Where’s the Backbone?
Where’s the Backbone?
Last week, I wrote a piece in the American Prospect about how the recent stories trumpeting Deep Throat/Watergate highlighted the contrast between the muckraking journalism of eras past and today’s sad state of media affairs. Interestingly, I got a number of positive responses from journalists who are equally frustrated by the situation.
Thankfully, I am not the only one who has tried to give voice to this tragedy. Check out Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D) courageous comments in the New York Times today.
Abetting the conservative agenda, Clinton said in some of her sharpest language, is a Washington press corps that has become a pale imitation of the Watergate-era reporters who are being celebrated this month amid the identification of the anonymous Washington Post source, Deep Throat. “The press is missing in action, with all due respect,” she said. “Where are the investigative reporters today? Why aren’t they asking the hard questions? It’s shocking when you see how easily they fold in the media today. They don’t stand their ground. If they’re criticized by the White House, they just fall apart. I mean, c’mon, toughen up, guys, it’s only our Constitution and country at stake. Let’s get some spine.”
The reason I said those comments are courageous is because there are very few politicians in Washington willing to give voice to the public’s frustration with the media. Conservatives have made an art form out of intimidating the media — and its time for progressives to fight back by demanding the press do its job, instead of serving as a propaganda machine.
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AMEN!
June 6th, 2005 at 3:37 pmKudos to Hillary.
Compare all-out conservative assault on Mark Felt with the right’s hagiography of Linda Tripp.
As for reliance on anonymous single sources, the Bush White House is the biggest addict of them all.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:43 pmI couldn’t agree more. A good place to start is the next White House Press Conference, either everyone start to ask some hardball questions or just don’t bother sending anyone, its a shame.
Next, print some meaningful follow-up to the Downing Street Memo story line.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:44 pmWhat do you mean no hard hitting investigative journalists? What about Jeff Gannon?
June 6th, 2005 at 3:55 pmSeems to me that megamedia consolidation has made their agenda bulletproof from a “hit em in the wallet” prespective. Since BushCo and corrupt members of Congress (both parties) do the bidding of BIG media (i.e consolidation, anti-competition, hijacking of PBS/NPR, etc.) it is more profitable to keep the masses in the dark than it is to practice real journalism. This is a concerted effort to suppress the news and keep the citizens distracted from the sins of the powerful.
Why don’t the super wealthy that know how bad this is for democracy put their substantial influence and $$ behind a serious effort to fix this?
June 6th, 2005 at 4:01 pmI don’t think Hillary was referring to they type of hard hitting that Jeff Gannon liked….
June 6th, 2005 at 4:02 pmBill Moyers seemed pretty well PO’d a couple of weeks ago. Maybe we ought to dust him off, give him a rediculous salary and let him have a go at it. I bet that could be pretty hardball.
June 6th, 2005 at 4:14 pmCould you imagine Bill Moyers EVER debating the likes of Sean Hannity on a talking head show? If there’s a God out there, I’d love to see it.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:06 pmI don’t think it will have any effect. I don’t think the news media today has any idea what it is supposed to do. It’s all about pretty faces and ratings.
As I try to understand what has happened to the fourth estate, I am torn between trying to figure out if they are too lazy, too owned or too scared to do their jobs. As it stands right now, they are useless, unless you find you just haven’t gotten enough of the Michael Jackson story.
They have become irrelevant to the national discourse and they are becoming contemptable in their silence in covering up crimes that have been committed by this administration against the people of this country.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:27 pmBillmon had a great post up a week or so ago that pointed out that the press does about the same job that they did during the Watergate times, but back then people paid some attention and demanded that Congress act. Today, nothing whatever will cause red staters to flag in their enthusiasm for little George. Knowing that, the press doesn’t even try anymore. Sure, like most of us, the press could do a better job, but we voters hold the ultimate responsibility for doing the most important job of all, and we sloughed it off last November.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:48 pmI feel this is a good time to talk about how I feel about this. I feel they should do something about this problem right now. Isn’t that what America is about? It makes me feel like I’m doing someithing if I dget on blogs and talk a lot, even if I don’t say much. Give me a few minutes and I will feel some knew urge and will post that, too.
June 6th, 2005 at 6:45 pmHillary rips dirty politics
June 6th, 2005 at 7:06 pmThe Huffington Post (now with comments!) has a good summary of a New York Times article wherein Hillary follows in the footsteps of that angry Scotsman who visited our leaders not long ago. Without mincing words, she decries the loss of investigative…
And, we have the case of Maria Shriver, who evidently still has juice at NBC News, as she was able to kill an appearance by author Laurence Leamer, whose new book, “Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger”, is due for release in a day or so. From David Carr’s article in today’s NYT:
June 6th, 2005 at 8:57 pm“The blurring of politics and celebrity, governance and journalism, has made it difficult to discern exactly which agendas are at work here. Government officials become commentators, reporters marry politicians and actors run for office. You might expect Ms. Shriver, a longtime, well-respected member of the NBC family, to get a heads-up about Mr. Leamer’s appearance, but giving the wife of a governor the right to approve a guest on its network, whether out of personal loyalty or the desire to maintain access, would be a remarkably bad move for a major news organization.”
Ah, yes, the dreaded librul media yet again!
Crikey! She is a “librul”. We can do without those kinda “libruls”. Arnie will never be a “Kennedy” Shriver. Damn, we should start calling that girlie man Arnold Shriver, or Mr. Shriver, or even Gov. Shriver.
June 6th, 2005 at 9:13 pmWhile Hillary is right about the press, she’s a friggin’ U.S. Senator!! Talk about bending over, molly coddling, deferential treatment of the sitting administration …. our frustration with the press is only over shadowed by our frustration with the supposed opposition party who won’t stand up a la George Galloway. If only ….
June 6th, 2005 at 11:55 pmI feel this is a good time to talk about how I feel about this. I feel they should do something about this problem right now. Isn’t that what America is about? It makes me feel like I’m doing someithing if I dget on blogs and talk a lot, even if I don’t say much. Give me a few minutes and I will feel some knew urge and will post that, too.
June 7th, 2005 at 2:58 amWhy does Jean-Francois Revel hate France?
June 7th, 2005 at 3:36 amHillary Clinton has caved to Bush on many, many occasions, including the Iraq war, the stolen ‘04 election, and lots more. It’s nice that she’s calling the media on their subservience to Bush, but she really ought to clean her own house while she’s at it.
June 7th, 2005 at 10:05 amTodays newspapers dont have news they have advertisement. Over half is full pape ads and tidbit item that doesn’t amount to a hellabeans. If you thinks this country is spineless now wait until bush gets through with it.
June 7th, 2005 at 11:13 amIt wasn’t just the media that died on the Watergate Mark Felt Bash-fest last week… where were the Democrats??? Aside from Hillary…
We had a week of Republicans screaming that loyalty to the President should supercede the law of the land…
Where were the Democrats saying “Republicans have made clear that loyalty to the President should supercede the laws of America. Their current leadership of Congress reflects this viewpoint every day.”
Where were they?
June 7th, 2005 at 11:27 amRegardless of Hillary’s chances in ‘08, we Libs should look forward to that race. If she runs we won’t have to worry about our candidate backing down.
June 7th, 2005 at 4:09 pmBen-Veniste did a nice job frying GG Liddy’s ass (over a cancdle) a day or so ago. Crooks and Liars, as may be expected, has the video.
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