Unprofessional journalists inflame incivility by fueling contempt
Published March 7, 2019
by John Davis, The John Davis Political Report, March 7, 2019.
On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez announcedthat the Fox News network would not be hosting any of the DNC’s presidential debates, based on a just-released article in The New Yorker, THE MAKING OF THE FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE, arguing that Fox News is “a servile propaganda operation” of the Trump Administration.
Tom Perez said that The New Yorker article, “has led me to conclude that the [Fox News] network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates.” So, who have the Democrats selected as the networks that can be relied on for fairness and neutrality? CNN and MSNBC have been selected as the first two hosts of the upcoming 12 Democratic candidate debates beginning in June.
Unfortunately for Perez, the Media Bias/Fact Check website rates The New Yorker, CNN and MSNBC as left-biased news sources equally unreliable as Fox News for fairness and neutrality. Or, in the words of the New Yorker article, they are “servile propaganda operations” of the left.
The Left Bias list on the Media Bias/Fact Check website includes CNN, Cosmopolitan, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, MSNBC, New Yorker, Newsweek, and many others. Here is what defines Left Bias:
Left Bias: These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward liberal causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage liberal causes. Some sources in this category may be untrustworthy.
Thanks to websites like Media Bias/Fact Check, many in the political news media have been caught picking sides. They have been caught being biased toward liberal or conservative causes, “through their story selection.” They intentionally seek to influence their readers or listeners by using words that “appeal to emotion or stereotypes.” They have been caught publishing “misleading reports and omitting reporting of information that may damage their causes.”
Is Fox News biased? No more so than The New Yorker, CNN or MSNBC. All four have been caught fanning the flames of partisan incivility by way of biased reporters and cable TV hosts masquerading as objective professional journalists.
How do you know a journalist is unprofessional? They choose sides. Their reporting intentionally fuels the contempt one faction has for another. Just like the years leading up to the Civil War.
Fifth Cause of the Civil War: “The publication of sectional books”
In my last report, I wrote about the relevance today of two of the five causes of the American Civil War from a book, History of the United States, written in 1876, only 11 years after the Civil War (1861-1865), by John Clark Ridpath, Professor of History at Indiana Asbury University (DePauw University).
Ridpath argued that in addition to the issues of states’ rights and slavery, other causes of the Civil War included the estrangement between the people of the North and the South that led to “questioning each other’s motives, misrepresenting each other, and suspecting each other of dishonesty and ill-will,” along with, “The evil influence of demagogues.”
Ridpath also saw “The publication of sectional books” as a cause of the Civil War:
- “Many works were published … whose popularity depended wholly on the animosity existing between the two sections. Such books were generally filled with ridicule and falsehood.”
- “The manners and customs, language and beliefs, on one section were held up to the contempt and scorn of the people of the other section.”
Publications filled with falsehood and ridicule, whose popularity depended on the animosity between two groups? Sounds exactly like today. Of course, today’s publications include social media, littered with venomous partisan hostility.
Today’s publications include The New Yorker, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
News Media Lost the Trust of Americans Long Before Trump
Although many newsrooms like the New York Times and the Washington Post blame President Trump’s “Fake News” label for their loss of credibility and market share, Gallup’s 40-year study of the confidence Americans have newspapers shows a steady and precipitous decline in public trust.
In 1979, per Gallup, 51% of Americans had either a “Great Deal” or “Quite a Lot” of confidence in newspapers. “Some” confidence totaled 35%; “Very Little” or “No” confidence was only 13%.
Ten years later, in 1989, those saying they had a “Great Deal” or “Quite a Lot” of confidence in newspapers was down to 37%. Ten years after that, “Great Deal” or “Quite a Lot” was down to 33%.
Today, Americans who have a “Great Deal” or “Quite a Lot” of confidence in newspapers has dropped from 51% in 1979 to only 23%. Those who say they have “Very Little” or “No” confidence in newspapers has increased from 13% in 1979 to 40%.
So, it was not Donald Trump who destroyed the credibility of the news media. It was news media professionals who exploited “the animosity existing between [political factions]; who filled their air time and pages “with ridicule and falsehood.”
Voters know that today’s partisan incivility, the #1 cause of the #1 problem facing the nation, “Government, poor leadership or politicians,” is inflamed daily by unprofessional journalists who fuel the contempt one political side has for another. Servile propaganda operations left and right.
Journalists so unprofessional that they can no long hide behind the freedom of the press.
