One possibility--they are giving bylines to fact checkers these days.

Another--American media have gone completely to hell, something we already seem to sense.

Last night, Channel 9 news lead with the Jacko story prelim--Braun's endorsement of Dean barely made the newscast. Not even the Mars mission, nor the President's commitment to space (out there, rather than right here) were not interesting enough for the first fifteen minutes of the broadcast. Panem et circensus.

Sorry, but Michael Jackson is much more of a story than Carol Measly Braun!
I'd say US has a lot of stringers.

I was in a liquor store this morning and saw the clerk rivited to the Jacko coverage--maybe it was even on CNN. I'm completely baffled by this. Stories like this displace actual news, and are why so few in America end up caring who the hell the President or their Congressperson might be. If broadcast media simply had the guts to take a chance on actual news, and consign all celebrity news to an appropriate segment, they might be surprised to find that people are interested.

Sounds like Shelby Coffey's "swarm" technique lives on ...

You know, you'd think the powers that be at least ONE of the local television stations would consider swimming against the tide of "celebrity gone wild" type newscasts and go for a straightforward approach ... KTLA probably comes closest at their 10 p.m. newscast.

KCRW could do it better than anyone, but it seems like they are still feeling their way.

Since the line between reporting and publicity continues to blur, consider these 16 bylines nothing more than a reflection of Britney's current media posse entourage etc. (She's a big celebrity, so she needs a fact checker, two spell checkers, a comma girl ...)

Maybe they'll follow her around now to other publications and demand outrageous conditionals: four color ads next to me only, bro; dog, I don't like the cover, this isn't going to work ...

Brian

Along these lines, just another observation about news judgment...

I wonder if any of the national newspapers will lead their Sunday editions with the fact the number of US dead in Iraq has surpassed 500.

At this rate, the 12-month period since the war began will be the bloodiest year for the American military since 1972-73.

Or will any of the presidential candidates be asked what that says about the war?

Perhaps, but the Northridge Earthquake retrospecive will probably get more play.

The Times went with Iraq; the earthquake coverage was mostly inside.

They still haven't done much with local casualties; the KIA from West Hills and Simi Valley have received very little coverage, which is unfortunate.