Salon Radio: David Cay Johnston on the bailout
I spoke with Johnston today about the pending bailout, the panic (and resulting acquiescence) that has been successfully injected into the American public, Johnston's very piercing critiques of the coverage of the financial crisis by his former colleagues in "journalism" (or, as he puts it, "by the actors who play the role of journalists on TV"), and the profound changes among both the journalistic culture and journalists themselves since he first became a reporter several decades ago. More than a week ago, as the crisis was unfolding, Johnston wrote a piece at Poynter.org admonishing journalists not to cover government claims uncritically, and at TNR a couple of days ago, he surveyed some of the coverage and detailed just how resoundingly that admonition was ignored.
I highly recommend this interview, as Johnston's observations about both the bailout and journalism are quite incisive and well-stated. It is roughly 20 minutes in length and can be heard by clicking PLAY on the recorder below. The transcript is here.
Currently in Glenn Greenwald's Blog
- Nepotistic succession in the political class
- A large, and rapidly growing, percentage of high elected officials are part of politically powerful families. What accounts for this anti-democratic dynamic?
- Wednesday, Dec 3, 2008 15:21 EST
- Salon Radio: Cato's Gene Healy on domestic troop deployments
- What is behind the Pentagon's new plan to deploy 20,000 U.S. Army troops inside the U.S., and what are the risks and dangers?
- Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 21:23 EST
- Eric Holder, Jack Quinn and the Rich pardon
- It's premature to criticize Obama for his establishment-soothing appointments. But it's just as premature to heap praise on him for those appointments.
- Tuesday, Dec 2, 2008 15:29 EST
- NBC and McCaffrey's coordinated responses to the NYT story
- Emails obtained between NBC executives and the retired General further underscore NBC's gross indifference to journalistic ethics.
- Monday, Dec 1, 2008 20:26 EST
