Every once in a while, some lefty journalist on social media whines about how the vast majority of the American public has no faith in their profession anymore. Inevitably, they blame President Trump for journalism being held in lower public esteem than a proctologist moonlighting as their chef during a latex shortage. But if journalists really want to know why the public views toenail fungus more favorably than them, all they need to do is find a reflective surface.
The Internet and the creation of Fox News were the first public cracks in the liberal monopoly on deciding what is and isn’t “news.” Small and insignificant at first, both quickly grew to the point that they couldn’t be ignored but were still just another chip in the paint of the bumper of a used car. They gave voice to different opinions, but those voices were just expressing differing opinions on the same stories. Then came Matt Drudge.
When the Drudge Report ran the bombshell story of President Bill Clinton defiling an intern, it wasn’t because he’d done the reporting, it was because Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff had done all the reporting and the magazine refused to run it.
What Matt Drudge did, and what conservative blogs then followed in doing, was show the American public what was on the cutting room floor – they exposed the stories the guard either didn’t think were important or, more often than not, didn’t want the public to see.
From there, the dam broke. Within a few years, the legacy media was dropping in esteem. When Dan Rather was exposed using forged documents to attack President George W. Bush, the old order was upended beyond repair. During the presidency of Barack Obama, journalism largely ceased.
The scandals of the Obama administration, which both the media and the former President insist didn’t exist, were not exposed by journalism or “news” outlets, they were discovered by Judicial Watch and Citizens United relentlessly filing Freedom of Information Act requests, then suing to force compliance.
None of this went unnoticed. Journalism is dead. But its zombie corpse rambles on, growling and grousing about how it’s not loved.
Which brings us to this week.
The coverage of the Trump administration has always been bad, always been biased, just like every other Republican administration. But coming after the eight years of drooling and throne-sniffing during the Obama years, well, even Stevie Wonder could see the jarring difference.
Gone is the last microscopic veneer of objectivity, all that remains is the vitriol.
Cable news is now overpaid talentless hacks complaining about the existence of people they disagree with. There aren’t policy disagreements debated, or serious information conveyed. It’s liberals who hate Republicans and former Republicans who hate Trump one-upping each other on who hates the president and his defenders more.
Just when you think the left has hit bottom, that they can’t sink any lower, they break out a shovel and start digging. That brings us to this week and Wolf Blitzer.
If anyone wants to know why journalism is reviled, watch Wolf Blitzer try to use Kellyanne Conway’s husband and his hatred of the president against her in an attempt to upset her.
Blitzer said, “I just have a final question, a sensitive question, and it’s a political question, it’s a substantive question. I don’t want to talk about your marriage. I know that there are issues there.”
What “issues?" The fact that her husband hates her boss, and was hired by MSNBC to add his bile to theirs during the impeachment hearings, not because anyone thinks he has insights different from their chorus, but because he’s married to her. That’s his sole credential.
Blitzer then declared him a “legal scholar” who was making a “serious point,” before playing a clip where George Conway called the president a narcissist who was using foreign policy for his personal benefit. Not a “scholarly” legal point, nor was it serious. Wolf only played it because the editorial decision makers at CNN wanted to see if they could make Kellyanne uncomfortable.
No one at CNN, or any other news outlet, would ask a question of Bill or Hillary Clinton about something the other said and preface it by adding, “This is not about your marriage. I know there are issues there.” There are issues there – a trail of women, accusations of sexual assault, DNA tossed around, and her working to contain all the “bimbo eruptions” – but that would be the last question that person asked as an employed person working in journalism.
The Blitzer disgrace is just the latest in a long string of dishonors that have destroyed any respect journalism might have otherwise deserved. So next time some pundit whines about a Trump tweet about “fake news” or a reporter complains about being called the “enemy of the people,” remember that journalism did not die by natural causes, it committed suicide.
Derek is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses.