I’m rising to defend the media. Not because I like them. Because I think they are critical to our survival. Over the weekend, I watched the final 60 Minutes interview by retiring CBS reporter Steve Kroft with President Obama. Overall, the President got a chance to give his own assessment of his Administration’s accomplishments and shortcomings during the past 8 years. But, I also was struck by the often disrespectful and confrontational tone of Kroft (“Are you going to pay for things again?”). Pivoting to earlier last week, we saw President-Elect Trump at his first news conference in 6 months angrily refusing to acknowledge a reporter from CNN because the reporter’s network had run a story about the supposed existence of Russian intelligence containing compromising information about the President-Elect. Mr. Trump dismissed CNN as “fake news.” This behavior should alarm you, whether or not you like CNN – or FOX or MSNBC.
While President Obama seemed completely unflustered by his confrontational grilling, essentially acknowledging that answering difficult or unfriendly questions from the media is part of the job, the President-Elect acts more like his good friend, President-for-Life Vladimir Putin, who imprisons members of the media when displeased. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to suggest that it’s a frighteningly quick trip from delegitimizing one media organization to a complete undermining of our free press and receiving all “news” from state-run propaganda organizations. Just ask folks in Russia or Venezuela or even Mexico. Oh, right, you can’t.
A vigorously independent media (even a 140-character count version) is absolutely crucial in our fight to preserve this Constitutional democracy. We get to question and criticize our elected officials. But, only with the media’s help can we citizens have a fighting chance at ensuring that the President and Congress remain accountable to the American people. All Americans.
I argue this even as I admit that I am not a fan of the media in its currently metastasized form. In fact, I despise many of today’s network leaders. Back when I was studying journalism at the University of Florida, the profession seemed like an honorable one of getting to the truth. Not so any more. In this age of Twitterized attention spans, selective echo-chamber media sources, fake news and 24-hour, all-time, anywhere media coverage, the race to the bottom in reporting surely is near its nadir. It seems that the media both attacks unworthy or misdirected targets (e.g., Hillary’s pneumonia-gate) and fails to understand the complexity of the news it reports with any degree of intellectual rigor (FYI, transgender doesn’t mean dudes in the ladies room). And, yes, it manufactures news. All in an effort to feed its voracious revenue goals.
Still, the thing is we’re all in danger if we don’t fight for an independent media. Remember, it was the Washington Post that coined the term McCarthyism to warn Americans of that demagogue’s rise. Who will warn us of the dangers in our current environment where any dissent, any criticism, any difference or any disagreement seems under attack? Who?
