I’d say this gem from the Missoulian pretty well encapsulates what’s wrong with both the media and the medical industry in the United States today. Where would the public be without the critical eye of the Fourth Estate and essential positions like Vice Presidents for Public Relations at hospitals?One shudders to think about the consequences of missing out on critical updates like this:
"Tiger missed a putt, and he (Rehberg) hollered, and the nurse came running in and said, ‘Are you OK?’ " said Oliverson, the hospital’s vice president of public relations and external affairs. "That kind of gives you vintage Denny. He’s a super guy, and he’s doing really well."
I assume that Mr. Oliverson decided Representative Rehberg was a “super guy” sometime before donating to his campaign last election.
Talk about burying the lede. It’s not until the 6th paragraph that the article mentions the condition of state Dustin Frost and the 7th paragraph that mentions that State Senator and former GOP gubernatorial hopeful Greg Barkus has hired an attorney.
Last 5 posts by Pogie
- Representative Rehberg’s Latest Grandstanding Will Hurt Montanans, Says Rehberg - March 20th, 2010
- A Fond Farwell to Ed Butcher - March 16th, 2010
- Rehberg Staffer Randy Vogel’s Fascinating Defense - March 11th, 2010
- The Independent Record’s Fascinating Editorial on Max Baucus - January 3rd, 2010
- Juxtaposition in the News: The Ethical Senator and the Mayor - December 5th, 2009
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I thought cherry picking was over for the season in the Flathead.
The Missoulian has carried several articles. So has the GFT. John Adams had a lengthy follow up today.
Next time I will try to anticipate better what the news coverage will be in the future. As of the date of this posting, the Lee papers, which in large part represent the media in Montana, felt that it was newsworthy to mention that a Rehberg political supporter felt that Rehberg was a great guy.
In the future, I will certainly wait for your reasoned judgment about future news stories before criticizing the media.
From August 28: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_6cad3fbc...
From August 30: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_242a3600...
Pogie, no need to wait for me, just look at the previous days articles.
Craig – You miss the point. Just because other stories were written doesn't mean that the leads still aren't buried.
Every news article in the Helena IR, anyway, always goes through several paragraphs before mentioning that one victim has a ’serious but survivable’ head injury. I don’t know about you, but ’survivable’ is not a word I ever want to here used to describe my brain. The paper is downplaying the severity of Barkus’s poor judgment by focusing on personal interest stories about Rehberg rather than the fact that Greg Barkus had been drinking but failed to drive his boat at a slow enough speed to keep his friends safe, and as a result someone is in the hospital, incoherent because of a serious head injury.