'Meet the Press' summit reveals elite media's flaw

Townhall ^ | Dec. 28, 2005 | Jonah Goldberg

[conservativecorner]

Watching Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel and Tim Russert this past Sunday wasn't quite like seeing dinosaurs asking each other what's happened to all the tasty fronds, but the year-ending edition of NBC's "Meet the Press" offered an excellent glimpse at why the elite mainstream media as we know it is facing extinction.

No doubt intended as a grand treat for the viewing audience, "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert invited NBC's Tom Brokaw and ABC's Ted Koppel to ladle out some observations from their deep wells of wisdom for all of the world to imbibe.

These three giants of television journalism tut-tutted about one government failure after another, from the Katrina response to the government's inability to provide health care for everybody to our dismayingly low taxes. Brokaw agreed with Koppel, Koppel agreed with Brokaw. Russert nodded as one newsman repeated what the other one just said.

For example, regarding the Hurricane Katrina episode - in which the media collectively broke all chains of objectivity in order to preen with outrage over the plight of the downtrodden - Brokaw asserted "there were no gray areas in Katrina." By this he meant the media was 100 percent right for portraying the federal government as 100 percent wrong. This elicited nods all around. Brokaw even quoted Aaron Broussard, the Jefferson Parish president who openly wept on "Meet The Press" about the tardy federal response: "They didn't come. They promised they would come and they didn't come."

[Uncle Vlad]

I don't even bother to watch Russert anymore. They've all become so transparent that you can't take it, even for amusement.

Actually, Russert has become a caricature to the point of being downright laughable, especially when he does an appearence on The Today Show:

Katie: Tim Russert from Meet the Press has joined us. Tim, the economy is up, inflation is down, there's a housing boom, jobs are up, and unemployment is at an all-time low. What does this mean for the president?

Russert: Well Katie, this is bad news for George W. Bush...

[Uncle Vlad]

You'll begin hearing from the Democrat party talking points that the election in Iraq was not successful, it had numerous cases of fraud, and it will result in a fundamentalist government.

Big-name, important conservatives will jump ship in droves, because they think the president botched the opportunity there, and now we've spent blood and treasure to install a Taliban-style government in Iraq.

That's their next big talking point.

[Colonel_Flagg]

To somebody 60 years old they're not.

I'm nowhere near sixty .. and they're not.

[manwiththehands]

Brokaw asserted "there were no gray areas in Katrina."

He got that right. Mayor Bling Bling and the rest of the 'Rats running that place are corrupt, negligent and irresponsible. Those clowns cost lives and property damage. No gray area at all.

[Milhous]

Classic conservative prose. Bookmarked. :) You got to love how Goldberg weaves in the word Oldsmobile. An Xmas treat for guys like me who like to label Brokaw, Russert, Koppel, et al as Olds Media in honor of George Will's analysis that uses the Oldsmobile's slide into oblivion as a metaphor for Old Media.

Goldberg goes on to write:

Such nostalgia is understandable given the culture these men grew up in. In the post-World War II era, television journalism was almost a quasi-governmental institution. There were only three networks, and their news broadcasts set the national debate and drew the nation together in a way that had never happened before. Eventually, the establishment felt entitled to this arrangement. They forgot that this system was the unintended offspring of WWII and the Cold War and the advent of television. Before TV, American journalism was more boisterous and less revered.

Today's technological glitz notwithstanding, we are returning to the norm, and the guild-mentality consensus we've "enjoyed" this last half-century is evaporating and will likely never return.

In a droll moment Rather uses a chivalrous metaphor that agrees with Goldberg's analysis.

"CBS News has a culture, has a history that for those of us who work here, is very real — that we see it as a sort of magical mystical kingdom of journalistic knights — and I know I can mentally hear people rolling their eyes, that’s the way we feel." Dan Rather

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[newcthem]

You don't have to be 60 to appreciate that fact. These guys are not journalists, they are simply news readers. Not a lot of serious intelligence needed there.

[Jimbaugh]

These guys are toast.

[Young Werther]

Good Pic!

I remember when Drudge first spoke at the National Press Club. The arrogant, dismissive tenor of his introduction was small minded, dinosauric in nature. The MSM dosen't know what hit them and never will since their heads are "up and locked".

[geezerwheezer]

These MSM clowns used to give me a real bad headache. The pain has now moved further South, and is more appropriately called a "pain in the a**!" Listening to them has the same effect as taking an overdose of ExLax, and it makes one sick to one's stomach. They are has-beens, never-were's, and never-will-be's as far as I'm concerned, and the MSM is starting to realize that we in the pubic are a hell of a lot smarter than they give us credit for. Long live the honesty of the internet!! Long live the truth of FR!!

[Doogle]

"They didn't come. They promised they would come and they didn't come."

..pssssst..the buses, you didn't use the buses. You didn't use federal guidelines for evacuation, you didn't even use your own guidelines for evacuation, your lying now,just as you lied then...oh...I guess Brokaw forgot that part

Doogle

Doogle

[Spok]

A good read is Bernie Goldberg's first book 'Bias' (I haven't read his second). It explains just how out of touch these people are; they truly believe they're mainstream. The evening news is targeted at urban liberals and the media has decided that either no on else counts or there is no one else.

[1Old Pro]

....to ladle out some observations from their deep wells of wisdom for all of the world to imbibe.

so true, and funny.

[Bernard Marx]

The only thing they have is looks and a good voice.

Koppel has looks? Russert? I'll agree on the good voice part. I surfed through that program with the sound turned off. The moment I saw the talking head love-fest I knew it was time to head for the SF channel for greater enlightenment.

[KenmcG414]

Well Koppel does look like "Howdy Doody".

[GianniV]

Tim Russert is a friggin a--hole.

[Semper Paratus]

Listening to the MSM is what dinosaurs sounded like when faced with extinction.

I'll never forget the 1964 Republican Convention when some speaker made a comment about the Networks and most of the delegates turned around, looked up at the deities in the glass enclosed booths and booed. It was electrifying!

[devolve]

[IrishBrigade]

"...we in the pubic are a hell of a lot smarter..."...yeesh, what a hairy thought...

[MNJohnnie]

Way to go Jonah!

[MNJohnnie]

You all should find this thread intresting