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Anatomy of a Media Fabricated News Story – Gannett Style
Wednesday morning, people in the shore area in the central part of New Jersey woke up to an editorial in the only daily newspaper in the state that serves two large counties, the Asbury Park Press, viciously attacking Governor Christie and demanding his resignation.
“Wow,” the people of Monmouth and Ocean counties must have thought. “This editorial staff must have really put a great deal of independent thought into this to be so hard on the Governor.”
The same morning, people down in the Southern part of the state woke up to their daily paper also having run an editorial viciously attacking Governor Christie and demanding his resignation. In fact, the Courier-Post ran word-for-word the same editorial attacking Christie.
Neither paper mentions that the same editorial was being run elsewhere in the state. They both look like the work of the editorial staff of their local daily paper.
The people up in the Northern part of the state also woke up to their daily paper, the Daily Record, having run an editorial viciously attacking Governor Christie and demanding his resignation. On further review, it is exactly the same editorial, word-for-word, that was run in the other two papers.
This north Jersey paper also did not mention that the editorial was run in the other two papers, so to the readers it too looked like the work of the local editorial staff.
This scenario didn’t just play out three times in New Jersey Wednesday. It happened in six daily papers in New Jersey — all running the same editorial — and each one misleading the reader into thinking it was the opinion of the local editorial staff.
Oh, by the way, there is something else the six newspapers have in common: each one is owned by media powerhouse Gannett.
Gannett also owns USA Today, so of course there is a headline in that paper that reads: “Six New Jersey Newspapers Call on Governor Christie to Resign.”
Shouldn’t it have read, “Our Six Newspapers?” Or shouldn’t it have read, “We, Gannett, Ask Governor Christie to Resign?”
Sure, Gannett says in the body of their story they own the papers, but the headline itself is now news. As of tonight, a Google search on “Six New Jersey Papers Call on Christie to Resign” returns 424,000 results. Everybody I can find has a headline that says six NJ newspapers ask the governor to resign, and nobody I can find has a headline that says Gannett wants him to resign.
The story is a fabrication: Six New Jersey papers haven’t asked Governor Christie to resign. Only one did — Gannett’s USA Today. The local newspapers are all from the same pants, just a different pocket.
What would make a news service so angry that they would orchestrate this faux news?
Two days ago the Governor held a press conference nominating a judge to the state Supreme Court (aside: Democrat Senate President Steve Sweeney immediately issued a statement saying they won’t vote on a nominee until the Governor leaves office. Sound familiar?). At that press conference, Christie refused a reporter’s questions on topics not related to the nomination. The Fourth Estate was apoplectic that Christie dared not respond to a reporter.
So let’s piece together the timeline:
Monday: Christie wouldn’t answer a reporter’s question.
Wednesday: Gannett fabricates a story making it look like six independent editorial boards all decided to ask for Christie’s resignation, when they actually didn’t decide that.
Also on Wednesday: USA Today reports it, and now it’s national news.
This was nothing more than media revenge. It’s unethical. Unfortunately, it’s probably not rare.
By analogy, if a police officer has a car accident, he can’t be the investigating officer in his own crash. The officer would have a conflict due to his incentive to slant or create facts in his own favor.
That’s what happened here: The Fourth Estate crashed into Christie, and they printed details of fabricated outrage of six editorial boards for revenge.
Gannett owns the majority of daily papers in New Jersey, so they get to decide what is or isn’t news.
Good grief. Lord, save the Garden State.
Published in General, Politics
Ricochet Member Calls on Christie to Resign
I second the motion.
This somehow reminds me of an old Styx song. “I’m schizophrenic and so am I.”
It has Monty Python overtones, too, but I can’t place the scene. The closest that comes to mind is: “I’m Brian, and so’s my wife!”
I was amazed when I heard the news. Thanks for digging into it further.
You and I are used to this sort of thing at home
This ought to be a real scandal for Gannett. Did you find this out yourself, Tommy? This should be one of those Ricochet articles that gets picked up by the press.
Good luck with that. Better if it gets picked up by Insty.
Good research. Thanks.
Gannett is real good at this. They consolidate a lot of functions over their properties and claim it’s local.
If you have a TEGNA television station in your market (TEGNA that’s GANNETT scrambled without repeating letters) you’d be surprised how much of your “local” news content originates elsewhere.
Tim H this is my original research. I have some Gannett guys on Facebook poo-pooing it by saying they have done joint editorials in the past.
I’ve asked them if when they have, did USA Today make the fact that they did so a separate news story. As quick as they were to criticize me, they have thus far refused to answer the question.
I’ll let you know if they do.
You’ve made me feel sorry for Christie. That takes some persuasiveness.
Why doesn’t Christie use the talent for bombast he exhibited in the New Hampshire debate and go after these people?
Ha Ha! I know what you mean. Several people have told me if they did this to someone other than Christie they would care.
Of course, the story would have been reported differently if the newspapers were owned by a conservative-leaning person or corporation. All it takes to get the media to “do their jobs” is to have conservatives involved.
It’s a bad time to say anything in defense of the blob, but it’s a good story, & you deserve credit. Unfortunately, you do not own a half-dozen rags which to tout you-
Good reporting, Tommy.
I’m pleased to see this is your discovery—you’ve got a real scoop! If any of our mysterious, powerful, influential readers out there sees this, please publicize Tommy’s story.
This seems pretty thin skinned on the part of the news folks. I gotta believe there is a little more to it than that. I wonder if his sin is endorsing Trump?