Glenn Greenwald has a recent series of posts showing how Time Magazine publishes blatant lies that serve a clear political agenda (you can go find the links). The basic story is quite familiar; the writer simply asked a few partisans about a pending bill and printed their talking points without verifying the facts at all. The whole premise of his column was built around a blatant lie.
In response to the controversy, the offending writer, Joe Klein, has gone through a series of embarrassing denials, weaseling, and obfuscating. The punchline is his recent quote that "I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who's right." He seems to think this is a defense, because in his pathetic bubble world of elite beltway journalists, investigating reality is not something anyone is expected to be interested in or capable of doing. They just repeat what their sources say.
Political operatives are well aware of this, and hence are unconstrained by truth when they feed information to such "journalists." From some perspectives, this tends to favor Republicans. This isn't incorrect, though other perspectives provide more clarity: the powerful use their power to to their benefit, and the truth is rarely their friend.
1 comment:
Well said and the reason I get red in the face when I read about the "Liberal Media" is that the news media have become entertainment and don't find it worth while to check facts when lies are more entertaining and rabble rousing makes for good ratings.
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