At the start of 2005, Howard Fineman warned his colleagues at Newsweek:
A political party is dying before our eyes — and I don’t mean the Democrats. I’m talking about the “mainstream media,” which is being destroyed by the opposition (or worse, the casual disdain) of George Bush’s Republican Party; by competition from other news outlets (led by the internet and Fox’s canny Roger Ailes); and by its own fraying journalistic standards.
The destruction was complete enough within four years that last month, Victor Davis Hanson wrote, “We have no media—at least as we once knew it:”
Somewhere in late 2007, it disappeared entirely, and became something akin to the old Pravda, or the livelier Baghdad Bob’s broadcasts, or the rants of Lord Haw-Haw. (We got everything from Judith Warner about the dreams of women having sex with Obama to “I felt this thrill going up my leg” Chris Matthews).
For the short-term thrill of ensuring the coronation of Barack Obama, it gave up all hard-won standards of journalistic objectivity—so much so that it is hard to adjudicate whether the rise of the Internet alone, or the clear bias of the print media, has nearly destroyed the newspaper industry.
Few any longer connect with a Newsweek editorial, a Time essay, a riff from NPR, or commentary on PBS. The front pages of the New York Times or Washington Post are op-eds in thin disguise. The faculty of the Columbia School of Journalism is not objective. We live in an age of affluent, rather inbred ironists who punch in at the Ministry of Truth, and the result is that about half of the population still wakes up every morning and sighs when they turn on the television, listen to the radio news, or read the newspaper, “He’s lying” or “She’s biased”. The utopian ends of social egalitarianism for the new media lords justified the tawdry means of distorting reality.
The Tea Party coverage today allows viewers a perfect textbook comparison of how the legacy media covers political protests. Throughout the decade, leftwing protests against President Bush and the liberation of Iraq were reported as the salt of the earth; democracy in action; everyday Americans expressing their voice. A quick scroll through the archives at Zombietime will quickly prove that those descriptions are simplisme at best.
How are the conservative/libertarian tea parties being reported?
- “CNN Correspondent Claims Tea Parties ‘Anti-Government,’ ‘Anti-CNN’”
- More CNN: Roesgen interviews protester who calls Obama a fascist
- Meanwhile, (and this is somewhat more expected given the channel that’s the source), “MSNBC Again Touts Right-Wing Threat of Violence; Features GOP Logo”
Regarding that last item, Newsbusters’ Scott Whitlock asks:
If the DHS report didn’t mention conservatives or Republicans, why did MSNBC feature a graphic that included an elephant, clearly a symbol for the GOP? In an earlier segment, NBC correspondent Pete Williams explained, “Now, we’re not talking about [the] political right here. We’re talking about extremist groups. Neo-Nazi groups, white supremacist groups, anti-government groups, hate groups.” Brewer promptly responded, “So to be clear here, not just extreme conservatives.” Not just extreme conservatives?
Concurrently, “CNN Smears ‘Right Wing’ As Nazis”, complete with a stock photo of neo-Nazi and white supremacist flags.
And in the run-up to today’s protests, as Greg Gutfeld writes, “if there’s one great thing we learned from today’s Tea parties, it’s how Anderson Cooper spends his nights off”:
It had happened during a conversation with talking thumb, David Gergen, who had just noted that the tea party protestors had yet to find their voice. Cooper’s response: “It’s hard to talk when you’re teabagging.”
Now, if you’re too old or too high to get what’s going on, here’s the joke: The liberal-leaning media are goofing on the tea parties by invoking the term teabagging, a phrase used to describe an act of oral sex performed by a man – either on another man, woman, or in Alec Baldwin’s case – a cheeseburger.
And so you have Cooper’s joke – it’s just a shame he ripped off the shtick from David Shuster, who apparently has never met a joke he hasn’t beat to death like a hunter on a harp seal. On MSNBC, Shuster repeats testicle-based puns with a fervent relish not unlike an eight-year old boy who just can’t stop sniffing his fingers. And, this, coming from me. I’m mean – I always thought I was the king of obvious jokes, but I relinquish that crown – because the real obvious joke is Shuster.
So why is it the MSM finds it so easy to sneer at a group of protestors, when you’ve never seen them do the same with the bedraggled buffoons protesting environmental ills, animal testing or the WTO?
Well, first: the protests involve people they’ve never actually met. I mean, these are average folks – not professional sign carriers. Most of these people work for a living, and ration their marching for parades. Also, the media abhors these people because they question the ultimate goal of their Messiah. These protestors know wealth distribution when they see it, and they’re calling it out – because the media cannot bring themselves to do it for them. After all, if they did, that would hurt Obama’s feelings. And if you learned anything from high school – you never make fun of Mr. Popular.
Lastly, the media hates it when they can’t control the story. These tea parties were out of their hands from day one–a movement that was hard to figure and impossible to spin. So, why not make fun of it? Why not make ball jokes?
Always the last to know, Maureen Dowd claims, “Firms, like Google here and Craigslist in San Francisco, have hijacked journalism, making us feel about as modern as the Tyrannosaurus rex model that sits on the Google campus.”
As I explored late last year in a Silicon Graffiti video, it’s possible to blame Google or Craiglist for newspapers’ loss in financial revenue, just as horse-drawn carriage manufacturers once cursed the market share they lost to a small start-up venture called General Motors. But the loss of the media’s credibility, its lashing out at half the country, and transformation into sclerotic dinosaurs, as Maureen Dowd describes herself above in surprisingly accurate terms, were all very much self-inflicted wounds.
Related: Appropriate cuisine for the next CNNMSNBCNYTNewsweek mixer suggested here.
Update: “Tea Parties, Code Pink and the sickness of the MSM.”
Update: Just to bring this post full circle, note which show Newsweek’s Howard Fineman appeared on today to “discuss” the Tea Parties. Meanwhile, David Steinberg floats through “The Unbearable Lightness of Paul Krugman’s Thoughts”, and adds, “When it comes to commenting about the tea parties, the New York Times columnist wins the booby prize.”
Update: I take it all back! Red State finds media coverage that might just salvage the reputation of CNN and MSNBC: “We Have A Winner! Absolutely, Positively WORST Tea Party Day Coverage in the Galaxy.”
Last Word (at least for now): “CNN beclowns itself.”
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39 Comments
1. Tina Trent:If the only thing Maureen Dowd is sharing with us is that she feels like a prehistoric lizard, we should all take that as a healthy celestial sign celebrating the demise of bias-laden old media.
I feel better by the day.
Apr 15, 2009 - 7:37 pm 2. Jim Treacher:BREAKING: Anderson Cooper Giggles Uncontrollably During Report on Italian Archaeologists Unearthing Ancient Roman War Helmet
Apr 16, 2009 - 4:16 am 3. LeatherPenguin » About The Tea Parties [Updated]:[...] MOAR HERE blog comments powered by Disqus var disqus_url = ‘http://leatherpenguin.com/wordpress/?p=4604 ‘; var disqus_container_id = ‘disqus_thread’; var facebookXdReceiverPath = ‘http://leatherpenguin.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/xd_receiver.htm’; var DsqLocal = { ‘trackbacks’: [ ], ‘trackback_url’: ‘http://leatherpenguin.com/wordpress/wp-trackback.php?p=4604′ }; [...]
Apr 16, 2009 - 4:56 am 4. David Thomson:The tea parties are likely attracting many people who were previously unaware of the extent of MSM bias. I have no hard statistics, but it is my guess that minimally 40% of those now involved are new to political activism of any sort. And if my hunch is right—the MSM, Democrats, and “moderate” Republicans have much to fear. It could also mean that Fox TV and conservative radio talk shows will sharply increase the size of their audiences.
Apr 16, 2009 - 4:58 am 5. No Media Bias Here; CNN Reporter Berates Tea Partyers « The Barton Bulletin:[...] could this be the final straw that kills the MSM?
Apr 16, 2009 - 6:21 am 6. Right Voices:They Really Do Smoke Crack: CNBC SWEATS ‘OBAMA-BASHING’…
CNBC SWEATS ‘OBAMA-BASHING’- New York Post.
Apr 16, 2009 - 6:28 am 7. Instapundit » Blog Archive » ED DRISCOLL: Legacy Media’s Seppuku Now Complete. Plus, Tea Parties, Code Pink, and the Sickness…:THE top suits and some of the on-air talent at CNBC were recently ordered to a top-secret meeting with General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker to discuss whethe…
[...] ED DRISCOLL: Legacy Media’s Seppuku Now Complete. [...]
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:04 am 8. Just back from the Boston Tea parties… « DaTechguy’s Blog:[...] Ed Driscoll notes that the mainstream media didn’t that the NECN reporter’s [...]
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:13 am 9. lumpy:Hey, seppuku was an honorable way to commit suicide – these guys are far from that! If anything, it’s suicide by a thousand shots to the foot, or maybe death by choking on a foot. (Just how much leg can Cooper get down and keep that smirk going?)
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:21 am 10. vigilant:I don’t mean to sound like a broken record (I guess MP3 players don’t have this problem).
CANCEL any cable service that csrries CNN, MSNBC and NBC. Also cancel your print news media, including the local paper that uses substantial AP and Reuters provided “news” to brainwash us.
You won’t believe how much better you will feel. And, you’ll save money as well.
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:22 am 11. ding:It’s over. One day of protest and back to the grindstone. This is what the press knows. This is why they find it so funny.
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:26 am 12. Christian Toto:Any journalism professors care to treat this coverage as a teachable moment for their students? Anyone? Bueller??
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:26 am 13. JohnMMM:This morning I checked the NYT for coverage and it was as bad as expected. Completely dripping with bias. Their Boston outlet couldn’t even be bothered to leave Morrissey Blvd., they published the slanted AP story only.
Note to the Globe- their are non-Democrats in Massachusetts and we buy products your advertisers want to sell us. But we won’t spend money to be insulted each day. The internet isn’t the only reason your circulation is down.
The Worcester Telegram (the NYT-owned paper in Central Massachusetts) actually had good coverage, some photos and an OK article. Of course not much happens in Worcester so they had to fill space.
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:29 am 14. Rand Simberg:I thought that performing seppuku was an act that requires honor? How could the MSM even start such a thing, let alone complete it?
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:30 am 15. moptop:I lived in Palm Beach County during the 2000 kerfuffle. I knew that it was my friends and neighbors who were going downtown to demonstrate support for Bush. On the national news, what I saw was announcers claiming that these demonstrators were paid protesters brought in by big money Republicans. I simply refuse to get my news from them anymore.
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:43 am 16. Paul A'Barge:Zombietime?
I went there. Did a search on 2009. Found nothing.
WTF?
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:54 am 17. Kevin B:Everyone who attended a Tea Party yesterday will be phoning or texting friends and relatives, swapping photos and experiences with others, talking about the day with their familes and workmates, and going to websites and blogs and spreading the word.
And everyone will notice the contrast between what they experienced or what their friends or family told them, and what they see on the TV screens and in the newspapers.
And each of those conversations, out of the control of the gatekeepers, will drive another nail into the MSM’s coffin.
Apr 16, 2009 - 8:25 am 18. Valjean:A couple of really nice D.C. Tea Party shots from the liberal Wonkette; see if you can find the slight dissonance between the headline and the photo:
http://wonkette.com/407814/teabaggers-really-dont-care-for-jews
So proclaiming yourself as “Christian Capitalist American” makes you a Jew-hater? Maybe in *your* world …
http://wonkette.com/407861/teabaggers-also-pretend-they-dont-love-the-fingers-of-a-gay-man-in-their-butts/
Yeah, sure, I read that sign as homophobic too.
I posted these as examples of how the left is characterizing all this. If you can’t make fun of it (trans: it’s not serious), then misrepresent it. Pretty standard issue.
Apr 16, 2009 - 8:28 am 19. Greg Ransom:Too bad we don’t have the “mainstream media” of the good old days — when CBS News “reported” during that 1964 Presidential campaign that Barry Goldwater was holding meetings with neo-Nazi’s — his “ideological comrades” — in West Germany.
It’s amazing how things have gotten so much worse since then.
Apr 16, 2009 - 8:43 am 20. Cat Glass:We attended the tea party in Portland, Oregon, once the epicenter of Obamamania, and reported here – http://www.britsattheirbest.com/002802.php
(Hope you won’t mind that our viewpoint is British.)
We know what it’s like to have a free people’s liberty relentlessly attacked by media, in this case the BBC.
Apr 16, 2009 - 9:03 am 21. Hey reporter, can you say “really BIG DEAL!” ? « Get Clued:[...] spoon-fed supporters of the socialism of America.
Apr 16, 2009 - 9:37 am 22. glenn:“And if you learned anything from high school – you never make fun of Mr. Popular” No, but I beat the snot out of him one time after he fouled me on the basketball court and followed up with some crude and insulting remarks in the locker room. The moral being, If you are Mr. Popular or one of his syncophants you still need to be polite and decent. Denigrating people you disagree with and using crude sexual references may just get you (figuratively speaking of course) punched right in the nose.
Apr 16, 2009 - 10:33 am 23. Kurt:For some reason (don’t ask me why–I don’t know) I still listen to NPR in the morning, though I’ve hardly been able to stand the increasingly obvious bias since 2004. This morning I had the radio on for about 40 minutes and I heard NO mention of the tea parties in that time. They didn’t even mention the 2,000 person local gathering during the 5-minute local news segment, even though it was the lead story on the local morning show TV programs.
Apr 16, 2009 - 10:47 am 24. Tax Day Tea Party Roundup (With Links, and Rove!) : The Sundries Shack:[...] about the insane reporting from CNN yesterday. On the same note, Ed Driscoll says that yesterday is the day the MSM committed seppuku. Michelle Malkin has more on the execrable Susan Roesgen who, given her performance yesterday, [...]
Apr 16, 2009 - 10:51 am 25. Fat Man:JammieWearingFool links to this story from the NYPost:
“Page Six: CNBC Sweats ‘Obama-Bashing’” by Richard Johnson on April 16, 2009:
Of course, there is no liberal bias in the media. But, you knew that.
Apr 16, 2009 - 10:53 am 26. elvis:After the crybaby, whiny, spoiled, dishonest, self-serving media has been replaced with REAL journalists, the firing of self-serving,dishonest,whiny, crybaby corrupt politicians will be the next order of business!
Apr 16, 2009 - 11:45 am 27. Ed Driscoll » Well, So Much For Questioning Authority:[...] hot on the heels of the legacy media thoroughly botching their reporting of yesterday’s protests (see also Jennifer Rubin’s “Tea Parties a Wake-Up Call [...]
Apr 16, 2009 - 1:00 pm 28. lumpy:Just a thought, but shouldn’t ‘teabagger’ refer to Wonkette and those who are attempting to ridicule the tea partiers? Seems much more apt to me.
Wonkette – queen of teabagging. Put that on your front page and see what kind of hits you get, eh?
Apr 16, 2009 - 1:24 pm 29. Victor Erimita:Well, it’s great to say the media is committing seppuku, but the sad reality is that the media culture is more powerful than ever. How could a completely unknown, uncredentialed ignoramus like Obama have gotten elected without being created by the media culture? How could a few hundred thousand subprime mortgage defaults have destroyed the entire world economy without the fearmongering of the media, that turned it from a series of bad business decisions into a morality play about the evils of capitalism? How could the preposterous hoax of “global warming,” the anti-human “eco” movement and the unexamined magic word hokum of all things “green” have become a new religion and carte blanche for big, and even world, government without the power of the media culture?
The media’s business model may be threatened, but the primacy of their influence has never been greater. Anderson Cooper, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Maureen Dowd, Katie Couric and all the interchangeable rest are the smirking phalanx of Cool Kids who determine what legitimate opinions are, who has the right to speak and be heard and who and what are the people, styles and views that are acceptable. Their power is not absolute, but it is clearly dominant Their alliance with ideological maniacs like Obama, Pelosi, Frank et al is truly frightening.
Reports of Old Media’s death are, unfortunately, greatly exaggerated.
Apr 16, 2009 - 3:19 pm 30. UPDATED: The Five Stages of Tea Party Grief « The Rhetorican:[...] Related content from Ed Driscoll. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Tea parties…Tea Parties Large SuccessWe Get [...]
Apr 16, 2009 - 3:37 pm 31. Valjean:#29: Victor
Your point that these idiocies foisted on the American public are cheered on — if not outright led — by the MSM is well-taken. But I take issue with your contention that the media is “more powerful than ever” and especially that its death is “greatly exaggerated” because these issues have taken root. Take a look around: newspapers are closing, the major networks are hemorrhaging viewers, even the old newsweeklies are on life support. If this is power I’d hate to see weakness.
Consider instead that the “smirking phalanx of Cool Kids” are just trading on their rapidly-declining brands and their cheerleading for these fallacies is *exactly* what’s doing them in. Media itself is certainly not going anywhere — there’s more of it than ever — but this bunch is just preaching to the declining converted. Why do you think they threaten a new “Fairness” Doctrine and get apoplectic over FOX, Limbaugh, and the like?
The issue is power, all right. But if they have so much of it, why are they so paranoid and in such lousy shape?
Apr 16, 2009 - 3:58 pm 32. Tennwriter:The media is trading current victories for long-term credibility. Its possible that they can leverage the current victories into power (perhaps with the aid of Obama and company), or by themselves, and recover some of their credibility or at least prestige. Its also possible that they are whipping a dying horse to try to get to the oasis and its not going to work.
Nothing is pre-determined. We could look back on this a few decades from now as the nadir of MSM influence before they went on to total mastery. More likely, I think the MSM is going under, but it does need help from Real Conservatives to do them in.
Apr 16, 2009 - 7:45 pm 33. Ted:For a people who supposedly hold in high esteem both history and free enterprise, you’d think someone would point out by now there was never a “a small start-up venture called General Motors.” It was founded as a holding company with anti-free market aims of consolidating the existing manufacturers.
Apr 20, 2009 - 2:14 am 34. Ed Driscoll:Ted,
I can only assume based on the curious wording at the beginning of your first sentence, that you’re of “a people” who don’t hold history and/or free enterprise in high esteem. But what exactly is “anti-free market” about a business becoming larger by purchasing smaller businesses? That should be something that in a free market, businesses should voluntarily be allowed to do. Particularly during the first half of the 20th century, when big was almost invariably thought of as best when it came to corporations. And market forces (in the form of the Japanese car manufacturers of the 1970s and ’80s, building higher quality, more fuel-efficient, and at times better looking cars than GM) have certainly cut GM down to size, at least in terms of market share, although certainly not entrenched bureaucracy.
Which is why, as I’ve noted in my last two videos, GM these days is essentially “Government Motors”, which distorts whatever vestiges of the free market that remain far more effectively than any one business can.
Of course, as Jonah Goldberg and Steven Malanga have each recently noted, that’s just the way both big business and big government have wanted it, for quite some time.
Apr 20, 2009 - 2:55 am 35. Ed Driscoll » Anderson’s Non-Apology Apology:[...] which highlight both his ongoing ratings debacle and CNN’s self-inflicted week from hell covering the April 15th Tea Party protests. No word yet from Susan Roesgan, though. Filed under: Bobos In Paradise, Capitalism, the Unknown [...]
May 19, 2009 - 2:17 pm 36. testicular:I lived in Palm Beach County during the 2000 kerfuffle. I knew that it was my friends and neighbors who were going downtown to demonstrate support for Bush. On the national news, what I saw was announcers claiming that these demonstrators were paid protesters brought in by big money Republicans. I simply refuse to get my news from them anymore.
Jun 3, 2009 - 11:37 am 37. Ed Driscoll » CNN Co-Founder: “CNN’s Ratings Have Gone Down The Drain”:[...] contrast to CNN, whose on-air personalities literally sneer at the middle class when they spot a thoughtcrime occurring, when they’re not calling them Nazis. And plenty of wealthy California and Northeast Corridor [...]
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