UPDATE: The post below was published on the 29th of October. Today, Friday, November 6th we sit as a country awaiting news of the next President of the United States. The flawed process and the myriad of bad press is adding fuel to the FIRE.
I'm going to rant today. And it's long overdue. Way way overdue. I have several choice words for the press in this country, the profession that looks nothing like the ranks I joined back in 1973. I was a member of the first graduating class in Mass Communications at Mankato State College in Mankato, Minnesota. It was a proud moment for me and the College. An emerging era had been born.
As I look back at what led me to choose this major....I think of Watergate. It was the chief reason the journalism profession exploded with graduates. For those of you who don't know, here is the Wikipedia version of Watergate.
"The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of the U.S. President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continuous attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17,1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington D.C. Watergate Office Building.
Not too long after that, things began to change. It's that change that has led us to today's media....one that I'm embarrassed of. Read from an article in the Wall Street Journal from former head of CBS and Fox News, Van Gordon Sauter. He didn't see it coming despite the train already leaving the station.
"About 35 years ago I was sitting at lunch next to Jeane Kirkpatrick, a one-time Democrat, who became a foreign-policy adviser to President Reagan and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She was lamenting what she called the "liberal leaning" media. As President of CBS News, I assured her it was only a "liberal tilt" and could be corrected.
"You don't understand," she scolded. "It's too late".
Kirkpatrick was prophetic. The highly influential daily newspapers in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Boston are now decidedly liberal. On the home screen, the three broad network divisions still have their liberal tilt. Two of the three leading cable news sources are unrelentingly liberal in their fear and loathing of President Trump.
News organizations that claim to be neutral have long been creeping leftward, an their loathing of Mr. Trump has accelerated the pace. The news media is catching up with the liberalism of the professoriate, the entertainment industry, upscale magazines and the literary world. Recent arrivals are the late-night TV hosts who have broken the boundaries of what was was considered acceptable political humor for networks. (Note: Not to mention the Tech Giants, Twitter, Facebook and Google).
To many of the journalists, objectivity, balance and fairness-once the gold standard of reporting-are not mandatory in a divided political era and in a country they believe to to be severely flawed. That assumption folds neatly into their assessment of the President.
So let's back track a little. There is a thing called a Journalists Creed. It was written in 1914 by Walter Williams, the founding dean of the Missouri School of Journalism. The creed has been published in more than 100 languages and a bronze plaque of the Creed hangs at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.
Here is one of the main points of the creed. "I believe in the profession of journalism...I believe that a journalist write only what he holds only what he holds to be true. I believe that suppression of the news, for any consideration other than the welfare of society is indefensible".
Perhaps just as important is this tenet. "I believe that the journalism which succeeds best-and best deserves success-fears God and honors Man: is stoutly independent, unmoved by pride of opinion or greed of power, constructive, tolerant but never careless, self-controlled, patient, always respectful of it readers but always unafraid, is quickly indignant at injustice, is unswayed by the appeal of privilege of the clamor of the mob; seeks to give every man a chance and, as far as law and honest wage and recognition of human brotherhood can make it so, an equal chance: is profoundly patriotic while sincerely promoting international good will and cementing world comradeship; is a journalism of humanity, of and for today's world.
The Creed has fallen under the same notion as the Ten Commandments. They no longer serve as a means and way to live your life. They're merely a SUGGESTION.
Perhaps you don't see some things on the horizon. These three words, State Run Media, out to make you shudder. We aren't far from that now. And if the Democrats succeed in capturing the Presidency and the Congress...it will Happen. Mark my WORDS. Here is a short definition of that type of media: The authoritarian media strategy is not designed to block everything, but is designed at obstructing news about politics or other sensitive issues from consistently reaching key audiences.
Embarrassed, disgusted and fed up. Yes, you bet I am. The media were to be gatekeepers of ours. They were to help keep us informed and educate us and even provide us some entertainment along the way. No more.
We've let this happen to us. We've stood there and watched this shift of power take place. We haven't been good stewards of our country and our liberties. 35 Years after Ms. Kirkpatrick echoed those words, "It's too late". We now have an Apocalypse at our doorstep.
Now, I ask the question, "Who can you trust?"
YGG,
John
