Reliable Sources, a CNN news show emblematic of the mainstream media’s charade of objectivity, has a recurring motif: telling us what to think while pretending to seek honest answers to persistent questions. The show’s host, Brian Stelter, uses this trope to vilify President Donald Trump, along with any competing media outlet that doesn’t toe the impeachment line.
During a particularly egregious display last month, Stelter enlisted CNN’s senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy, who bemoaned that many news outlets were qualifying accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his wayward son as “unsubstantiated,” instead of simply calling them conspiracy theories outright. Any fact or detail inconvenient to the narrative is instantly dismissed as fake news—an accusation CNN casts at the President each time he criticizes their reporting.
Despite the fact that the evidence against Biden is mounting, and more scrupulous journalists are questioning why a Ukrainian natural gas company would covet the services of a man with no discernible expertise relevant to the energy sector of any country, CNN remains tight lipped and unapologetic. And why would they apologize? Admitting they were wrong would require them to concede ground in the war for truth. Instead of conceding, CNN pushes ever outward—aggressively, and with the kind of authority that only those with an agenda can have.
To Darcy, merely calling the accusations “unsubstantiated” is tantamount to “promoting a conspiracy theory based on a bunch of lies dredged up on the web. I wonder if news outlets are meeting the moment well enough by saying he’s saying it without evidence.”
He goes on to say that, “The media need to drill this into their audience that this stuff is untethered from reality, that this stuff comes from the internet fever swamps and the president repeats it, and that does not make it an unsubstantiated allegation necessarily, it just means it’s a distorted—it’s really poison, is the best way to describe it.”
CNN and the mainstream media’s treatment of the impeachment affair surfaces a key realization that has shaped conservatism for the past four years: instead of recognizing the media environment for what it is—competing, partisan outlets in a marketplace of ideas—the mainstream media is playing a dangerous game in trying to redefine what “truth” is.
Recently on Reliable Sources, a panel of journalists sat down to systematically lambaste Fox News for its supposed lack of “accuracy.”
Conservative viewers did not miss the irony. For while Fox News has a clear editorial stance, it tends to acknowledge its biases; conversely, the liberal media offers a smorgasbord of opinion and conjecture while suggesting that they are merely reporting the news.
For CNN to admit that, like Fox News, it has a bias, would be to surrender ground it already holds. In the narrative, the liberal media has a monopoly on the truth, while Fox News and its counterparts in the conservative and independent media claw at it from the outside. In the words of late night show host Stephen Colbert, “reality has a liberal bias,” while “truthiness” is the only thing conservatives are pursuing.
For much of America’s early history, peaking in the year just before the Civil War, newspapers advertised their political biases on the masthead of their dailies; “Republican” or “Democrat” preceded such titles as “Star,” “World,” “Sentinel,” or “Record.” Today, even if a newspaper is explicit about its bias, it does so in a detached, muted sort of way—treating its affiliation with some sort of journalistic shame. In fact, partisanship has been treated as a kind of corruption in media.
Things look quite different during the “24/7 news cycle”—especially given how new media’s prominence has amplified amidst social media. This practice of news being constantly dredged up and recycled, which ironically began with the advent of CNN in the early 1980s, marks a shift in which the mainstream media has moved from reporting the news to anticipating and interpreting the news.
Despite this, the mainstream media loves to acclaim each other’s supposed commitment to objectivity. Why else would the New York Press Club honor CNN’s Jim Acosta with the “Truth to Power” award? This is the same Acosta who certainly enjoys speaking his truth to Republican power but rarely rocked the boat during the Obama administration.
CNN is fond of accusing Fox of offering nothing but “opinion.” But the evening Fox roster of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham will admit that they are more commentators than journalists. The folks at CNN want it both ways.
Fox News is regularly polled to be the most fair and least biased of all the networks (though admittedly, the competition is not very stiff). CNN is constantly shown to be lying… BLATANTLY lying and, when caught, apologizing, then lying again. Why Democrats accept this is a mystery, unless they simply WANT to be lied to.
The media’s “coverage” of political stories needs to be deemed campaign contribution by CNN and their ilk. Worse, though, are the Democrats who take glee in the abuse of the media and the Democrat majority in the House. I suspect their ancestors cheered Kristallnacht because they had the power.
Apparently the Borg Collective has learned a new word. But will they recognize that it’s been a standard cult tool since Trump stepped into the spotlight? Highly unlikely. They learned to use the term “projection” without any sudden flash of insight.
Check out the Human Events Conservative Of the Year award list.
@Greg: Keep lying to yourself, your BFFs CNN and MSDNC lied to you for 3 years with Russiagate. Defend Adam Schiff who lied to you about mountains of evidence in hand.
There are those Dems in the house who might have good ideas (I know its a stretch) but Pelosi and the house leadership dont have time for those, they lock down the committees with fabricated hoaxes of impeachment.
I would love the people drowning in student debt that have graduated to be able to declare partial bankruptcy and have the universities liable for 70 % of that debt for giving them crappy expensive educations that no one hires for. Harvard and Yale have tens of billions in coffers all tax free. Yes for profit colleges not paying their fair share billionaires not paying in a dime while sucking up big bucks from the over burdened tax payer. Corporate welfare kings would love to get this kind of deal.