{"id":14898,"date":"2024-10-13T07:15:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-13T11:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=14898"},"modified":"2024-10-13T07:15:35","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T11:15:35","slug":"no-that-news-isnt-skewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=14898","title":{"rendered":"no… that news isn’t skewed…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cJournalism is what we need to make democracy work.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur job is only to hold up the mirror \u2014 to tell and show the public what has happened.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA journalist covering politics, most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we’re unbiased in our reporting. That’s one of the fundamentals of good journalism.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the above are credited to the iconic Walter Cronkite, the trusted newsman, anchoring the CBS Evening News<\/em> for 19 years. The nation trusted him through JFK\u2019s assassination, Vietnam, and so much more. He was known to be credible, telling us what happened, not what he wanted us to hear. He was the standard of what journalism is supposed to be. Journalism is collectively like this no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take what happened at Cronkite\u2019s former employer last week, as reported by Intramuralist favorite The Free Press, <\/em>a rare source of solid, honest journalism\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast week, CBS<\/em> journalist Tony Dokoupil conducted an interview with the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates whose new book, The Message, <\/em>includes a one-sided polemic against Israel. Coates himself describes his book as an effort to debunk the complexities journalists invoke to obscure Israel\u2019s occupation. He complained in an interview with New York <\/em>magazine that the argument that the conflict was \u2018complicated\u2019 was \u2018horseshit,\u2019 that was how defenders of slavery and segregation described these plagues a century ago. \u2018It\u2019s complicated,\u2019 he said, \u2018when you want to take something from somebody.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Dokoupil asked him about it. \u2018Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it?\u2019 \u2018Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it?\u2019 \u2018Why not detail anything of the first and second intifada\u2026 the cafe bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Tony Dokoupil did his job. That\u2019s when his troubles began.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that to allow Coates \u201csimplistic telling of the Israel-Palestinian conflict omits so much complicating history that it\u2019s no different than a lie. It would be like writing a book about the Civil War that blames the war on the Union without ever mentioning slavery.\u201d Hence again, Tony Dokoupil did his job.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting on the one year anniversary of Hamas terrorists attacking Israel, CBS<\/em> executives reprimanded Dokoupil for failing to meet \u201ceditorial standards.\u201d As leaks of their meeting have been revealed, we learned that top CBS<\/em> execs suggested Dokoupil\u2019s interview of the outspoken activist somehow impugned the network\u2019s \u201clegacy of neutrality and objectivity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to The Free Press\u2019s <\/em>account\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot everyone was buying it. CBS<\/em> reporter Jan Crawford, who has been the CBS<\/em> chief legal correspondent since 2009, rushed to Dokoupil\u2019s defense. \u2018It sounds like we are calling out one of our anchors in a somewhat public setting on this call for failing to meet editorial standards for, I\u2019m not even sure what,\u2019 she said. \u2018I thought our commitment was to truth. And when someone comes on our air with a one-sided account of a very complex situation, as Coates himself acknowledges that he has, it\u2019s my understanding that as journalists we are obligated to challenge that worldview so that our viewers can have that access to the truth or a fuller account, a more balanced account. And, to me, that is what Tony did.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crawford went on: \u2018Tony prevented a one-sided account from being broadcast on our network that was completely devoid of history or facts. As someone who does a lot of interviews, I\u2019m not sure now how to proceed in challenging viewpoints that are obviously one-sided and devoid of fact and history.\u2019\u201d (Note that Crawford \u201cis one of the most respected journalists at CBS.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, journalism today is increasingly not journalism. Note that Dokoupil was admonished for asking questions based on truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sense is \u201cthe most trusted man in America\u201d would be uncomfortable with the state of journalism today at CBS<\/em> and elsewhere. As noted in his final closing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs anchorman of the CBS Evening News,<\/em> I signed off my nightly broadcasts for nearly two decades with a simple statement: ‘And that’s the way it is.’ To me, that encapsulates the newsman’s highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miss you, Walter\u2026 a whole lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJournalism is what we need to make democracy work.\u201d \u201cOur job is only to hold up the mirror \u2014 to tell and show the public what has happened.\u201d \u201cA journalist covering politics, most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we’re unbiased in our reporting. That’s one of the fundamentals … <\/p>\n

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