Tomorrow’s Post-Election MSM Apologias Today
Back in late 2004, Rush Limbaugh had lots of fun playing an interview that Tina Brown (now editor of Newsweek) had on her little-seen CNBC show with David Westin, then the president of ABC News, who said that the media needed to send the equivalent of foreign correspondents to the Red States, to witness firsthand how these strange people in the hinterlands live out their exotic day-to-day existences, and why they rejected the suave and debonair John Kerry for that hayseed George W. Bush:
WESTIN: I think we don’t do that enough, and I’m not just talking religious communities. I’m talking all sorts of communities across the country. I think that… You understand this, Tina, living in New York or in Los Angeles, we have busy jobs. We go into the office every day. We tend to socialize with the same people, or the same types of people, and I think it’s terribly important for journalists to get out whether it’s overseas or domestically and try to understand.
As Rush quipped, paraphrasing Westin, “We need more foreign correspondents in Alabama! We need more foreign correspondents north of Palm Beach County in Florida! We need embeds to go to church, find out what’s going on with these holy rollers! Ah, folks, you can’t know how much I love this.”
Also in November of 2004 after the election was concluded, when Brian Williams replaced Tom Brokaw, then-NBC president Jeff Zucker attempted to sell Williams to the public, by proclaiming to USA Today that “No one understands this NASCAR nation more than Brian.”
You can just smell the condescension in that statement, can’t you? And it didn’t take long for it to begin to appear repeatedly in Williams’ broadcasts. (In some cases what didn’t appear in Williams’ broadcasts was equally worthy of comment.)
(Not coincidentally, Jeff Zucker’s Wikipedia page has this ignominious subhead regarding Zucker’s tenure at the network: “President & CEO of NBC Universal: NBC Goes from First to Last in Ratings.”)
At Red State this week, Erick Erickson has a lengthy essay on the vast disconnect between the MSM and its consumers or, as Erickson notes — increasingly, their former consumers:
It is not that Fox News is, during its day time news, more conservative. It is that Fox News actually expends effort to ensure it relates to the values and world view of many more Americans than most major news outlets. But the average reporter for the average newspaper or other press shop would rather lament a conservative bias at Fox News than recognize most of them have a liberal bias much more detached from the average American. Outside of that news organization, very few are even interested in what middle class Americans within fifty miles of an American river valley not named Hudson even care about. The people consuming the news are not viewed as the intended consumers by the press. The intended consumers are those at their cocktail parties in Washington and New York who will herald them and give them Pulitzers and maybe one day a cushy job in a future Democratic Administration.
Festering the problem, many reporters, thought leaders in the press, and news executives rarely encounter people in the heartland any more. The Mississippi River Valley is something to be flown over instead of studied and covered unless there is a natural disaster. Additionally, the new breed of political reporter knows little about politics before Bush v. Gore, couldn’t care less to have a sense of history to give them perspective, embraces the cosmopolitan culture of elite environs in New York and Washington diving only into hipster dive bars to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon to connect in some superficial way with the rest of the country, leans left socially and fiscally, and maintains an increasingly secular world view nearly identical to that of their other young, hipster reporter friends. “Professing themselves wise, they became fools . . . ”
It is a painful truth.
But there is more.
Read the whole thing.
Every four years, whether their candidate wins or not, in the immediate aftermath of a presidential election, the MSM issues mea culpas after spending the year jamming their thumbs down hard on the scales, or issuing polls that in retrospect were wildly off. This practice isn’t new, but it’s accelerated due to the MSM’s being called out by bloggers, Fox News, talk radio, and other forms of alternative media.
“No matter what happens in November, we’ll see similar hand-wringing from ombudsmen at numerous MSM publications. And we’ll all know it’s just boilerplate, and nothing will change there, except an ever-diminishing subscriber list.”
Ain’t that the truth.
By the way, the utter disdain the MSM has for the ‘unwashed masses’, and the vitriol they have for the ‘bitter clingers’, is exactly why they are as dangerous as the far left ruling dictators in the Obama regime.
IF not for their incestuous relationship, the U.S. would not be on the precipice. They give the Radical-in-Chief all the cover he needs to hide his crimes!
So, it is not enough to call them out on their crimes and just poke fun,but what is needed is a people’s indictment of both – the regime and all their surrogates!
More then most, the MSM knows what the Liar-in-Chief’s second term plans are, yet they shield him!
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/02/revealed-the-second-term-plans-of-an-obama-presidency-nothing-short-of-a-national-nightmare-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
May they all crash and burn, and be replaced with ethical stewardship – the political and media alike!
I think this is the year that the Lily-white MSM’s “chickens, come home to roost.” The utter lack of professionalism. The complete abandonment of the essential journalistic value of impartiality — objectivity — impressed upon undergrads. The willingness to LIE and misdirect the public (largely, but not entirely, by OMISSION of pertinent facts and context. After the results of 2012, this is all going to come crashing down on the “1-percenters” in the media who have been deceiving us, Americans, of every ethnicity, religion, and WHATEVER, all these years. The jig is up, NBC. It is *up* NPR, PBS, Time Magazine. It is *up* ABC, CBS, CNN, NYT, LAT, WaPo. It is *UP*, Associated Obama Press! The lies, and the propaganda, and the petty partisanship are over. As of now, FOX News (which is FAR from perfect), and the Alternate Media are all that Americans can count on for honest journalism.
Not only will this election signal the rejection of liberal governing policies, the election also signals the end of the MSM.
Think about it, the MSM has spent the last four years lying and obfuscating. The people of this country are not fools, they know when they have been deceived.
After Obama loses and the truth finally comes out, every news story that is written by a (former) pro-Obama reporter will be dismissed with the statement, “How can we trust anything you report? You supported Obama”.
The Scarlet Letter will be upon the MSM’s back, and they will never be taken seriously again.
Here is a question to ponder. Comparing the media in the 2008 presidential election cycle to President Obama from 2009-present, which/who was a bigger failure?
Most of the day the CNN.com frontpage featured a cynical look at…polls!
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/13/living/polls-uncertainty/index.html
And as the economy nose dives, will the money for a “vanity books” type media still be there? They are already sniffing around for ways to get government money to support them. If the newspapers wait to long even their printing presses will become unsalable and a glut on the market.
I would like to see a full disclosure of the nepotism and inter-breeding between the MSM so-called personalities and the Washington political establishment. And I don’t just mean the libs. Ann Coulter’s chumminess with Bill Maher and Marli Matlin’s marriage to ol’ cue ball head are as suspect as the Andrea Mitchell and Allen Greenspan connection. We need disclaimers on all of their by-lines.
I can dream can’t I?
Harry we just experienced this phenomena during the Biden/Ryan debate, with Martha Raddatz connection to Obama, her husband getting a political oppointment to head up the FCC, yes, the inbreeding is quite prolific.
I’m not sure Ann Coulter is all that “chummy” with Bill Maher (except in the sense of “baiting”): Coulter has said, many times, that the only reason she appears on Maher’s show is: “Who else will come on and challenge his liberal ideology?”
Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, 2012 will be remembered as the final tipping point of the sad demise of our once esteemed mainstream media. The “new media” may survive, but only as long as people continue paying cash for their trash. If you find a news source bent and twisted with spin and bias, don’t buy it. Over time, objective reporting will return…I hope.
These are money-losing operations, but they somehow remain in business. Why? It’s not that they fill a small niche market. It’s that the owners are willing to take the loss, so they can continue to have the influence and power.
I think I would try to change the tax laws, so that the owners cannot offset other profits by having money-losing Media operations. Such deductions simply subsidize propaganda organizations.
The next 4 years have to be dedicated to going after the power structure of the Left. Public unions have to go. The Leftist propaganda and organizations must be curtailed in their activities. The vote fraud must be shut down. People have to go to jail. Tort laws must be reformed, which will weaken the trial lawyers and their massive donations to the Dems. The corruption must be prosecuted, or at least exposed. Activist judges must be impeached. It’ll take more than 4 years, but starting the process will go a long way to make the weaker ones jump ship.
“Journalism naturally draws liberals; we like to change the world.”
BS – conservative leaning journalists simply do not get hired. The elite liberal bosses effectively screen out middle and right thinking prospects. And the ones that slip through the sieve of elitism are quickly relegated to menial stories that telegraph quickly the need to ‘play ball’ or move on. The smart ones move on – what is left is what we see and have to deal with each day.
Instead of ‘changing the world’ how about just report on the world? Without slant – and without omission. Trust me – we can take it.
I remember when ‘perky’ Katie Couric landed her big job at CBS. Before she’d even done one nightly news broadcast she was on TV letting us know she’d soon be bringing us the news nightly. And BONUS of BONUSES – she’d even tell us what that news meant to us – how it would affect us. So here she is informing me of how stupid she thinks I am – not smart enough to figure out what current events meant for us all on our own. God’s gift of understanding to the unwashed masses! Thanks but no thanks Katie. Thats the problem isn’t it? Its all in the interpretation – and you’re version differs from mine.
I never watched one single broadcast of hers. And never had any problem figuring out what Obama meant for me. And I was right!
Despite the attitude of self-importance the so-called media “elites” project, it is my considered opinion that members of the public who actually bother to get their news from any of the electronic alphabet media are largely ignorant of economics, history, and especially civics. But they are almost sure to be able to tell you the name of the latest winner on American Idol. The fact is, the network news products are equally as trashy and meaningless as their prime time line ups.
R.I.P. MSM. You have dug your own grave. Now that you are in it, it won’t be long until your burial is complete. It has been a pleasure watching you die. You will most certainly not be mourned.
WaPo and NYT are creatures of the bubble mentality. As long as it exists, they will have an audience.
The Lame Stream EneMedia are so far up the *sses of the USURPER and the Democrats that they would not recognize daylight even if it shone right in their faces. They are so deep in the tank that reality is just a distant dream for them.
They see their purpose not to report in an unbiased way but to propagandize either by condescension, deception or omission in the most biased way towards the Left wing moonbat USURPERS POV. The refused to vet the USURPER before he took office and they still ‘run cover’ and make diversions to PROTECT the USURPER and his inefficient, incompetent corrupt RACIST Regime today.
Yet another thing the Lame Stream EneMedia has missed. People have been studying the USURPER closely and it seems the gold ring on his wedding finger is not from Michelle the Moocher. No the USUPER has been wearing it for over 30 years long before he even met her. Whats more its inscribed with the SHAHADA and Islamic symbols. So tell us again moonbats the USURPER is not a Muslim. He is laughing right in the faces of Americans who he regards as MORONS and who can blame him.
I couldn’t have a more elitist background; grew up on Long Island’s north shore, spent 30 years making commercials at ad agencies; met a gaggle of big shots and made multi million dollar decisions on gut feels (picking one commercial over another to produce).
At the same time, I’ve always been disgusted with the liberal NY Times and the biased mainstream media. From Letterman to SNL to Gore to Obama to Maddow; the pukes make me sick.
I believe I’m part of the old silent majority that, on November 6, is going to knock the stuffing out of Obama and his Obamunists. Romney wins in a landslide and the lamebrain mainstream Marxist media is going to be put out to pasture. Done away with like an old pair of Keds. No kidding. Obama’s going down for the count. Big ears and all. Big time. Obama right this minute is probably reassuring Michelle as he sits on her back as she does pushups that he can pardon himself; “Don’t worry, honey, we won’t be led out of the White House in hand cuffs.”
Traitors and miscreants though they may be.
Shouldn’t the main goal of a journalist be to DESCRIBE the world, not to CHANGE it?
The idea that the media should report on what is happening is so 50s. (1850s?) Don’t you understand that this was the old thinking that was in play back in the Dark Ages before the Prophet (Karl Marx) finally explained how to get to Utopia?
From the moment the Prophet Marx revealed all and pointed out the path to Utopia, the mission of journalism has been to get us going down that path. Marx’s Truth is so self-evident that no further discussion was needed and considering any other viewpoint was utterly unnecessary because it was unavoidably wrong. So the media decided to stop wasting our time and simply leads the way to Marxist Utopia.
That’s the difference between a reporter – which is what used to bring us the news – and a Columbia-schooled journalist, who is taught to Change The World.
No wonder they all fell in love with a Presidential Candidate who promised them Hope and Change.…
Is there any chance that, when you’re posting on Instapundit, you could *not* put stuff below a fold?
“Conservative complaints can be wrong: The mainstream media were not to blame for John McCain’s loss; Barack Obama’s more effective campaign and the financial crisis were.”
Placing aside the fact that McCain might have lost because he is a clueless jerk who reminds everyone of Bogart saying, “It’s the STRAWBERRIES!” (and that alone might be why he didn’t win), does anyone else notice the utter lack of introspection in this comment? How about the bald statement presented as inarguable fact which, after all, is just her opinion. Most no longer notice, because it is the standard MSM MO: avoid arguing the point (which you will lose) by simply asserting it in passing. Do that for a month, on every major news outlet, and VIOLA! Truth has been manufactured from Lie! And once it has, you can’t ever get the damn stink out!
The MSM is peopled by the stupidest, most highly paid, most worshiped, over credentialed dolts in journalistic history. They all think they’re brilliant, when they’re just stupid and incurious. Even Bill O’Reilly: his heart’s in the right place, but his brain is up his ass.
Noone likes to be talked down to by an idiot. Not even other idiots. The MSM seems composed almost entirely of idiots. That’s why I won’t buy their papers. What can one learn from lying idiots?
Besides. Just who the hell do they think they are that they have some kind of sacred mandate to”change things”? As they are incapable of building anything due to their tiny attention spans, destruction is the only form of change they promote. I have been bitching about this since Watergate and Vietnam. Who elected these schmucks? Who handed them all this authority?
Television, that’s who, and the people who are tied to it by their umbilical cords. Y’know. Stupid people, who look upon television and People magazine as the source of knowledge and wisdom. That’s why they’re called “stupid people”.
Isn’t universal suffrage a wonderful thing?
Ditto
“The mainstream media were not to blame for John McCain’s loss”
The media censored news unfavorable to Obama. Like that racist video of Obama on Katrina that we are JUST NOW seeing.
“Journalism naturally draws liberals; we like to change the world.”
You are an information broker. Its not your place to be an activist wanting to “change the world”. Who’s the better stock broker? The one focused on finance or the one who’s busy proselyting their cultural values? You have lost subs because you are a lousy information broker.
“But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don’t even want to be quoted by name in a memo”
Smart. Identifying yourself as a conservative amoung the “tolerant” liberals is career suicide.
Fen, Journalism draws leftists because it is an easy major that does not challenge their prejudices. These leftists stay away from academic rigor tat would cause them to analyze their beliefs.
True. You can practically name a persons political bent based upon there occupation. Most teachers, journalist, pychicologists, actors, and the entitlement crowd seem to be leftests. While all the normal folks, country singers, NASCAR ppl, those who believe in a higher power, those with traditional values tend to be conservative.
Part of the reason why the MSM is like this is because of the culture wars. I think Breitbart talked about how the Left won in academia and the media. The missing part, as I see it, is the lack of academic rigor in the backgrounds of many (or most) major players in the MSM. They may be articulate (in some cases) and bright (in some cases, too, believe it or not) but they are ill-prepared for analysis. As a consequence, they go to their default position, which is the orthodoxy that they have received: big government is good. And they compete with each other in expressing their zeal.
It’s not that they Won anything. We handed it to them hoping they would stfu and go away…
Short term, as far as the content goes, it is NOT going to change if Romney wins — if anything, the big media outlets are going to take their anger over Obama losing and double down, becoming hyperactive in their investigations of the new administration, to the point that if Mitt mispronounced a word during his inauguration speech or the ‘wrong’ person appears at an inauguration party, that will become the subject of a 2-3 day media feeding frenzy.
Long-term, it’s only going to serve to drive away more readers and viewers, but if the mindset of the liberal reporter or editor, that doesn’t matter and the Obama-PBS analogy is apt here — reporters in places like The New York Times truly believe if the profit is not there from advertising and sales to support their liberal spin on the day’s news, someone should subsidize them to keep things just as they are. Maybe they’re still not up to the task of arguing for a direct government no-strings attached handout to keep their endeavors afloat, but they do think some big-bucks liberal sugar daddy should come in if Pinch runs the paper into the ground, buy it and then just get the hell out of the way while they do their money-losing journalism (They’ve already talked about Michael Bloomberg doing this after he leaves the mayor’s office, apparently not comprehending that Bloomberg A.) Wants his hands in everything and B.) While liberal on social issues, is an economic moderate, and even they are anathema to the Times reporters, op-ed writers and editorialists. He’d demand the paper makes money, and that might mean taking the Times back at least to the Abe Rosenthal days, and Abe was despised by the far left at the paper).
The liberal reporters aren’t going to change who they are because the economic model doesn’t support that type of paper (or nightly news broadcast) anymore. They’re going to attack Romney or defend Obama from conservatives in 2013 with even more fever than today while at the same time believing someone somewhere should pay to allow them to write at comfortable salaries even if the free market for the free press doesn’t provide it due to their partisanship.
It must be hard-hitting, scrappy and questioning — skeptical of all political figures and parties and beholden to no one. It has to be the rock-’em-sock-’em organization that is passionate about the news.
Well, WaPo, we’ve been waiting forty years, and still see no noteworthy change in the general thumb-on-the-left coverage of your alleged newspaper. So why not stop with the pious platitudes, and hire a large cohort of un-leftish editors and reporters and print their findings. That will bring into the open the hatred practiced by your cozy tenured staff against intellectual – and reportarial – diversity, but it might return some readership who you’ve alienated by that collegial tenure.
It kinda makes one wonder when Bob Woodward – he of the vast Journalistic Integrity which “brought down the Nixon Presidency” meme – will get off his Associate Editor’s backside and maybe make the Washington Post reflect this New Reality.…
Liberalism is a DANGEROUS Mental Disorder. Who’d of thunk The Waking Dead would be a Democrat Party Documentary of Liberalism…
It’s really simple, give people the news, don’t become the news. I’m sure that statement is over their head though.
I saw your post about Baumgartner’s jump. I got to watch it live. I saw him hit a maximum speed of 729 mph. That should put him short of Mach 1, which 768 mph, give or take.
Ed: I apologize for the bum information here. I really thought that’s what I saw as the maximum speed on the screen during the Live view. Perhaps, I wasn’t watching as intently as I thought I was. Or perhaps, there are more accurate readings from the instruments carried in Felix’ suit.
You are also missing the fact that the speed of sound is not a constant, but changes with altitude, and especially temperature. At 30,000 ft, at standard conditions, the speed of sound would be around 675 mph. I haven’t heard at what altitude the maximum Mach number was reached.
Are you sure you have the correct Steyn link? When I click it takes me to the JPost home page.
I resent the knock on Pabst Blue Ribbon. It was first place, somewhere, once.