Bill Moyers is retiring from the PBS newsmagazine that he founded two years ago and he had some interesting quips in a recent interview.
He said that the biggest story of our time is that the right-wing media has become an extension of the Republican National Committee, while saying that the mainstream media is more interested in the bottom line.
That is a very interesting assertion.
He’s chosen to ignore the efforts of the mainstream news media in the last two years to get John Kerry into the White House. Let’s face it: Kerry never stood a chance. He had lukewarm support from his own party; he had no solid base; and “anyone but Bush” only carried the campaign so far and then stopped.
The mainstream media has become the news. This was recently illustrated by the actions of a Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter who exercised undue influence and trickery over a question and answer question with the Defense Secretary. Dan Rather introduced false National Guard documents to influence the voters to vote against Bush. The mainstream press tried to discredit the Swift Boat Veterans as soon as they realized how detrimental they were to Kerry’s campaign; Kerry still has not signed a Form 180 authorizing the complete release of all of his records.
It should also be noted that when CBS’s liberal competitors jumped on the fake CBS/National Guard story, they were quick to point out that while the documents were false and CBS should be ashamed and yaadaa yadaa, they said that the sentiment behind the documents was valid. In other words, they didn’t want rocks to be thrown inside their shared glass house but they didn’t mind throwing rotten eggs and rocks at the Republican candidate.
Journalism has been replaced by partisan reporting, leaving the right-wing media with no other choice but to present the other point of view and leaving them open to charges that they’re an arm of the Republican Party. Neutrality in reporting was once something that the mainstream press took pride in.
The mainstream press is totally responsible for creating the environment that the right-wing press is flourishing in, so they ought to quit complaining about Fox News telling the rest of the story.
Here’s the Moyers interview.
1 comment:
Liberalistic attitudes come from a pure heart fired by the flames and inspirations of youth. Once idealistic desires come face to face with reality the liberalism of youth should turn to conservatism but unfortunatly for many that turn never comes and they become stuck in the "good heart" syndrome. "Never trust anyone over 30" was a cry of youth and there was a lot of truth in that. Recent surneys point out that the shift toward conservative thought on social issues plays out among Gen Xers' elders: among those aged 39 and older, just 19% say they are liberal on social issues, while 40% are conservative and 38% say they are moderates. The Liberal institutions (reporters) stay liberal more out of "being stuck" in their circumstance while the mainstream generation become more moderate as they mature. Just as atheists change with age do reporters change too? How do they really vote? Do they mature like the rest of us? Or are they stuck and don't mature?
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