Sarah Palin, the Mainstream Media Filter, and the Growing Culture of Casual Lies
SHOREHAM, Vt.—Sarah Palin took great pleasure last night in declaring her independence from the "filter" of the mainstream media. No doubt.
Scoring cheap shots off of the media is easy, especially for a Republican.
But here's why the "filter" of the media is important: Politicians lie.
They also shade the facts, spin, evade, and occasionally just get things inadvertently wrong.
Who calls the pols on these things? Do the media get them all? No. Have nontraditional media (blogs—which, by the way, are rapidly entering the mainstream) helped the process? Absolutely.
(And while we're on the subject of the media, let's dispense with the myth of the mainstream media as some sort of ideologically-driven monolith. Fox News and MSNBC are both mainstream media, and the only ideology they share is a desire to turn a profit.)
Is there any question why politicians like to cut the media out of this process? For all that the public dislikes the media, however, we need them. (Yes, we in the media are also citizens, voters, and consumers of media—we qualify as the public as well.)
And politicians have learned to game the system, using media attempts at objectivity and balance to foist absurd untruths and exaggerations upon the public, knowing that reporters will give each side equal weight, even if one side is obviously full of something other than well-intentioned veracity.
Think of the whoppers and white lies with which we've been bombarded over the past few weeks alone. Off the top of my head, I think of Joe Biden's recounting of Barack Obama's legislative record, which might make one think that the gentleman from Illinois is the second coming of Henry Clay; the initial portrait of Sarah Palin—antipork crusader who killed "the Bridge to Nowhere," sold a state plane on eBay for a profit, etc.—which turned out to be as tissue-thin as her foreign policy experience; allegations that Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig and that he favors sex education for kindergarteners; even avowals from top campaign staff and surrogates that the latest flub, stumble, or bit of bad news is not a problem at all for their campaign.
In a way the last example—that of the small, acceptable, expected white lie—is the most pernicious, and the one in which the media are most culpable. We are developing a culture of casual lying in our political discourse. People go on the so-called news networks and spout talking points regardless of whether or not they personally believe them. The networks don't complain—they need to fill the airtime.
But when we accept, even encourage, the little lie, it makes the big lie that much easier to tell—and to swallow. And that does none of us any good.
Tags: journalism | media | politics | presidential election 2008 | running mates | Sarah Palin
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Reader Comments
You are flat wrong.
A reporter reports on the facts. A reporter strives to find the facts. A reporter is unbiased and a beacon of truth. That's the code.
If that's the way it worked, we would have no problem. Let the politicians tell their lies, report upon them, and let the people make up their mind.
The issue is this...
Mainstream media - CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC - are all incredibly biased in their approach. They have given Obama a free pass - he has not been asked a tough question.
People complain about Fox News - and they should there as well.
We have a television media that follows party lines. It's downright dangerous. Hearing only what you want to hear is not healthy for anyone. Liberals bashing conservatives on CNN. Conservatives bashing liberals on Fox News. Neither bothering to watch the other channel to learn the other opinion....neither bothering to give a damn about the truth.
Palin has a point when she talks about "the mainstream media". There are definitely more liberal leaning media outlets than conservative. So by definition, it's mainstream. Obama has a point when he criticizes Fox news...they report from one side only (as does the liberal mainstream).
If any of these reporters were doing their job, reporting on the events, seeking to uncover the truth, and letting the facts speak for themselves, we'd all be better off.
Sarah Palin
Being a woman myself, she embarrasses me! Being a woman, she scares me! I would love to see a woman in either the VP or P spot but way above and beyond that I want (we need) a man or woman capable of doing the job - Sarah Palin is no where close.
I saw an interview with Sarah while Hillary was still in the running - Sarah was at no loss of words for what she considered a weakness in Hillary. Sarah went on to state that Hillary was representing all women so she needed to get tough. Well Sarah, I have seen nothing but weakness from you and no, you do not represent all women - you represent only the few that would insist their 17 year old daughther was mature enough to marry their redneck boyfriend and raise a child together, would buckle under a Katie Couric interview but still insist they have what it takes to go up against the problems of the nation and of the world, that would council a pregnant rape or incest victim that above all they should have the child because if you ran the world there would be no other option available.
Sarah - you don't speak for ME - "don't cha know"?
The assumption here that politicians lie but mainstream media does not is hard to prove....our media is full of paid for advertising and promotion for anything or idea that the buyer wants to get accross to the public for his own advantage and democrats are not better or worse than republicans...Hitler said that the bigger the lie the more people will belive it and of course he was an expert in that field ... the ace of spades is a propaganda device which is used by paid advocators of a certain set of people to persuade the public to think and behave the way they want then to....the ace of spades is of course, the big lie.....and in my view is no worse now than in the past.......advertising, propaganda and journalism is all part of the same cloth and it is not easy to tell the difference at times...... So far Gutsy Palin is doing a good job and I believe that the public is tired of those endless wind bags who think otherwise...
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