Reporting with Garnish
With very few exceptions, the low esteem in which I hold the vast majority of politicians extends to the vast majority of reporters and pundits. Reporters and pundits are supposed to wear clearly different hats, but it is a grating failure of journalism today that the distinction has been blurring.
The media's sins are their inability, first, to understand the events they are covering, and second, to separate fact from commentary. The health care bill just passed by the House is a great example. For the longest time the media have misdescribed the health care crisis, and more recently how the so-called reform bill might approach those problems. The evidence was in their continuing failure to properly vet the notions of "death panels" and "a government take-over of health care." The proof was in the decline in public support for the very idea of health care reform.
Of course, much of the fault lay with President Obama and the Congress, but the media abetted this incompetence by giving ink and air time to the fear-mongering neo-liths. Typical of their game these days, that they put up both sides, even when one is telling outright lies.
Also, throughout their coverage was their slant. Most of it, typically, was about how the Republicans were winning the political fight and how the Democrats would pay the price in the mid-term elections. Of course November is still a long way away, but it looks like the reverse will be true, as least as far as the health care issue is concerned. A new poll says Americans by a nine-point difference think passage of the measure was a good thing. And life will get better for the Dems when some of the major and obvious benefits of the legislation go into effect in the fall.
Reporters put themselves in danger when they try to stay in front of the herd. They can suddenly look around and discover they've been deserted, or not look around and get run over.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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