It Was Necessary To Destroy The Industry In Order To Save It

Jennifer Rubin has “A couple of observations about Jill Zuckman, the latest journalist to join the Obama administration:”

First, things must indeed be desperate at the Chicago Tribune for Zuckman to leave to work at — the Transportation Department! Second, Zuckman  was actually among the least hyper-partisan members of the press. And Dr. Sanjya Gupta, another Obama hire, held the distinctions of annoying Paul Krugman and debunking Michael Moore.

In other words, with these moves, a few retirements and some untimely deaths, the press corps is getting worse and worse. The number of reporters willing to suspend their personal biases to simply get out the facts is diminishing. We are left with more pseudo-journalists ( a whole network of them at MSNBC). Sure, there is Jake Tapper — but the inescapable conclusion is that he is one of the few capable national reporters. We are all the worse for it.

“The number of reporters willing to suspend their personal biases to simply get out the facts” has always been smaller than many readers assumed, though. For proof, check out the second article in Kathy Shaidle’s series debunking journalistic myths from the Vietnam war, this time focusing on the misquotable Peter Arnett, the infamous manufacturer of the “We had to destroy the village in order to save it” sound bite. But after 75 years of monolithic media, the public finally has a means of talking back when they cook the books.

At least for the moment.