Comforting the Comfortable
by Jon Henke | December 31, 2008 at 2:49 PM
THE NEXT RIGHT
Via @jayrosen, this item from the Washington Post's White House Columnist Dan Froomkin seems like a good example of a rot in journalism.
>>>After eight years, we've gotten used to having a president whose credibility is shot, whose policy apparatus is utterly politicized, and whose decision-making process is completely opaque. So what do we do with President Obama? Do we treat him with the same skepticism with which we learned to approach Bush? If not, how do we hold him accountable? These are some of the issues I'm wrestling with as I prepare to make the transition from Bush to Obama – and I'd welcome your input.<<<
I'm not sure I understand why this is even a question. Indeed, it would seem to me that it would be grounds for immediate dismissal. Imagine if a scientist - heck, a freshman in science class - said something similar:
>>> We got used to experiments not turning out exactly as the hypothesis suggested over the last 8 years, so we've learned to be skeptical, always testing claims and checking results. So what do you think we should do with the next hypothesis? Should we use the scientific method again? I'm wrestling with that question.<<<
If there is a central problem with journalism, it is the lack of skepticism. Especially as it applies to government. Politicians and political organizations are not held to account for contradictory statements, false predictions and claims.
Why did it take a Washington Post reporter so many years to learn skepticism, and why would he ever discard skepticism?
The Right has convinced itself that the problem is "that liberal media", but that is obstructive rhetoric. Sure, there are a multitude of examples of media bias that favors the Left...but there are also a multitude of examples of media bias that favors the Right. People notice what they expect to see.
This isn't a problem of personal bias; biases are unavoidable and don't fit a left/right matrix, anyway. Ultimately, criticisms of Left/Right bias are tactical attacks against symptoms, not the problem itself. Crying "that liberal media!" delegitimizes our more fundamental criticisms.
The problem isn't a biased media. It is a media that has lost sight of the role of journalism and reporters.
If there is even a question of whether they should be extremely skeptical of political claims, then they aren't really a Fourth Estate at all. They've just become enablers of the Estates to which they are attached.
Addressing this core question of the role of journalism - on a bipartisan basis - should be a goal of the next Right. Government will be healthier and more limited when the media acts as a reality check - a skeptic of power - rather than an enabler of the world's biggest monopoly. That, not "liberal media", is the problem we have to address.
thenextright.com |
