{"id":1312,"date":"2004-05-21T12:37:39","date_gmt":"2004-05-21T16:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/05\/21\/the_timid_press\/"},"modified":"2004-05-21T12:37:39","modified_gmt":"2004-05-21T16:37:39","slug":"the_timid_press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/05\/21\/the_timid_press\/","title":{"rendered":"The Timid Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Columbia Journalism Review\u2019s Campaign Desk blog uses Newsweek\u2019s Jonathan Alter\u2019s comments on the Al Franken radio show to examine<\/a> the role of journalists as pundits. <\/p>\n

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly started the discussion<\/a> when he expressed disappointment that Alter\u2019s harsh view of the Bush administration (“They\u2019re clowns”) is not reflected in his Newsweek columns. <\/p>\n

Alter told the Campaign Desk that “If I just attacked Bush with a sledgehammer every week in Newsweek it would get pretty predictable, so I vary my pitches.”<\/p>\n

The rest of the post talks about the conflict inherent in reporters also appearing on TV as pundits.<\/p>\n

But I think there\u2019s a larger issue: Knowing TV is ephemeral in a sense and a lot harder to retrieve for the average guy and that print is easily accessible, reporters go easier on politicians, especially the ruling class, for fear of loss of access. The Bush administration especially would revoke a reporter\u2019s White House pass or tell their people not to talk to a certain reporter if they don\u2019t like the coverage. That is especially true of TV reporters whose ability to get pictures of the president is in the control of the White House press barons.<\/p>\n

TV news\/talk shows are different: Outrageous opinion and bombastic performances are coveted. They make good TV. Reporting isn\u2019t valued as much as analysis and entertainment. But newspapers and magazines must rely on facts and inside information to write pieces that cover much more ground than TV reports or talk shows.<\/p>\n

That makes newspaper reporters write \u201che said, she said\u201d pieces and go for balance instead of objectivity, which is the unbiased reporting of facts. That should include the debunking of purported facts as mouthed by lying politicians. I\u2019ve mentioned The Washington Post\u2019s Jim Vandehei as one reporter who occasionally does just that<\/a>. But even columnists often tone down their opinions, figuring that people don\u2019t want to hear, say, that their president clearly lacks the intellect to do the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Columbia Journalism Review\u2019s Campaign Desk blog uses Newsweek\u2019s Jonathan Alter\u2019s comments on the Al Franken radio show to examine the role of journalists as pundits. Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly started the discussion when he expressed disappointment that Alter\u2019s harsh view of the Bush administration (“They\u2019re clowns”) is not reflected in his Newsweek… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}