Posted on 11/08/2011 4:47:19 PM PST by bkopto
You know who I blame for the terrible tone in American politics? Tom Brokaw.
No, not the man himself, but what he represents.
Since Dan Rather famously beclowned himself, Brokaw stands as the last of the respected "voice of God" news anchors (CBS News executive Don Hewitt's phrase). These were the oracles who simply declared what was news and what wasn't. Walter Cronkite, the prize of the breed, used to end his newscasts, "And that's the way it is" — as if he were speaking not just with journalistic but also epistemological and ontological authority.
You can still find this sort of hubris on the masthead of the New York Times, which proclaims "All the news that's fit to print" — a claim that would be subjected to truth-in-labeling laws were it not for the 1st Amendment.
SNIP
Meanwhile, violence, extreme rhetoric and wanton lawlessness have been prevalent in the Occupy Wall Street movement, but the coverage remains largely positive. And any politician who suggests these protests are "simply un-American" risks getting worse than a yawn from the media. The "Today" show even ran a segment on how the protests offered "civics lessons" for children.
All too often it seems like the supposedly evenhanded media cherry-picks positive examples from the left and negative ones from the right. And even when they do cover ideologically inconvenient news, the passion and hysteria are nearly always reserved for the threat from the right.
Brokaw and his heirs don't understand that such double standards breed precisely the rhetoric they find so toxic. Because the new media Brokaw laments allows conservatives to see how much important news the old media didn't deem fit to print, they learn not to trust or respect those who wag their fingers rightward about civility — or anything else.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Sure, the old media dug its own grave by combining pretensions to objectivity with obvious bias, but Brokaw is so much yesterday's man, so much a relic of days gone by, that there doesn't seem much reason to disturb his well-deserved oblivion.
As I recall, the phrase was, "And that's the way it was."
I recall it as "And that's the way it is."
There was a British comedy show called "That Was The Week That Was," though.
This is a good one! Ping.
“beclowned”
What a great word! Very useful.
MY tagline would be a more accurate masthead for the NY Slimes than the garbage they currently print. Also more truthful, I believe.
I admit, though, someone once suggested the phrase , “IF it fits our views.” What do you think?
"The way it is" is the way it was...
Ya think?
"During Cronkite's 19-year tenure as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," his trademark sign-off, "And that's the way it is," became more familiar to many Americans than the Lord's Prayer."
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=3612
You we're right. Don't know why it's stuck in my mind the opposite way.
Feel free to correct me when I mess up. It'll probably happen by Thursday...
I didn’t know Brokaw was still on the air. The last of the dinos.
Jonah is a very good thinker and writer. I like his columns.
BUMP
You know, I was just thinking about this and I could not name the current network news anchors. The only guess I have that might be correct is Brian(?) Williams at NBC. Absolutely no clue who the ABC or CBS anchors are. Oh wait... Katie Couric? Is she still at CBS?
In any event, I thank God every day that the network and big city newspaper newsrooms are dying. I want every last one of them to die and the people who work in them to lose their jobs, their homes, and their families for the damage they have done to America.
Me, too. I don’t know anything about network tv anymore. It’s just too stupid.
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