Mariane Pearl: "Celebrities Are Doing The Work That Journalists Are Not"

Mariane Pearl, the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, spoke out against the media establishment Thursday evening at a party hosted by Glamour to toast the book debut of her collected reporting for the magazine, In Search of Hope. In a critique of the WSJ and a public blinded by tabloid drama, she told Radar: "I think the Wall Street Journal has one person covering Africa." If celebrities like Angelina Jolie, who wrote the forward to Pearl's book, are drawing attention to issues it's because, as she put it: "Celebrities are doing the work that journalists are not. We can't afford to be cynical about that.'"

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Comments

[SheilaCasey]

Read Kristina Borjesson's book INTO THE BUZZSAW, THE MYTH OF A FREE PRESS. She explains how reporters write stories, producers put together segments, but the higher-ups refuse to use them if they will raise an advertiser's hackles.

This is why the MSM won't investigate the 9/11 cover-up. Will upset too many people, could hurt advertising revenue.

[johnmorgan]

A reporter was interviewed on the program "Democracy Now." I don't remember her name. She wrote a story proving, in 2004, that Bush had gone AWOL during his military service. She was later fired from her job.

Asked what message her firing sent to other reporters, she answered "They learned that they had better stick to celebrity reporting, and forget about digging into the real news."

[Counterglow]

Today's newsrooms are run from the offices of the umbrella corporations' law divisions. "Safe" is good, because it means none of those expensive, potentiall­y-dangerou­s lawsuits. Unfortunately, "safe" makes for lousy journalism, which in turn makes for lousy journalists. The good ones find something else to do, while the job whores, the egomaniacs and the pretty faces move into the vaccuum. Compare Wolf Blitzer and Walter Kronkite, and try not to gag.

[bronceye]

Maybe we could get some Mexican journalists to do the work that American journalists don't want to do.

[maxfusion]

Yeah, like snorting coke, and sleeping with members of the same sex. Intriguing, the left wing obsession with homosexuality, and Hollywood.

[speakingtruth2power]

When the American people forced the MIC to give up on it's profiteering in Vietnam, the MIC went out and bought up the MSM as part of their plan to regain power and come up with a war that wouldn't end.

The neocons wanted to give unending war another chance and studied what needed to be done to accomplish that. Controlling the press has been a key part of their evil cabal. Now that they own SCOTUS and Congress, via K Street, there is nothing to stop them.

[longislandlol]

Journalists are not cut from the Edward R. Morrow cloth these days-- they; with the exception of the Friedmans, Milbanks, Olbermann's of the world- are all getting lazy...

[mungley]

The Press is not allowed to report "news" anymore. Most reporters "report " on the things they told to cover. Big media does not want to expose us to reality, they just want to sell ads.

Big celebrities are not beholden to larger corporations for the most part. (Though it can be tough to break away.) Soon, there might come a day when an actor's contract dictates what political stances he or she can take.

Then someone else will have to do the real reporting, until that avenue of information is squelched.

[studlyguy]

that's what happens in a fascist america , the press is nonexistent

[craigmart]

Can't disagree. The American media is doing a terrible injustice to the American people.

[BIGBONEDED]

So sad but so true.

[TJS]

That's because too many journalists are busy covering celebrities!