Previous post
Journalism is a noblest of callings and its practitioners are intrepid scribes willing to put their own beliefs and biases aside in pursuit of bringing Truth™ to the masses.
May I pass you a barf bag?
Even as we’ve been aware of media bias for years, the campaign and election of President Trump shredded away the last veils of objectivity in modern journalism. He triggered the Democrats-with-bylines with the charge of “Fake News” and the shrieking has only grown louder. With last night’s nakedly political vote for impeachment, it wasn’t just the fake-American Democrats that cheered on the floor, but a few of Jeff Bezos’ fake journalists who joined in the giddiness.
Isn’t that special?
Rachel has desperately tried to back-peddle her flash of honesty.
This has to be approaching some kind of a record https://t.co/8s9vgWulKY pic.twitter.com/QMCDIH0Mk0
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 19, 2019
It should also be noted that three of those people celebrating at the table are CNN “political analysts”.
The hubris is staggering. Let’s remember CNN published an essay that is little more than litany of anti-Trump tropes and press-worship concluding with this comparison:
We thank soldiers for their service because they devote themselves to protecting our freedoms, and we should. But we should also thank the media for the same reason — especially when the stakes have never been higher.
And yet it is this same we-face-danger-too! press who can’t seem to rouse themselves to defend a fellow investigative reporter, John Solomon, when Shifty Schiff obtained his phone records. Naw, Solomon isn’t in lockstep with the other Democrats-with-bylines so eff-him.
If you were taught actual American history, then the term “yellow journalism” will resonate. In the newspaper circulation wars of the late 1800s, John Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst went head-to-head, mixing actual reporting along with sensational articles of questionable credibility. Shrieking headlines, the equivalent of today’s click-bait, and the self-proclaimed high calling of the press — e.g. Pulitzer’s belief that …
newspapers [are] public institutions with a duty to improve society, and … in the service of social reform.
… have never been really abandoned. Today’s Fake News charge against the Leftwing media is well earned. They’ve turned yellow up to neon yellow.
featured image, cropped & modified, Adobe Stock, standard license
Welcome Instapundit readers!
GWB says: Journalism is a noblest of callings and its practitioners are intrepid scribes willing to put their own beliefs and biases aside in pursuit of bringing Truth™ to the masses.
No, they are wretched scriveners in a despicable guild who serve a perversion of truth to sway the masses.
It should also be noted that three of those people celebrating at the table are CNN “political analysts”.
And all five of them are WHITE! How dare they! *swoon*
But we should also thank the media for the same reason
Well, if they were actually defending freedom, they might have reason to claim that….
a duty to improve society
And that’s where the problem lies. If they didn’t follow progressivism, this probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue. But all “reformers” ultimately turn into tyrants. Which most reporters used to know.
Duke says: GWB
Excellent summary of these disgusting hateful people.
You’re maligning the original ‘yellow journalists”, who got their name from a cartoon, The Yellow Kid, in one NYC’s popular papers (Pulitzer’s, if memory serves). Nelly Bly, who exposed the abuse of the mentally ill, was a yellow journalist, as was Abrose Bierce and many others. They were crusaders, denounced by those they exposed. Hearst gets slammed these days for bringing on the Spanish-American War. But it was his journalists who were gung ho for it, seeing it as a moral obligation to end Spanish colonial tyranny in a neighbouring nation.
Rather than yellow journalists, the modern and debased version of yesteryear’s inky wretches should be called “brown journalists” — as in the sort of muck you wipe off your shoe when irresponsible citizens don’t pick up after their dogs.
GWB says: They were crusaders
IOW, no different from those today.
Someone prominent (but not prominent enough for this aging brain to remember his name at 5:20 AM EST) once said that every great cause begins as a noble crusade, then transforms into an institution, and finally degenerates to a racket. Journalism in the U.S. fits that pattern perfectly. John Peter Zenger risked life and fortune to speak the truth as he knew it. Later generations of journalists were more focused on acquiring and retaining audience share (Cf. “The Front Page” and “If it bleeds, it leads”). Today’s “journalists” are men who either have political axes to grind or who hope to be hired into the federal government as “advisors.”
GWB says: I think I disagree with your final sentence.
I think almost all journalists are crusaders for their progressive religion. They have been indoctrinated into “what is good and right and salutary” and they thoroughly believe in helping to bring that about.
Because progressivism is a cult-like religion, achieving their ends through otherwise frowned-upon means is not considered wrong. So, shifting from advocating in journalism to advocating in the gov’t is no big deal. It’s still missionary work, in their eyes.
(But, yes, there are some – like in any religion – who are simply using the religion to gain what they want, whether it’s a political axe to grind or shilling their way upward.)
Gretl says: News reports should have the same requirements as any scientific paper and footnote all sources, and all anon sources should be labeled GOSLBS (grain of salt likely bullshit). Reporters
who irresponsibility reported that President Trump Lied when he asserted he was illegally wire tapped should forfeit their right to do anything other than dig bait worms. Any lawyers who suggested that President Trump should be impeached for correctly stating that he had been wiretapped 3 years ago should be disbarred, pay a 1 billion dollar fine, and exiled to Portland OR SE 72nd and Lambert or the equivalent…. for all time
Gertl says: If you want me to call a 250 pound 6% body fat male meat potatoes possessing person a “girl” because that disturbed individual puts on a dress… that’s the end on women’s sports.
Wilbur says: If, according to CNN’s twisted sense of morality media = soldiers, then they and WaPo are My Lai.
JJay says: It’s sad so many are misinformed or ill-informed, but worse yet is the slow destruction of our Republic. For without true journalists to hold truth to power, we see what we have today. Runaway liberals without any true critique from the media. With the exception of a brave few, like John Solomon, who they seem intent on destroying.
[…] yellow journalists of the time fanned the flames of racism with their descriptions of the incident. The Tulsa Tribune […]
[…] of politics according to her betters. Which means the knives are out, and Politico jumps from the gutter into the sewer with this egregious hit […]
Grim Reaper 
13 Comments