Disservice

Those who read this blog regularly, know that I'm an admirer of Sharyl Attkisson, a ex-CBS reporter, winner of the Edward R. Morrow award in journalism and five journalism emmys. Over her career, Attkisson has pursued stories on corrupt GOP politicians, corporate malfeasance, and hundreds of other investigative reports. Early on, she even did a few stories on corrupt Democrats and big intrusive government (BIG) programs. But all of the latter stopped with the election of Barack Obama.

Attkisson has written a new book, Stonewalled, in which she presents the unrelenting bias of main stream media over the past six years.

Kyle Smith does an informal review of the book:

Reporters on the ground aren’t necessarily ideological, Attkisson says, but the major network news decisions get made by a handful of New York execs who read the same papers and think the same thoughts.

Often they dream up stories beforehand and turn the reporters into “casting agents,” told “we need to find someone who will say . . .” that a given policy is good or bad. “We’re asked to create a reality that fits their New York image of what they believe,” she writes.

Reporting on the many green-energy firms such as Solyndra that went belly-up after burning through hundreds of millions in Washington handouts, Attkisson ran into increasing difficulty getting her stories on the air. A colleague told her about the following exchange: “[The stories] are pretty significant,” said a news exec. “Maybe we should be airing some of them on the ‘Evening News?’ ” Replied the program’s chief Pat Shevlin, “What’s the matter, don’t you support green energy?”

Says Attkisson: That’s like saying you’re anti-medicine if you point out pharmaceutical company fraud.

Because MSM execs do, in fact, "think the same [progressive] thoughts," they have banished objectivity, context, and often, the truth, in favor of blatant bias for the Obama administration and its BIG agenda. Sometimes this bias is subtle, sometimes in occurs through acts of omission, and sometimes, it's just the words and spin that are used to report the story, but bias is always there. Always.

Again from Kyle Smith:

Attkisson continued her dogged reporting through the launch of ObamaCare: She’s the reporter who brought the public’s attention to the absurdly small number — six — who managed to sign up for it on day one.

“Many in the media,” she writes, “are wrestling with their own souls: They know that ObamaCare is in serious trouble, but they’re conflicted about reporting that. Some worry that the news coverage will hurt a cause that they personally believe in. They’re all too eager to dismiss damaging documentary evidence while embracing, sometimes unquestioningly, the Obama administration’s ever-evolving and unproven explanations.”

One of her bosses had a rule that conservative analysts must always be labeled conservatives, but liberal analysts were simply “analysts.” “And if a conservative analyst’s opinion really rubbed the supervisor the wrong way,” says Attkisson, “she might rewrite the script to label him a ‘right-wing’ analyst.”

In mid-October 2012, with the presidential election coming up, Attkisson says CBS suddenly lost interest in airing her reporting on the Benghazi attacks. “The light switch turns off,” she writes. “Most of my Benghazi stories from that point on would be reported not on television, but on the Web.”

I've ordered the book and will receive a copy when it's published next week. I suspect it will be illuminating and depressing. Over the last six years the media has done an enormous disservice to this country. They now longer deserve to be called a "profession" and they certainly no longer deserve even a modicum of respect.