's focused on the bigger picture.

The Obama administration's relationship with the media is hardly and adversarial one. In fact, at times it has seemed more like a partnership and there's a logical explanation for that. A surprisingly high number of people have moved back and forth from the media to the...

NBC Chicago's Charlie Wojciechowski ignored and lashed out a reporter who covered the Northwestern University Midwest Marxism conference over the weekend, in particular referring to reporting of Teachers Union VP Jesse Sharkey's presence there as "full of sh*t." The conference was notable not only for its...

I traveled to Tampa, FL, last-minute for work (good timing), so I got to experience some of the hullabaloo from the vantage point of an on-the-outskirts La Quinta. My observations: 1. Tampa's uber security perfectly captured the two paths our country faces. There was something inspiring about...

Just as the media had finished congratulating itself for selecting a woman, CNN's Candy Crowley, as one of the 2012 presidential debate moderators for the first time in 20 years, there is now an outcry over the lack of African American representation among the moderators. A...

Fareed Zakaria, the Time columnist and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, who was exposed plagiarizing his column and suspended on August 10, has suffered long enough, apparently. Exactly one week after news broke of the plagiarism, Time announced that they will be revoking their previously publicized one-month...

CNN host and Time magazine contributor Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by both outlets after Newsbusters reported Friday he had plagiarized a column. It was Cam Edwards of NRA News who first noticed the irregularity; he then tipped off Tim Graham at Newsbusters. Tim Graham of...