Monday, January 30, 2006
What does a Princeton professor know about journalismating?
A lot, if the latest NY Times column from Paul Krugman is any indication. In it, the redoubtable professor takes aim at the "balanced" reporting crowd. Using the Republican Abramoff scandal, he makes it clear that their efforts at "balance" are actually distorting the reality they purport to report. And then he asks and answers a question that should be vitally important to Americans and democracy.
Why does the insistence of some journalists on calling this one-party scandal bipartisan matter? For one thing, the public is led to believe that the Abramoff affair is just Washington business as usual, which it isn't. The scale of the scandals now coming to light, of which the Abramoff affair is just a part, dwarfs anything in living memory.Something they don't seem to be teaching in journalism school.
More important, this kind of misreporting makes the public feel helpless. Voters who are told, falsely, that both parties were drawn into Mr. Abramoff's web are likely to become passive and shrug their shoulders instead of demanding reform.
So the reluctance of some journalists to report facts that, in this case, happen to have an anti-Republican agenda is a serious matter. It's not a stretch to say that these journalists are acting as enablers for the rampant corruption that has emerged in Washington over the last decade.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Post a Comment