What journalists with integrity must go through

At The Hill, Sharyl Attkisson gives a thorough account of what a journalist with integrity must go through in today's media climate.

...An entire industry has been built around companies and operatives that work to get stories placed, discredited or wiped. They obfuscate, confuse and attack. Their targets include ideas they oppose, whistleblowers and advocates who are exposing the truth, journalists uncovering the facts, and news outlets publishing the stories.

...In my two decades as a reporter for CBS News, my stories were often on the receiving end of these efforts. The pharmaceutical industry is probably the most aggressive and persuasive, considering how much media advertising it buys, how much influence it wields within government and how much money it has at its disposal. I’ve written about one of my best CBS executive producers who recounted getting harassed by the network sales department; at issue were my investigations exposing risks of medicine produced by some big pharmaceutical advertisers. More pressure came after off-the-grid conversations and meetings that pharmaceutical lawyers arranged with certain news producers and executives; I wasn’t invited.

...In the last ten years, I’ve talked to many reporters who have complained to me that they believe they’ve had stories improperly changed or killed at CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post and in local news.

At a conference for investigative reporters, a small group of us circled up and compared notes. We all agreed it’s getting worse.

...But it seems few want to address the elephant in the room.

In the end, the biggest problem just might be self-censorship. Why waste time on stories that will never air, or stories that will only make your professional life difficult? We come to understand what types of stories “they” want and which “they’ll” kill — “they” referring to that nebulous, changeable group of deciders in the news division or on a specific program.

...A colleague once told me “they don’t pay” him enough to do stories that take on certain powerful interests. Another says he avoids the hassle by sticking mostly to features about animals and weather. “Everybody’s happy” after those stories, he says. “Nobody complains.”

In this way, the propagandists have accomplished their job without lifting a finger. We’ve done it for them.

All of this explains why, when I read or watch the news, I often wonder what parts might have been forced into the story or what material might have been removed.

Read more here.

Apparently all the news isn’t fit to print.

What is the state of quality independent journalism? Glenn Reynolds writes,

It would be a shame to lose quality independent journalism that told the truth regardless of politics. But you can’t lose what you don’t have, and we don’t have much of that.

Glenn links to this piece by Kurt Schlicter at Town Hall. Schlicter writes,

The MSM, of course, wants to have it both ways. It wants to be hailed as an institution composed of crusading truthtellers whose integrity and willingness to speak truth to power make them the cornerstone of a free society. Except most of them are really partisan hacks who lie endlessly for the liberal politicians they suck up to. Their relationship with Democratic politicians is less speaking truth to power than sexting their masters. When it comes to covering for their progressive pals, it’s “50 Shades of Newsprint” and the MSM eagerly chomps down on its ball-gag.

They don’t even bother hiding their agenda – apparently they noticed that no one believed their protestations of objectivity anyway and decided it wasn’t even worth the effort to fake it anymore. Donald Trump says enough dumb stuff on his own, but the MSM still feels it needs to misreport and misrepresent him. When he – quite correctly – suggested that there was something weird about Obama’s inability to place the blame for radical Muslim terrorism on radical Muslim terrorists, this became “Trump Says Obama Supports Terrorists.” When he pointed out some troops (Trump says he was referring to Iraqi troops) in the Middle East were corrupt (sadly, some were), this became “Trump Calls All American Soldiers Thieves.” If Trump says he inhales oxygen, the headline will be “Trump Admits He’s Just Like Hitler.”

But with Hillary or Obama, it’s the reverse. At best, they report on facts that manifestly demonstrate her guilt of multiple felonies and misdemeanors, yet make sure to undercut their own reporting by asserting she can’t possibly be indicted. The media can’t shut up about Trump U, but the $16 million the Bill and Hillary Graftatron 2016 nabbed from Laureate U? Apparently all the news isn’t fit to print.

The MSM is shameless. For example, when some gay Democrat radical Muslim slaughters LGBT clubgoers and then Anderson Cooper attacks the (Republican) Florida attorney general for not being sufficiently open to same sex marriage, it’s pretty clear whose team CNN is on. That’s the same CNN that cut off my mic when I dared point out Hillary’s active enabling of Bill Clinton’s sexual abuses instead of being outraged by Trump using the word “schlonged.” There are some good people at CNN, and the staff is always very nice to guests, but it’s in the tank like Dukakis.

So we’re supposed to bewail the travails of these people? We’re supposed to get all fussy when Trump stands up to them and pulls their credentials? Note that’s “pull their credentials,” not “bar them from his rallies.” Now, if these journolosers want to cover Trump, they’ll have to wait in line with those unwashed, dirty people known as “Americans.” Ewwww. This is the greatest atrocity in all of human history – Trump denying his active opponents a back stage pass to facilitate their lying about him.

...But what doesn’t the MSM think sets us firmly on the road to fascism? Liberal attorneys general persecuting and prosecuting people for “denying” the leftist lie about global warming. The IRS targeting Obama’s political enemies for advocating against liberal policies. The abusive sham government investigation of people speaking out for Governor Scott Walker. These actual campaigns of very real government suppression of dissenting speech are apparently cool with the MSM because the targets are on the MSM’s enemies list.

...Sure, technology is causing disruption in the industry, but the MSM would be better able to weather the storm if everyone didn’t hate it and want to lock it out of the tornado cellar. The MSM has nothing but contempt for us, and now it’s getting it back in kind. Trump being mean to you? Aw, poor babies. Your newspaper going under? Here, hold this anchor.

I don’t worry about the journalists I respect – there will always be a market for quality. It’s the hacks and flunkies I won’t miss. And their misfortune won’t even earn a “Meh.” It’ll earn a smile.
Read more here.

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

I.I. Sefton (not his real name) writes at Cut.Jib.Newsletter.com,

...Recently, I’ve been working freelance at a major liberal news publication (pardon the redundancies) which shall also remain nameless, but has been described due to its lack of credibility/intellectual honesty by some of my friends as “an amateur little webzine.” Although I had apprehensions about working there because of its political leanings, mercifully, my gig as a writer has limited me to writing responses to RFP’s from potential advertisers (the paycheck doesn’t hurt either, by the way). As a side note, that is journalism today; basically hacks, scum and shysters pitching story ideas to “journalists” as opposed to the latter actually going out and hunting actual news stories to report. Or, in a word, prostitution. Apologies to the ladies and transvestite junk-tuckers who work hard for the money.

But I digress. So, my first few days are all fairly harmless enough, writing up dumb pitches for stories involving automobiles, movies, software, etc., but across the wide aisle are the “writers” working on stories for the website. And then, the inevitable happens. The stupid I have dreaded finally wafts over the void and hits my eardrum:

“Hey, didn’t Trump have a board game?” “Yeah, let’s get it and see if there’s some sort of angle that really REVEALS something about him!”

Yes, gentle reader. These are the heirs to H.L. Mencken and Theodore White. And yet, though you’d never really know it by reading the papers, we have a woman who sold the State Dept. by the pound, kept and conducted official government business on illegal servers, exposing top government secrets, not to mention goniffed most of the state of Arkansas (what there is of it to goniff), was an acolyte of Saul Alinsky and on her watch allowed 4 brave Americans to die in Benghazi while lying about the nature of the attack and the fact that they lied to cover an arms smuggling deal to ISIS terrorists in Syria. Just off the top of my head, people. And yet, from the fearless members of the 5th Column 4th Estate just a few feet away from me… nothing. Nothing but Trump, that is.

And then today, I’m writing a proposal for some sort of interactive article to promote a new TV series in the vein of “Wall Street.” The idea is to find scandals, stupid quotes and other bits of nasty trivia but all my boss could guide me to were websites about Chris Christie, Dan Quayle, Rudy Giuliani, Dubya, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. I bet you’re seeing a pattern here. I tried sneaking in a few “corpse-men,” “57 states” and other references, but to no avail. Oh well, within a few minutes I was mercifully onto another, much less politically-oriented assignment. It’s sad really. I really like my colleagues, but what the hell am I going to do?

It’s one thing to grow up with a certain political viewpoint and mindset, but hopefully, along the way you are at least exposed to opposing viewpoints where you can at least understand why someone you don’t agree with thinks the way they do. That’s how I grew up, but that was from the 70’s through the 90’s, culminating on 9/11/01. But today, people are educated/brainwashed into having a default leftist mindset and to shout down anyone who deviates from that in the slightest. Or at least to treat that person as insane/wrong/evil and to be shunned or be given the Torquemada treatment.

Oh well, as Vito taught Michael, “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

Read more here.