Thank you, Mr. Dean. It's about time someone to the left of center has the courage to lambaste the media. Ever since Sarah Palin first criticized them, they've put their tails between their legs and crawled off to hide under the porch. They've lost their gumption, they've lost their courage, and they've shirked their responsibility to inform the public.
Writing for The Huffington Post, Dean, DNC Chairman, sums up the problem with today's MSM:
Former Governor Sarah Palin made some preposterous claims over the weekend which attracted mainstream media attention. She made up the term "death panel" and claimed that part of the health care reform bill now working it's way through Congress required that families with children with disabilities, or elderly people who are infirm, could be judged by one of these death panels, which could control their fate and decide if they would die. GOP leadership repeated this outrageous claim across the airwaves on the Sunday morning talk shows. The mainstream media gave this claim credibility simply by repeating it.
And that is the crux of the problem with the mainstream media today. They repeat the lies and outrageous myths of the lunatic fringe. The modern media doesn't even have the courage to call a lie a lie.
Our country is in trouble. Claims like these are routinely refuted by people who know better, but they are recirculated because they are sensational, and the MSM purports to take a balanced position without a thoughtful assessment of the facts. Fox News actually has people on in support of these outrageously false claims.
Well, we can't expect much more from Fox, but the others?
In fact, these kinds of claims are lies. There is no nice way to say it. This kind of stuff is far beyond the usual politicians' tricks of shading words and imputing meanings that aren't there. To quote a famous American who began the process of ending the McCarthy era in the fifties I address the MSM: "At long last, Have you no sense of decency?"
Ya think Dean's talking about Edward R. Murrow? Absolutely, but Morrow could not have done it alone. He had to have had the backing of then CBS president William Paley who wasn't so intimidated by advertisers.
There are the Limbaughs and the Becks who are deliberately stirring up the wingnuts but the mainstream media bares just as much responsibility in stoking the fires by their very ommissions.
The true definition of 'journalistic objectivity' has been lost in the partisan shuffle of Washington. Objectivity is supposed to be adherence to the plain facts over personal sympathies, not the dull repetition of bullshit in a tone that gives it credence just because someone said it.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the media is much more interested in 'perceived neutrality' than 'journalistic objectivity'... and that is a very different thing.
I don't think Dean was calling so much for objectivity as he was for plain old fashioned guts (i.e., the reference to Murrow) of which, until very recently, they have been lacking. Couric came out with some lame plea last night for everyone to calm down. Who needs this kind of pablum when people are carrying signs that say "Death to Obama, Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids" and some fool carrying a gun?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're right about Dean.
ReplyDeleteBut the media is the problem. They have decided (or allowed the forces of partisan politics to decide for them) that it is more appropriate to appear 'neutral' than to appear to be an honest conduit for factual news. This is what leads them to offer pablum in place of strongly worded indictments of lies and liars.
A lack guts is the problem, certainly, I won't argue with you there.
Well, advertisers have them by the you-know-whats.
ReplyDeleteI've changed the name of my blog to just Parsley's. For some reason people can't get on without permission, so I've got to figure this out. Parsley's Pics is just too cumbersome and too long.