Iâd like to think that the corporate media would pay attention to this, but I suspect that when they look in the mirror all they see is Alfred E. Newman looking back, going, âWho, me?â
Well said Mr. President. Well said.
Indeed. The Andrea Mitchells, the Wolf Blitzers, and the Chuck Todds of the media world will completely ignore this or will be so arrogant as to think the President was not talking about them. And of course he was. Directly.
Donât forget Little Luke âBoth Sides Do Itâ Russert!
Then what does freedom of the press matter? Might as well have a government censor pick the truth.
that there used to be âa priceâ for not keeping promises and offering false information.
FOX: There still is, it just applies only to Democrats. Republicans cannot do anything wrong.
âAt a Morgan Stanley investorsâ conference in San Francisco today, the chief executive officer of CBS, Les Moonves, found the silver lining of this yearâs tumultuous election season as only a businessperson can. The latest chairman of the company said, âIt may not be good for America, but itâs damn good for CBS,â and called Donald Trumpâs presence in the race a âgood thing.ââ
And queue the âObama just wants us to be biased, like bloggersâ defense in 6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . .
For many years now journalists have seemed to be confused about the distinction, and therefore the importance of, maintaining a clear separation between, reporting the news, and commenting on it.
When that became conflated with their response to the pressure they experienced from their corporate masters to generate headlines in pursuit of profits, it triggered a variation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which meant that instead of simply reporting facts, they began distorting the facts they were reporting, which in turn triggered further distortions.
Fox News is, in my opinion, largely responsible for triggering this degenerative process, although the newsprint tabloids certainly preexisted their arrival on the scene (albeit with no substantial credibility in most circles), but other organizations who purport to want to present the news to the world dropped the ball when, instead of standing up to the pressure they experienced from the drive for sensationalism that generated so much attention and money, they joined in the race to the bottom.
I include among the irresponsible pack The Huffington Post, which I used to regard with some respect but which has been transformed into a sensationalist rag, at least in large part. But other formerly highly respected outlets have succumbed to varying degrees, to include CBS, NBC, The New York Times, and another former favorite of mine, The Washington Post.
It seems to me that the time is right for at least one of these formerly respected organizations to take advantage of a ripe opportunity, and seize the nearly deserted high ground so as to begin a march back to sanity, in both reporting and commenting on the news, while keeping a clear and sacrosanct division between the two functions.
If Edward Murrow and Walter Cronkite were able to maintain journalistic integrity, surely modern successors can do the same, but they need to actively, consciously, and rigorously, pursue that goal, it wonât just happen on its own.
Edit: To correct Mr. Cronkiteâs first name.
Covering the election, and covering everything else too so as to discover and report objectively would bankrupt any major news group today.
Truth is nice, but obscene profits are better.
Special big thanks go out to congress critters who deregulated media ownership.
The lazy media sure do love covering everyoneâs tweets though, especially Trump and his lackeys.
AhemâŚ
Speaking of Trump, I missed this yesterday at Political Wire:
Former Trump strategist Stephanie Cegielski writes about why she left the campaign:
âI donât think even Trump thought he would get this far. And I donât even know that he wanted to, which is perhaps the scariest prospect of all. He certainly was never prepared or equipped to go all the way to the White House, but his ego has now taken over the driverâs seat, and nothing else matters.â
She adds: âTrump acts as if heâs a fictional character. But like Hercules, Donald Trump is a work of fiction.â
Under President Obama:
11,000,000+ new jobs
10,000,000+ newly insured
Booming stock market
Equal rights championed
Cut deficit by two thirds
âŚand on and on.
Republican response:
âWe are working as hard as we can to change the direction that our government has been taking us.â
And THIS is the ID of the GOP on display in all itâs glory:
American media is lazy as shit.
I agree with this wholeheartedly and Iâd like to see the media challenge more and point out hypocrisy and falsehoods. However, I wonder when the âsweet spotâ was for impartial news coverage. If you read about the 19th century and even into the early 20th century, newspapers were primarily political tools of their editors and heavily slanted. When did that change? Is there really a curve on the graph where everything was slanted, it rose up to just touch impartial and incisive, and now itâs fallen off again?
I wonder if the wish for people with integrity to take over the media is another variant on pining for the good, old days. Were contemporaries really pleased with coverage back then? Is there a difference between the golden age of journalism when there were only a few truly national sources and the golden age of television when there were only a few networks?
I am so sick of some people saying Luke Russert is a disgrace to the journalistic legacy of his father. Tim Russert was one of the biggest political ass-kissing journalists of all time - a practitioner of âgotcha!â journalism until the day he died. When he told Cheney during that interview, in the midst of the 9/11 Bush ball-sucking by the MSM, that he was wearing a Bush/Cheney under his lapel, he should have fired immediately. Many other journalists have been dismissed for much less severe lapses in integrity.
Little Luke is an asshole and a journalist who shouldnât even be allowed to write for the National Enquirer, but I am tired of some saying he is tarnishing the good name of his revered father; if anything, he is carrying on the family tradition.
I have been looking around for any headlines stating " The President Calls Us Out " â
Just canât seem to find any that are not buried past page 29 â
Well, there is his problem. He thinks there are actual JOURNALISTS in TV and Radio.
Nope. Sorry Mr. President. That idea died the day that Ronnie Raygun killed the âequal timeâ law and was buried six feet under when Clinton signed the 1996 FCC law allowing unlimited ownership of Media in any market.
Now itâs just âInfo-Tainmentâ to sell more toilet paper and beer. The day that NEWS became a âProfit Centerâ Journalism died.
There are a few âJournalistsâ struggling in local newspapers and documentary films, but they are unheard and unseen by the ignorant masses who get all their information from either FOX News (over 65) or Facebook (under 35) with the remainder too busy trying to keep their heads above water to notice the world crumbling around them.
That is why they are easy pickings for the Demagogues. In America, Ignorance is Bliss (and highly profitable.)
Well said, Mr. President.
People rise to the level of expectations. That goes for audiences as well. I donât care how âjournalisticâ Stephanopoulos, Blitzer, Williams, Mitchell, Todd, Garrett and the rest of these overpaid and overvalued stenographers LOOK on the teevee.
They are actors. And I look at them with far far less admiration (or even acknowledgement of having common citizenship on Planet Earth) than actual actors on the stage and screen. I have a reason for this. I was raised and came to adulthood in an environment in which profit had not completely engulfed what we call ânewsâ.
Those under 40, I apologize (on behalf of my generation) for the corporate bullshit we gave to them: Chuck Todd as a ânewsmanâ.
On Dancing with the Stars Monday, Geraldo Rivera came up with a comedic dance routine impersonating a President Trump. DWTS provided an Oval Office set and a dance partner impersonating Malania. Another contestant this season isâno kiddingâMarla Maples. ABC knows exactly what itâs doing, âgood of the countryâ be damned. Trump can phone it in anytime he wants and CNN, MSNBC and Fox will gladly take the ratings over journalistic ethicsâwhatever that means.
Not to quibble too much, but I think since Citizenâs United, âcompletely crazy politicsâ has not only become affordable, itâs become profitable. Or at least a bargain.