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Ridiculous People
There was once a time when it took some effort to identify journalistic bias. Confirmational stories and facts are given more prominence, for example, or uncomfortable stories are still published but buried deep. I always rightly assumed that the Washington Post would continue to be biased. I did not know that it would descend way beyond bias to become a haven for ridiculous people.
Phillip Bump, for example, is a ridiculous man. Not a stupid man, but a ridiculous man. He was among the last to let go of the lie that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, providing exculpatory “context” for the lie two years(!) after the initial completely accurate news report in the NY Post. He appears to be largely incapable of escaping much less questioning the cognitive issue cocoon of a typical college sophomore.
Everyone who disputed the election outcome is tacitly guilty of “subversion of our democracy” or insurrection; kneejerk acceptance of climate catastrophe claims; parrotlike dismissal of DeSantis; Fox News is full of partisan liars; etc. I am pretty sure an undergraduate using an AI drafting tool could replace Bump and no one would notice.
Recently, X (AKA Twitter) was alive with the clip of Bump threatening to walk out of an interview with Noam Dworman, of the Comedy Cellar Podcast because of rather obvious questions about Joe Biden’s involvement with Hunter’s income sources. Declaring that there was “no evidence” that Joe profited, he became indignant.
Prof. Jonathan Turley’s takedown of the Posts’ kneejerk defense of Bump’s (typically) kneejerk falsehoods should be a reminder to Bump not to take on figures way out of his weight class. But ridiculous people usually don’t seem to know they are ridiculous, so this likely will not have any curative effects.
Aside from the odd fact that a professional journalist from a major paper was unwilling and unable to dispassionately discuss the significance of the actual evidence in this case, his apparent shock and indignation were striking. Was there never a gathering in the newsroom where old pros ever kicked around the significance of the mountain of sleaze and cash involved and the lies? Had he never considered that alternative explanations for Joe’s involvement are getting harder to craft much less believe? Since when are journalists emotionally committed to oppose a significant factual narrative?
That weird emotional attachment to a shifting collection of silly lies in opposition to what real newsmen/reporters/journalists would have instantly recognized as a very big story is pathetic–and ridiculous.
Franklin Foer writing in the WSJ discusses the weirdly uniform loyalty to Joe Biden among journalists:
The Hunter Biden revelations would have generated calls for resignation in a time of more sanity and less rancor. Text messages indicating the young Mr. Biden was selling access to his father, a maze of shell companies seemingly meant to hide transactions, strong evidence that the Justice Department monkey-wrenched an investigation into that activity—none of it provokes curiosity on the left. That one of the associates Hunter badgered for payment works for a company with ties to the Chinese government is also, for Democrats and the left’s pundit class, a matter of no interest.
* * *
The leftist journalist Franklin Foer’s book “The Last Politician,” to be published Tuesday, relates some episodes that reflect poorly on President Biden. The passages I’ve been able to glean, however, look mild—mainly a lot of unflattering things said about Mr. Biden, anonymously, by allies and aides. That these rather gentle slights have attracted so much attention isn’t a measure of their severity. They remind us, rather, that for 2½ years no one on Mr. Biden’s side has dared to say anything disparaging of him.
Now that’s what I call fealty.
It would be one thing to remain loyal to a demonstrably great leader. But Joe Biden is a senile, child-groping, prevaricating malignant buffoon whose sheer incompetence has hurt his party, his nation, and the world. “Fealty” to Joe calls for more than occasional acts of questionable editorial discretion and instead demands that one abandon adulthood, professionalism, and character; it makes those who offer such loyalty deeply pathetic people, ridiculous people.
Published in GeneralWhy Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. . . but for Wales!
–Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Prof. Turley is an invaluable resource. I’m not sure how he does it, but he’s always right on top of things.
Yes, but he is not Donald Trump.
Bump probably Googles himself every day and is reassured.
Indeed, by every objective measure, he’s worse.
Concluding paragraph in the OP (bolding mine):
““Fealty” to Joe calls for more than occasional acts of questionable editorial discretion and instead demands that one abandon adulthood, professionalism, and character; it makes those who offer such loyalty deeply pathetic people, ridiculous people.“
Or, alternatively, it makes them bought-and-paid for “journalists” whose careers are entirely dependent on simply being regurgitators of whatever their Sources want them to regurgitate, at the time and in the manner of their Sources’ choosing.
Who might those Sources be, one may ask? Well, lemme put it this way:
Philip Bump has been National Correspondent at the WaPo for about 9 years now (on the heels of “journalisming” at various other “journalistic” ventures like Atlantic Wire for a little more than a year and Grist for a little less than a year). One would think that there would be a Wikipedia article about him (detailing “Early life”, “Education”, “Professional Career”, etc.), no?
Well, there isn’t. Not only that, but checking things out about the background of this guy (who, again, has been at the WaPo as a National Correspondent for almost 10 years now) ain’t easy. Go ahead, try it.
Question: How does that happen? AND, even more importantly, WHO makes that happen?
PS:
Dismissing Philip Bump (and various other “journalists” like him) as merely “pathetic” and/or “ridiculous” is a mistake.
Bump probably edits his Wikipedia page too.
Bump’s attitude seemed to be, “You must respect my awthoritaaaa!”
It’s astonishing that any journalist doesn’t know that doesn’t fly anymore. Is he not aware of the abysmally low poll numbers his profession is getting now?