Joseph Pulitzer weeps: Two devastating paragraphs from Glenn Greenwald on American "journalism".....

[marmar]

.....(snip).....

Here we find, yet again, the enforcement of unwritten, very recent, distinctively corporatized rules of supposed “neutrality” and faux objectivity which all Real Journalists must obey, upon pain of being expelled from the profession. A Good Journalist must pretend they have no opinions, feign utter indifference to the outcome of political debates, never take any sides, be utterly devoid of any human connection to or passion for the issues they cover, and most of all, have no role to play whatsoever in opposing even the most extreme injustices.

Thus: you do not call torture “torture” if the U.S. government falsely denies that it is; you do not say that the chronic shooting of unarmed black citizens by the police is a major problem since not everyone agrees that it is; and you do not object when a major presidential candidate stokes dangerous nativist resentments while demanding mass deportation of millions of people. These are the strictures that have utterly neutered American journalism, drained it of its vitality and core purpose, and ensured that it does little other than serve those who wield the greatest power and have the highest interest in preserving the status quo. .........(more)

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/08/26/jorge-ramos-commits-journalism-gets-immediately-attacked-journalists/

[Fred Sanders]

1. Ramos is an example of what happens today in America to real journalists. The fake journalists of the

mass media are united in calling the cowardly lion sending in his brown shirts to physically assault the real journalist the brave one?!

And as says the mass media as one, so must we all believe it might be true as one.

[malaise]

2. +1,000

Their turn will come -Trump and his brown shirts will turn on them too

[Oneironaut]

5. The fake journalists are kissing Donald's ass because they know the public finds him entertaining.

They don't care about a real story. He might as well be Kim Kardashian. Our entire news cycle is entertainment that masquerades as being factual. It's all about ratings and advertising money.

The second someone asks why this racist moron is even being given attention, he's instantly labeled as a threat. Trump wants corporate media bootlickers only.

[passiveporcupine]

6. Hey, here's a thought

Trump with Kim Kardashian as VP.

Is it the journalist's fault that America is hooked on reality TV. We have let go of the purpose of life for a life of entertainment.

[SCantiGOP]

9. You want to hear something funnier

A caller to a local RW radio show in SC asked if Dick Cheney could legally run as VP again, since, you know, he was so charming and won the Iraq war for us.

(Chicken-shit answer: "I think he's probably too old to be a serious choice."

[passiveporcupine]

11. HE was so charming

That face!

[hifiguy]

17. He just makes you want to

hit him in the face with a brick. Square on.

[zeemike]

10. It's not just entertainment value.

There is a more important agenda for the PTB than just that.
It is not just a distraction but an intentional ploy to turn people off to politics and manipulate them...anger and fear is good for that.

[Scuba]

3. K and effing R

[Rex]

4. Pulitzer already knew journalism was a dead duck the moment he met Hearst.

And then it was off to the race to the bottom! Hearst won, dirty hands down.

[leveymg]

19. "Just send me the pictures. I'll send you the war." - WRH

[Rex]

21. Horrible man.

Didn't care about what he printed as long as it made him number one and money.

[leveymg]

22. Role model for many who followed. n/t

[ConservativeDemocrat]

7. Greenwald wants news to be editorialized

Okay.

I wonder if he'd be okay with news being editorialized to call people who publish classified information "traitors". That's another way to spin the neutral facts. One in which he'd be called out.

Among the dozens of moral reasons why journalists try to separate facts from their own personal opinion, a practical one also stands out: when people notice that you are spinning the news, they then don't trust anything you say, even when you're reporting objectively true information.

Greenwald himself is living proof of this. The vast majority of people see him as he is: a polemicist. Not someone that any but the exceedingly narrow slice of people who completely agree with him politically will ever use as a source.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[newthinking]

8. Almost all news is "editorialized" already. Distinct choices are made in what not to cover, what not

to say. Whose "story" to tell and which views to avoid.

I disagree with this observation of Greenwald's, though it does apply to some "journalists", the masses in media are subject to requirements indeed to actually "editorialize", mostly in favor of dominant powerful interests.

[ConservativeDemocrat]

12. There is a difference between trying and failing to be completely neutral

...allowing your subconscious biases to creep into your reporting, and outright lauding using news as propaganda.

This is why I don't trust Greenwald, even on issues that I agree with him on. If I relied on something he wrote, and later found out that he had been mischaracterizing something or lying by omission, I'd be embarrassed by it.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[grasswire]

16. please point us to some false reporting by Greenwald.

Surely you can provide examples?

[ConservativeDemocrat]

20. Will something from DailyKos satisfy you?

Heaven forfend I quote something "biased" against him, like the New York Times.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/19/1232181/-Greenwald-spins-and-lies-again-Partner-was-actually-detained-for-carrying-stolen-classified-docs

There's more, of course. Him tweet an Republican attack video to smear Elizabeth Warren.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43620_Glenn_Greenwald_Smears_Elizabeth_Warren_Using_a_Right_Wing_Attack_Video

Or the big press announcement that fizzled when it was found that the terrible NSA practices he was complaining so bitterly about - were already stopped as soon as Obama got into office.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43579_Glenn_Greenwalds_Grand_Finale_That_Wasnt

Or the claim that the Justice Department trash talked their (non-) story:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43588_Did_the_Justice_Department_Really_Bad-Mouth_Glenn_Greenwald_to_Muslim_Leaders_Uh_Nope.

Things like that. Greenwald has a tendency to add fictional embellishments to real stories so as to fit his narrative better, so it's not quite as easy catching him as it is Donald Trump.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[mrmpa]

13. I remember when the local Television stations.........

had a weekly 5-10 minute commentary by editorial staff. It was usually Sunday after the evening news. It was a producer who would tackle a subject and state the facts & what the opinion of the station was. I remember them commenting on Watergate & asking for Nixon's resignation. They tackled national, state & local issues. It seemed to me at the time & retrospectively thinking they were hard hitting.

I don't know when this "commentary" stopped. I miss it.

[BlueJazz]

14. I miss that segment also.. (on the news). Seems to me that the opinions were fair and accurate...

...about 85-90 percent of the time. I even enjoyed them when they went against my beliefs. I felt "Well, maybe I'll learn something"

Now the only thing I learn of most TV news is "Every Car on the lot is almost free!!"

[struggle4progress]

15. The FCC fairness doctrine ended under Reagan

[nashville_brook]

18. k and r