Media Mania
The political media’s feeding frenzy over President Biden is an extraordinary development in this campaign.
Their arrogance will be studied and scrutinized in political, journalistic and academic circles for years.
Washington reporters and commentators seem genuinely angry – even personally insulted – that Biden hasn’t acceded to their judgment, or demand, that he exit the race.
They cite polls as proof he should quit, despite the notorious unreliability and intentional political bias that has been obvious in much polling for many years.
They rarely cite polls like today’s from NPR/Marist, which showed Biden up 50%-48%, or GW/YouGov, which has him up 44%-42%.
They are obsessed not with reporting what happened today, but with predicting what will happen next.
In politics, you can’t predict what will happen next.
This mindset distorts the most crucial journalistic decision: what to cover and what not to cover.
John Robinson who taught at the UNC journalism school and was editor of The Greensboro News & Record, wrote on X (@johnrobinson) today:
“On Tuesday, Trump spoke at a rally and slurred his words, stumbled over words, digressed, criticized the US, and, of course, lied. The NY Times covered it straight: 1 story not referring to any of that. This morning, it has 6 stories on its front page about Biden.”
I’m not a media-basher. I started out as a reporter and editor at The News & Observer. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the best journalists in the state and nation.
And I know that good reporters, their editors and good media outlets sometimes get hot on a trail that turns cold. Instead of moving on, they double down, get even hotter and work themselves into a desperate frenzy to find something, anything, to support their initial judgment.
Too often, too, reporters try to be pundits – or even, for some unfathomable reason – political consultants.
But almost none of them have ever spent a day inside a real campaign.
A notable exception is MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell (photo), who was an aide and adviser to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a writer for The West Wing and author of a great book, Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics.
If you want level-headed reporting on Biden and the campaign, watch O’Donnell at 10 pm. He said this about Biden’s NATO press conference last night:
“President Biden was asked several questions about NATO tonight that Donald Trump couldn’t possibly answer.”
Fox’s old slogan was “We report. You decide.”
The media decide what to report. You can decide what to watch – and what to believe.
Media Mania
The political media’s feeding frenzy over President Biden is an extraordinary development in this campaign.
Their arrogance will be studied and scrutinized in political, journalistic and academic circles for years.
Washington reporters and commentators seem genuinely angry – even personally insulted – that Biden hasn’t acceded to their judgment, or demand, that he exit the race.
They cite polls as proof he should quit, despite the notorious unreliability and intentional political bias that has been obvious in much polling for many years.
They rarely cite polls like today’s from NPR/Marist, which showed Biden up 50%-48%, or GW/YouGov, which has him up 44%-42%.
They are obsessed not with reporting what happened today, but with predicting what will happen next.
In politics, you can’t predict what will happen next.
This mindset distorts the most crucial journalistic decision: what to cover and what not to cover.
John Robinson who taught at the UNC journalism school and was editor of The Greensboro News & Record, wrote on X (@johnrobinson) today:
“On Tuesday, Trump spoke at a rally and slurred his words, stumbled over words, digressed, criticized the US, and, of course, lied. The NY Times covered it straight: 1 story not referring to any of that. This morning, it has 6 stories on its front page about Biden.”
I’m not a media-basher. I started out as a reporter and editor at The News & Observer. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the best journalists in the state and nation.
And I know that good reporters, their editors and good media outlets sometimes get hot on a trail that turns cold. Instead of moving on, they double down, get even hotter and work themselves into a desperate frenzy to find something, anything, to support their initial judgment.
Too often, too, reporters try to be pundits – or even, for some unfathomable reason – political consultants.
But almost none of them have ever spent a day inside a real campaign.
A notable exception is MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell (photo), who was an aide and adviser to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a writer for The West Wing and author of a great book, Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics.
If you want level-headed reporting on Biden and the campaign, watch O’Donnell at 10 pm. He said this about Biden’s NATO press conference last night:
“President Biden was asked several questions about NATO tonight that Donald Trump couldn’t possibly answer.”
Fox’s old slogan was “We report. You decide.”
The media decide what to report. You can decide what to watch – and what to believe.