I think you know where we’re going with this.

Journalists — whether through action or inaction — are at the center of every one of these scandals. And the amazing thing is, they not only don’t care that they’ve lost the trust of the public, forfeited their claims of objectivity and destroyed the nature of the reporter-reader relationship — they’re proud of it!

The old Soviet Union used American journalists as willing accomplices: from John Reed to Walter Duranty to I.F. Stone, the Soviets knew that one path to the destruction of the Principal Enemy lay through the press, and they diligently pursued western reporters, dangling  ideological solidarity, blackmail or money. Heck, Warren Beatty even made a movie about Reed:

But the media need not be skulking spies pretending to the voice of the Little Guy — like that rancid hypocrite, Izzy Stone — in order to damage the nation. If for the triumph of evil all good men need to do is nothing, as Burke said, today’s partisans can bury or even block stories they’d prefer not to cover — such as, until recently, the Portland Tribune’s decision not to cover a female massage therapist’s allegations of sexual abuse against the former Vice President of the United States, despite the existence of a police report. I began my career as a police reporter and, let me tell you, that would have been front-page news in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle back then.

The media can also celebrate its unilateral decision to cast off its previous protestations of neutrality and now openly take sides, with various media figures moving easily back and forth between Democrat administrations at the national and state levels, and then back to their day jobs. In the old days, the briefest stint as a p.r. person would prevent a writer from ever becoming a legitimate reporter — today, rank partisanship and policy advocacy is no barrier to hiring.

That would be Ezra Klein in the video above, the former proprietor of the JournoList. A great deal of noise — squealing and yelping, really — has been made on the left, assuring the world that there was nothing at all sinister about Klein’s sewing circle, that it was really just a bunch of policy wonks sitting around swapping stories.

The Dave Weigel scandal, however, plainly gives the lie to that, revealing a frat-house, food-fight atmosphere among the emotional juveniles who regularly contributed to it, and no doubt even worse will emerge in the coming weeks as the urge to leak becomes irresistible and the list’s contents find their way into the public arena, as they should.

For the story is no longer about Weigel, who’s since gone on to greener pastures at MSNBC; the story is the list itself, and you’d think reporters all over America would be chasing that story down. For whether the JournoList was as sinister as the Right fears or an innocent as the Left claims, its very existence is troubling. For one thing, it’s certainly put paid to the notion of the fearless independent reporters of sainted memory, replacing it with that of the herd of independent minds. And while there have long been journalists’ societies, they were never limited to the ideological cool kids. If the Washington Post had any decency, it would fire Klein for casting the paper’s hard-won — and so easily dispersed — reputation for professional objectivity into question.

But of course the Post won’t, because it doesn’t. It’s as in-the-tank as anybody, an organization as devoted to protecting the interests of a company town as Variety is to Hollywood — especially if those interests align with their favored party, the Democrats.

So ignore all the shouting you hear about what a great thing the death of journalistic objectivity really is, mostly from people who never had any in the first place. As it’s done time and again, when the Left is caught with its pants down, it simply changes the rules of the game. When Clinton was caught up in the Lewinsky scandal, the media gatekeepers wondered what the big deal was because, after all, “everybody does it.”

Now the media has discovered that reporters have opinions (as if they didn’t before), so let’s cast off a noble if difficult ideal — to play the news straight — and give in. And while we’re at it, let’s take jobs with the current Administration, and let’s form a group of like-minded groupthinkers to privately discuss policy and then let’s advocate those policies in the pages of the Washington Post, and let’s even work both sides of the street simultaneously, writing for the Post and working in the White House. Is this a great racket or what?

Oh — and let’s not tell our readers.

]]> http://bigjournalism.com/mwalsh/2010/07/03/the-new-media-template-influence-policy-control-the-narrative-and-celebrate-the-death-of-objective-journalism/feed/ 121 http://bigjournalism.com/hfontova/2010/07/02/vicky-pelaez-one-of-the-accused-russian-spies-has-close-ties-to-fidel/ http://bigjournalism.com/hfontova/2010/07/02/vicky-pelaez-one-of-the-accused-russian-spies-has-close-ties-to-fidel/#comments Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:05:47 +0000 Humberto Fontova http://bigjournalism.com/?p=88738

Vicky Pelaez

The 11 arrests so far are the tip of iceberg. Many more to follow, many in South Florida.

The “South American country” where Vicky Pelaez picked up her payments from Russia’s SVR was Venezuela.

Russia’s SVR, Castro’s DGI (Directorio General de Inteligencia) and Chavez’ SEBIN, (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia) (are all linked. They all share agents and information.  Castro-Cubans run Chavez’ intelligence agency practically lock, stock and barrel.

Vicky Pelaez was a frequent traveler to Cuba where she met with Castro’s DGI Pictures exist of those meetings.

Prominent figures in South Florida under investigation and net is closing on them. One suspect was very close to a U.S. Presidential candidate during the 2008 campaign.

Sensationalist?..Perhaps. But I quote Cuban-American Arturo Cobo, a Bay of Pigs veteran and former Castro political prisoner who had a key role in identifying Castro spies and alerting the FBI to their attempted infiltration into the U.S. during the Mariel Boatlift. Details of his vital work here.

These revelations surprise very few Cuba watchers. After all, Fidel Castro (not notorious for quoting others who might steal his spotlight, even momentarily) has often gone out of his way to showcase Vicky Pelaez’ articles and “insights.”

“Her’s is such a well-argued document,” Castro said in his screed of May 8 referring to an article by Vicky Pelaez, “that I do not wish to conclude this Reflection without including it:  ’The huge marches of this May Day condemning the pernicious anti-immigration law passed in Arizona, have shaken all of the United States… (this law) resembles laws passed in Nazi Germany or South Africa in the apartheid period!’”

The remarks go on to accuse Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer of “hate against people with an accent”  of  “promoting ethnic cleansing”…and authorizing Arizona’s police to fire upon people based on the color of their skin.”…etc. etc.—almost as if she were transcribing from an MSM/Democratic teleprompter. Fidel Castro quotes Vicky Pelaez for upwards of 500 words, almost half his screed, a highly unusual bequeathment.

But then Big Journalism has already explained Castro’s discomfiture with Arizona’s SB 1070.

“Fidel Castro is already immortal!” wrote Vicky Pelaez in the Castro regime’s house organ back in 2006:

He is a man who inspired and demonstrated the fertile path of truth for other leaders!… We had the moments of Christ, Mohammed, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Newton, Pascal, Bolivar, Marti, Che Guevara, etc. They all left the scene, yet unlike us mere mortals, they remain immortal…..they were rebels like the very angels of God who did not resign themselves to a sad destiny of mere mortals but instead valiantly challenged the very heavens to steal its glory!

Fidel Castro Ruz belongs to that glorious group of rebels! With his towering intelligence, discipline, drive, and persistence he launched his heroic struggle and gained his people’s support to fight for new and sovereign Cuba! But his fight is not over…!

Granted, manpower and time constraints prevent the FBI from using odes to Fidel Castro as tips to uncover Castro agents. Keeping tabs on Castro groupies would mean tailing 70 per cent of the MSM’s pundits, 80 per cent of Hollywood and 90 per cent of the liberal arts faculties in every college and university from sea to shining sea—plus a plurality of Democratic legislators, including the entire Congressional Black Caucus. The bandwith required to list all such Democratic/MSM odes to Fidel Castro would bankrupt George Soros.

Columnist Joy Tiz reminds us of some revelations (and warnings) from KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov back in 1984.  “Cynical, ego-centric people, people who can look into your eyes with angelic expression and tell you a lie. These are always the most recruitable people (by the KGB) –people who lack moral principals – who are either too greedy or who suffer from too much self-importance.”

Last week on the Spanish-language TV show A Mano Limpia, a former colleague of  Vicky Pelaez at New York’s El Diario/La Prensa named Miguel Ángel Sánchez, recalled Vicky’s suspension by the paper for plagiarism and how her husband Juan Lazaro (a former Baruch College professor arrested with her) served as the official New York treasurer for the Peruvian Communist terrorist group Sendero Luminoso.

KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov also explained how “those who reject Communist influence in their own country will be character assassinated…”

And as it happens, Castro’s press thinks rather poorly of a Big Journalism writer whom they place on the Stalinist regime’s official enemies list. “Traitor, liar and cowardly Bambi-Killer” are among the mildest insults Castro’s press hurl against your loyal servant here.

Wonder how many guys she got to come in out of the cold?