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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn Jared Kushner's emails, the real problem is the media's hypocrisy
By Paul Waldman September 25 at 2:07 PM
There are few things we in the media love more than a good hypocrisy story, which allows us to replay the oft-told narrative that politicians and those who work for them are fundamentally dishonest. And as hypocrisy stories go, this ones a doozy:
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Republicans will not, of course, be chanting Lock him up! Lock him up! and launching 14 separate congressional investigations of this unconscionable breach of responsible email practices on the part of the presidents closest adviser. Why, its almost as though they were never really all that concerned about IT security!
So yes, Republicans are hypocrites. But the real hypocrisy here, the one with damaging results, isnt theirs. It belongs to the news media.
The truth is that there are very few things that each party wont condemn when the other side does it but defend when their own side does it. But its the job of the press to sort out whats meaningful from what isnt. In the context of a campaign, both sides will toss any criticism of their opponent thats handy up against the wall to see what sticks. And in that metaphor, the media is the wall. Something sticks when the individuals who make decisions at newspapers, television networks and other media outlets decide that the story in question deserves extended coverage.
Kushners emails are probably going to get the appropriate level of attention which is to say, about 1/1000th of the coverage Clintons emails got. The story will be around for a couple of days, itll be a little embarrassing for him, and then everyone will move on. Which is exactly what should have happened to the Clinton email story, given everything we know now. It was at worst a misdemeanor, but it was treated by the media like the Crime of the Century.
As studies of the coverage of the campaign confirmed, the Clinton email story got more coverage than any issue more than the economy, or health care, or immigration, or climate change or anything else. Throughout the general election, as Gallup found, the word Americans were most likely to mention when they were asked what they had heard about Clinton was email.
That didnt just happen. It was the product of decisions made every day by reporters, editors and TV producers. They said, again and again, This is the story that needs to be covered right now.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/09/25/on-jared-kushners-emails-the-real-problem-is-the-medias-hypocrisy
spanone
(135,921 posts)pandr32
(11,637 posts)Let's face it--it was never really about her e-mails. If that had been a real concern than we would not find so many Republicans doing the same thing.
The "media" lusts for sensationalism and until we value content more than ratings--it won't change much.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,498 posts)Everyday people seem to crave nothing but sensationalized content, no matter how bazaar, immoral or untrue. So, it seems like a chicken and egg thing - who begat that vicious cycle? Plus, I don't think very many folks read anything these days to any extent or depth.
Sometimes I wonder if Vietnam, Nixon's mess, and both Iraqi wars may have numbed the public desire for real news. Something sure as hell has.
May also have to do with cable TV and the internet coming of age, with 24/7 entertainment available - nonstop movies, showbiz bullshit, TV reruns and music. I want my Huntley-Brinkley and Cronkite back, LOL!
pandr32
(11,637 posts)We need a new "Fairness Doctrine" that would work for all media.
There is a new form of illiteracy growing in the nation as well--memes, gifs, and sensational headlines give the argument without any substantive content. While they can be useful we have too many people that no longer use reason. Not a good place for us to be.
Girard442
(6,087 posts)...and in the past few years, the Republican Party was in the pocket of Putin and other Russian oligarchs.
Now try to think how things would look different in this fictitious world -- if you can.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)federal government agencies with some guidelines. Many need to be able to work at home, and for some of them everywhere else, and Obama merely tightened up the existing system by requiring federal workers to adhere to certain guidelines in private servers, etc. Not not to not use them at all.
Of course, whether these apply to Kuschner at all is a legal question, regardless of how much it's grabbed onto for use, right-wing-style, as a propaganda club.