David Broder: Media Losing Its Way

Washington Post ^ | 9/27/04

[Blueflag]

Why does this hard-nosed 'journalist' presume the Swifties are wrong or lying? His own premise makes his point about why 'the media' are disbelieved, deservedly.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Don't you just love the moral equivalency?: statements on the record by over 200 decorated Vietnam Vets, which despite Broder's blather have not been debunked, are equated with the utterly forged and faked Rathergate memos.

[Cboldt]

See also: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1227470/posts

And, for a reward to discredit the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth with facts instead of innuendo, see: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1227703/posts

[kittymyrib]

Broder is just another MSM hack who should have been out to pasture long ago. He's still longing for the golden years of the real JFK. The sooner we bury the last of the boomer media generation the better.

[stocksthatgoup]

Time was when any outfit such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that came around peddling an ad with implausible charges would have run into a hard-nosed reporter whose first questions -- before he or she ran with the story -- would have been, "Who the hell are you guys? What's your angle? What's your proof?"

Obviously he hasn't read the book nor does he know how to handle book notes and index references.

[billhilly]

I only agree with him about the Russerts', Matthews' Stefnawfulus", Carvilles'. Begalas', etc.

[stocksthatgoup]

davidbroder@washpost.com

[agere_contra]

"That is how it happened that old pros such as Dan Rather and former New York Times editor Howell Raines got caught up in this fevered atmosphere and let their standards slip."

Thanks for posting this: an illuminating insight into MSM blame-o-babble. Basically it's the BlogoSphere's fault that the MSM sucks so bad. Stop Me Before I Kill Again.

The writer also manages to include a barbed hint that in the old days of hardnosed objective journalism the mendacious untruths of the SBVT would have been challenged, instead of being given an easy ride.

So, just another day at the WP. No soul searching, no penance, just an attempt at moral equivalency.

[Tax Government]

[they, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] would have run into a hard-nosed reporter whose first questions -- before he or she ran with the story -- would have been, "Who the hell are you guys?

This man subscribes to the clubby belief that news people are arbiters and interpreters of truth. DEFINITELY NOT.

[Doc Savage]

As Mr. Broder's personal physician I have been urging him to seek bed rest at the Shady Elm Nursing Home for Insane Liberal Journalists, but he refuses to go quietly.

Thorazine and a straight-jacket in a padded room seems best at this time. I'll have Nurse Ratchett persoanlly check on him.

[bitt]

ombudsman@washpost.com

davidbroder@washpost.com

letters@washpost.com

This guy needs to understand that we only want the truth. Even tho he PREFERS to think that the Swifties do not tell the truth, that doesn't make it so. His statement is the equivalent to Rather's "we don't have real documents, but we believe the information is correct".

[treowth]

Just another stomach-churning display of "it isn't our fault......the internet made us do it" whining by the self-worshipping, morally corrupted, terrible infants.

[vox humana]

Broder is just another MSM hack who should have been out to pasture long ago. He's still longing for the golden years of the real JFK. The sooner we bury the last of the boomer media generation the better.

When I was in college, one of my political science professors (a conservative!) said, "Think about this: thirty years from now these pot smoking peace activists will be running the country. They will be the politicians and opinion makers."

Those were prophetic words.

[Larry381]

...Time was when any outfit such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that came around peddling an ad with implausible charges would have run into a hard-nosed reporter whose first questions -- before he or she ran with the story -- would have been, "Who the hell are you guys? What's your angle? What's your proof?"

Since no 'hard nosed reporter' has actually bothered to investigate the Swiftboat charges how does Broder suddenly jump to the somewhat biased conclusion that their charges are "implausible". And nowhere does he state what many consider the real problem in journalism today, reporters stumbling over their own political biases and letting that bias determine their view of the story.

[bitt]

Michael Abramowitz: abramowitz@washpost.com
National editor

[Aquinasfan]

Why does this hard-nosed 'journalist' presume the Swifties are wrong or lying? His own premise makes his point about why 'the media' are disbelieved, deservedly.

Great point.

We don't yet know who will win the 2004 election, but we know who has lost it. The American news media have been clobbered.

Thank God!

[Tom Bombadil]

When the Internet opened the door to scores of "journalists" who had no allegiance at all to the skeptical and self-disciplined ethic of professional news gathering,

Open-source journalism is by nature, truth.

Broder (and Dan Rather) would like us to believe that he is skeptical and self-disciplined. Rather is a small man on a small ice-floe labelled "Forged Documents, Selected Sources, and Collusive Phone Calls". He stood there and said "come to my continent Mr. President and answer my questions"......Broder doesn't know it but he's also standing on a small ice floe.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Couldn't get past this part:

...a scurrilous and largely inaccurate attack on the Vietnam service of John Kerry...

Why is it scurrilous? How is it innacurate? Broder doesn't get it, never will.

[JudyinCanada]

Broder has to come up with something from the "right" to counter the CBS crimes, just to make everything look "fair", as if there is no differnce between the sides.

He couldn't just tell it like it is, the left is evil and wrong and the right is good and, right!