Posted on 02/28/2017 5:54:47 AM PST by Kaslin
Before becoming a newspaper columnist I was a broadcast news reporter for local TV stations and occasionally appeared on the NBC radio and television networks. I have some experience at being on the receiving end of hostilities directed at the media.
At a pro-Nixon, pro-Vietnam war rally I covered in the early '70s, a demonstrator looked at the NBC logo on my microphone and called me a "communist." We had never met. He knew nothing about my politics or the quality of my reporting. He assumed that because I was covering the event for NBC I must be a left-wing radical.
While there is little doubt in the minds of most conservatives that a large majority of reporters and anchors at the national level hold liberal views, the way labels are applied to journalists does little to improve the quality of journalism, a profession that was once considered a craft before it became big business, eventually devolving into just another political megaphone.
The Trump administration has probably extracted maximum benefit from its frontal assault on the news media. It will not win converts by continuing the bashing. Even press critics must acknowledge that a free press is essential to a strong democracy.
Here is my proposal to simultaneously preserve and strengthen democracy, while encouraging the media to do a better job.
Reporters, producers and TV bookers are people with families and, in my experience, a sense of duty. Mostly, they are friendly people who are interested in finding and reporting the truth. Granted, their view of truth might be far different from most conservatives, but let's start there.
The administration and other press critics should make a list of federal programs and the philosophies associated with them and conduct an objective study as to whether they have produced the advertised results. Feelings, intentions, even ideology should have no part in the study. Did the program and associated spending solve a problem? In terms of social services, were sufficient numbers of people helped and did those programs assist recipients to escape from government assistance and find jobs, or did they result in people becoming addicted to government, reducing their motivation?
How credible is it that someone would favor a program or support a philosophy that costs too much and delivers too little? Is the private sector having greater success in achieving certain desired ends far better than government? Many states are doing better than Washington in solving some problems. National reporters could be shown what success looks like outside the Beltway. They might ask members of Congress why they won't embrace these models in the states they and their colleagues represent.
I have never seen anger and opposition convert anyone. Persuasion requires a relationship that includes respect for the other person and learning how they arrived at their point of view. I suspect most people don't take the time to contact, much less develop relationships with journalists, or even know many people with views different from their own. Find something you can admire in a journalist's reporting and send them a note that says so. It can include a suggestion of something they might have missed in their coverage. A reporter is more likely to consider such a suggestion if it is accompanied with praise, rather than a heavy dose of bile.
The media aren't going away and while conservatives can -- and should -- continue to call out errors and bias, they ought to be at least as interested in changing hearts and minds, even minds that already seem made up.
Nice thought, but liberals slide right around this by arguing that the results are “intangible” and “not easily measured” by such base considerations as can be seen with the naked eye. Diversity, cognitive effect, nuance, they’ll come up with all sorts of b.s. to justify continuing exactly on their course.
The media aren’t going away and while conservatives can — and should — continue to call out errors and bias, they ought to be at least as interested in changing hearts and minds, even minds that already seem made up
They are generally not making profits, but are supported by other leftist corporate structures and donors.
Trump is doing *exactly* the right thing by exposing them. They are generally true believers and cannot be converted.
They are destroying themselves, and President Trump and the administration does the nation a service by pointing out the Fake News that these propaganda organs produce.
Cal, we are a Republic, not a Democracy. Also, we have nothing near a 'free' press. The agenda is the impetus that drives the media. Your suggestions are replete with altruism, something completely lacking from the modern media and to enact what you offer would take a turn that the majority are unwilling to take.
Cal Thomas can’t be this naive. When was the last time a liberal’s mind (such as it is) was changed by facts and reason?
You don’t try to mind-meld with your enemies. You crush them.
If there are enough liberals to support the establishment media, so be it. But if every conservative in the country withholds support for the media and their advertisers, they’ll understand the impact of their bias.
And we have our own sources of information these days, so we don’t have to rely on the half-truths, the propaganda, and the outright lies augured out daily by the media whores.
To hell with them.
Reporters, producers and TV bookers are people with families and, in my experience, a sense of duty. Mostly, they are friendly people who are interested in finding and reporting the truth.
Way wrong analysis. Their is no appeal to logic. The NSM doesn’t give a rat’s ass about truth. They push leftist ideology and see any attempt to ameliorate them as weakness and a sign they’re winning.
“How credible is it that someone would favor a program or support a philosophy that costs too much and delivers too little?”
Very credible. The “someone”s are Democrats supporting the welfare state.
Cal is delusional.
You’d sooner be able to change a rock into pepperoni pizza than to change the “hearts and minds” of the media.
Why? Why does he ask this? Why should conservatives have to justify their thoughts on government programs to this guy (and, by extension, the media)?
Seems to me like he's just trolling for ammo to use against us. Like he doesn't already know what we think...
Once a Communist, always a Communist. Except maybe David Horowitz. Maybe.
Cal is the perfect example of do nothing Conservatism.
For once we have a man in the White House trying to put the theories into action and the establishment runs for cover.
I think we HAVE shown them respect in the past- and what did we get in return? Nothing. What they did was help the candidate or POTUS or comrade of their choice. They cheated by throwing “softball” questions at them or worse let their person CHOOSE the questions. And if ‘we’ dared to point it out, we would be called racists or sexist or something. Or in retaliation, they’d write a story based on lies- like Trump and the Russians- and talk/write about it every single day for weeks as if it were a fact. When finally proven false, they would just move on and drop it-like Trump’s female accusers- who just disappeared from the news!
No- I disagree; we showed them respect and NEVER got anything ‘good’ or at the least respect in return. While there may be some fair minded people employed by the propaganda news companies, sadly, they do not call the shots.
All of a sudden, the truth matters “now more than ever” so says the NY TIMES. Why “now”? Why didn’t it matter during the last 8 years? This one statement, published in their own paper, tells you all you need to know about the people in the “news” business and their motives- and yes- it is beyond disrespectful to their readers, the American people. They have lied to them for the last eight years AND during this last election.
Respect must be EARNED and they have never given ‘us’ a reason to respect them, not a one!
I agree with your second point, but not your first. IMHO we have a free press, but not a fair press, which I think your second statement addresses.
True dat. They don't mind how much liberalism costs, because they aren't the 47% who are paying it.
No that is where every GOP President has gone wrong. You seek to destroy your fanatical enemies you do not try to “win their hearts and minds”
Trump is on the exact right path and the squealing from the Politcal/Media establishment shows they know it.
Arguable, but I still hold to my conviction that our current media are so hostile to conservative views that they suppress any mention. That makes it an un-free press. The evening news is more of a commentary than actual reporting.
No, it really doesn't.
But honestly, why do you resist conceding to a point that is so blatantly obvious?
Because it is not blatantly obvious, or to my point, the media is being driven by funding from highly biased sources. Why are you unable to concede to that?
I know corrupt and bias when I see it ... and there’s NO REASON we should ever want to deal with these people. Let them write for each other - for the guy one desk over.
That makes them corrupt; it says nothing about their freedom.
But let me guess, next you will posit some new definition of "freedom" to save face.
Oh, and you're a woman, right?
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