I teach journalism at NYU, critique the press, try to suggest reforms. PressThink is the name of my subject and my site. "Chill before serving" is my social media motto. Elvis Costello's version of "What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding" is my theme song.
Read this item from today's Politico. It describes how false equivalency and both-sides-ing are not just a lazy habit in journalism, but a tool of politics that incorporates the bad journalism into party behavior, thus making a mockery of the images of detachment on which the press sells itself.
Note to repliers. I"m not trying to suss out what McCarthy is up to. It's pretty obvious.
My concern is with the journalists at CNN, and what they do in response to this kind of maneuver.
Do they make a strategy story from it? Is that the right frame?
Or is the news the outlandish idea of impeachment in the abstract, with evidence to come later in the process?
First the action, then the cause of action, is pretty Alice in Wonderland of them. To me that's the news.
CNN headline today:
"McCarthy starts to plot Biden impeachment strategy while GOP skeptics remain."
What the GROUNDS for impeachment might be is addressed in paragraph nine. CNN thus buries the lede of a more striking story: a vibes-based approach, where you establish first the feeling, "we wanna impeach," relegating the small matter of "impeachment for what?" to later stages.
That's news! Instead CNN frames for us another strategy story.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/politics/mccarthy-biden-impeachment-strategy/index.html
I have a high tolerance for repetition, so I consumed a lot of post-debate discussion among journalists.
I don't recall any that tried to rank the candidates — or moderators — on the quality of their connection to observable reality.
Political realities, yes. Any other kind, no.
New episode of #JenRubinsGreenroom !
“@JenRubin welcomes NYU journalism professor @jayrosen_nyu to discuss the modern media ecosystem and how the classic both sides approach and opinion free corporate coverage is failing us with repeated coverage centered on crisis. They also examine the pressures on journalists from institutions, and more importantly what it will take to fix things. Will re-establishing truths over savviness with a focus on transferring knowledge from a position of expertise be enough to tame the rising populist passions that rely on misinformation to spread?”
#JenRubin #JenniferRubin #JayRosen
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jen-rubins-green-room/id1686973843?i=1000623902777
"Describing [RFK's] views as ‘controversial,’ I think, is dishonest. They’re not controversial. They’re false. He’s not spreading controversial views, he’s spreading lies. And so the framing matters enormously, and that’s something that I foresee being a huge, huge issue in the 2024 campaign."
Agreed!
Some key distinctions made by journalist Seth Mnookin in this sharp interview. (He wrote a book about the anti-vaccine movement in 2011.)
"Not the odds, but the stakes."
That's my shorthand for the organizing principle we most need in 2024 election coverage. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for our democracy— given what's possible in this election. Not the odds, but the stakes.
Here is an example of stakes commentary. Its analysis is both plausible and terrifying.
https://newrepublic.com/article/174535/people-arent-facing-horrors-new-trump-term-bring
An even more incredible turn in the Texas A&M story, after the president of the University resigned July 20.
The current chair of the journalism department, who recruited Dr. McElroy, released a statement accusing the former president of rank duplicity.
More serious: he says someone altered the draft offer letter to reduce the McElroy appointment from five years to one, without telling him.
It's his signature on the letter.
Read his statement:
An even more incredible turn in the Texas A&M story, after the president of the University resigned July 20.
The current chair of the journalism department, who recruited Dr. McElroy, released a statement accusing the former president of rank duplicity.
More serious: he says someone altered the draft offer letter to reduce the McElroy appointment from five years to one, without telling him.
It's his signature on the letter.
Read his statement:
Amazing story. Have you followed it?
Texas A&M announces a new journalism dean. She's black and she's qualified— and an alum of the school! Ex-New York Times too.
They announce her appointment in a splashy event.
Dark forces of reaction mobilize.
The offer is watered down to one year, with no tenure. She says no way, and withdraws. National news is made. It's negative. And today, the president of A&M resigns!
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/21/tamu-president-resign-journalism/
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/11/texas-a-m-kathleen-mcelroy-journalism/
“The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately,” Banks wrote in her resignation letter. “The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here.”
Creative! Queer!! Autistic!!!
