In the past day, I've twice expressed concern that we may not be able to rely on the media to do its job in terms of reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (see
here and
here). Today, Larry Johnson at TPM Cafe provides a chilling behind-the-scenes story that
confirms my fears:
While watching the MSNBC program, CONNECTED, COAST TO COAST with Ron Reagan, a man from the Evergreen Foundation was on air spinning the myth that the President had to "beg" the Governor of Louisiana to take action. Having been on this show several times I called one of the bookers, Susan Durrwatcher, to alert her to the fact that this man was misrepresenting what happened. I offered Susan the following objective, documented facts (see timeline below). Susan thanked me for my "opinion" and said "we just have a different perspective". Stunned, I asked her by what standard of journalism that an objective fact was mere opinion? I asked her to simply look at the documents and correct the record. She declined. I asked her to remove me from the MSNBC list of contacts. I'm sure MSNBC won't miss me and I am certain I will have a happy life without having to subject myself to their unprofessional approach to journalism. (Emphasis added.)
Issues of fact are considered "opinion" by the mainstream media - that's both absurd and sickening. This is the kind of posture which allows Newsweek and the Washington Post to swallow double super-secret background spin instead of correctly reporting uncontroverted facts.
Just remember that for every Keith Olberman, there are countless Susan Durrwatchers actually pulling the strings in the background. Kudos, though, to Larry Johnson for standing up to outrageous journalistic relativism.