The Growing Bias and Arrogance of The Press

Everyone should be able to agree that an independent press is a critical component of a free society.  In many ways, it is the institutional means by which we express our individual freedom of speech.  For the press to live up to that responsibility, however, it must truly be free – free of government control AND free of its own self-assumed biases. 

Because of its importance, we grant members of the Fourth Estate extraordinary privilege – even exemptions from the rule-of-law.  We allow them to trespass on private property.  In what are known as “ambush interviews,” or when operating like paparazzi, we allow them to harass and even assault individuals – the engendering of fear or anxiety.  It was one such pursuit that led to the death of England’s Princess Diana.  They can conceal the identities of witnesses to crimes without being charged with aiding and abetting.  They can use deception and lies to gain a story.

The press also has great power because they are the filter of information to the public.  They can literally operate as censors – and they do so with increasing frequency.  If the media is not fair and balanced, the public is deceived and misled.  A self-biased media is as much an instrument of propaganda as one controlled under the rule of an authoritarian.

As with any powerful institution a culture of responsibility and self-restraint is essential.    In a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, Lord Acton correctly observed that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Today, we see evidence of the corruptive influence of power in the field of journalism.   There is a growing  lack of that sense of responsibility and self-restraint – a decreasing dedication to fairness and balance.

Given his propensity to exaggerate, President Trump flips off the media reports as “fake news.”  Though he does his own view a disservice by such broad-brush indictments, he is not entirely wrong.  We have seen longstanding liberal biases in the press advance into prosecutorial political partisanship.  The Big Seven (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post) have led much of the profession down the path of political advocacy.  They are less guilty of creating fake news as they are of skillfully and maliciously creating false impressions.  They use their power to build and support narratives based on preconceived viewpoints.  They advance narrow opinions more than a range of facts.

The arrogance of power has also influenced behavior.  While they are entitled to ask questions, they are not entitled to demand answers.  The behavioral issue has come to the fore in recent weeks as the Trump administration pushes back on what it deems – and with which many observers would agree – bad behavior.

Despite his overt contempt for the press, Trump has been one of the most open, available and tolerant presidents.  He speaks to reporters at almost every opportunity.  He indulges reporters in an unprecedented number of on-the-run press conferences.  He brings them into meetings as a matter of course – something none of his predecessors did.

One can only wonder whether he provides so much access as a means of communicating to the world or as a way of putting reporters’ bad behavior on public display – or maybe a bit of both.

Ironically, the profession is so inbred in its own culture that acolytes do not even see their own arrogance and rudeness. 

CNN’s Jim Acosta has an attention-grabbing habit of screaming out leading and inappropriate questions when Trump is on stage with other heads-of-state.  Acosta’s colleagues praise him as an aggressive reporter – a guy doing whatever it takes to get that story.  The general public is more likely to see a jerk.

Acosta takes the attitude that HIS questions must be answered.  He must be called upon. In fact, when he is not, he pouts, whines and complains for all the world to see.  It may make him popular back in the studio but not so much with the viewing audience.  In fact, it is his own bad behavior that causes him to be passed over regularly, intentionally and deservedly.

Recently, CNN White House reporter Kaitlan Collins was made to figuratively stand in the corner – being denied access to a social reception – because of her bad behavior in screaming out questions and refusing to leave the room after the press was told the inquisition – I mean interview – was over.

Of course, she and her CNN colleagues falsely reported that it was because of the nature of the question she asked.  Au contraire.  It was her behavior.

CNN proudly played the video of Collin’s efforts with great pride – oblivious to the fact that she did not look good on camera.  Apparently, they did not observe what many Americans saw – a reporter being arrogant, obnoxious and rude.  Making Collins miss the canapés was a slap on the wrist – and a well-deserved one.

Long before the current kerfuffle between the White House and the Fourth Estate, it has been this writer’s belief that the press corps needed a bit of discipline in the form of guidelines.  If I were president, the first new rule would be that when the president was hosting press availability with a head-of-state or other dignitary, only questions germane to that subject would be allowed.  I would limit questions in other subject specific press conference to that subject at hand.  There can be other times for open ended questioning.

Drawing on my days in Catholic elementary school, I would follow the rule of Sister Amanda.  If you have a question, you raise your hand and wait to be recognized.  That is sort of the protocol during the official White House briefings – although there are ample examples of media discourtesy in that setting, too.  There is no reason – at least not a good one — not to have Sister Amanda’s rule apply to all those other occasions when reporters assemble as a gaggle.

In the greatest days of American journalism, the media operated  with specific standards and ethical requirements.  These included the obligation to report on all sides of issues and to separate factual reporting from editorial opinions.  Reporters were required to set aside their own opinions when covering the news.  They were required to be polite and definitely not confrontational.  That lost civility is one of the reasons that the modern news media is held in low esteem by most Americans.

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