I got some promotional press material today regarding the Ted Stevens “Tubes” speech which was posted in its entirety on Public Knowledge on June 28th, Wired on June 29th and even on this blog on July 3rd with commentary. Jon Stewart mocked Stevens a week ago. A series of parodies of the speech were developed and posted worldwide last week.
The date is now July 17. This story has now been picked up by the New York Times today. The LA Times ran a piece Saturday (July 15) and the Washington Post, ahead of this pack, ran a piece on July 14th. Much of the coverage were quotes from blogs. Geez.
Also many of these articles cited Jon Stewart’s bit on Stevens but none of them actually linked to it as I’m doing below.
Ted Stevens needs to describe the internet as “tubes” to accomodate his flushing the toilet.
Take care John — I see a lot of your stuff on the other sites weeks before they appear here.
And the NY Times’ Headline on it is, “Senator’s Slip of the Tongue Keeps on Truckin’ Over the Web” and the article pays attention to the fact that this is a story that won’t die.
That said, I think the MSM is generally in the position of follow-up in the current environment, and that may not be a bad thing if they spend the interim doing quality research on the subject matter. In the case of Ted Steven’s entire career (and so many other subjects) I fear that the press has gotten into the habit of taking talking points from the various powers-that-be in the world and publishing them unedited. Shameful behavior from such an important part of democracy.
Anon, the state and the people of the state are two different things when talking about Alaska. Remember, this is a state that still doesn’t have running water in certain areas, and had no infrastructure to speak of 70 years ago.
Anon, that was two separate quotes. The Martian thing was Dan Quayle, not recognizing a bust of Jefferson was Al Gore.
Jon Stewart at his best. It’s a very funny piece, shame it’s about something so important.
Why is anyone surprised by the slow uptake on this story? The biggest newspapers and television media news is owned by several of the Company’s backing this bill.
Case in point today, John. Your Wal-Mart story was covered by the NYTimes last week.