[jimbug]

A well-written essay on the decline of journalistic standards

[mrsmel]

The left isn’t interested in ethics and standards. Those are just convenient yardsticks with which to beat your opponents. Otherwise, the left’s motto is “the ends justify the means”, always.

[PUGACHEV]

I was listening to WTOP news talk radio this morning. Aside from a few minute break for traffic and weather, it was a solid 1/2 hour of breathless spew about alleged Russian interference in the election, Trump collusion, and an investigation into obstruction of justice, all based on nothing. This is not news but tiresome propaganda.

[RJS1950]

I would take issue with the idea that there were ever journalistic standards.

Since the beginning of printing, there have been political pamphleteers who slammed and denigrated any who disagreed with them. Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican (democrat party) friends secretly bought a paper to tear down the Washington administration even while Jefferson was Secretary of State. The Civil War era and the treatment of Lincoln by the press was as bad as it is today and yes, Lincoln’s GOP were against him and aided in the the smear. Nothing new, journalists have never had any ethical boundaries and never will; that concept is pure myth put forward by journalists.

[mjp]

for libtards the narrative that fits their agenda is more important than the truth

[jonno]

“A well-written essay”

Indeed. It should be required reading.

[wjcsux]

Excellent read, thanks!

[Carl Vehse]

Oxymoron of the day: "Journalistic Standards"

[Carl Vehse]

"There was a time not so long ago when journalists were trusted and admired."

If so, it was long before media leftist Walter Cronkite was spewing his garbage.

[Tench_Coxe]

I disagree with the author somewhat. A few names, with an example for each:

Walter Duranty (reporting on the Soviet Union)
Walter Cronkite (post Tet Vietnam and coverage of the turmoil of the late 60s)
Dan Rather (The fake Bush memo--thanks Buckhead!)
Peter Jennings (white male temper tantrum statement after the 1994 congressional blowout)

Now perhaps there was a "Golden Era" of journalism, and the author is talking about that. I do agree that "journalism" has gotten worse. I noticed the acceleration during the Clinton presidency and even worse during the Obama presidency.

[marktwain]

There was a time not so long ago when journalists were trusted and admired. We were generally seen as trying to report the news in a fair and straightforward manner.

---

Yes, the essay is well written, but it still misses an important point. Journalists were *seen* as trying to be fair and consistent. They were seen that way because their pushing of their agenda had not been laid bare for everyone to see on the Internets.

Much of the *appearance* of objectivity was because there was no opposition to expose their agenda driven reporting.

[laplata]

Thanks for posting this.

FYI All: Imprimis is free and one can subscribe to it via mail or email. It is highly recommended.

[ealgeone]

Been going on a long time. This election just crystallized it for many.

[eyeamok]

President Obama and others who view other people’s wealth as a crime against the common good”

Proud Liberals.

[CptnObvious]

In the article he admits most of the New York Times journalists leaned to the left and had to be corrected to the 'middle' by Abe Rosenthal, their executive editor at the time.

What he doesn't say is why there has been no endorsement of a Republican candidate ever by the Times and why that still is.

However he like Paglia and says that is will take a long time for journalism to recover. Unlike Paglia who says it will take decades if ever.

[Albion Wilde]

"The New York Times has not endorsed a Republican for president since Eisenhower in 1956, meaning it would back a dead raccoon if it had a “D” after its name. Think of it—McGovern over Nixon? Carter over Reagan? Mondale over Reagan? Any Democrat would do. And The Washington Post, which only started making editorial endorsements in the 1970s, has never once endorsed a Republican for president."

(Edited slightly by poster for brevity.)

[Monorprise]

Propaganda works if there is no effective or comparable opposing voice able to reach the large majority of the population.

Right now and for a long time with only 20% of the journalist on our side and the major networks of commutation Facebook and Google solidly against us we are at an extreme disadvantage long term.

We need to build our own counter culture able to reach every man, woman, and child with our message. That is not going to be easy in an age where the left has quite effectively turned against free speech.

Trump can help us as he has been attempting to do so with Google and facebook, but honestly their monopoly as well as the monopoly of Comcast-timewarrner for network access is a huge problem. One America news isn’t even available to the majority of the population because of theses networks, and it took forever to get Foxnews on for as long as it lasted.

More importantly the young cultures anti-free speech attitudes being indoctrinated in them by the public and private school systems controlled by the left has made it very unlikely they will even be open to other opinions or points of view. This is of course a deliberate move by the left to control the future and it looks very likely to be successful unless we can hack in and thu. Perhaps by pointing out the lefts totalitarian nature that results from this attitude.

There are good people on the left that can be reached and turned, for example one of Google’s Co-founders family actually came from a totalitarian country that did all of theses things. He has admitted this in the past and should be encouraged to see that happening today and try to stop it within his own company.