Hannity is right. Journalism really is dead.
FILE PHOTO: Bob Schieffer (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Several years ago, Bob Schieffer of CBS News spoke to journalism students at SMU in Dallas. I was an unofficial guest.
The moderator asked Schieffer about disintermediation in media. That is to say the internet’s empowerment of bloggers and social media posters – the people who no longer need to be at a place like CBS to practice journalism.
“Well,” laughed Schieffer dismissively, “that’s not journalism. We have editors. We have standards. Before something gets on the air, it has been fact checked and vetted. That’s not the case with some random person out there reporting on the internet,” he said, with a self-satisfied smile.
I will go to my grave regretting what I’m about to tell you.
As I say, I was a guest. I had no standing. The event was for the students. I therefore felt bound to mind my manners and to not create an awkward moment for the organizers. So, at Q&A time, I refrained from asking the obvious question.
So, Mr. Schieffer, where were your vaunted editors and fact-checkers and what happened to your lofty newsroom standards with respect to the phony 30-year old letter that Dan Rather featured on ’60 Minutes’ saying that George W. Bush shirked his duty while in the National Guard? Wasn’t it in fact, sir, a blogger – a ‘random person out there’ – who debunked the fakery and in so doing, did the real journalism on that story?”
Please forgive me – I will never forgive myself – for not asking that question.
It was then that I began appreciating just how smug, insulated, provincial and toweringly condescending the members of America’s elite media really are. These people live together in a bubble and spend their days affirming to one another their own superiority. Nothing penetrates the bubble.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: How are these people “mainstream?”
This Schieffer anecdote illuminates what has happened since last week’s column in which we detailed how Uri Berliner, an NPR editor of 25 years, blew the whistle on NPR’s ever-increasing and ever-more obvious leftist bias.
Berliner’s thoughtful essay at The Free Press provided an opportunity for some much-needed introspection at NPR. A thoughtful response to his exposé would have been to convene a meeting of top brass and editors and rank & file reporters to consider the possibility that Berliner has a point.
But NPR – along with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, et.al. – have no interest in any point that Mr. Berliner might have. Their sole interest is the advancement of their predetermined leftist narrative. Nothing can come in the way – least of all a balanced assessment of facts and a considered hearing of dissenting points of view.
So, NPR suspended Berliner for five days and told him he’d be fired if he dared speak out again. Berliner has since resigned.
Example made. Problem solved.
Sean Hannity says it all the time and I’m afraid he’s right. Journalism in America is dead.
That’s no small thing. The need for an informed citizenry in a free republic is enshrined in our very founding documents.
The accelerated devolution from that ideal is going to cost us. Dearly.
Could not agree with you more, Mr. Gleiser. Journalism does not exist in this day and time, only an attempt by the major news reporting stations to force the leftist’s agenda.
One thing you said is we have the right to know, a right to be INFORMED, which is very true. Like with the weather, we need to know if a storm is approaching our area so we can be prepared. In WWII, there was a saying that LOOSE LIPS SINKS SHIPS. I wasn’t around then but I was raised by my Grandmother who was an avid newspaper reader and from her is where I first heard that saying. How she explained it was…keep your mouth shut or you might cause a disaster.
Into today’s “journalism” circles they never keep their mouths shut and it doesn’t matter if it is true or not! With the internet, you have no clue if what they are saying is true or something to make people watch their videos. They call it “click bait”. Before the internet, it was headlines in the newspaper that was the “click bait” back then.
Just as there is no honor among thieves, there is no honor among today’s “journalists”. Course, this is nothing new. Hitler was a great deceiver through his media.
All this talk about journalism reveals all the different sources we have to deal with now. We first had newspapers, then radio, then tv. Now the Internet allows millions of people worldwide to connect and coordinate immediately. The Trump trial jury selection process shows that some get their “news” from Google! Talk about sheeple! Then we allow George Soros to pay for all the protesters to assemble and function. If we don’t tackle the problem of AI we are doomed.
Everyone needs to read the book, “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson. This book parallels the events of Hitler’s take over of Germany, the persecution of the Jews in 1933 forward to the Holocaust, as told by a hastily appointed Ambassador by President Roosevelt. How this Ambassador tried to warn any one in America who would listen; including the American media, of the building catastrophe headed for the Jewish population in Germany. The American media and Roosevelt (Biden) administration did not think this serious enough to give it any viability. Most of us know what happened in WWII to the Jewish population around the world; especially in Europe during this time. What does the media cover today? Trump trials, Global Warming, Green energy, domestic terrorist a.k.a Maga people but little about the growing trouble of antisemitism all over the USA. The legacy channels are too consumed with “Get Trump”. This is a dangerous parallel that we MUST recognize and speak out against now! Outside of FOX, Newsmax, and podcast; the other major outlets could care less or they condone it.
No matter the source, they all have an agenda. I no longer watch Fox or any local news because they only report the news THEY think you should know. Sorry folks, it may be painful, but we CAN handle the truth.