American journalism is collapsing before our eyes

NYP ^ | Aug 21, 2016 | Michael Goodwin

[upchuck]

Donald Trump may or may not fix his campaign, and Hillary Clinton may or may not become the first female president. But something else happening before our eyes is almost as important: the complete collapse of American journalism as we know it.

The frenzy to bury Trump is not limited to the Clinton campaign and the Obama White House. They are working hand-in-hand with what was considered the cream of the nation’s news organizations.

The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America.

The largest broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC — and major newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post have jettisoned all pretense of fair play. Their fierce determination to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has no precedent.

Indeed, no foreign enemy, no terror group, no native criminal gang, suffers the daily beating that Trump does. The mad mullahs of Iran, who call America the Great Satan and vow to wipe Israel off the map, are treated gently by comparison.

By torching its remaining credibility in service of Clinton, the mainstream media’s reputations will likely never recover, nor will the standards. No future producer, editor, reporter or anchor can be expected to meet a test of fairness when that standard has been trashed in such willful and blatant fashion.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Lou Dobbs is the best; I agree totally!!!

[ExTexasRedhead]

Thank you for the awesome new FNC theme song.

[AndyJackson]

tabloids are now seen as more legit

You know it is really bad when you scan the UK Daily Mail before the slimes and compost, if you ever get to the latter bird cage liners.

[poconopundit]

Certainly another milestone in the corruption of American journalism was the movie, All the President's Men.

Bob Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post were glorified in that movie for taking down the government, specifically getting Nixon to resign over the Watergate scandal.

This led to the rise of the Washington Post and other leftist news media.  Journalism turned into a much coveted job for social justice warriors and progressives who wanted big government authority to impose their will over the public because "We know better than those ignorant voters".

But in 2005 when Mark Felt outed himself as Deep Throat, the truth was revealed: Felt had passed all the juicy Watergate scoop to the WaPo junior reports so he could get even with Richard Nixon.

In other words, Woodward and Bernstein were simply stool pigeons in a battle for control over the FBI.  Nixon was actually trying to wrestle control of the law enforcement agency from the corrupt iron grip that J. Edgar Hoover and his successors held over the government.  Felt was Hoover's right-hand man and so Nixon did not promote him, but picked an outsider, Patrick Gray, instead for FBI Director.

So look at in this light, Nixon was on the side of the good: he sought to gain some control over an FBI that had overstepped its bounds and authority.

The real significance of Watergate was explained beautifully in a 2012 column by Pat Buchanan: The Outing of Deep Throat.  Here's an excerpt:

As the 40th anniversary of Watergate impends, we are to be bathed again in the great myth and morality play about the finest hour in all of American journalism.

The myth?

That two heroic young reporters at The Washington Post, guided by a secret source, a man of conscience they dubbed “Deep Throat,” cracked the case and broke the scandal wide open, where the FBI, U.S. prosecutors and more experienced journalists floundered and failed...

[But Deep Throat] Mark Felt was a snake.  He used the Post to destroy his rivals and advance his ambitions, and the Post didn’t care what his motives were because Felt was assisting them in destroying their old enemy {Richard Nixon].

Yes, indeed, the finest hour in American journalism. /sarc

[poconopundit]

Nice graphic, kiryandil.

I like the sign: "finished line" as in America is finished if Hillary is elected.

[V K Lee]

Having lived thru Watergate (and surviving)there was no need to read or hear about it by watching the flic. The entire age of Nixon was filled with anti-Nixon and government in general. The V.N. war, Watergate day after day. It was at this time, being so fed up I was pro-democrat for a time. That soon passed, after all Carter was soon to follow. The MFM pushing their own agenda is to be seen as a reality for years. Nixon lied to the American people, which was his largest faux pas found at the time. The fact that being pulled into the corral by a con man was disturbing and all in all, not an experience to be pleasantly remembered. Having grown up in a house basically empty of political discussion, a novice walking down an unfamiliar road. Years later, my mother told me ‘All politicians are alike, one as bad as the other’ This happened to be during the time of the eternal re-count in the state of Florida. At the time, I tended to agree with her but felt the Rs to be the lesser of the two evils but government in general consistently treading where they had no place to tread and attempting to rule and ruin our lives.

[flaglady47]

“How old is Tucker Carlson? 5?

If he’d been around during the Reagan years he’d know better.”

I was there during the Reagan years, and this is far worse. This is a concerted blitzkrieg of attacks against Trump by the MSM that I have literally in my lifetime never seen before, including during the Reagan years. This is sickening and unconscionable.

[poconopundit]

The irony is that the FBI was all-powerful in Nixon’s time. Today, they can’t even recommend a huge national security breach be indicted.

[V K Lee]

They have fallen low. Efrem Zimbalist Jr (were he not dead) and Richard Carlson(were he not dead) would refuse to have any part of depicting men working with the FBI In the years these two men lived, the FBI was a Stalwart Organization.

[RitaOK]

Your poetry hits all the right notes with me. Nice.

[MinuteGal]

Thanks for the nice words re: my poetic creation in #139!

Leni

[GOPJ]

Yes... all over the map so to say..

[GOPJ]

The shameful display of naked partisanship by the elite media is unlike anything seen in modern America.

This is the same 'press' - led by the little effers at the New York Times and Washington Post - that totally missed the cultural tsunami that resulted in the Trump revolution. Probably because their DNC handlers didn't slip the story into one of the packets they send over to newspapers - so 'journalists' can sit on their butts and function as PRNewsWire for the DNC.

[upchuck]

IMHO, post of the day!

[GOPJ]

Thanks... made my day...