Bob Schieffer Mourns Lost Monopoly

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | June 1, 2015 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

RUSH: We had on Friday was Schieffer saying that the news business isn't what it was anymore and it's forever been changed. There's too many people doing news and nobody knows what's reliable and nobody knows what's good and bad or anything anymore and it all started, he says, about 1988.

Something happened in the late eighties he said, he just can't figure it out, but whatever, now everybody does news and therefore nobody does news and it's not good. It's just his way of saying, we've lost or we did lose our monopoly, and now we don't own it, and we have to compete, but we don't like competing, and so I'm retiring. You know, I'm quitting, I'm heading back to Texas. I want to go to a state that doesn't have a drought, and have to worry about this kind of stuff so I'm going back.

Now, he's added some things to it. He admitted they didn't vet Obama well enough. The Drive-Bys didn't vet Obama well enough in 2008, but then he said that that's not our problem, really, because it's up to the people figure out what they want. And it's up to the Republicans to tell people who Obama is. Well, he's got a point on that. He really does.

Now, I know what Republicans say, "Well, we wouldn't be listened to." No, Republicans, you never had the guts to go after Obama, and you still don't. So Schieffer's got a point. Okay, if the Drive-Bys are not vetting, we did, we vetted Obama. You know, a lot of conservative media vetted Obama, but the Republican Party didn't, and they're still not.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: "Legendary Bob Schieffer called it a career yesterday as he hosted his final edition of Face the Nation." This is a CBS News story. "Washington has changed dramatically when he began covering the nation’s capital. Schieffer told CBS This Morning on Friday that the 'revolution in communications' has turned D.C. 'upside-down.' 'We now don’t know where people get their news, but what we do know is they’re bombarded with information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most of the information is wrong and some of it is wrong on purpose,' Schieffer said."

I wonder, is that a confession? It would be nice if that was a confession. I doubt that it is.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We have the audio sound bite from Friday that I had but I didn't get to and it is from Friday's CBS This Morning. The cohost on the program was Vinita Nair. She said, "There have been so many wonderful things written and said about you at this point, Bob, so many wonderful things written and said. And one of my favorites, Bob, was simply, quote, 'He's someone that never became Washington,' unquote. But I'm curious, Bob, in that chair, how do you feel like Washington has changed from when you started to now?"

SCHIEFFER: It's been turned upside down. I mean, as has everything because of this revolution in communications. You know, we now don't know where people get their news. But what we do know is they're bombarded with information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most of the information is wrong, and some of it wrong on purpose. It is our job I think in mainstream journalism to try to cut through this mall of information and tell people what we think is relevant and what they need to know about. That is the job of the journalist, and I have to say it's harder and harder.

RUSH: That is fascinating to me. That is classic. So obviously he's not confessing when he says that most of the information is wrong, and some of it wrong on purpose. No, and I was just joking about him confessing. I didn't expect that. Now, listen to this. It is our job, I think, in mainstream journalism, to try to cut through this mall of information. Translation: We always decided what was news and what wasn't. We were in charge of deciding what people got to know and what we hid from them, based on several things.

Do they need to know this? No. Do they need to know this 'cause it'll help us? Yes. Do they need know this it 'cause it'll help the Democrats? Yes. Do they need to know this because it might hurt the Democrats? No. That's the basis on which the news has always been edited. And now that's the case more than ever. Mainstream journalism is simply a branch office of the Democrat Party, and it exists to advance the Democrat Party agenda. That's not a generalization and it's not really an attempt at humor.

But he says, "Yeah, yeah, mainstream journalism, we really try to cut through all that mall of information, tell people what we think is relevant." Well, look at how much happens every day. I mean, theoretically there's more happening that could ever be charted. This is an interesting question here just to illustrate this. When do you think it was, in the history of the world, that it was possible for somebody alive to know everything that was known? Is that not an interesting question? I mean, it's got to be centuries ago.

This is a question that Mr. Buckley addressed often, and I don't remember who, but he thinks he pinpointed the era when it was possible, and it's eons ago. I mean, it's even way before printing press. When was it possible for any one person to know everything that was known? It's so far back. The point is that it is impossible even now to chart -- and by that I mean write or document -- everything that's known. And it's certainly impossible to learn it. It is not possible for a single human being to know everything that's knowable or everything that is known. There's simply too much. And in the course of an average day in the world there is more that's happens than anybody could ever categorize, quantify, and report.

So Schieffer comes along says, "Our job is to wade through all of that and to tell people what we think is relevant." Well, right there, with that admission right there, Bob Schieffer has just admitted how severely limited journalism is. They're not even open to everything happening. Their bias begins with determining that which is happening. What of it is important. Well, how are you gonna decide that? Important to who? Well, he admits, to them. Well, we know what's important to them. Therefore, he's admitting how limited mainstream journalism is, when in fact journalism ought to be open-ended.

Journalism, in fact, is probably what we're now getting, more so than we ever have. To people like Bob Schieffer, Matt Drudge isn't a journalist. To people like Bob Schieffer, I'm not a journalist. Of course, I don't want to be one. But all of this news that's out there, only they have the qualifications, the intelligence, characteristics to determine what, of all the things happening out there, is legitimate and what isn't? And you sitting at home digesting as much as you can get your hands on, you don't have the ability to determine what's legit, what's illegitimate, what's true, what's not true, what's relevant, what's not, you need them?

Well, what endows them? Journalism school? Where do you go to become a Bob Schieffer to learn how to weed out 99% of what's happening? I'll give you a recent example here that is probably not the best I could come up with, but it's happening right now. Do you know that ever since this Denny Hastert scandal erupted, that you can't find any news on the Clinton Foundation scandals anymore? Because people like Bob Schieffer have decided, "Oh, this Denny Hastert thing, this is far more relevant and far more important to the American people and what they think about it than what was going on with the Clintons."

Really? Something that Denny Hastert has done, whatever it is, 35 years ago, has now totally occupied all of mainstream media, and they have eagerly and happily left the Clinton Foundation -- they've even left the FIFA scandal aside, to go after Denny Hastert. Thirty-five years ago, whatever it is that happened. Classic example. Maybe not the best I could offer, but it's one that's happening right now.

"So we try to cut through this mall of information. We tell people what we think is relevant and what they need to know about." So you are just idiots. You may be nice idiots, you may be engaging idiots, but you're uninformed boobs. And this is the conceit and the arrogance that Drive-By journalism brings to its task each and every day. I would venture to say that the people that pay only attention to the news as delivered by people like Bob Schieffer are probably the least informed people in our country.

I think people like you who listen to this program -- because you know what you'll get here that you won't get on Face the Nation? You know what you'll get here you won't get on Meet the Press? You know what you'll get here that you won't get in the New York Times or the Washington Post or any of the others, CBS, ABC, NBC, you know what you'll get here? Both sides. In explaining why conservatism is superior, I also explain liberalism, openly and honestly.

The liberals in the country today will not even be honest about who they are, what they want, what they believe, and what their agenda is. Nobody would support it if they were honest. But we are. The people in this audience I think are more informed, have a much more solid foundation in which to absorb news events and put them in context than anybody watching CBS News, or ABC. And, frankly, I don't think there's any question about it, and I'm very proud of it.

I cover everything here. Well, I mean, I don't cover things I'm not interested in, but I don't have the hubris to tell you that you only need to listen to this program. But if that's all you do, you'll still be more informed than if all you do is watch CBS or ABC or NBC or anything else. So Bob now says it's the job of the journalist to weed through all that crap and figure out what people need to know, it's harder and harder. Why is it harder and harder? Why is it harder and harder? There's more news than ever today. There's more access to it. Why is it harder?

See, that's not what he means. You know what he means by it's harder? It's harder to ignore the stuff they used to ignore. It's harder to promote the stuff that they always have promoted and only want to promote. That's what's harder. It's harder to cover up what they don't want you to know. Because there are other people out there telling you what they don't want you to know or don't think you should know or don't think you're capable of knowing. That is what he means.

[jospehm20]

I think Schieffer suffered brain damage from oxygen deprivation by keeping his head up various democrat’s backsides for too long.

[buffyt]

When Bill B J Clinton was under fire for rape, molestation, sexual harassment, sticking his peener into Paula’s face, sexual abuse of an intern, etc., I remember hearing Bob Schiefer saying of these charges/accusations “Allegedly, supposedly, reportedly” did all of these things.... Turned out ... HE DID!
I knew right then that he was a liberal FIRST and a reporter SECOND or worse...

[buffyt]

EXCELLENT comment!!!!!!!!!!

[foreverfree]

bump

[Senator_Blutarski]

“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” ― Mark Twain