Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Journalists: Fairness Is Overrated
Not that long ago, journalists would get offended if they were accused of presenting the news with a liberal bias. Now, they are publicly stating that “fairness is overrated.” A Los Angeles Times reporter recently wrote an op-ed in which she stated that the extreme views of Republicans mean that they are not a serious party and should not be taken seriously: “This is a Republican Party that is not serious about governing or addressing the nation’s actual problems, as opposed to faux ones like critical race theory … Democrats can’t be expected to deal with these guys like they’re on the level. Nor should journalists cover them as if they are.”
Journalists and others from all over the country chimed in with their hearty agreement. Bill Buzenberg wrote: “Great Op Ed — important message for every journalist. (NPR and PBS this includes you). Please don’t ‘balance’ the truth with an outright, calculated lie, and call it objective reporting or interviewing.” NBC anchorman Lester Holt said, “I think it’s become clear that fairness is overrated … The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in.”
These aren’t whacked-out stoners in a California commune. These are mainstream journalists. And these journalists not only find their coverage to be insufficiently unfair to Republicans, they are openly stating that “fairness is overrated.” Our news media and our educational system are the most powerful force for leftist indoctrination in our country, in my view. It sounds like journalists agree with me. And it sounds like they’re happy about it.
I wonder why they tried to hide their beliefs for so long? And I wonder why they’ve stopped trying to hide them now? I find their newfound boldness to be concerning. They seem to think they are in complete control and no longer need to hide behind a veil of objectivity. I think they’re probably right.
I hope we’re both wrong.
Published in General
Apparently, these days journalism is also overrated.🤔
I really like this.
The extent to which early exposure to mass media and a continuing usage of media has made unintelligent people “articulate” is a favorite theme of mine. When I was a young person walking 10 miles to school in the snow, you could pretty much tell who was dumb because they were inarticulate. No more. Now people can at least sound smart without being so. In fact, that’s pretty much what cable news is about.
Except our side. Our side must be shut down for promulgating “misinformation.”
That is a great analysis and, as this misguided editorial and its reactions show, most likely spot on. The Party that has made a fetish out of pronouns and birthing people thinks that they are the “serious party”?
Journalists: Fairness is OverratedFairness: Journalists are Overrated. FIFY.
That’s a litmus test question I occasionally ask people before discussing politics: Do you think that boys can have babies? Depending on the answer, sometimes preemptively agreeing to disagree is simply more productive.
Now I assume if I read it in the NYT it didn’t happen.
Listen to Mayor Pete for an example. Cleverness is not competence.
Story selection is the biggest bias – Hunter started his “Business” antics when Biden was VP. Corporate/DC Media didn’t report on this because it would hurt the Obama Admin (remember, Kerry’s step son was Hunter’s Business partner(
Doc, I have a thought about this. There may be two categories of journalists involved.
Your hypothesis is that Left-leaning journalists have been pretending to be neutral, and have recently decided to stop doing so. There are probably some people in this category, perhaps most or all of them.
Another possibility is that some Left-leaning journalists have actually believed that they were neutral, and have recently discovered that they are not, and then decided to abandon neutrality rather than change their coverage. There may be some people in this category.
Different people may have different motivations, too, whether or not they are in one category on the other. I’m going to mention some possibilities.
One obvious possibility is financial interest. There has to be a Latin phrase for this. Cui bono? Not exactly. My Latin is no good. Ollow-fay the oney-may. Maybe there’s more money in partisan journalism. It may be that journalists are tightly controlled by the networks and newspapers, and are getting their marching orders from their corporate masters. This does seem consistent with the recent treatment of Chris Matthews, Sharyl Attkisson, and Bari Weiss. On the other hand, many journalists may have the same financial incentives as their employers, and may be quite willing to go along.
Among those who have always been partisan but, until recently, have been consciously pretending to be neutral, two possibilities occur to me. First, they may have realized that they can no longer maintain the charade, which only works while their promotion of the Left and denigration of the Right remains subtle. Second, they may have made a conscious decision that the charade was more effective in the past, but open partisanship will be more effective in the present. They may, or may not, turn out to be right about this.
These possibilities are very disturbing, especially in light of what little I know about data analytics and psychological manipulation. The recent Facebook whistleblowers suggest that some very nefarious things may be going on behind the scenes. Perhaps it’s not just at Facebook (if their charges are even true).
Among any journalists who may have honestly believed that they were neutral, and have recently discovered that they are not, there could be a different motivation. Such a person would have to choose between professional integrity and ideological interest. There are bound to be some who would choose ideological interest.
I think that there are some people who recognized their bias, and chosen to attempt objectivity. Dave Rubin comes to mind, and Bret Weinstein (though he didn’t start as a journalist, and is now a sort of hybrid journalist/scientist/professor-in-exile).
It could be that they are just all evil.
Anyone advocating for the silencing of others because they don’t like what they have to say is evil. Anyone. Anytime. Period.
In other words, they are bigots and they think everyone should be a bigot. They think everyone should be obligated to treat their opponents unfairly, to misrepresent and lie about them.
They are bigots and ought to be treated as such.
Guys, I want to put two of these comments side-by-side (my emphasis added):
This seems to say it all, to me. The members of the party that insists that boys can have babies think that the other party has lost it’s mind.
Holt’s a dolt, a TV news reader. A peat muppet, if you will.
So stop watching them. Tens of millions have. You don’t need them, they need you.
Also, I have a question for Intrepid News Reporter Lester Holt: If you’re a reporter, why didn’t you report on Matt Lauer?
If they were doing this separate from the fact that the public square is 99% controlled by four tech companies that would be one thing. That is not the situation. The Constitution cannot function as intended given all of this.
Too many Never Trump are naïve about this.
I am partway through this, and I intend to listen to it again.
https://ricochet.com/podcast/federalist-radio-hour/demystifying-brian-stelter/
Edit: listening further in, the accurate way to describe it is the media and the various institutions are controlled by cultural leftists. That is the over arching discussion. The description doesn’t reflect that.
You can’t make this up.
Wow. That really is remarkable.
Imagine how the Washington Post tweet would have been different if Donald Trump had been president during the “short-staffed stores and supply chain woes” they mentioned…
The Washington post is owned by Jeff Bezos.
I’m not sure I want to get into a big argument about this right now, but Jeff Bezos is excessively rich primarily because of bad financial regulation. Now he owns the media and the government.
Act accordingly.
Wait till all federal operations and documents reside on cloud servers owned by Jeff “Milo Mindbender” Bezos (already happening BTW). Imagine the fate of memos or emails about antitrust issues… tax avoidance… environmental issues… labor practices… I can’t file that pleading, Dave…. 404.
Just this morning our regular waitress at the diner rattled off quite the list of supplies the restaurant can’t get. A local radio talk host commented that she couldn’t get coffee at a gas station convenience store a few days ago because the store couldn’t get the cups into which to dispense the coffee.
Thats the way people are, and why top down politics cant and has never worked for long except fo an ever narrowing group, and the larger the nation the quicker the failure. If we ever liberate ourselves from these inept totalitarians, we’ll have to make some radical changes.
Another great mind that will never appear on Ricochet lol
Somebody should count the number of times this message gets recycled on CNN. By Friday, anybody who complains about this latest joyous aspect of Bidenomics will be deemed a traitor.