OK, so, I have this idea...

[h3rm35]

I was just informed of a new site via e-mail from it's creator, http://www.freepress.net and initially I thought it would be fun... but then I read the kind of stories that they claim are "failworthy" and decided that we, as a group, might want to mobilize to point out actual media failings. I think we could pretty much mob this site and use it to inform people of what's actually going on, rather than allowing it to continue in false-paradigm mode. The people who seem to be populating the place right now don't really seem to be deserving of the the URL. What do y'all think?

here's the email:

Quote:You know it; your friends know it; everyone knows it: The media are failing.

Every day, we read and watch reporting that favors sensation over substance. Sideshows dominate the news cycle, while real issues of public concern get drowned out by the noise. What passes for news is too often badly sourced and tainted by commercial interests or political bias.

That's why we're launching an exciting new project called MediaFAIL that lets you expose the worst moments in the media as they happen. Check it out!


Is the Discovery Channel really launching a show called "Sarah Palin's Alaska"? Did the Boston Globe just publish what may be the worst-ever story on global warming? Did that Fox News anchor really regurgitate industry talking points on Net Neutrality?

These outrageous MediaFAILs are all featured on the new site. Now you can vote to fail them. We also need you to help us find the worst examples of a failing media.

It's easy to participate — just follow these steps:

1. Sign up at MediaFAIL.
2. Find and submit a link to an example of terrible reporting (maybe something like that story about global warming: http://mediafail.com/fails/230).
3. Share your submitted "fail" with your friends via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.
4. Vote on other fails that you find especially bad.
5. Post a comment or two.
6. Repeat!

The goal of MediaFAIL isn't just to give the media a failing grade — we want to make it better. That's why we'll be connecting featured "fails" to important media reform campaigns by Free Press and our allies.

So go ahead and submit a FAIL now; vote on your favorites; and share the site with your friends by forwarding this e-mail or using Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks — and get failing.

Josh Levy
Online Campaign Manager
Free Press
http://www.freepress.net

and the site is here

[Apocalypso Now!]

http://mediafail.com/fails/280

[h3rm35]

brilliant! that's the spirit! lets do more...
It's ours if we're willing to take it...
It only started up in the last day or so, and the only people that know about it yet are the ones that got the email, and who they've alerted to it.

I'm going to work on the Kieth Olberman broadcast from tonight, as painful as it is, to point out flunkiehood on MSNBC

[FastTadpole]

I like the concept but there is much room for it to be manipulated if (when) the paid blogging / posting gophers catch wind of it. I'm already seeing partisan slants that work to divide people rather than point out fallacy.

Everybody knows this deep down. This could be a part of a repertoire to illustrate and highlight the facts. To penetrate the masses and get them on board you need to speak their language MTV style clips, catchy music, funny cartoons, emotion and subversive marketing of an idea (or better yet philosophy) via an entertainment medium. Aim for the kids for the best and more persistent results.

Make the audience feel violated and that their trust was betrayed, that will cause an epiphany in many and even make leaders out of a few of them. You all know the films and media to purport the tracker is full of 'em. This is the powerful content at our disposal and with the internet as a medium we have the medium to disperse it.

No sense in preaching to the choir and I admire where your heart is at but just envision the demographics of the site. It does have potential as basis for something if aimed and marketed correctly but their exist other avenues to communicate the message that everyone needs to hear to awaken from their deep slumber and get their head out of the sand.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need them and they need us. Communicate, infiltrate, permeate, disseminate is the most effective way to break the media monster's hold on us and our kids but I'm all ears to other additional suggestions and tactics.

That said, I appreciate the heart and effort put forth.

[h3rm35]

I understand the demographics as being those on the far-left side of the political and social spectrum... Isn't that where we need to focus? Those with a very critical eye, yet are caught up in slight, barely perceptible pushes in one policy direction by bobble-heads? Aren't they, who are well versed in seeing through bullshit from dealing with the bush administration, yet exhaustedly falling into complacence because "their" party is running things now, exactly the type needed to demand broad-stream accountability? Think about how much money in grassroots donations launched the current administration's regime, endowing it with a mandate that it has mostly ignored... Aren't the ones who were sick and tired enough to donate time, money, and brainpower to an "escape" from the politics of slavery exactly the type that need to be influenced into understanding that they are still slaves?

The black hole behind their lack of activism is allowing corporate entities like the American Freedom Foundation to usurp populist rage (tea-party and small government activists) into slot machines that always ring up jackpots when corporatist power-mongers pull the lever...

We won't get anywhere appealing to those who have already been usurped... Those fired up into a frenzy because "the current administration" is to blame... We need to fire up those who thought the same thing from 2001-2009, and are now realizing that there's a reason why the term "status quo" was created. You can see the current shifting in various places that used to be staunchly divided along "party ideology" like HuffPo and FireDogLake... They are not happy with what they worked to create, and are ready to take criticisms of the way they've done things. I wouldn't try it yet over @ dailykos, and MediaFail certainly isn't the optimal forum for raising awareness, but it's deffinitely a worthy resource to work with, IMO.

I'm not, in any way, suggesting that we be insulting or even challenging - just to use the medium presented while there's still a chance to influence it into focusing more on un- or under-reported stories that shed light on what's actually going on. Wouldn't it be doing more harm than good by allowing it to go on as an unnoticed cog bolstering the false dominant paradigm that exists in the minds of those who are politically active, yet still uninformed in spite of their constant attention to MSM "news" sources?

[FastTadpole]

Like I said it's on my list of sites to fuck with when making the news rounds. Seems quick enough but it's ripe for manipulation and I'll bet eventually we'll be looking at yet another well intentioned site that started off with a good idea but left it's (true) users injecting their bucket of rainwater into an ocean of piss.

Good counter point on the demographics, but there are those with their head up so far into some ideologies that they are unreceptive and hardened much like everything else. That said, it is an interesting time as a new wave of people are now looking into the people, systems and mechanics that has taken large bites out of their freedoms, 'wealth', privacy and quality of life.