How do you win a peace prize when you’re at war with two countries and are bombing a third?
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Glenn Greenwald has posted an article with some stories about cozy relationships between the Washington press corps, and the politicians they cover. The first is the most embarrassing, an excited series of Twitter posts by CNN’s Ed Henry from a party held at the Vice President’s mansion. Apparently many Washington journalists were invited and attended, and there was much giggling and chasing each other with squirt guns.
Now, this has led a few of said journalists to ponderously weigh the ethical implications of a reporter going to a party thrown by the people he is supposed to cover. No. No no no no. This completely and utterly misses the fucking point. No one is saying that Ed Henry or Wolf Blitzer shouldn’t be able to go to certain parties. We’re saying that Ed Henry and Wolf Blitzer are already utterly fucking compromised, and that this party is just an example of this charade.
You could imagine this in any setting. You’re a reporter covering the mayor’s office, your local sports team, the mafia, the record industry, the police beat, whatever. By covering this topic, you’ll be interacting with some of the same people frequently, and quite possibly become friendly. The closer you get, the harder it can be to treat them impartially, or even negatively, when required. Solving this would either mean colder reporters who don’t get attached, rotating reporters to different beats (at the expense of losing that reporters’ learned expertise), or accepting that reporters are people who will inevitably be biased.
That’s one of the points I’m getting to here. You want to go to parties and chase Senators around the pool, possibly causing warm feelings that soften the punch of your news articles. Fine. Party on, Ed. Just don’t try to pretend that you’re an objective, unbiased reporter.
That’s the absolute lightest thing I can say on this subject. Greenwald’s article reminded me of a similar story I had written about five years ago, during the Bush era, in which the then-president invited a bunch of reporters over to his Crawford compound for a barbecue. When reporters are blind to their own ambition, love of money, love of prestige, and love of proximity to power, they become little more than gossips. It has been with great sadness that I’ve learned that the adult world is very, very frequently the same cliques, vanity, fads and scorn that it was in high school. Bunch of cool kids and a bunch of kids sucking up to the cool kids, both united in their belief that the rest of us deserve the shit the pour down on us. Might be kind of funny, if things like war, poverty and mass extinction weren’t on the line.
And while I’m no journalist, I’m as biased as a motherfucker. Just for the record.
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Well in all fairness, those wars were not initiated on his watch but it does seem quite paradoxical.
Comment by acuvue oasys — November 16, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
He did state quote openly that he supports further occupation of Afghanistan, and in fact is increasing the military presence of US troops there.
Comment by VolodyA! V Anarhist — June 28, 2010 @ 6:26 pm