Rosen: The Beltway press, overwhelmed by the radicalism of Bush, Cheney and Rove, COLLAPSED

[DeepModem Mom]

Huffington Post: "Would you guys like us to come without you?"
Jay Rosen

....I agree that the people in the press admire Karl Rove and wish they knew as much about politics as they believe he does. But I would recommend to Glenn (Greenwald) some other factors that deserve consideration if we're trying to explain the collapse of the press under Bush, Cheney and Rove.

The most important of these is that journalists and their methods were overwhelmed by what the Bush White House did -- by its radicalism. There is simply nothing in the Beltway journalist's rule book about what to do, how to act, when a group of people comes to power willing to go as far as this group has in expanding executive power, eluding oversight, steamrolling critics (even when they are allies) politicizing the government, re-working the Constitution, rolling back the press, making secrecy and opacity standard operating procedure, and repealing the very principle of empiricism in matters of state.

The press tends to behave because it does not know how to act, in the sense of striking out in a new direction when confronted with a new fact pattern. As one observer put it:

"From the Kyoto accords to the International Criminal Court, from torture and cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners to rendition of innocent civilians, from illegal domestic surveillance to lies about leaking, from energy ineptitude to denial of global warming, from cherry-picking intelligence to appointing a martinet and a tyrant to run the Defense Department, the Bush administration, in the name of fighting terrorism, has put America on the radical path to ruin.

Unprecedented interpretations of the Constitution that holds the president as commander in chief to be all-powerful and without checks and balances marks the hubris and unparalleled radicalism of this administration."

And that was from one of the administration's own: Lawrence Wilkerson, a Republican, and the former top aide to Colin Powell.

I think "overwhelmed by" explains more than Glenn's "identify with" or "affection for." In my view the press has suffered from not only a failure of nerve under Bush, and a default in leadership, but a dearth of imagination. Most of the people in the capital press -- the correspondents, their editors and bosses -- could not imagine what it was going to take to maintain any sort of dignified watchdog role under Bush the Radical. They never dreamed that their routines could be so ill-matched to the moment. (Wilkerson again on Bush and company: "They are radical. They're not conservative. They've stolen my party and I would like my party back.")...

(Jay Rosen teaches journalism at New York University and writes PressThink. He is also co-publisher, with Arianna Huffington, of OffTheBus, a citizen journalism project hosted at the Huffington Post and launched in partnership with NewAssignment.Net.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/would-you-guys-like-us-t_b_63176.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. In antoher era they would have known what to do

this ranges from the nephew of Franklin who went to jail over the Alien and Sedition Act, all the way to Berstein and the Nixon years

The heavy corporatism in play today prevents them from knowing what to do...

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Good point. That, and maybe a lack of education in our history. nt

[Jacobin]

3. Bullshit. All they had to do was to report it, which they didn't

I hate these fuck apologists for the press.

This is some rank apologia from the hirelings of boards of directors of multinational conglomerates who set out to anoint Bush the Boy King, and then had their dauphin do their bidding through Cheney, while Bush got a pass as a Special Olympics president. Oh isn't that cute. He's really fucking stupid, but hey, Cheney's got 'gravitas'.

The press was utterly and completely complicit in this entire fascist putsch, and I do not EVEN want to hear them distance themselves from the train wreck they created.

Give me an ever lovin fuckin break.

[hvn_nbr_2]

8. I agree. They weren't overwhelmed in the least. They were accomplices.

And eager accomplices, at that.

[charlie]

10. Yeah, this is the dumbest apologia I've heard yet

An administration out of control should be the glory days of any reporter, manna from heaven. To say that they were so dumbstruck they had to resort to taking cues from the Drudge Report is brain-roastingly idiotic. I can't believe that Rosen believes what he wrote.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

4. I don't think they've been dignified watchdogs for quite a long time

I think most of them think they are kingmakers, and they vie with one another to pen the snarkiest observations and speculative fiction about whoever the public holds in disfavor at the moment, no matter what the party affiliation. They write well, dress well, and stay well-groomed in hopes of invitations to high-profile TV appearances and speaking events.

If they know no precedent for dealing with steamrollers it's because they have no philosophy to defend, either conservative or liberal, and hence no history to draw upon. They maintain that they are politically impartial; what they are is politically unformed. I have no use for the majority of them, even when they slag someone I hate. I agree with Glenn Greenwald and am grateful that he and others like him even exist.

[AndyTiedye]

6. Some Watchdogs

[grytpype]

5. Right. It was so horrible that anyone who told the truth about it sounded like a nut.

[AndyTiedye]

7. The Beltway Press, Under Orders from the CEOs of Their Parent Corporations, Collaberated Totally

[leveymg]

9. Those who reported honestly, lost their jobs or their lives. Look at Gary Webb.

Webb is the example for all of what happens to real investigative journalists. Woodward and Bernstein were working for the CIA house organ, and were well protected.

But, Webb had the skills and guts to go behind the polite fictions being spun by the corporate media and the intelligence community, and revealed the stark truth - the spooks are out of control and some of them are big-time criminals. All the major papers piled on Webb, and they -- Gary's peers, the working press -- destroyed him.

With that in mind, not many were going to risk following his example.

[KaptBunnyPants]

11. They seemed pretty ferocious when it came to investigating Clinton.

Everything Clinton did was reported as a viscous assault on the American way of life. But sometime between December 31st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001, the press became completely oblivious to government wrong doing. I don't think the complicity charge is unfair at all.