Cross-posted from DowningStreetMemo.com/blog
Today I was interviewed by our local CBS affiliate (KPIX, SF Bay Area) for a story about what are now collectively being called the "Downing Street Memos." Watching the report on the 11 o'clock news, I realized I was seeing the two greatest failings of the mainstream media being played out before my eyes.
The first is as old as the press itself: sensationalism. The report focused only on the splashiest quotes from the series of UK documents and failed to explain them in any detail. While I was inwardly pleased to see things like, "it seems like a grudge between Bush and Saddam" in big letters on my TV screen, I realized that this wasn't going to tell people what they needed to know. Phrases like that might sell ad space, but they don't necessarily inform people.
The larger problem, however, was how the report allowed inaccurate statements to go unchallenged in the interest of "balance". In my interview, I noted that no one in either the Bush or Blair administrations has denied the various documents' authenticity. This is a fact. But the "other perspective", provided on the broadcast by a local GOP operative, suggested that the provenance of the memos was dubious, saying that they should be regarded as in the same vein as Dan Rather's memos.
To anyone who follows the news this statement is, at best, hyperbolic. At worst, it's misleading, but don't count on your local evening news to tell you that. My comments didn't make the final cut, but Mr. Memogate's did--unchallenged.
This he said/she said type of journalism is, unfortunately, the only variety the major news outlets are willing to practice anymore. They don't seek truth--they just put up two opposing views and leave the viewer to decide whose story fits their preconceptions better. The reporter could easily have asked my foil to explain why, if the memos were faked, no one at the meetings they documented has said so. Would it reveal a "liberal bias" to ask for clarification in light of established facts?
If calling people on their bullshit makes me a liberal, then color me blue.