Sarkozy calls Netanyahu a "liar". Obama agrees.

[Neil]

In addition Milly Dowler's parents are in no way public figures who deserve significant media attention.

I think you're lagging behind here.  Even if the fact that their daughter disappeared didn't turn them into public figures, in the age of the internet and reality TV, everyone is fair game.

[Razgovory]

Eh, I suppose that's where we differ.  I don't give a damn about celebrity gossip.  I don't mind amusing anecdotes in history books like this that give us an idea of how figures think of one another, but it's not really news.  As JR points out, few people like Bibi.  The man is not an honest dealer and is an annoying blowhard.  I suppose there is some satisfaction in world leaders saying what everyone is thinking, but it's not really news or even very helpful.

[The Minsky Moment]

It also seems just weirdly 1950s to me.  We should listen to our betters and let the press decide that lots of things aren't newsworthy, they're not really informative so we don't need to know about it.

But the reality is that the press *always* functions as gatekeeper, if through nothing else, then through their decisions what to report, what not to report, and how prominently to report what they do report.  So the press does decide for us, just as it always has.  What has changed is the decisions the press makes about what we should pay attention to have degenerated to the least common demoninator.  It is still the 1950s, except the Murrows have been completely supplanted by the Winchells of the press world.

[Tamas]

So, despite the VERY serious doubts and dangers to the economy, oil is about $97 a barrel right now.

Is it possible that there has been an important decision made in the jewish high command which the world at large do not know yet?

[Gups]

There's a lot more press now. There's a 24 hour news cycle and an internet. The days of a half dozen editors meeting at their club to decide what the public will know and what they won't are over.  It's inconceivable that the Prince of Wales could have an affair reported all over the glbe but not the UK or that the prime minister would be inacapacitated for six months without the voters ever knowing about it.

[Razgovory]

So, despite the VERY serious doubts and dangers to the economy, oil is about $97 a barrel right now.

Is it possible that there has been an important decision made in the jewish high command which the world at large do not know yet?

What are you talking about?

[Ed Anger]

So, despite the VERY serious doubts and dangers to the economy, oil is about $97 a barrel right now.

Is it possible that there has been an important decision made in the jewish high command which the world at large do not know yet?

What are you talking about?

beets.

[Malthus]

So, despite the VERY serious doubts and dangers to the economy, oil is about $97 a barrel right now.

Is it possible that there has been an important decision made in the jewish high command which the world at large do not know yet?

I'd let you know, but I'm not allowed to. 

[Scipio]

Sarko is just shoring up his anti-Israel creds for reelection.

[Razgovory]

Sarko is just shoring up his anti-Israel creds for reelection.

That makes sense.  He already deported the Gypsies.  The next logical move is against the Jews.

[Capetan Mihali]

Theories of journalism aside, this seems essentially the same as the "oops live mic" gaffes that US networks/newspapers showed us with Obama, Bush, etc.  They weren't usually important at all, just funny or revealing.

This particular event doesn't seem funny or revealing.  But I think today, with the ubiquitous recording and viral internet blah blah, the general tendency is to treat accidentally recorded comments by public figures -- not just politicians --as per se interesting.  Especially when everything is so scripted.

[Malthus]

Speaking of which, it could have been worse than callinf Bibi a liar ...

http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/fall-berlusconi/2191/berlusconi-%E2%80%98called-merkel-unfuckable-lard-arse%E2%80%99

ITALIAN newspapers claim Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi referred to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel as an "unfuckable lard-arse" in a telephone conversation with a newspaper editor.

[Berkut]

See, now THAT is newsworthy!

[Malthus]

"Hey, unfuckable lard-ass, can you spare a few billion?"

[Berkut]

I would like to note that my original objection was not so much about whether or not this should be reported, but to Shelf's claim that NOT reporting it reflected badly on the journalists who chose not to - there is a difference.

The reality is that all politicians should operate as if their words were going to be reported pretty much all the time, because the reality is that they will always be held to the lowest common denominatory of reporting. And that is pretty low, because plenty of people think like Shielbh that there really isn't any standards beyond "sell the story".

But I don't at all think one should disparage journalists who do not ascribe to that mentality. They have no responsibility to anyone to satisfy peoples desire for another "gotcha".