I remember sometime in the early 2000s asking my aging grandmother which of the network news anchors she liked the most. Though believing them all to be socialist sympathizers, she offered no hesitation in ranking them:
- ABC's Peter Jennings (he had such a calm demeanor)
- NBC's Tom Brokaw (he was pompous but tolerable)
- CBS's Dan Rather (he just looked shifty and untrustworthy)
Needless to say, she was anything but surprised when Rather got canned at CBS for his role in promoting a fabricated news story about George W. Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard, all in the hopes of helping Democrat John Kerry's 2004 challenge.
She died several years ago, but I can only imagine what she would say if she was watching Rather's shameless dissemination of left-wing propaganda these days on his Twitter feed.
Not to say that Rather isn't entitled to his opinions, extreme as though they may be. It's just that those who hold (or who have held) such influential positions as national news anchors seemingly have a responsibility to the public trust to maintain at least the appearance of objectivity.
But that's certainly not the world we live in these days, where narrowcasting and histrionics dominate the news/entertainment fare produced routinely by fame-obsessed, budding media celebrities.
For instance, this may not be true, but it sure generates hysterical reactions, which translates to clicks, views, and retweets:
Again, there's no state law that even comes close to criminalizing miscarriages – the moral and legal premise doesn't even make sense. It's not just that pro-life organizations have always carefully distinguished between elective abortion and these medical circumstances involving ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. It's that even if there existed some desire to legislate against them, it would be political suicide. So why run a scare-story about something that isn't being discussed, and isn't going to happen?
Probably for the same reason Forbes magazine would run this headline:
That might be appalling if that's what actually happened. But truthfully the only thing that's appalling is a headline like that being constructed to describe the situation that actually occurred.
An at-home abortion was conducted by a mother on her own 28-week pregnant daughter. The woman killed her own grandchild, delivered the dead baby, burned the child and then buried the remains. She and her daughter then discussed the massacre through direct messages on Facebook, which were secured through a properly obtained search warrant. Knowing the details, go back and read the headline again. It's the Dan Ratherization of the news: agenda over accuracy, activism over honesty.
It's why CNN's Brian Stelter invited former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki on to ask her what the media should do better. It's why CBS's alleged comedian Stephen Colbert invites the current Biden Press Secretary on to mutually lament why some journalists in the press corps insist on obstinately challenging the administration's narrative.
It's never been a necessary job qualification – nor should it be any type of expectation – of the media to agree with the administration's narrative of reality. The fact that it has seemingly become one tells you all you need to know about the Ratherized state of modern journalism.
