http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_…..d_by_f.php

Froomkin and Rosen on accountability, impartiality, and the dangers of the journalistic lobotomy

Dan Froomkin ( until he announces his new home ) can be found @ http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm and @ http://blog.niemanwatchdog.org/

The older reporters who went to school when vocabulary and grammar were taught have been let go. They young’uns may have hearts in the right places, but their schools had long since given up on teaching English skills by the time they got there.

We should have rules that if a source goes on background and lies, you burn them.

That’s the money quote right there! When journalists don’t call their sources out for lying to them, they simply become propaganda launderers – serving as insulation and facilitating additional untruth. We should have some way to yank the “journalism license” of someone who consistently uses anonymous sources and gets burned. If a journalist uses his pen to allow someone else to perpetuate an untruth, ether the source needs to be outed or the journalist needs to go.

Accommodating the practice of “background” briefings at all is antithetical to good journalism IMO. If a source is an administration official, there is no excuse for anonymity (particularly if they routinely interact with the press in an official capacity). Accepting background is the exact opposite of holding the administration accountable. Axelrod is NOT a whistle blower (nor was Cheney, etc.) and should never be accommodated as one.

/rant

I so look forward to reading Dan Froomkin in the future and I, and I am sure many, many others, will be extra patronizing to his new employer.

We need people like Froomkin and others in the media, as well as organizations like ACLU and EFF, to break down the walls of secrecy, especially when the Executive is hiding things

Every time Obama or the DNC or DSCC or DCCC sends me another of their obnoxious pleas [even though I’ve told them, in no uncertain, and rather forceful, terms, that I think they’re full of it], I send some money to ACLU or EFF instead.

In that vein, the characteristically unsurpassable liveblog from fearless leader appeared to capture Dan’s being a bit shaken by this episode. Hopefully he gets his full mojo back.