The Other Side of the Coin - XI

(UPDATE-I see below)

Glenn Greenwald and Jay Rosen joined Bill Moyers last Friday evening in a discussion of the Washington media and its relationship with a new president, Barack Obama. They were critical of the Washington media -- Jay Rosen said:

Well, what doesn't get considered, Bill, is that there could be anything radically wrong with Washington. That the entire institution could be broken. That there are new rules necessary. That idea, that the institutions of Washington have failed and need to be changed, doesn't really occur to the press, because as Glenn said, they're one of those institutions. And they're one of the ones that failed.

Glenn Greenwald added:

You know, I think if you go back to the 1990s, what you saw is essentially a partnership between the Republican Party, the right wing, and establishment media venues. And this partnership was formed when they were essentially engaged in their lynch mob over the Lewinsky affair.

And that partnership, those methods that were so successful then, translated into the media being blindly supportive and reverent of the Bush administration. And that partnership hasn't really gone anywhere. And so, I think that Obama, being somewhat new to Washington, and looking at Washington as this culture ready to be changed, and leave behind its old ways - that's what he really believes he can accomplish - may have been somewhat surprised by how potent that process is, when it works together.

And it suffocated his message. It attached the most dreaded label in Washington to what he was trying to do, which is conventional liberalism, that this is just a standard package of liberal economic policies: taxing and spending, and imposing burdens on the American taxpayer. And that message resonated with the media, and therefore, with the American public, and steamrolled the White House in a way that I think demonstrated they weren't really prepared for how vibrant that partnership remains.

And I particularly like the following from Jay Rosen:

I think that the ideology of the press is not so much liberal or conservative. They think themselves the keepers of realism, of savviness. I think the real religion of the American press is savviness. And in their view, it isn't savvy to say you're going to mobilize the anger and frustration of the American people and bring that power to Washington to change it.

That's not how politics works. The way politics works is you say things like that to get elected, and then, once you're in, you make your accommodations, you show that you want to hew to the center. You demonstrate that you're bipartisan. You pick people who are familiar.

And it's those eternal laws of politics that journalists feel they know better than us. And they expect politics to kind of run down these rails that they've laid down, because then we have to turn to them for the inside story. And this is what they want to continue.

And I agree with Jay -- we are riding the rails laid down by the Washington Media -- we will only get the politics of accommodation from people that are familiar. BTW, I predicted that Obama would loose the election because the powers would not trust him when he said that he would bring change to Washington -- the powers don't want change, IMHO.

The real problem is that it is all talk -- and Moyers, Greenwald, and Rosen are no better than the people they talk about -- it is just more talk. There is no mechanism for converting the talk to political action -- and without political action there will be no changes.

Now, talk is fine, a story is great when you are reporting news -- however, when that news concerns a problem that requires some kind of action, a story is not enough, no matter the quality of reporting -- we need reports. The purpose of a report is to convey understanding and elicit some kind of action.

Starting with a story, a report needs to communicate understanding -- understanding of the situation, recommended action along with potential problems. 

Sorry folks -- JOURNALISTS WRITE STORIES, ENGINEERS WRITE REPORTS. It's easy to be a journalist, particularly when you have control of the media.

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UPDATE -- 02/08/2009 04:30 pm CST

Following is the response I received from Glenn Greenwald.

This is all just talk - totally worthless. I don't know why you'd bother with all your empty talk.

Please note that I never made any judgment such as "worthless" and "empty". Apparently Mr. Greenwald doesn't like criticism.

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Doug Skoglund skoglund@pdmsb.com

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