Media folks agree that theirs is the finest profession in America – IOTW Report

Media folks agree that theirs is the finest profession in America

American Thinker

By Andrea Widburg

The American leftist media establishment is, without a doubt, extraordinarily powerful. It can shape reality in ways that are always deleterious for America and for ordinary Americans. It diminishes Republicans and elevates Democrats. Now, according to several journalists, we learn that the only thing that held America together immediately after 9/11 was the media talking heads. It wasn’t President Bush, Mayor Giuliani, or America’s shared horror and values. It was Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather.

And no, I’m not reading between the lines. AP, to honor 9/11, decided that the best way was to elevate the status of its own profession—and certainly, it is true that, in those pre-“everybody is on the internet” days, the television was the only way for people to see what was happening. But were the slurring Brokaw, supercilious Jennings, and self-aggrandizing Rather really America’s moral center and guiding stars?

Before social media and with online news in its infancy, the story of the day when terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people unfolded primarily on television. Even some people inside New York’s World Trade Center made the phone call. They felt a shudder, could smell smoke. Could someone watch the news and find out what was happening?

Most Americans were guided through the unimaginable by one of three anchors: Tom Brokaw of NBC News, Peter Jennings of ABC and Dan Rather of CBS.

“They were the closest thing that America had to national leaders on 9/11,” says Garrett Graff, author of “The Only Plane in the Sky,” an oral history of the attack. “They were the moral authority for the country on that first day, fulfilling a very historical role of basically counseling the country through this tragedy at a moment its political leadership was largely silent and largely absent from the conversation.”

Think about it: Three men who did nothing but read aloud from a teleprompter are now characterized as “national leaders” and “the moral authority for the country.” more

h/t NAAC

18 Comments on Media folks agree that theirs is the finest profession in America

  1. “The Greeks‥knew very well that hubris against the essentially divine order of Nature would be followed by its appropriate nemesis.”

    — Aldous Huxley, Themes & Variations (1950)

    In their case, the “appropriate nemesis” would be ridicule followed by apathetic omission from the pages of history.

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  2. I was watching KTLA, and in particular Carlos Amezcua. While anchoring the KTLA morning news, Amezcua was a fair journalist and (at least for SoCal), pretty conservative. In any event, his broadcast on the morning of 9/11 was fair, balanced and restrained under the circumstances. I did switch over to one of the national broadcasts to see if they had additional information, but quickly switched back to KTLA.

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  3. Rather was caught outright lying and essentially trying to steal an election.
    So I guess he really is a moral authority for the country
    – Well for the country’s Democrats, anyway.

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  4. The so called media has given up any moral authority it once might have had. They were once called “the 4th estate.” Now they are an arm of the government, a 5th column.

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  5. People are too apt to believe anything these days, no common sense, too willing to believe things that justify their positions. Maybe we need laws for truth in reporting,so we can have just the facts without the slant. Make people learn to put two and two together! Laws with fines and imprisonment for repeat offenders and force the liars out of their jobs. Let people know the truth! Is that too much to ask?

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