Sunday, September 26, 2004
Writing today about the media's trouble, David Broder tries lumping the SiftVets in with RatheerGate. Earth to Broder: The media lost credibility because of the SwiftVets, not because they paid too much attention, and not because the Vets' stories were inaccurate, but because they did everything possible to ignore the SwiftVets and pretend they didn't exist - and when they did notice them, they simply went on the attack while simultaneously demonstrating that they had absolutely no grasp of the clear substance behind the SwiftVets' feelings, as you also demonstrate.
Here is demonstrated another of the media's troubles. They just can't admit their own biases. Broder is so keyed on being even-handed that, along with the litany of issues that show the press trashing its own credibility to shill for a Kerry candidacy, he feels the need to cast about for a pro-Bush screw-up that shows balance. The problem is he has to make one up because there is no balance to be found. The MSM's problem continues to be its own inability to look itself in the face and admit that its own bias (or agenda if you prefer) is the real root of the problem. Until that happens, there will be no change.
Broder also gets the internet wrong, as well, casting the entry of internet "journalists" (his scare-quotes) as part of the problem, rather than part of the solution as they were in this case.
The Media, Losing Their Way (washingtonpost.com)
... When the Internet opened the door to scores of "journalists" who had no allegiance at all to the skeptical and self-disciplined ethic of professional news gathering, the bars were already down in many old-line media organizations. That is how it happened that old pros such as Dan Rather and former New York Times editor Howell Raines got caught up in this fevered atmosphere and let their standards slip.
Time was when any outfit such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that came around peddling an ad with implausible charges would have run into a hard-nosed reporter whose first questions -- before he or she ran with the story -- would have been, "Who the hell are you guys? What's your angle? What's your proof?"...
Update: Beldar has a challenge: "Can you identify even one specific and material SwiftVets allegation that you believe to have been fully "debunked" or fully proven to be "unsubstantiated"?"
