[Scape]

On Calling Bullshit

Quote:

Mainstream-media political journalism is in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant, but not because of the Internet, or even Comedy Central. The threat comes from inside. It comes from journalists being afraid to do what journalists were put on this green earth to do.

What is it about Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that makes them so refreshing and attractive to a wide variety of viewers (including those so-important younger ones)? I would argue that, more than anything else, it is that they enthusiastically call bullshit.

Calling bullshit, of course, used to be central to journalism as well as to comedy. And we happen to be in a period in our history in which the substance in question is running particularly deep. The relentless spinning is enough to make anyone dizzy, and some of our most important political battles are about competing views of reality more than they are about policy choices. Calling bullshit has never been more vital to our democracy.

It also resonates with readers and viewers a lot more than passionless stenography. I’m convinced that my enthusiasm for calling bullshit is the main reason for the considerable success of my White House Briefing column, which has turned into a significant traffic-driver for The Washington Post’s Web site.

I’m not sure why calling bullshit has gone out of vogue in so many newsrooms — why, in fact, it’s so often consciously avoided. There are lots of possible reasons. There’s the increased corporate stultification of our industry, to the point where rocking the boat is seen as threatening rather than invigorating. There’s the intense pressure to maintain access to insider sources, even as those sources become ridiculously unrevealing and oversensitive. There’s the fear of being labeled partisan if one’s bullshit-calling isn’t meted out in precisely equal increments along the political spectrum.

The return of Democrats to political power and relevancy gives us the opportunity to call bullshit in a more bipartisan manner, which is certainly healthy. But there are different kinds of bullshit. Republican political leaders these past six years have built up a massive, unprecedented credibility deficit, such that even their most straightforward assertions invite close bullshit inspection. By contrast, Democratic bullshit tends to center more around hypocrisy and political cowardice. Trying to find equivalency between the two would still be a mistake – and could lead to catty, inside-baseball gotcha journalism rather than genuine bullshit-calling.

If mainstream-media political journalists don’t start calling bullshit more often, then we do risk losing our primacy — if not to the comedians then to the bloggers.

But here’s the good news for you newsroom managers wringing your hands over new technologies and the loss of younger audiences: Because the Internet so values calling bullshit, you are sitting on an as-yet largely untapped gold mine. I still believe that no one is fundamentally more capable of first-rate bullshit-calling than a well-informed beat reporter - whatever their beat. We just need to get the editors, or the corporate culture, or the self-censorship – or whatever it is – out of the way.

[canuckns]

Here here. Nice to see somone willing to call bullshit. Nicely said.

[BartSimpson]

It'll be interesting to see if the same people who so willingly toss excremental accusations at the Republicans will do the same with the Democrats.

[stratos]

come on the main stream press for the most part is liberal I seriously dought they will call any of the crap comeing out of a democrates mouth bull shit.


Lets see the dems said they will bring peace, make the air clean, get every american out of poverty, have the whole world love us and the grass greener....

Tell me when this happens please.

[2Cdo]

lily wrote:

Bullshit.

Clinton got impeached essentially for getting a blow job - and you think the press gave him a pass? Jheeeesh! I got sick of reading about it here... I can't imagine how much more you were inundated with down there.

Actually Lily, I think it wasn't so much the blow job but the fact that he lied about having sex with an intern and got caught in that lie.

I remember teasing my wife with the "it's only a blow job it's not sex" that Clinton used and the looks I recieved convinced me that it would not, ever, be a good idea to cheat on my wife! (And I never have!)

[dubyah]

Oh dear lord...

I call "bullshit" on this author. He needs to put down his crack pipe and start listening to what s/he and other so-called 'journalists' say about ME and my administration every single day. Are they out of their fucking MINDS??? They call "bullshit" on everything that I do and say, as well as everything every republican does and says. They shit on Rush Limbaugh and his cohorts. The shit on "the religious right." They are out of their fucking minds to believe that they do not call "bullshit" enough! Bullshit!!

Absolutely amazing. What is even BIGGER bullshit than this stupid article is how the "press" believes that it is special. When a couple of "journalists" were jailed in America for not cooperating with law enforcement, all the deluded, self-important commies screamed about 'freedom of the press.' Well, i have news for those commies and any of you pinkos that agree with those imbeciles: SO-CALLED "JOURNALISTS" ARE *NOT* SPECIAL! They have NO more rights than the average citizen - you or I. Who in the hell ever elected the "press" as a fourth branch of government? This is ridiculous. These media morons go telling everyone about how important they are and most of you take their word for it!!! We're doomed!



W.

[CanuckMom]

dubyah wrote:

... ME and my administration.... They call "bullshit" on everything that I do and say, as well as everything every republican does and says....

W.

You and YOUR administration? Excuse me if I seem a bit slow on the uptake here, Dubyah, but it seems to me that the media actually does have a little more coming to them than what you're suggesting. After all, it's the journalists who are out there in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, risking their lives right along with the men and women soldiers, in order to get the news - not the politicians. It seems to be that if anything, the media is often gagged by government so they can't report what's real - they have to report what the government allows them to report.

Personally, I feel that the politicians need to get their noses out of other people's business and focus on making their respective countries better places to live than they currently are.

Just my opinion.

[dubyah]

Quote:

It seems to be that if anything, the media is often gagged by government so they can't report what's real - they have to report what the government allows them to report.

Do you have an example of this? MY point is that the press is out to get republican politicians. There is a small conservative media that exposes democrats, but the newspapers and most of the tv news channels mostly attack republicans. In their ZEALOTRY to damage republicans, they often just make shit up, an example of which is Rathergate, wherein Dan Rather and Mary Mapes attempted to use poorly forged documents to discredit my National Guard service just a few weeks before the 2004 presidential election. To this day, Dan Blather believes that although his "proof" was forged, the story remains true. CBS chalked it up as an error, but it is funny how such errors are never in favor of the republicans, only against them.

BTW, just what the hell do embedded "journalists" have to do with any goddamned thing that I said? They're not as brave as you think. After the initial invasion was over, nearly all the so-called "journalists" do not venture outside the green zone.



W.

[CanuckMom]

dubyah wrote:

... MY point is that the press is out to get republican politicians. There is a small conservative media that exposes democrats, but the newspapers and most of the tv news channels mostly attack republicans. ...an example of which is Rathergate, wherein Dan Rather and Mary Mapes attempted to use poorly forged documents to discredit my National Guard service just a few weeks before the 2004 presidential election. To this day, Dan Blather believes that although his "proof" was forged, the story remains true. CBS chalked it up as an error, but it is funny how such errors are never in favor of the republicans, only against them.

BTW, just what the hell do embedded "journalists" have to do with any goddamned thing that I said? They're not as brave as you think. After the initial invasion was over, nearly all the so-called "journalists" do not venture outside the green zone.

W.

Personally, I don't think the press is "out to get" Republicans at all. I mean, sure, journalists and newspapers have their "favorites" but I don't agree that they go the kind of lengths you're talking about. Perhaps independently, some reporters may place their own personal spin on things; in the case you mentioned with Dan Rather and Mary Mapes, I don't know anything about that, so I can't comment and I won't make a supposition about what they may or may not have been trying to achieve.

As for embedded journalists not being brave, well, if I was in their shoes, you can bet your last dime I wouldn't have the wherewithall to be going into war zones like they do. Even inside the green zone, there are no guarantees of their safety - and they know that when they take on the assignment.