Lazy? Yeah. Biased? Yeah. Dumb? (Hmmm … )
The Supreme Propagandist at The N&O, John Drescher, says Gov. Pat called him and his colleagues DUMB this week. Really? Let’s look at what McCrory said:
We felt like Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife this week after Gov. Pat McCrory said we were not capable of understanding his economic plan. “This is too complex for the journalists,” McCrory said to businessmen during a speech Monday in Asheville, according to the Mountain Xpress. “They don’t have economics degrees; they’ve not been in business. I respect them greatly, but you get it.”
I don’t see the word DUMB in there anywhere. I see where Gov. Pat said he respects the news media “greatly.” Last time I checked — THAT is not the same as calling someone DUMB.
Drescher’s rant actually gives credibility to conservative complaints about the mainstream media’s propensity for misquoting, exaggerating, and just plain lying.
Drescher goes on to talk about the educational pedigrees of several members of the newsroom. Why, ONE of his reporters has a degree in BIOLOGY from SWARTHMORE !!! How can she be dumb?
Neither Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates — arguably two of the brightest minds ever to do business in these United States — earned college degrees.
Drescher and his colleagues regularly mocked President George W. Bush — who has degrees from Harvard and Yale — as being stupid. There aren’t many dummies graduating from those institutions. But that didn’t stop Drescher & co. from leveling their judgement.
If you follow the media’s line of thinking — where you went to school and got a degree has NO bearing on your level of intelligence. So, Drescher’s argument hasn’t yet convinced me that his newsroom is stocked with Mensa candidates.
I think what Gov, Pat was getting at is THIS: The mainstream media makes little to no effort to understand complex issues so that they can properly present them to their readers / viewers.
A few years ago, I was talking politics with a political writer from The Wilmington Star. I mentioned Patrick Ballantine, and this scribe just gave me a blank, puzzled look in response. Ballantine, a leading Wilmington businessman and community leader, represented the city in the NC Senate for TEN YEARS. He was also the GOP nominee for governor in 2004. This writer — charged with keeping readers informed about the issues — had no clue about who Ballantine was.
I’ve talked with some folks at WRAL and ABC-11 on numerous occasions about potential story ideas. Their first question is — seriously — Can this be told in 15 to 30 seconds of video? If not, they’re not interested.
There’s been little to no in-depth coverage or explanation of the common core curriculum for the state’s public schools — an incredibly hot topic among the general public these days. When seeking “expert commentary” on economics and public policy — mainstream media scribblers regularly turn to Chris Fitzsimon and Rob Schofield at NCPolicyWatch.
Cute, snappy soundbites from folks with a political agenda are all the rage. Educating and informing the public with hardcore, solid facts appears to be out of the question. “Rich getting richer” and “starving public education” are so much easier to write or report than in-depth analyses of what really happens when you cut taxes and streamline spending.
In my book, Drescher & co. are not guilty of being “dumb” — but of failing miserably at the sacred duty conferred upon them by our Founding Fathers.
When you look at the financial balance sheets of most newspapers why wouldn’t you get the feeling that journalists were dumb? I think the real reason they are dumb is for not making the Democrats pay for the biased reporting. They are giving their wares away for free. Why buy the cow when the milk is free? Look at how many of our local “journalists” have left the newspaper game and gone into politics?
Disclosure — I have media credentials for a sports sanctioning body. Second, I have a BA-Econ, and have run my own business.
Most J-school grads, most journalists, can’t do percentages — I’ve watched them try to figure out a tip at a restaurant.
I’ve had state media relations people (not in NC, but in a neighboring state) lament to me that the current crop of media people don’t have the education or background to understand the basics of state government.
And quite frankly, it is my option that the N-O (and most other outlets) is far less concerned about getting it right than they are about a political agenda. Truth is the first casualty of activism, and media outlets find that publishing propaganda is far safer, and far easier, than actually finding “truth.”