ArchivedArticles: Media Failure 101; Start Flunking Network "journalists" who Give Right Wingers who lie and distort a pass.

Media Failure 101; Start Flunking Network "journalists" who Give Right Wingers who lie and distort a pass.

By Rob Kall

www.opednews.com

How do they fail us, let me count the ways. The media have let down America in so many ways. I'm going to talk about one of them. We see it everyday when reporters, pundits, news and talk show hosts give their guests-- usually whitehouse and administration heads-- a pass on evasive or deceptive, or patently ridiculous statements, answers and remarks.

When a reasonable question is asked and a flip answer is given, the reporter lets it slide. When the word is out that there is a different angle that is being discussed by the other side, and the interviewer accepts the spin that the right wingers are all putting it, without further questions, that's a pathetic substitute for real journalism. When George Bush or one of his surrogates makes an outrageous statement, or distorts something, and the anchor airing the clip fails to say anything, that's a failure, a sellout and an example of how the mainstream media are serving the right wing, not the people.

For example, when George Bush cites John Kerry's remark that he would have still made the decision to give war powers to the president, and Bush suggests that this was a direct support of the Iraq War, that's worse than a distortion. It's a lie. But not one network anchor or reporter that I saw corrected Bush, or added a comment giving Kerry's side. Back when the media when psychotic replaying Dean's three seconds of exuberance-- those three seconds used to assassinate his chances for president-- it took about a week before anchors and reporters told the truth, that the clip was out of context, with the cheering of the crowd, that Dean was shouting over, muted.

When the mass of anchors and reporters report on the swiftboat veterans who are attacking Kerry, they fail to mention that these attackers were not on the same boat as Kerry, that all the men on Kerry's boat have backed him up, that these "veterans" have long history as right wing shills, going back to the time of Tricky Dick Nixon.

When CNN's Judy Woodruff, Paula Zahn or Anderson Cooper do interviews and allow the interviewees to deliver their message, without having to answer any tough questions, they're not functioning as journalists, not even as interviewers. They're just conduits. The same is true for just about the entire lineup at FOX news.

If asking questions is about guts and spine, then Foxnews is made up of invertebrates-- you know-- jellyfish, slime molds, insects.

When we watch late night TV, like Leno, Letterman or Conan, we expect puff interviews, with no challenges, no tough questions, no pre-researched surprises for the interviewee. But when we watch news shows, we expect, we depend upon the journalists to dig, to get to the truths that are not obvious, to insist that interviewees give up their best information. We trust, or at least we should be able to trust the TV journalist to provide background and the other side. Fat chance with the major networks, with most of the anchors and on-camera personalities (note how I avoid calling them journalists.).

Why don't these faux journalists do it? Or why don't they do it anymore? Or... why don't they do it with Bush administration and other republican interviewees?

It's a fairly simple answer. It's a combination of two factors. For the most part, I think they are cooperating with their interviewees, collaborating with the regime. They want to be helpful, to make these people look good. They want to help them sell their message convincingly.

The other explanation, which is growing less and less likely, is that they've been beaten and cowed into cooperating, into doing a plain lousy job of asking tough questions.

How can you tell when these fake journalists who are really right wing collaborating propaganda conduits are dropping the ball? Just watch your own reactions. Does a right winger make a statement that cries out for a follow-up question that is never asked? Do you know there's another side to the story being given? If you know, then the reporter, with his or her staff of researchers should know it and a lot more. Does that reporter ask for the response to the other side?

If they don't you can write to them. Let them know they're doing a lousy job. Be specific with the person they interviewed and the question they blew. Tell they are spineless, that they are frauds and no longer functioning as journalists. Maybe they'll remember what it means to do the right thing. The nation, the planet desperately needs tough questions for these tough times. It will take a tough audience to make it happen.

Lou Dobbs and Aaron Brown occasionally come up with tough questions, or at least the semblance of doing their job, and they've both raised issues that are desperately in need of coverage-- exportation of jobs overseas, corporate influence, electronic voting... .

Tucker Carlson and Bob Novak ask tough questions of democrats and Paul Begala and James Carville ask them of right wingers on Crossfire. But those are token examples and there's not enough depth there, since the crossfire aspect of the show keeps everything in very short, single sound-bites, without follow-up.

One has to wonder, are these journalistic failures due to lack of spine on the part of the journalists or are they due to actual policies of the news networks. There are times, when I watch Judy Woodruff, (and others) that it seems she almost enjoys letting an outrageously partisan statement pass, unquestioned, un-commented upon. That's not lack of spine, It could be network policy or just plain unethical partisan journalism. It would be ethical if she portrayed herself as a partisan columnist. But that's not the case.

This is a problem that might really be helped by YOU writing letters. If news anchors and their editors get enough complaints, then perhaps they'll find some spine or their editors will take heart and fire them. The next time you see a clip or sound bite, or a right winger who gets away with making statements that the anchor fails to adequately respond to, write to him or her, and copy the company. Let them know we can see their unprofessional, incompetent or unethical partisan behavior.

Rob Kall rob@opednews.com is editor of www.OpEdNews.Com living in Bucks County, PA You can find over 150 additional articles by Rob Kall at this Archive

comments from readers:

subject: I've already flunked these people

Great piece. This certainly needs to be said over and over again. I stopped writing to the media about two years ago. All it did was keep me agitated. I've turned off the TV news, for the most part. I used to keep one of the sets at my house tuned to CNN 24/7. Now, I may watch 20 minutes of CNN a day. CNN has become the most useless network on TV. I don't know anyone who trusts them anymore. I think Time/Warner lets the network slide to curry favor with the Bush Administration. Our network and cable news programs have become dangerous things. More and more people turn to "The Daily Show" and Bill Maher to get the news. It seems our comedians are the only honest commentators left on TV.

John Moody
Studio City, CA

Subject : Media Failure 101 and More

Hi Rob,

Just surfed upon your site (and article) and had to write- I am in complete agreement with all that you said.

What really gets me, on an ongoing basis, are the jaw-dropping, monumental, headline stories barely mentioned by

the plastic, corporate-owned talking media dummies on network and cable news.

As for the latest: why isn't "Bush Administration outs Al-Quaeda Mole" splashed across every newspaper

and news broadcast in America? Why isn't it being treated like the scandel

of the highest proportions that it is? In Bush's so-called 'War on Terror', the acquisition of

an Al-Quaeda insider is such an INVALUABLE, rare and precious tool... so, the Bush Administration undermines

its own 'War on Terror' by outing its own spy, thereby inabling our enemies to escape detection, and the

SILENCE from the media is DEAFENING. Truly shocking and outrageous. It even tops the lack of media

attention to Bush's shocking statements about still going to war 'knowing what we know now'. Isn't that a

kind of tacit admission that his main justification for the hideous Iraq war, WMD, was meaningless blather?

(But when Teresa Heinz Kerry tells a reporter to "Shove it" , it's played ad nauseum for days.)

I could go on and on. I cannot imagine another 4 years of Bush, and fear that is what we will get.

God help us.

Thanks for fighting the good fight.

-Nancy

Hoboken, NJ

Subject: Media

Thank you for your article. I have written cnn, and others. They ignore me. I called cnn long distance and the gentleman threatened to hang up on me. I was not using profanity or being abusive. I was angry that they were only presenting one side to an issue and not giving Kerry's views. They did a horrible thing to Dean. Crossfire is now a joke of Novak spinning his tails and Begala stating what a nice man Bush is . before he makes any opposing statement. The show has been regulated to a 4:30 time slot that very few people watch. The other stations are too painful to watch. So what do we do now. I can't afford to travel to these outlets. The whole mainstream media has developed an insane desire to force mr. bush on the people. Where is the DNC? They send the most uninformed representatives to take on the repugs challenges. This horrible swift boat liars would have had less impact if the DNC had let Kerry speak to his record and sent out some very skilled debators to counter attack these lies. I called the DNC,because a Rev. Charles Stanley was 3-mailing his lies about the swift boat trolls. The DNC did not respond to my calls. I e-mailed them and all I got was a form letter asking for more money. I don't expect them to respond directly to me, but I see nothing substantial that they are doing nationally to help Kerry. They have marginalized Whoppi Goldberg while;Dennis Miller is proudly displayed at the repugs events shilling his filthy lies to all the crowds.Tell me,sir, am I to accept the country will be run in the same incompetent manner for four more years,because the people with real clout are afraid to take on this administration. Are the press people so lazy and happy with their huge saleries that they refuse to report the news. The only way democracy will live again is if we have a fair and balanced media. I wish that the fairness docterine would once again be the law of the land. The repugs took that vital instument away from our beloved country and the incompetent weak (even though they were in the majority at that time),democrats let them get away with destroying the freedom of the people to be informed. So tell me what can be done, because I am losing hope for this country.

Marie Pickert

Rob's response: . Don