The new Aaron Sorkin series “Newsroom” is getting a pasting from most critics and deservedly so, but it was a media column rather than a television review in today’s New York Times that went right to the heart of the problem about much of today’s media. David Carr’s piece in the paper’s business section today discussed how Sorkin’s “valentine” to the TV news business seems to be an appeal for the embattled real-life CNN to rise above the battle for ratings and stick to the exalted task of presenting real news rather than low-brow fare and amped-up partisan opinions. But the problem with that premise is much the same as the problem with Sorkin’s show.
As Carr points out, Sorkin cheats on his premise, because his idea of a righteous diet of straight news rather than the partisanship of right-wing Fox News or left-wing MSNBC is a catechism of left-wing advocacy. But CNN’s slide in the ratings that Carr aptly compares to a toboggan ride on a snowy hill is not due to the public’s lack of an appetite for quality news programming. It stems from the same hypocrisy that allows Sorkin and HBO to pretend their liberal show is an expression of centrism. Just as viewers will quickly realize the pretense that the desire of Sorkin’s fictional news anchor Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels) to return network news to the halcyon days of Walter Cronkite is a crock, so too do most Americans understand that most of the hosts on CNN tilt to the left and are disgusted by their pretense of objectivity.
Much of the mainstream media flatters itself that their shrinking audiences are due to the low-brow tastes and stupidity of the hoi polloi whose attention they must fight for. But the reason why audiences prefer Fox and MSNBC to CNN is that they have shed the false façade of objectivity that is at the core of liberal journalism. They are sick of liberal coverage being passed off as objective journalism and prefer the open bias they find elsewhere.
Nor is this faux objectivity of recent vintage. A recent biography exposed the lie at the heart of the myth of Walter Cronkite’s legend when it spoke of his partisanship, bias and even the dirty tricks he used against politicians he didn’t like. But don’t hold your breath waiting for liberals like Sorkin to fess up to the fact that what they really want is a return to the era when their side had a virtual media monopoly, with the three major networks and the top daily newspapers on their side.
Carr understands that Sorkin is fooling himself, but as a staffer for a liberal media giant like the Times that similarly masquerades as a source of purely objective news, he thinks CNN should stick to its quality reporting and not worry about losing its audience to its tawdry competitors. The reality of CNN and the Times is just as skewed as HBO’s fiction.
You're most important observation is, n"But don’t hold your breath waiting for liberals like Sorkin to fess up to the fact that what they really want is a return to the era when their side had a virtual media monopoly, with the three major networks and the top daily newspapers on their side." n nI don't know when it will happen, but eventually the liberal gatekeepers will have precisely 0 influence over the public. n nIf Romney wins in November, it will be a sign of their extremely diminished capacity to influence. In which case Obama – who in 2008 was praised for his mastery of social media – might actually become known as the last "old media President."
Why aren't there large, boisterous demonstrations again Barron and his anti-Semitism? I realize that New York is the worst town….worse even than Los Angeles in California….but, a line needs to be drawn by the African-Americans, Jews and others with a decent, fair viewpoint? Shame needs to come back, not that Barron cares or even knows what shame is.
And, I detest when anyone is dumb enough to write: partisanship of right-wing Fox News…News on Fox is not partisan….opinion shows are…that is the difference. And, please, don't compare Fox @ 3milliom+ viewers to MSNBC @ less than 1 million….no comparison. Don't make the same mistake the Prog media does….
It is time to put government employees on notice. If you obey an unlawful order of President Obama's, you will be held accountable for your actions. You will be charged, arrested, tried and convicted for violating your oath of office. Just like the Nazi military was held accountable at the Nuremberg Trials, you will not be able to claim you were just following orders.
here we go again, stringing up the government pointy-headed bureaucrats. wow. are we going to see this on every post here. "It turns out that Bambi was not an isolated case, deer offspring have been observed displaying a psychological intimacy that is near human in its sensitivity…" Resposne: "You will be charged, arrested, tried, and convicted etc etc etc". Very piquant but could these repeated sentiments at least be tied to something having to do with government employees?
Speaking of CNN, did anyone notice Christiane Amanpour's gleeful reporting of the victory of the Moslem Brotherhood's candidate (Morsi) in Tharir square?
I do agree that the there is no way to regulate objective news gathering. I also agree that Sorkin’s The Newsroom is far from objective itself; that’s a given. Though the show may preach objectivism, I think the most important message of The Newsroom is not only for our media institutions to get their acts together, but for us as a society to be aware of their bias. I was just having this discussion with a few Dish coworkers of mine, and we agree that bringing our media’s corruption to the surface is a crucial first step to achieving a journalistic objectivism that we can only hope to attain. The show is by no means flawless, as demonstrated by the weak fourth episode, but I am still a fan of the conversation it has created so far and plan to keep it on the top of my DVR priority list. Luckily, I have the Hopper DVR with heaps of recording space so, if the show does sway towards a negative direction, at least I didn’t waste any memory on it. But, I am excited to see what is in store for us as the season progresses.