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Written by Francis Scudellari
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Tuesday, 03 November 2009 05:43 |
It is with some amusement we have been viewing the “controversy” of Fox News’ ostracism from consideration as a legitimate press organization by the White House.
As the inside the Beltway, mainstream media wrings its hands and declares the White House action to be an onerous attempt to manipulate the press, it seems like it might be a good idea to remember that the object of their concern is an organization those same media outlets have derided for years as the industry standard for heavily biased coverage, often verging on propaganda.
Fox has been documented as a network that issues memos directing its employees to offer what most reasonable people would consider strongly biased reporting.
In spite of that, some in the mainstream media still believe that FOX must be treated as a legitimate news outlet by the White House. The Obama Administration disagrees, saying they’ll continue to allow Fox access to White House Press Room, but that they consider them an arm of the political opposition.
The corporate media in this country has so many defects it’s hard to know where to stop listing them in the context of this column. The documented failures to adhere to even basic journalistic standards are legion, but recent standouts include the incompetent coverage of the run-up to the Iraq War and the blackout of coverage of Single Payer Health Care (favored by most Americans) in the current health care reform debate.
There are many others. The group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) regularly documents many of the more egregious cases of media failures on its website. It should be required reading.
But to the sanctimonious scions of the Beltway press elite, we say enough already. Please, get real.
The White House isn’t using the government to shut down press it doesn’t like. It is acknowledging the obvious. If a future conservative President decides to put Rachel Maddow and Stephen Colbert in the same category, it would be hard to make the case that they are not offering a highly biased product.
Should they be shut down? Of course not.
But should the objects of their highly biased coverage be compelled to class them identically like news organizations that work hard to present a more complete analysis of issues?
As we said: Get real. |
