Nance Greggs: Dear Alleged News Reporter/Journalist

[DemocratsForProgress]

As I read the various articles, blogs, and political message boards discussing the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I can’t help but be reminded of the brave men and women of the mainstream media, who – as the nation stood poised to launch on a misadventure of mammoth proportions and unimagined consequences – picked up their poms-poms and cheer-led a president and an administration that had already proven themselves to be incompetent decision-makers at best, and lying warmongers at worst.

Of course, we all now know the latter proved to be the case, beyond all reasonable doubt.

So I thought this would be an appropriate time to ask a few questions of our illustrious “news reporters/journalists”, with a view to getting some answers that might enlighten us all as to exactly what it is that causes once-aspiring truth-tellers to turn into people who will lie to their own countrymen in order to make a buck.

My questions are as follows..."

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2013/03/19/dear-alleged-news-reporterjournalist/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. As always, well done...

We are so lucky to have your voice, my dear Nance.

K&R

[Newsjock]

2. I understand and appreciate what Nance is saying, but ...

... as a now-ex-journalist who tried my best to present balance and counterpoint in the run-up to war, I die just a little bit inside every time I read another of these anti-journalist screeds from my progressive/liberal friends, asking me if I wanted to grow up to be a "professional propagandist."

I'm sure Nance was referring to the big-bucks high-profile "journalists" (and I use the term loosely) of the day, but please remember that there were countless thousands of us at smaller newspapers, TV, and radio stations across the country. We didn't make six-figure salaries, or anywhere close. We weren't on anyone's payroll except our employers'.

Yes, many of us had to deal with relentless pressure from above to conform to the establishment line. Many of us resisted as best as we could. Those infamous Page A17 stories in the Washington Post that raised doubt? I sometimes managed to get them onto our front page.

But in my case, the emotional toll was too high, and by mid-2004 I was hundreds of miles away, editing the horoscope column. Really. And now I'm in a completely different field where, finally, the money is decent enough that I don't have to choose between paying the rent and getting a new car. (Soon after I left the industry, my position was eliminated anyway.)

This is the real death of American journalism. Peace.

(P.S.: Oh, and at long last I can cross the U.S. border without having a border guard ask me, and I quote from that nameless gentleman at Blaine, Wash., in early 2004: "What do you write about the war?&quot

[NanceGreggs]

5. I just read your reply

to my DFP article cross-posted here.

I want to apologize if I offended you in any way. You, and those like you, were in no way my intended target.

I thought I was clear in that I was referring to the TV MSM – and if I was not as clear as I could have been, I apologize yet again for my lack of skill.

I am well aware that many in the print media, along with smaller-reach radio and local TV news outlets, did their best to be true journalists. Sadly, their efforts went mostly unnoticed in the face of the blare of 24/7 cable news networks, and major well-established “newscasters” who reach millions of viewers every night and, by virtue of that fact, actually have the power to sway the opinions of millions of citizens.

Given their influence, these so-called journalists should be (and are often mistaken for) the best and the brightest in their field, those whose journalistic integrity is broadly accepted as being beyond reproach. It is the fact that they, and their employers, continually abuse that lofty position that is despicable beyond all measure.

My grandma was an avid newspaper reader. She “settled down with the papers” every night after dinner, and believed every word she read. She always felt that “if it wasn’t true, they wouldn’t be allowed to print it.”

This widely-held attitude was transferred to the nightly TV news when it became the easier and more popular way to inform oneself as to the events of the day. “If it wasn’t true, they wouldn’t be allowed to say it on television.” And there was a time when that trust seemed well-placed – the time of Walter Cronkite, the time of Edward R. Murrow.

Had the lead-up to, and the subsequent cheering of, the Iraq War been the only time the mainstream TV media had been less than vigilant in their reportage, or a bit too willing to spread the Bush administration’s propaganda under the guise of “journalism”, many of us would have forgiven their lone trespass against us, their fellow citizens.

It is the fact that this was not an isolated lapse in journalistic integrity, but part of a pattern of propaganda-for-pay, that sticks in the craw of a country that can do better, and a citizenry that deserves better.

I meant no disrespect to the many real journalists who did their best to speak the truth, and did so with integrity and a true dedication to their profession. It is a sad commentary on the current state of affairs to know that they (and you) are still relegated to the shadows, while those who helped lie us into war are still in the limelight – and have the salaries to prove it.

[Newsjock]

8. No offense taken

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Still a fan.

[Doctor_J]

7. There is the problem

tried my best to present balance and counterpoint in the run-up to war

"Balance" was not what was needed. Truth was needed. Like Krugman, Tom Tomorrow, and others have said, if the Republicans declared tomorrow that the Earth is flat, Big Media would report, "Opinions Vary On Shape Of Earth". That's balance. It's also dangerous bullshit, just like the coverage of the war justification.

[pacalo]

3. Fixed News, this has your name all over it!

These are great:

Does your paycheck include bonuses for things like (a) being a spineless shill for the corporations that own your network or sponsor your “news” programming, (b) perfecting the art of “going to commercial” when someone confronts you with the truth, (c) standing outside in a hurricane because your viewers are too fuckin’ stupid to know what a hurricane is without constant visual reminders each time one occurs?


Have you ever considered quitting your current job as a “news person” and going into an alternate, but equally reputable career – like bilking unwary seniors out of their life’s savings, or selling drugs to twelve-year-olds at the local schoolyard?


Are you as dumb, ill-informed, and totally clueless in real life as you are on TV? If so, do you have the staff necessary to tie your shoelaces, remind you what day of the week it is, and ensure you don’t get lost on the two-block walk to the studio?

Thanks, Nance!

[RobertEarl]

4. That was it for me

Used to buy newspapers. Was glad to put out money to read news. After the Iraq invasion the decision was made to not buy any of the big papers' crap again. Millions of people did the same and papers have been losing money ever since.

[SheilaT]

6. I recall quite vividly that in the lead-up to the war

the majority of Americans opposed it.

Yes, they did. Of course, that tidbit was lost in the drum beat of war we must go to war there are WMDs there really are never mind that Joe Wilson and Scott Ritter have said conclusively that there are not let's just look at the articles in the NYTimes which refer to administration sources which say there really are WMDs and those sources are the only sources of such information.

Need I go on?

I was paying attention. Surely I am not the only person who was ten years ago. I am still angry beyond rational thought that anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together thought that we needed to invade Iraq. Any statements now that "everyone" really believed there were WMDs are totally false. There actual consensus out there was that there were not any such critters, and the various articles places in such venerable sources as the NYTimes simply weren't credible. And that's what we knew, those of us who were paying attention ten years ago, knew.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, DemocratsForProgress.