Tag: American Journalism
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Dear CNN & MSNBC – “Previously On” The Donald Trump Story – He Was A Traitor & A Criminal… Oh, Weren’t You Watching?
It’s like watching a TV show where the audience is always miles ahead of the storytellers because the audience has been keeping track of the story while the tellers keep going back to “fade in”.
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The Failure That Is “Both Sides Do It” Journalism
When we get to the “How the HELL did this happen?” phase — after the bad actors are all safely in prison — we’ll need to turn our focus on the American news media and the myriad ways they failed us and their own Constitutionally mandated obligation to be our final check on power. American…
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Dear American News Media: Please Get This Straight — Both Sides Do Not “Do It”
And both sides don’t do everything for political reasons either. Let’s put that out there straight away. I’d love to know where exactly — at which Journalism School — “Both Sides Do It ” journalism was born. Surely something as pernicious, as stupid, as poorly thought out sprang from one confused human mind, manifesto-like. I’d…
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Dear American News Media — The Way You Deal With A LIAR Is The Same Way You Deal With A DRUNK — You REFUSE To Argue With Em…
I stopped drinking alcohol about two years ago. I didn’t have to but the mood stabilizer I’m on gives alcohol a terrible aftertaste. It was an unexpected side effect — and, frankly, I’m grateful for it. When I say I didn’t “have to” stop drinking, what I mean is, I didn’t stop because I perceived…
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Dear American News Media: This Is NOT A Time For Neutrality; YOU Are One Of Trump’s Main Targets
I think of 95% of our news media as being like the inhabitants of Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941 — about a half hour before the Japanese Imperial Fleet kicked their Sunday morning out of bed. The Japanese didn’t just “fall from the sky” though, of course, that’s what they did.…
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Dear American News Media — If You’re Covering Jeffrey Dahmer, You’re Allowed To Call Him “A Cannibal”; If You’re Covering Donald J Trump…
Rules are funny things, aren’t they? Journalism has no “laws” guiding its practices, it has “rules”. Ideals of how journalism is best practiced, its ultimate goal the fair, unbiased reporting of what’s happened, what’s happening — and what’s likely to happen next. Somewhere along the way, American journalism took that desire for “unbiased” reporting to…
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Imagine If The News Could Go Bullshit-Free For 24 Hours…
A Thought Experiment — Imagine, if you can: The News Networks (that doesn’t include Fox of course) and all the country’s news sources agree that for one 24 hour period, they will refuse to broadcast, print or disseminate anything “bullshit”. For one whole day, the news commits to putting out news and only news. If…
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The Reason “Both Sides Don’t Do It” Is Because Both Sides Are NOT The Same
The core conceit at play when a “journalist” like Chuck Todd (which means we’re using the term “journalist” as loosely as we can) insists that “both sides do it” is that both sides do what they do for entirely political reasons. That is empirically untrue. To act politically is to attempt change. If you are…
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Dear American News Media: Why Do You Always Mark Republicans On A Curve?
Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign took a hit when she was cornered into showing receipts for how she would pay for getting every American health CARE. The grinding irony — this is never a question Republican candidates ever have to grapple with. How we’re gonna pay for the next Republican tax cut is always obvious —…