Posted on 12/29/2006 5:53:10 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion
Yesterday I saw a panel discussion on "the media." The panel included Helen Thomas, and my rumination on her response to a question inspired this post. The question was, "What is wrong with the press?" Helen Thomas' predictable reply was that the press had been too shy about opposing the Bush Administration on its preinvasion claims that Saddam had a WMD program. And of course there was some cheering, and no jeering, heard from the audience.
What is wrong with the press? What is wrong with the press is planted in the very question itself. What is wrong with Big Journalism is the fact that it even exists as an entity to be critiqued. In principle "the press" is not an entity but many diverse and contentious people publishing their opinions.
There is nothing wrong with the blogosphere; it is us. That means that it is venal and spiritual, earnest and frivolous, high minded and corrupt. The blogosphere is most of the press. Movies are also "the press," and so are books. Wherever the people may publish their opinions using their own money and no government supervision, that is part of "the press."
"The press" is not objective. It doesn't have to be, and it cannot be. "The press" is diverse; indeed the press is diversity - it cannot be objective, any more than it can be of any one particular opinion. In styling itself "the press," Big Journalism arrogantly conflates its opinion - which actually is defined by its own self interest as purveyors of nothing but data and opinion - with the diffuse interest of the public.
Their specialty is spin....Facts can be twisted, spun, faded, hidden, twisted..etc..etc..
Good post........
. . . The press' job is not to be for or against anything. Their job is to print the facts, period.
Those two statements are in direct conflict. It is true that "The whole paper is one big editorial." Under the First Amendment, it is allowed to be "one big editorial."If it is entitled to be "one big editorial," and in actual experience it is "one big editorial," in what sense is it the newspaper's job "to print the facts, period," and to "not to be for or against anything?" The answer, of course, is that the newspaper is in fact highly partisan, in both fact and intention, and any claims it makes to the contrary are themselves exemplars of the most extreme partisanship.
Never denied what they stand for, not for those who could see.
But speaking from my own experience, Big Journalism has been able to con most of us that that way, even though as you say their actual behavior, contrasting as it does with its professed standards, has been in plain view all along.I myself was in my late thirties, back in the late seventies, before I clearly realized that (in retrospect obvious) contradiction.
Sorry 'bout that, folks! I take full responsibility for my own stupidity. Now if only the MSM would do the same.
My take is that everyone believes in something, and journalists are cynical about everyone except Big Journalism. About Big Journalism, journalists are naive as a babe. And that maps to naivete about socialism as well. There is no difference between the interest and self image of journalism and the interests of socialism.
The MSM, is dominated by women, and feminists of both genders....
It is not enough to report "the truth," because it's impossible to report all truth. Your perspective can be seen in what you do not report. And what journalism does not report - what "isn't news" - is, by and large, conservatism. Things like employment (as opposed to unemployment). And good news generally.It's true that bad news sells and good news doesn't - but that is a matter of the self interest not of the public but of journalism. Bad news is obviously - the thing speaks for itself - bad. And journalism's self interest is in bad news. And whether or not you are a journalist, expressing your self interest is not identical with expression the public interest generally.
Esactly! She was so angry when someone pointed out that "the truth" is always subjective.
Helen believe that HER truth is the only real truth.
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