Media

If cable TV subscribers paid for just the channels they watch ("a la carte"), instead of paying a flat fee for channel packages, it would "jeopardize an economic model that has helped the industry maintain huge profits." The Center for Public Integrity reports on "a highly sophisticated lobbying campaign" by the cable industry to build anti-a la carte "astroturf." Some of the "seemingly disinterested

"Security guards at the Republican National Convention overreacted when USA Today guest columnist Michael Moore entered Madison Square Garden Monday night and were responsible for a disruption that made it difficult for several members of the press, including Moore, to cover the proceedings, said the U.S. House Daily Press Gallery, which oversees press credentials for the convention. The gallery conducted a review of the Monday incident, which it calls the worst case of police media control since the 1968 Chicago convention."

The Daily Kos recently uncovered an astroturf (fake grassroots) initiative by the George W. Bush campaign, which generated ghostwritten letters to the editor that found their way into at least 60 newspapers. This isn't the first time that the Bush administration has tried this trick, as we've reported in the past.

"Although we're not yet through the national conventions, 2004 is emerging as a snakebitten election for America's media 'Bigfeet' - our news organizations and TV's non-stop talking heads," writes Joel Connelly. "They've been wrong so much of the time already." During the Democratic primaries, the punditocracy erroneously anointed Howard Dean the frontrunner; more recently, they've largely ignored the worsening mess in Iraq while declaring that Iraq is putting Kerry on the defensive. Why are the big media doing such a poor job?