Letters to the Editor
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Onus on Journalism, not Readers
I had an exchange with Cox after her appearance on Realiable Sources. She acknowledged the problem but went on to place the onus on me to get the full text and context (plus transcript) of an event and arrive at my own conclusions. I pointed out to her that she is a very recent comer to the MSM Consortium which cheerleads for McCain. In the end it became clear that she has taken the full measure of McCain Kool Aid. When covering him she engages in covering up.
This is one of the most disingenous things about the state of journalism as it is: The idea of 'balance'. State one side, state the other side, and say 'make up your mind for yourself'. It doesn't deal in FACTS. Cox, in saying what she did, does exactly what many criticize the media for doing: stenography.
While there's something to be said about encouraging people to get into the facts themselves, it's not as effective when you don't actually throw out some facts to begin with. If you start off by giving all sides represented equal credence, even if one side has the support of facts, it only benefits the side that's less credible.
And she doesn't even have the excuse of covering both sides either. She's reporting on one man here, and taking him at his word, while telling us 'you guys go ahead and look into the facts'. That's just pathetic journalism. When BS is BS, call it. Don't cover it up by saying 'well, it must have just been an innocent mistake, because we all know he's so knowledgable...but if you don't believe us, look into it yourselves, we'll be having BBQ'.