dagblog - Comments for "Winter is coming: prospects for the American press under Trump"

LuLu... Thanks... The point I

oldenGoldenDecoy — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 05:45:58 +0000

LuLu... Thanks... The point I was making . . .

WaPo has the people to do what needs to be done when I said... "WaPo has the talent. Now let's see what they do with it."

Plus, as far as this is concerned:

"There is no career risk in reporting on drug use in the U.S. unless maybe government agencies are involved."

Perhaps you didn't scroll down to #13 and #15 in the series.

Investigation: The DEA slowed enforcement while the opioid epidemic grew out of control

Enforcement cases dwindled to a “stunningly low” number after a change in policy by the agency.

--snip--

...Former DEA and Justice Department officials hired by drug companies began pressing for a softer approach. In early 2012, the deputy attorney general summoned the DEA’s diversion chief to an unusual meeting over a case against two major drug companies.

“That meeting was to chastise me for going after industry, and that’s all that meeting was about,” recalled Joseph T. Rannazzisi, who ran the diversion office for a decade before he was removed from his position and retired in 2015.

Drug industry hired dozens of officials from the DEA as the agency tried to curb opioid abuse

Critics say the revolving door undercuts the agency’s ability to curb the rising opioid epidemic.

--snip--

Since then, the pharmaceutical companies and law firms that represent them have hired at least 42 officials from the DEA — 31 of them directly from the division responsible for regulating the industry, according to work histories compiled by The Post and interviews with current and former agency officials.

The number of hires has prompted some current and former government officials to ask whether the companies raided the division to hire away DEA officials who were architects of the agency’s enforcement campaign or were most responsible for enforcing the laws the firms were accused of violating.

And related to the Consortium Series? I'm 70. I've resided in Southern California my entire life. I've worked in the music business since the 60s. I know the sordid story from more angles than I wish to remember.

~OGD~

Yes, that's exactly what I

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 16:02:00 +0000

In reply to I agree with PP and with

Yes, that's exactly what I was trying to intimate, thanks.

Deep investigative reporting on lack of gun control's relation to gun atrocities? Doubtful.

The New York Times did a profile of Trump's company - finally, *after* the election was way over - showing Trump's company only has 150 people or so - hardly the business experience of say a Lee Iacocca or Ross Perot with 100,000 employees. In 1978, EDS' sales were $16.9 billion - roughly $63 billion in today's dollars. What does Trump sell a year in franchising/name use projects, $200 million max, despite being one of the best known celebrities on earth? It's not that Trump's dick is stubby - his business is stubby.

Journalism 101, anyone? Thought not.

I agree with PP and with

A Guy Called LULU — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 14:35:12 +0000

In reply to LuLu... I noted this in the

I agree with PP and with what I think was probably behind his comment. While the stories you note are important and probably well reported, they do not step on the toes of any vested interests. There is no career risk in reporting on drug use in the U.S. unless maybe government agencies are involved.

WaPo has the talent. Now let's see what they do with it. Thanks for taking the time to read the article and dig in a bit. Good journalism is vital and good journalists should be supported. I hope we see more good journalism on all the vital topics.

It's "investigative" but non

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 08:48:14 +0000

In reply to LuLu... I noted this in the

It's "investigative" but non-controversial - Dems & Repubs can look on adoringly and offer nothing :(

LuLu... I noted this in the

oldenGoldenDecoy — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 07:39:47 +0000

In reply to This is part one. Part two is

LuLu... I noted this in the Press Think article . . .

20. According to news industry analyst Ken Doctor, the Washington Post will add more than 60 journalists in the coming year. The Post is making money again. And its leadership believes that “investigative and deeper enterprise stories are good for the brand and the business”— not an expense that has to be subsidized by lighter fare, but a means to sustainability in themselves. That’s significant.

The following depicts the type of deep investigative journalism that can and is being done.

The following is cross posted from one of my threads at TPM Hive (paywall). It's directly related to the Washington Post.

Now if they will only really let the dogs loose on the Washington bubble-bunch.

A very sobering situation... (no pun intended)...

Take a moment a way from Trump and his mindless tweets and his sycophants who wish to cut the safety-nets. Read here about what's really rotting our country from within...

And when you feel like bashing the media, think of these journalists that are really doing their jobs...

In a year-long series, The Washington Post has explored a complex epidemic that combines an oversupply of addictive prescription drugs with a dismaying demand for them among people struggling with pain and hopelessness.

These three individuals are just a few of the thousands of souls spread across this "Greatest Nation in the World." Read on...

Traci Andrus, 45, is known as “Mom.” She had been a city social worker until she needed routine surgery and became hooked on opioid painkillers. Familiar story: The pills led to cheaper heroin, she says, then to all manner of chaos and dysfunction, and unemployment, and jail, and finally this new existence in the little house by the tracks. “I had a home. I had a brand-new car. I had a life,” Andrus says.

Rachel Kerner, 39, is tall, striking and known as “Fancy” because she’s always dressed to the nines. She had a good career as a flight attendant, but she used cocaine recreationally, failed a drug test and lost her job. She also lost a child three weeks after giving birth, and she began abusing prescription opioids. “I didn’t really deal with my son’s death until I got into rehab,” she says.

Lisa Touvell, 49, had steady factory work for years but has always struggled with addiction and a decade ago made the transition from pills to heroin. “I gave up. I couldn’t find a job. Two failed marriages. My kids were taken away. I gave up,” she says. She wound up in prison for drug trafficking, and she was released in March. “I’m tired,” she says, persuasively.

The entire article is quite stark...

December 29. 2016 | WaPo

No longer ‘Mayberry,’ a small Ohio city fights an epidemic of self-destruction

And that article is but one found here in a year-long series in the WaPo:

Unnatural Causes: Sick and dying in small-town America

A new divide in American death... Drugs, alcohol, marketing and lax federal oversight are working to defy modern trends of mortality, perhaps most starkly among middle-aged white women.

And there are another 11 articles in the series...

WaPo has the talent. Now let's see what they do with it.

~OGD~

//////

This is part one. Part two is

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 12:58:07 +0000

In reply to Winter is coming: prospects for the American press under Trump

This is part one. Part two is about what can be done. Out tomorrow.