Wednesday, September 18, 2013

First thing we do is make all the journalists redundant....

Pretty much.

During a segment on "Morning Joe," former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) speculated that most opponents of the Affordable Care Act have been fed erroneous information about the law. [MSNBC host Chuck] Todd said that Republicans "have successfully messaged against it" but he disagrees with those who argue that the media should educate the public on the law. According to Todd, that's President Barack Obama's job.

"But more importantly, it would be stuff that Republicans have successfully messaged against it," Todd told Rendell. "They don't repeat the other stuff because they haven't even heard the Democratic message. What I always love is people say, 'Well, it's you folks' fault in the media.' No, it's the President of the United States' fault for not selling it."
Because the only skill a journalist needs is to be able to repeat verbatim what some public figure just said.  And the only knowledge a journalist needs, is to know what public figure says anything worth repeating.

After all:
 A poll Tuesday showed that support for the law among Republicans was higher when called by the Affordable Care Act, its official title, rather than "Obamacare," a term used derisively by Republicans that has gained widespread usage.
Which is entirely a product of  (say it with me now):  REPETITION!

In an age of so many different recording devices and cameras, tell me again why we need "journalists" at all?

6 comments:

  1. Chuck Todd first came to my consciousness as he was one of Brian Lamb's favorite hacks on American Journal on C-Span. Not something that inspired my confidence in his journalistic abilities. I mean, I never considered his other favorites, like Larry Klaymann to be a great legal mind or Reed Irvine to be anything but a total liar. Looks like Chuck has the same opinion of his profession that I had of him.

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  2. In these days and times, if it's not the media's job to sort out truth from lies, then I see no purpose for journalists. People may hear something twice from the president and 50 time or more on Fox News. Who they gonna believe?

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  3. Blogger needs an edit feature on comments.

    It would save me a lot of grief.

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  4. Preview - what is it good for?

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