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The Media Refuses To Take Responsibility |
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I’m sitting here listening to a panel entitled “Angels of Vision: Big Media / People’s Media” at the Take Back America 2008 conference. On the panel are some figures from the left-wing media (Cenk Uygur from Air America and Eric Boehlert from Media Matters) and two people from the “traditional” media (Michael Carlderone from Politico and Michael Hirsch from Newsweek). It’s becoming very clear that the traditional media just cannot take responsibility for the gross failures of judgement they concionsed over the last eight years.
While Cenk talks about the myth of “neutrality” in the media, saying smart things like:
The natural human reaction to media criticism is to go out of your way to “be fair” to everyone. Neutrality is alluring, but it’s not true at all. The objective is to be objective, that’s very different from being neutral. The right wing has blurred that line.
He then pointed to some curious examples. The media picked up on the right-wing calls for Eliot Spitzer to be impeached and/or step down within 24-48 hours. When Senator Vitter, who commited and admitted to the exact same crime, returned to the Senate, he got a standing ovation.
On the other side, the traditional media still doesn’t seem to get it. Michael Hirsch, when asked if the critisims of media from the left filter into the newsroom, had this gem:
Because Bush punished disloyalty in the press by controlling access, we missed the disastrous turn towards Iraq.
That’s the explanation? Because you were afraid of Bush punishing you for reporting the truth about his massive deception, you missed the run-up to the most disastrous war in our history? I’m sorry, but that excuse just doesn’t cut it.
If traditional media has any value at all in today’s political landscape, it has the value of investigative resources. Blogs and pundits don’t have the time or budget to go in-depth on stories that deserve this kind of analysis. If they fail in even this basic responsibility because they are afraid of pissing off the very officials they are supposed to investigate, the traditional media is truly useless.
You’re absolutely right that the traditional media is useless, and furthermore verging on criminal neglect. The American Media coverage swarms and devours stories like Elliot Spitzer, yet real stories that should be brought to the public’s attention like the 935 lies told by the Bush administration to start this now 5 year long war or the event (9/11) which so clearly needs to be reinvestigated are ignored. This is destroying our reputation in the international community and as a result our dollar is in free fall. The people have the right and duty to know these things, and in my mind the media conglomerates are criminals for not reporting these things as well as hiding them from the public.
I definitely agree with you, Anne. Why focus on Spitzer and his 22 year old prostitute whose pictures were splattered all over the New York Post when there are more pressing issues that the public really needs to know?