Why the CBS Document Scandal is Important

As I noted in my missives to Professor of Journalism Ethics Edward Wasserman, the problem we, the "loud and bullying sliver of the audience" have with the Mainstream Media is that they're no longer reporting facts, but instead are deliberately, and increasingly blatantly trying to tell us what to think, how to think, and when to think it. They're manipulating us every bit as obviously as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, yet they still think they are hiding behind a curtain of pure objectivity.

Well, Connie du Toit put the matter in stark perspective, as Les Jones noted in a recent post.

The fact that we're arguing over issues in Iraq (if we should be there or not, if it is going well or as planned or not) also is very much related to the same issue. Has the MSM been leading, suggesting, inferring, selectively reporting, or outright distorting the issues in Iraq? Many of us on the right side of the aisle believe that the press has been doing that. We've never had such blatant proof of their partisanship before.

It's not a separate story. It is not irrelevant in the grand scheme of the more important issues. If we're deciding issues based on what the press tells us, and the press is a fraud, then on what basis can we discuss anything?
Posted by Mrs. du Toit September 15, 2004 02:10 PM

If you read the blogs, you know that the MSM is reporting only the horrific. Anything positive must nearly be dragged out of the newsrooms. The media is repeating its Vietnam experience - doing everything it can in an effort to, in its view, extract us from our self-inflicted quagmire. Dan Ra^ther's self-immolation is providing a light with which to illuminate this fact. As I told Mr. Wasserman, we no longer trust the media because they no longer deserve to be trusted. As Connie points out, if we don't have reliable information, how can we make considered decisions?

Burn, Dan, burn. Burn brightly. Maybe something good will come of it.