PrintNovember 11, 2008
What's next for the American media?
With the win by President Elect Barack Obama, the media has won. The question now is just what they have won.
There are a number of questions on my mind: now that the press has shown itself to be irreparably partisan, will it be able to honestly report on the Obama Administration? What of the first few scandals that happen? I respect Mr. Obama, but I know from reading history and from watching human behavior that someone in the administration will overstep and do something illegal. It is only a matter of time. My fundamental question is: will the press report on this?
The reason I ask, is that in this long presidential race, none of the hard questions I had were asked by journalists (on either side). This points to a severe case of group-think or political correctness that has been enshrined as a journalistic code or a definition of how journalists now see themselves.
How long will it take until there is a revolution within journalism?
Based on the track record of the past 18 months, the first few stories and journalists that find scandal will be either suppressed or fired. The suppression may come from their own self-definition as good politically correct journalists or may come from peers with a "you can't publish that" comment. The journalists themselves may well suppress the stories themselves.
But journalists -- even the most ardent leftists -- need to tell the secret. It is who they are and what they do; it's why they're in journalism. And being a student of human nature, I know that even the most ardent leftists will chafe under the yoke that they wish others to wear. They will have to rebel against the rules that they have set because those rules will betray them.
At first they might chafe when required to self-sensor out of self-interest but the revolution to come will cite the journalist's role as the watchdog of freedom as the conservative movement must defend (the left will only defend this so long as it benefits them). It will not be until they see the personal effects on themselves and their colleagues that they will act.
This is the way that revolutions within industries happen and paradigms are torn down. Someone must confront the ideology that would restrict free expression and impose templates or which constrains their behavior and thought regardless of the ethical dilemma that they face. The role of the conservative is to ask questions and point out the inconsistencies.
It has become apparent that the press has, as do we all, a propensity for self deception. Their seeming inability to ask follow up questions or to address inconsistencies is symptomatic of this and the paradigm within the press. The only journalists willing to point out the paradigm are branded as right wing or partisans.
Like all monolithic blocks or paradigm-bound institutions, journalism is ripe for this revolution. When it comes, it will be led by people who see a disconnect between reality and rhetoric, people who are unwilling to conveniently forget the promises or the inconvenient facts that do not fit the paradigm.
As a student of history and human nature, I know that the left is addicted to rewriting history -- and often. Now this trend has come to the American media. The revolutionaries will be those who have the willingness to not be brainwashed or told that they did not see what they saw or did not hear what they heard.
The American public already distrusts journalists more than any other profession other than used car salesmen. Scandal always has and always will attract an audience. Should the media continue to carry water for the forthcoming Obama Administration, it will create even more opportunities for the alternative media to rise and replace the old order.
As the old saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for."
