David Carr's Thing For Mr. Potato Head
NY Times media writer David Carr did a helluva job describing his dealings with the PR people at Fox News today, showing how Fox goes into frantic full-court press mode to dissuade a reporter from writing anything vaguely unflattering about Fox News, and how the Fox PR people treat–or ignore–that reporter once the story is published.
He writes:
Once the public relations apparatus at Fox News is engaged, there will be the calls to my editors, keening (and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking to.
My only issue with Carr’s column was his self-description as he writes about Times colleague Jacques Steinberg having his photo altered on a Fox News program. He writes:
I have a bit of an advantage in that my laundry is already hanging on the line, not to mention that with a face made out of potatoes…
It’s a funny metaphor, but unfortunately one Carr used three weeks ago to eulogize Tim Russert:
He had a face that seemed to be carved out of potatoes…
It’s, er, small potatoes, and the spud redux doesn’t take away from a terrific column.
koolaukid commented:
The media's job is to report events in an unbiased, objective way. Fox fails that test then further muddies the water with their pitiful "interviews" which frequently feature someone yelling and attempting to bully the opposing opinion. Take it for what it's worth, it ain't news reporting but it is entertaining in a "Punch and Judy" fashion.