Carl Bernstien Slams Media 50/50 Coverage. "This is about the Republican Party.".

[Stuart G]

Talking Points Memo:



Longtime journalist Carl Bernstein on Tuesday called on the press to abandon the false equivalence that's colored much of the coverage of the government shutdown.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the man who helped break the Watergate scandal said that the current budget impasse is not a two-sided matter.

"This is about the Republican Party and what it's going to be," Bernstein said. "Is it going to conduct a fact-based, philosophical argument in our political system or is it going to be a nihilistic, hateful, asymmetrical in terms of facts and the truth part of the party, as in Joe McCarthy?"


And with that in mind, Bernstein said that the press should cover the story accordingly.

"This is about media as well. These poll numbers are about a totally different media culture than we've had in the past...we need to start covering this story not 50/50 — this much on this side, that on the other — we need to cover it factually," Bernstein said. "Because there are facts here that will show what this event is about. And where, in fact, is this anger, hatred of Obama coming from? What is the root of this?"




http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/carl-bernstein-slams-media-s-50-50-shutdown-coverage-this-is-about-the-republican-party

[colsohlibgal]

1. Good For Him

He needs to shake some sense into his old partner Woodward.

[grantcart]

2. Another dead canary

[Enthusiast]

3. They might allow that to be said on MSNBC

but no where else.

Yesterday evening Jane Valeze on HLN said she would do away with the USPS right now. She said that is the first thing she would cut. I guess she would be good with UPS and Fed Ex delivering the mail. Jesus Christ! She displayed a complete lack of understanding about the artificial postal service pension dilemma. That comes as no surprise. This country is so fucked.

[Half-Century Man]

4. The root of this hatred?

It is because President Barack H. Obama is a black man.



Or he has black DNA coursing through his veins, or some such bullshit.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

13. A lot of the useful idiots who vote to keep the Rs in power are racists, but

mainly it's about him trying to keep some of the nation's wealth out of the hands of the 1%.

[Half-Century Man]

16. I do not think so.

If a White Anglo Saxon Protestant was in the same position with the same viewpoints; the vitriol would be far less.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

18. C'mon, don't you remember how they HATED Clinton. And he was

pretty friendly to our plutocratic overlords. But he wasn't one of them. Not allowed in the clubhouse. Yet, Herman Cain--notice how the Tea Party idiots loved him? Because he toed the Libertarian, anti-intellectual, pro corporate rule, blame-the-poor, theocratic line.

Again, yes, there is still a hell of a lot of vile, raging racism out there. Believe me, I know--I worked for this district. I have extended family members who think they're progressive because they say things like, "She's not bad, for a n----r."

But the plutocrats with the real power don't care about the white poor or middle class either. The 1% only cares about the 1%. Except for the fact that they'd have no one to serve them, they'd be fine with the rest of us dropping dead ASAP.

[hamsterjill]

5. Carl is absolutely right.

Journalism is not what it used to be. Facts are facts, and the facts show that this is the fault of the Republicans.

[Sienna86]

6. Best point he made is

"Where is the hatred, the anger, against president Obama coming from?"


That's what we need to understand.








Edited to quote his statement.

[BlueStreak]

7. Who kidnapped Carl Bernstein and replaced him with a reasonable, thinking person?

Or is it just that everybody has their breaking point, and the GOP finally reached Bernstein's breaking point? I suspect there are millions of good life-long Republicans that are reaching their breaking points right about now.

[DallasNE]

8. "What Is The Root Of This"

Here Carl Bernstein is attempting to open up a conversation. And the question is the natural starting point for any discussion. The foreign press is using terms like "baffling" to describe what is going on today. Indeed, because of this ill-begotten notion of 50-50 it now requires that we go to the foreign press to find out what is going on in America. But it really goes well beyond the notion of 50-50. A couple of weeks ago Chuck Todd of NBC bristled when someone suggested that the media is culpable in the misinformation by claiming it is not the responsibility of the media to point out the false statements by either side -- in other words Chuck Todd is saying that he is nothing more than a stenographer.

Indeed, what is the root cause of this? http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/us/a-federal-budget-crisis-months-in-the-planning.html?_r=0

[Stainless]

9. It's About Damn Time

The MSM needs to do their job and keep us informed with FACTS and quit trying to make this look like the Democrats are just as guilty. During the just completed news conference the President bypassed the major news organizations and went to lesser known organizations for questions. Good for him.

[stuffmatters]

10. Bernstein's 100% correct

Now is not just a crisis in American democracy. It's also a moment to recognize the crisis in professional journalism,with its false equivalencies and blind submission to Republican propaganda.

This is the ALEC/Koch Bros Shutdown of America; fact based primetime nightly news would have reported this from the start.

[pacalo]

11. K&R!

[VPStoltz]

12. Exactly!

I heard a piece on NPR in which a journalist interviewed said liberals don't press cons in interviews - get this - because they don't want to be labelled as BIASED.
He said the exact same thing as Bernstein - this is ALL the REEPERS fault and it's game to lose (and they are losing it).
Funny thing, the very next day I heard another NPR interview of a con in which the "journalist" lobbed all softball questions.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

14. I reference this a lot, but I truly believe it is worth repeating...

I want to give credit to Mann and Ornstein, who were practically ostracized from the political talk shows they'd previously been frequent guests on after they courageously published their Washington Post editorial, Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.

Yeah, it's courageous in Amerikkka now to tell the truth about the lies.

[Cha]

15. Chuck Todding it and Jon Karl media type shills.. of course they are 50/50ing it..

thanks for calling it out, Bernstein.

[jsr]

17. The new Fairness Doctrine = Gotta Be "Fair and Balanced" to Extremists and Crazies