SEE ALSO: KELLIA RAMARES on Objectivity

When Walter Cronkite died sixteen months ago, he was rightly lionized for the quality of his work, and the impact he effected on television news. He was praised for his utter objectivity and impartiality, and implicitly — and in some cases explicitly— there was wailing that this objectivity had died with him. And invariably the same few clips were shown with each obituary:

It has been the same with every invocation of Edward R. Murrow. Murrow would never have stood for the editorializing of today in his newscasts.

And then Murrow slayed the dragon.

Always left out, sadly, is the fact that within hours of speaking truth based on facts, Murrow was attacked as a partisan. The Republicans, and the Conservative newspapers, and the Conservative broadcasters described — in what they would have insisted was neutral, objective, unbiased, factual reporting — that in smearing the patriotic McCarthy, Murrow was a Democrat, a Liberal, a Socialist, a Marxist, a Communist, a traitor.

The great change about which Mr. Koppel wrings his hands is not partisanship nor tone nor analysis. The great change was the creation of the sanitized image of what men like Cronkite and Murrow and Kaltenborn and Davis and Daly and Baukhage and Smith and Sevareid and Rather and Jennings and Polk and Koppel did.

These were not glorified stenographers. These were not neutral men. These were men who did in their day what the best of journalists still try to do in this one. Evaluate, analyze, unscramble, assess — put together a coherent picture, or a challenging question — using only the facts as they can best be discerned, plus their own honesty and conscience.

And if the result is that this story over here is a Presidential chief of staff taking some pretty low-octane bribes and the scandal starts and ends there, you judge all the facts, and you say so. And if the result is that that other story over there is not just a third-rate burglary at a political office, but the tip of an iceberg meant to sink the two-party system in this country, you judge all the facts, and you scream so.

Insist long enough that the driving principle behind the great journalism of the television era was neutrality and objectivity and not subjective choices and often dangerous evaluations and even commentary and you will eventually leave the door open to pointless worship at the temple of a false god.

But as long as there are two men, as long as they are fair, and balanced, is not the news consumer entranced by the screaming and the fact that his man eventually, and always, out-screams the other is not he convinced that he has seen true journalism, true balance, true objectivity?

I have read and heard much, of late including from Mr. Koppel in The Washington Post yesterday about how those who succeeded his grand era of false objectivity are only in it for the money or the fame or the chance to push a political party. Mr. Koppel also implied as others have that the men behind this network saw in the success of Fox News, a business opportunity to duplicate the style but change the content. Mr. Koppel implied that yesterday.

We do not make up facts here and when we make mistakes we correct them. Friday night I found, as we rehearsed its presentation, that a segment implying former President Bush had lifted parts of his autobiography from other works of recent history, was largely based on excerpts that mostly required heavy editing and still produced only weak evidence. We killed the segment. Would Fox have? Would CNN have?

TAX CUTS: Corporate Media's Version of Economic Justice {with VIDEO BONUS}

 SPECIAL VIDEO: Keith Olbermann—

Did Obama Abandon his Left Political Base?

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False again! The 112th Congress convenes on January 3, 2011. Democrats have between now and then to enact whatever they wish, with or without Republican support.

Larry Summers, head of the White House National Economic Council (NEC), issued the warning, saying:

False, according to economist David Rosenberg, calculating that it will add a meager four-tenth of one percent to GDP growth, a plus, but hardly one to extol or worry over if not enacted.

As Harvard University president, he had contentious relations with faculty members, as well as suggesting women have less science and math ability than men. In 2006, these and other indiscretions got him sacked. Whatever he supports should be denounced, not accepted as sound advice.

Ask UAW members about how their leadership sold them out, resulting in plant closings, offshoring, pay and benefit cuts, and mass layoffs, transforming the auto industry landscape into a wasteland, besides enormous damage done throughout US manufacturing since the 1980s, hollowed out from its former industrial strength. Tax cuts did nothing to stop it.

Wrecking the American Dream

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/obama-teams-deficit-cutting-proposal.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/class-warfare-jeopardizing-american_1368.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/destructive-neoliberal-austerity.html

A Hopeful Sign

A Final Comment

Senior TGP Editor STEPHEN LENDMAN lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.