NBC News Chairman Andy Lack has become the latest bigwig to fully indulge in the bravado, posturing, and wounded hero stylings that have been the norm in our big-box media outlets throughout the president’s administration. "Trump came into office railing against many of the foundations of our democratic institutions, including a free press," Lack wrote. "Forty months into his administration, coverage of the coronavirus outbreak is the latest sign that – contrary to conventional wisdom – he hasn't laid a glove on serious journalism."
These kind of ego-massaging exercises on the part of establishment media mavens almost always include a cheesy tip of the newsman's weather-beaten hat to intrepid colleagues from other outlets who are robustly braving the storm so that democracy won't die in darkness. Lack is no exception. Trump's "attacks, most recently against excellent reporters like Jonathan Karl (ABC), Yamiche Alcindor (PBS), Peter Alexander (NBC) and Paula Reid (CBS), put the bully in bully pulpit, but they haven't shaken the soul of the First Amendment," the network exec blustered.
The article was billed as a "Think" piece on the NBC News website and filed under "Self-Explanatory." This is how self-absorbed our media giants have become. Lack went on to prosaically paint local and national "mainstream" journalism as a "public trust" and declared that he sees his role in it as "a calling."
Progressive Paladins With Pens
The obvious bias of these activists posing as journalists has been clear to a growing number of Americans for some time. Hardly a month goes by without some new poll showing trust in the media at an all-time low. More telling is the stark red-blue divide on the issue. Liberty Nation's Mark Angelides writes that:
"[r]ecent polling shows that only 10% of those who identify as Republicans have a favorable view of the media; among Democrats, this is 62%. The 24-hour news cycle is an echo chamber in which our beliefs, rightly or wrongly, are reinforced."
In perfect keeping with those results, leading major media figures routinely play up to their blue-hued supporters and strive to perform public pirouettes and twirls in order to garner their applause. This can be seen of late not only in Lack's taking-a-bow-for-himself screed but also in the daily actions of reporters on the job.
Olivia Nuzzi is the Washington correspondent for the leftist New York magazine. On April 27 the young reporter asked a loaded question at a White House briefing: "If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected?" To his credit, the president didn't take the bait and responded in an even-handed manner.
Nuzzi's question highlighted everything that is wrong with journalism today. First – and most importantly – it was not asked in good faith in an attempt to acquire meaningful information for the American people. But just as disturbing is the fact that this was a transparent effort on the part of a credentialed White House reporter to curry favor with progressive "fans" of her and her publication. The Vietnam reference had been a viral talking point among the rabidly anti-Trump "Resistance" for days leading up to the presser. Nuzzi was seeking to bask in the huzzahs she knew she would accumulate from this crowd by taking their buzz du jour directly to "the belly of the beast." Momentary showers of praise were more on her mind than worthwhile inquiry.
'Unvarnished' Ego Trips
"At this dark hour, people are scared," Andy Lack averred in his NBC piece. "They're being bombarded daily by noise and information, not all of it correct – some of it intentionally divisive and polarizing. They're hungry for accurate information and the straight, unvarnished truth. Now, and in all the days to come, journalists will be there."
Yes, they will be there, but not to inform the American people. These "journalists" have become B-List Reality TV actors with press passes, and the citizens of this nation are being held as a captive audience to their grandstanding conceits.
One has to wonder just why these preening poseurs haven't been stripped of the invaluable favored access to the president that they stopped deserving quite some time ago. As Liberty Nation's Leesa Donner notes:
"each week, the White House puts out an email called 'Resolute Reads' with notable articles of the week. Can you guess what sources are often cited? Would you believe CNN, The Hill, and CBS News?"
Establishment media apparatchiks enjoy playing the superhero out to destroy the fantasy caricature of arch-villainy that is this president, and the administration is giving them a gigantic soapbox to stand upon as they do so. There is no valid reason for this to continue. By starving the Fake News beast, Trump can live up to his vow to Drain the Swamp and help Americans move further away from a tired and played-out elitist media monopoly.
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Read more from Joe Schaeffer.
For home study students and young people, Liberty Nation recommends...
First Amendment and the Press
High School: First Amendment: Empowering the Press
Middle School: First Amendment: Protecting a Free Press
Elementary School: First Amendment: Freedom of the Press
The Great Political Divide
High School: Fear and Loathing in the Political Divide
Middle School: Evil and The Political Divide
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