THE PRACTICALLY PERFECT PRESS | 2002-11-02
The other day I was astonished when a scandal at the Associated Press was actually reported on a TV talk show. It turns out that one reporter had been handing in false news from made-up sources for three years and finally got caught doing it. Some seventy of these stories had gone out on the AP wire service and were reported as authentic news from coast to coast on every medium.
False news did not surprise me. What astonished me in this case was that someone in the media actually MENTIONED it! And the reporter was FIRED!
Think about it. You have recently heard about scandals in Congress, scandals in business, scandals in the military, even scandals in the clergy, but you NEVER hear about scandals in the media.
About twenty years ago, a black reporter for the Washington Post was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for a story she had made up completely. She left the Post but she had no difficulty finding employment. Everybody agreed that except for this little slip she was generally a fine reporter.
No one questioned that all her other stories were completely true and unbiased. Leading the pack in saying how wonderful she was were the respectable conservatives like James Jackson Kilpatrick.
Everybody, especially respectable conservatives, agreed that such a made-up story never happened in the press except for that one "slip."
Every human institution where money and power is on the line has a lot of scandals.
Except one.
The press is a multibillion-dollar industry with enormous power. But everybody in the press agrees that the press is practically perfect. All the newsmen are honest, hard-working, truthful and unbiased.
I thought I would bring that up, since nobody else will.