Saturday, July 18, 2009

WWWCD?

I could be wrong, since some of these are the product of the times we live in as much as the access-addicted pretty girls and boys who cover politics today, and I don't want to romanticize the past, but here are some things I'm willing to bet Walter Cronkite wouldn't have done:

  • Report Sen. Jeff Sessions' accusations of racism against Sonia Sotomayor without mentioning Sessions' own racist résumé .

  • Give more coverage to the Michael Jackson funeral than to the ongoing health care reform debate (to say nothing of the JFK funeral).

  • Email Mark Sanford's staff and tell them that if the Governor's up to something you'll be happy to give him some sympathetic coverage in exchange for the exclusive.

  • Sit quietly while Pat Buchanan uses airtime to advance the white supremacy cause, or dignify Buchanan by "debating" his white supremacist views with him.

  • Refuse to use the word "torture" to describe what was done to prisoners at GITMO, calling it "harsh interrogation tactics" or something similarly inoffensive.

  • Publish Dick Cheney's disinformation about Iraq WMDs in exchange for access.

  • Repeat the popular falsehoods that "Al Gore claims he invented the Internet," "Al Gore claims he discovered Love Canal," and "Al Gore says that 'Love Story' is about him"--or sit quietly while they're repeated.

  • Sit on the Bob Packwood story until after his re-election.

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