Forum: Will Media Outlets Like CNN Ever Practice Journalism Again?

Every week on Monday, the WoW! community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's Question, courtesy of Don Surber: Will Media Outlets Like CNN Ever Practice Journalism Again?


Mike McDaniel: No. OK…back to that article I was working on…what’s that? What do I mean “No?” You want me to explain? Very well.

The most important thing to understand about the contemporary media is they are virtually all progressives. I don’t mean center of the political road Democrats, I mean far left, pajama boy, womyn leftist/progressive/socialist/communist/antifa/BLM/Greenie/LGBTQWERTY+/open borders/Anti-America/let everybody vote early and often fanatics. In this, they have followed and mimicked the progression of the Democrat Party to the point that even the few semi-rational Democrats remaining have begun to publicly admit unless the party is somehow drug, screaming, fire bombing, property destroying, assassinating the police back toward the political center, the Democrat Party may be doomed.

Their political ideology takes on all of the characteristics of fervent religious faith. They just, for the most part, leave out God. For the contemporary Progressive, Barack Obama was the higher being, and by their association with him and their shared ideals, they too have ascended beyond the strictures of mortal existence.

Progressive ideology, ideas, programs, and yes, writings and broadcasts, cannot possibly be wrong. They are infallible, non-falsifiable. No evidence can possibly prove them wrong because they can’t be wrong. If they appear to be wrong, they’re actually right, and the appearance of error is due to factors such as:

*Conservatives are allowed to exist.

*Not enough money has been spent for the program’s magnificence to be fully manifest.

*Not enough time has passed for the program’s full effect to be felt.

*The ungrateful people haven’t had the program good and hard enough yet.

*That damned Constitution keeps getting in the way.

So when a CNN reporter reads President Trump’s speech in Poland he, by virtue of his superior, super human progressive intellect and ideology, can find racism and white nationalism lurked behind every metaphor and ready to pounce from behind every connotation. And when the First Lady of Poland shakes Melania’s Trump’s hand a few seconds before Donald Trump’s hand, she snubbed him, even though she didn’t snub him, but she snubbed him because TRUMP! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Whatta ya mean “fake news?!” Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

The media have fallen so far from ethical journalism, returning to it would require firing virtually every employee, from the head of each network to the lowliest technician, and replacing them with carefully vetted, honest, honorable and humble human beings. That can’t happen because progressive ideology can’t be wrong. Draining that particularly swamp would require the admission of error. Against their faith. Won’t happen. Can’t happen.

What might happen, if ratings dip low enough and networks start really getting hit in the pocketbook--even more than they already are--is a temporary bit of restraint that might bring networks like CNN or NBC down to 88% negative coverage of President Trump instead of 93%, but that’s about it.

Notice the NYT firing copy editors. Has anyone detected any change in the content of its coverage? The NYT’s financial straits are dire. Have they admitted, even to themselves, they’re wrong? Do they believe, for a moment, they should return to honest, balanced, non-biased journalism?

There will always be a sufficient number of Americans in Name Only to keep progressive news organs afloat at some level, thus there is no reason for any of them to significantly change their coverage. Anyone trying will be labeled an apostate, excommunicated, and symbolically killed by being denied congress with fellow elite media progressives. It’s an article of faith.

What is most amusing is the self-imagined media elite believe when the civil war they are provoking occurs, they’ll be left alone to advocate for the lions against the Christians, to cheer for the barbarians at the gate, ready to rape and kill and burn. Should that happen, by the time the barbarians breach the gates, there won’t be any remaining media elites for the pleasure of the barbarians. The Left always eats its own, and the lowly, flyover country Americans so long denigrated, insulted and abused by their media betters will, in those conditions, restrain themselves no longer. They’ll pay brief and intimate visits to their tormentors.

They’ll go down, to the last pajama boy, womyn, and transnational whatever, believing they were right. It’s an article of faith.

;Don Surber: Since I asked, journalism is dead because the people who run the news organizations are short-sighted and dim-witted. The public's trust was all they had and it was quite valuable. Newspapers were worth $1,300 a subscriber when Clinton was president. The New York Times paid $1.1 billion for the Boston Globe in 1993 -- and sold it 20 years later for $70 million.

The newspaper industry is a wreck in part because of technology; instead of embracing the Internet, they fought it. Their paywalls amuse me because they are a throwback to a way of life long gone. The last time I saw a newspaper boy was in a Nintendo game.

The gravy train will soon end for cable news as cord cutters cut into their subscriber fees. Why am I paying CNN a buck a month? The network is Fake News. In the words of Nancy Sinatra last January: “That's not true. I never said that. Why do you lie, CNN?”

Jeff Zucker and the rest see their future in niche markets, as they seek to become Daily Kos.
Jim Acosta is not a journalist but an actor -- a mascot -- for a Fake News organization that feeds people what they want to hear.

Can the Republic survive without them?

Maybe.

Trust God, not men -- and trust men before you trust an institution.

 Rob Miller:Well, I never say never. Media outlets get sold, or come under new management from time to time. I'd also say journalism isn't entirely dead, but that it simply doesn't exist where you'd expect to find it.

When it comes to places like CNN or similar outfits, I think it's worth remembering a few things. The talking heads that are the on air talent or the print reporters and columnists live in a bubble.  They grew up in the same kind of neighborhoods, went to the same kind of schools and move in the same circles. They have similar beliefs and similar connections based on a shared ideology, and if they don't they aren't hired unless there's a huge perceived economic benefit in doing so. I don't see that changing, at least not for some time.


Fausta:Only if they start hiring real, independent journalists.


Patrick O' Hannigan: I don't think media outlets like CNN will ever practice journalism again, because they're outlets that pay lip service to the ideal of following stories "without fear or favor," but they can't walk the talk about policing the establishment while accepting money and kudos from that same establishment. To the extent that real journalism -- as opposed to commentary -- has a future, it rests in the hands of the people on the air and on the web who are not beholden to the bi-coastal elites, and people who ferret out news because they're curious rather than because they want to "make a difference." I also think there has to be more to redemption, if it comes, than finding a local angle for national stories. On-air talent at local affiliates can be every bit as smug about progressive platitudes as their higher-profile colleagues with bigger expense accounts.

Doug Hagin: Only if they can remember what journalism is, and separate their ideology from their mission. That mission is to report news. That mission is to investigate, and then pass their findings along. Lots of local stations do nice jobs of doing that. But the alphabet soup of NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, etc have sacrificed their integrity in favor of their political leanings.

Just imagine what the media could do if they put as much energy into uncovering facts about Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and so many other scandals as they did into finding a Reddit user to bully. Imagine!

Simply Jews:Not wanting to interfere in a US internal problem, I shall avoid answering this question, unless it's made an international one (and why not, by the way?).

But I can tell you all an old Israeli story, about one of the ministers of finance whose name I have forgotten.

When the trade unions during his reign started demanding a five days working week, he objected, saying:

- Why are you being so extreme? Let them start with two, then move to three gradually etc...

So there...

If you think it's absolutely unrelated to the question... oh well, I feel it is.

Dave Schuler : Let's start by defining "ever". as "in my lifetime". For that the answer is "No".

For the major media outlets to return to actual journalism they'd need to report the news in a balance, non-agonistic fashion consistently over a period of years to regain the credibility they've lost. I don't believe the present crop of editors are capable of that. It would take commitment and a generational change.


Laura Rambeau Lee : As long as progressives have control of our universities the indoctrination of our youth will continue. The “journalists” coming out of these institutions perceive and report world events through the skewed lens of identity politics and social, economic, and environmental justice. Their ability to think critically has been carefully and methodically taught out of them. This culture is promoted by outlets like CNN to the point where truth is the enemy. New media outlets such as One America News (OAN) are already attracting viewers searching for true journalism; reporters committed to telling the whole story and who respect the viewer or listener to make their own judgments based on the facts presented. Media outlets like CNN will never change, the ideology is so entrenched. They will be replaced eventually or exist only on the very fringes of the media.


Well, there it is!

Make sure to drop by every Monday for the WoW! Magazine Forum. And enjoy WoW! Magazine 24-7 with some of the best stuff written in the 'net. Take from me, you won't want to miss it.