Media Studies: Bias, Punditry, and the Press

For a very thorough post on last week's forum on gender, race, class, age, and the media's coverage of the 2008 elections, sponsored by the White House Project, the Women's Media Center, and the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, check out Marcia Yemen's latest in HuffPo. A report based on the findings and recommendations from that forum--drafted by yours truly--is coming soon! I'll post more details when it's ready, later in the summer.

Meanwhile, Carol Jenkins offered a great turn of phrase at that forum when she noted that members of the media have embedded themselves in the war room of this election, turning themselves into "embedded pundits." Case in point: I'm sitting here watching MSNBC and on flashes the headline "Does Obama Need Clinton as Much as the Media Thinks?" I'm screaming back at my tv: "Who the BLEEP cares what the media thinks?" Talk about simulacrum, I tell ya.