New York Times Editor Slams Fox News, CNN As ‘Bad For Democracy’

[TomCADem]

Source: Huffington Post

New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet criticized CNN and Fox News’ coverage of the 2016 presidential race as being “in the long run, bad for democracy and those institutions.”

“This mix of entertainment and news, and news masquerading as entertainment, is kind of funny except that we now have a guy who is a product of that world nominated as Republican presidential candidate,” Baquet said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday.

Republican nominee Donald Trump proved to be an early ratings bonanza for TV networks that in turn helped boost his candidacy by allowing him to routinely call into news shows, failing to challenge his bogus claims, rewarding rank bigotry and airing evening rallies live without serious fact-checking of what he said on stage. The excessive airtime helped push Trump’s rivals to the margins during the Republican primary, though scrutiny of the cable networks increased ― and across the news media more broadly ― as he grew closer to winning the nomination.

* * *
While Baquet acknowledged Fox News employs “great” journalists like Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace, he said the network “at its heart is not a journalistic institution.” Baquet said Fox News provides “some weird mix of a little bit of journalism, a little bit of entertainment, a little bit of pandering to a particular audience .” And disgraced former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, he said, won’t “go down as one of the great journalists of his time.”


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-times-editor-cnn-fox-news_us_58135442e4b0990edc3065ca

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Somewhat surprised for the a media outlet to call out another MSM outlet. This election and Donald Trump is a classic example of the failure of the MSM. First, the cover him because his outrageous behavior draws ratings. Then, they are reluctant to fact check him, because they do not want to look biased. Then, even when they push back a little bit, then they obligingly give him a soap box to whine about the media being biased against him because it keeps on showing his own words and actions.

[still_one]

1. They should have also added MSNBC who was right there in the middle of the bullshit

[BlueMTexpat]

7. +1! eom

[olegramps]

17. This all stems from the repeal of the right to challenge the outragous lies spouted by the Repuks.

This resulted in the proliferation of Right-Wing-Extremists media, such as FOX. The result: over 40 % of Republicans still believe that Obama isn't a citizen. Something like 67% of voting Repuks believe this nonsense.

[left-of-center2012]

19. Remember what Chuck Todd said

paraphrasing:
"I don't ask hard questions, or my guests won't come back"

[still_one]

20. Todd also said it wasn't his job to challenge falsehoods from his guest

[krkaufman]

22. Goes back a ways

Todd's just following in the misguided footsteps of the dean of NBC News, Tim Russert.

Witness...

[ProudProgressiveNow]

2. K&R nt

[Chakab]

3. Kelly and Wallace are "great journalists"?

[Skittles]

4. they are both partisan hacks

[still_one]

8. LOL

[smirkymonkey]

5. K&R

[awoke_in_2003]

9. Stenographers at best

Errand boys, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill

[okaawhatever]

10. K & R NT

[Helen Borg]

11. it would have been nice for the NYT...

Not to jump on the propaganda bandwagon that got us into Iraq, for example. Corporate media are establishment propaganda outlets. So, NYT, please...

[Equinox Moon]

12. May this kind of awareness grow. May the media wars...

be about what is good for democracy.

Yes!

[Colorado Rambler]

13. From FOX to NPR, MSM is guilty as charged

Once upon a time if Americans wanted to learn about issues and the candidates, they had to buy a paper and *gasp* READ it. Reading is not a passive activity. Newsprint will not lull you into snares with soothing background noise or inflame your passions with the sound of some screaming partisan diatribe. You actually have to go to the trouble to decide for yourself what you will read and how much time you have to devote to this activity. By it's very nature, the written word compels us to slow down and actually think about the ideas we are reading about. We've become lazy, flipping on the computer or the TV or our i-phone and go about our days in a media induced trance. Why bother to think about the issues when Rush Limbaugh is already doing such a nice job of it for you?

Plus, it's one hell of a lot less expensive to advertise in the Denver Post or the NY Times then it is for Fox or MS NBC. Time to dismantle Citizens United. What the hell? It can't hurt to try.

[FigTree]

15. I'll listen when the NYT apologizes

for yielding to pressure about the Iraq war. And I will not buy this newspaper until they do. Which probably means never.

[Rex]

16. I gave this a rec even though it is from the NYT.

A CIA hub should not be criticizing others too much me thinks.

[riversedge]

18. K and R.

[left-of-center2012]

21. From the White House Correspondents Dinner:

"Wolfe Blitzer asked the waiter about the soup,
but he didn't ask about the entree,
because that would have been a follow up question."