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Commentary: The unbearable smugness of the press
CBS News ^ | November 10,2016 | BRIAN SNYDER

Posted on 11/10/2016 5:48:05 AM PST by Hojczyk

There’s a place for opinionated journalism; in fact, it’s vital. But our causal, profession-wide smugness and protestations of superiority are making us unable to do it well.

Our theme now should be humility. We must become more impartial, not less so. We have to abandon our easy culture of tantrums and recrimination. We have to stop writing these know-it-all, 140-character sermons on social media and admit that, as a class, journalists have a shamefully limited understanding of the country we cover.

What’s worse, we don’t make much of an effort to really understand, and with too few exceptions, treat the economic grievances of Middle America like they’re some sort of punchline. Sometimes quite literally so, such as when reporters tweet out a photo of racist-looking Trump supporters and jokingly suggest that they must be upset about free trade or low wages.

We have to fix this, and the broken reasoning behind it. There’s a fleeting fun to gang-ups and groupthink. But it’s not worth what we are losing in the process.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hillary; hillaryshills; lamestreammedia; liberalmedia; mediabias; msm
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To: Hojczyk

Very good article. No one in the media will read this or learn any lessons. He’s one in a million that comprehend what happened.


21 posted on 11/10/2016 6:15:33 AM PST by listenhillary (Courts, law enforcement, roads and national defense should be the extent of government)
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To: Hojczyk

Wikileaks should break into the media’s emails.


22 posted on 11/10/2016 6:15:50 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: All
Not even 48 hours after Trump is elected are we seeing "mea culpa" from parts of the media. I've said since the beginning that Trump was the only candidate capable of defeating the media and that this should be one of our highest priorities before conservative principles can be further advanced.

Here it is, Thursday, and we already see cracks.
23 posted on 11/10/2016 6:16:29 AM PST by mmichaels1970 (Hillary lied over four coffins.)
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To: Hojczyk

The media was, and was seen to be, in the tank for Hillary.
What happens next?
The media will criticize Trump and the Trump administration relentlessly. They will not be able to stop themselves because it will be so much fun and because it is actually their job to do exactly that.
Unfortunately for their reputation, they don’t have a time machine and can’t go back eighth years and play their proper role in criticizing the Obama administration. Nor can they correct their campaign coverage.
How are we going to see this? As further proof of media bias.
With their extreme bias in this election and reluctance to criticize a liberal (and black) president, the media has damaged itself. Now just by doing their proper job they will inevitably further damage their reputations. A whole generation of Americans will view everything they say as suspect.
The American political system works better when an outside force applies pressure to expose corruption and dishonesty. The press should be that force, but by not restraining their own political beliefs and agenda they have reduced their own ability to fill that role.


24 posted on 11/10/2016 6:23:54 AM PST by conejo99
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To: Hojczyk

Thank you for that. I saw an opinion from Rex Huppke. I don’t know who he is except that the piece appeared in the local paper online. He looks smug. The headline said “Get over election loss and work to keep Trump in check”. I asked him where he has been the last eight years. This is the reason journalists have lost credit except among other journalists.


25 posted on 11/10/2016 6:36:01 AM PST by outinyellowdogcountry
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To: Hojczyk

So long as the MSM gets its new employees out of the LEFTIST schools of journalism the MSM will keep the bias locked in. The other entry into the MSM comes from politicians & bureaucrats - both predominant with hard-core Democrats! No change there in its embedded bias!


26 posted on 11/10/2016 6:36:51 AM PST by SES1066 (Quality, Speed or Economical - Any 2 of 3 except in government - 1 at best but never #3!)
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To: Hojczyk

Aww, poor them! They’re so sorry! They get it now! they’re gonna change now! We can trust them now.


27 posted on 11/10/2016 6:38:04 AM PST by uncitizen (Bring back Justice!)
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To: mmichaels1970

You are correct that Donald Trump was the only candidate who was capable and willing to go against the MSM without flinching. It comes from his successes as a businessman. Politicians quickly learn that they need to modify their true feelings in order to get past the corrupt press corps/police.

I was not a fan of Trump, the candidate, originally, but it became obvious to me somewhere around last Christmastime that none of the others had the confidence and gumption to really fight the battle. So to Donald Trump, I say Hooray! Hooray for your stamina, hooray for your belief in America, and hooray for your willingness to never give up.

I do hope he gets a few nights sleep under his belt, for his future is a going to be a tough one.


28 posted on 11/10/2016 6:43:29 AM PST by Gumdrop
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To: Hojczyk
Our theme now should be humility. We must become more impartial, not less so. We have to abandon our easy culture of tantrums and recrimination. We have to stop writing these know-it-all, 140-character sermons on social media and admit that, as a class, journalists have a shamefully limited understanding of the country we cover.

Uh-oh. Looks like Will Rahn won't be getting invited to many Christmas winter holiday parties this year!

29 posted on 11/10/2016 6:47:14 AM PST by workerbee (The President of the United States is public enemy #1)
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To: No_More_Harkin
The excuse the press used for their failure was 'the Internet'... then they went on the Internet and discovered they couldn't make money on the Internet either.

Why?

Because it was never the medium - it was the message. Marshall McLuhan was wrong.

'Drudge' was the on-line site they were competing with - and what was his 'advantage'? Drudge highlighted stories that 'got it'... Stories outside the liberal elite group-think. Stories we - the people - could relate to...

Let me try to explain this in a way BRIAN SNYDER might understand... What if a bunch of football coaches were assigned the job of interpreting the world of journalists... the world of 'thinkers'... They - and they alone - became THE scribes - top down. No one else bought (metaphorical) ink by the train load except 'coaches'. Answering them on a real level was impossible - they controlled the press. Add to that a bias 'the coaches' had that made them look down on the 'four eyes' types... sickly reader types who think and never act... then let them write about YOUR type BRIAN SNYDER for years and years... getting it wrong, yucking in up in the locker room. Attributing motives to you that have nothing to do with you and everything to do with their contempt for you etc...

Then tell me about the hatred you and your friends would start to feel BRIAN SNYDER... and how that hatred would grow over the years. And how you would not be overly impressed with some 'coach' realizing that measuring all people by one stick is inherently unfair... and the solution is for the "oh so wise' coaches to attempt some empathy for the 'four eyes'... It's still insulting. Even with the glimpses of insight...

30 posted on 11/10/2016 6:56:53 AM PST by GOPJ (Democrats were played for fools by their own political operatives! That's how they were blindsided)
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To: Hojczyk

Brian Snyder discovers the first rule of holes.


31 posted on 11/10/2016 7:06:43 AM PST by pa_dweller (I wish I'd stocked up on pearls. I hear they're good for clutching.)
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Waiting for Snyder to be fired in 3...2...1...! The msm will just double down and become more biased than ever if that is possible.


32 posted on 11/10/2016 7:13:34 AM PST by TnTnTn
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To: Hojczyk
The press cannot be fixed. The paychecks of all the major media outlets are paid by bigger interests than fair reporting. All of the national press are paid shills. Furthermore, it cannot be fixed because there is no punishment for bad reporting. What was more important to their bosses: getting it right or giving it their best shot for a hillary win?

the other thing this reporter will never see is that only people who have a built in corrupted mindset can ever make it to the top. The screening process will never allow a fair minded independent person into their club.

33 posted on 11/10/2016 7:16:52 AM PST by BRL
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To: SES1066

This year people turned en masse to bloggers, citizen journalists, youtubers, etc because they know the truth when they hear it and they know coordinated nonsensical propagandistic BS is all they were getting from the leftists in the LSM.


34 posted on 11/10/2016 7:27:28 AM PST by uncitizen (Bring back Justice!)
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To: Hojczyk

This naval gazing won’t last long.


35 posted on 11/10/2016 7:35:37 AM PST by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: Hojczyk; All

JFTR, the author is Will Rahn, whose last job was at the Daily Beast. Very interesting that someone with a background like that would be so candid.


36 posted on 11/10/2016 7:39:50 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Gumdrop

his success in going against the media was also because he was independently wealthy. I heard rush say in the 2012 elections that herman caine dropped out after all those women accusing him only because his donors drooped him.


37 posted on 11/10/2016 7:42:00 AM PST by squarebarb ( Fairy tales are basically true.)
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To: Hojczyk

Peter Theile, founder of Pay Pal, nailed it:

The media took Trump literally, not seriously.

The people took Trump seriously, not literally.


38 posted on 11/10/2016 7:47:14 AM PST by Senator Goldwater
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To: Hojczyk
tweet out a photo of racist-looking Trump supporters

Wait - judging people by how they look. Isn't that, dare I say it, bigotry?

39 posted on 11/10/2016 7:55:46 AM PST by ArGee (USA, we hardly knew ye!)
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To: Hojczyk

A home run - but the media and political movers and shakers who need to read this and understand it will never see it.
still
They are are busy right now mocking Trump voters and explaining to each other how we are the dying remains of a racist, sexist small town, uneducated class of regressive knuckle draggers.

To them this election was just the last convulsion of old farts with quaint, dated ideas about the US Constitujtion - a document they value as no more than a relic that belongs in a museum, or a dump.

They chckle in agreement that we can’t die off quickly enough so they can get back to helping other leftists put the Obama-Train back on the rails.


40 posted on 11/10/2016 7:56:53 AM PST by Iron Munro (If Illegals voted Rebublican 50 Million Democrats Would Be Screaming "Build The Wall!")
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