About this episode
As a former television reporter, I entered the business not because I wanted to convince people of my point of view, but because I wanted to present an even-keeled well-balanced story that would challenge people to think about the pro’s and con’s, the good and the bad, and allow them to make up their own minds. It wasn’t my job to make it up for them.As I discuss a few paragraphs down, it was probably fortunate for me I didn’t study journalism in college. After graduating from UCLA with a Political Science degree, I set out to become the great American truth teller, no preconceived biases about who’s good or bad. I didn’t identify with a political party. Present your case and let the viewers decide. In the 8 years I spent in the news business, I had mostly old-school, by-the-book editors and bosses. Once you get assigned a story, make sure you include both sides and only use named sources. That in a nutshell, was two things that made journalism, journalism.Fast forward to today. CNN stopped broadcasting from Russia when President Putin threatened jail for anyone who intentionally spreads lies. This is probably as close as we’ll get to CNN admitting that they are fake news. CNN, the New York Times and most mainstream media outlets make no pretense about being fair and impartial. The corporate media makes no attempt to upset the progressive narrative, rarely ever asking the most obvious questions. Most are fearful that if they show any signs of fairness their core audience will basically cancel them, not watch…it’s gotten that bad.Nearly all practice “advocacy journalism”. It’s basically news minus the objectivity. The line between news and advocacy has disappeared. But the term has now a much more sinister meaning. Media outlets will commonly run segments that are basically sponsored by companies or organizations who want to promote their own interests. We often saw Pfizer sponsor a segment (CNN, MSNBC, ABC News) about the efficacy of the Covid vaccinations. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was named the CNNMoney Man of the Year. There is next to zero coverage on these same networks running news segments on the potential side effects (myocarditis). They are basically advocates for the drug companies, not their viewers. The stories on the less-than-stellar track record of the vaxxes just started surfacing in the last month, with the threat of contracting the virus winding down. Thanks to companies like Pfizer, and $1 billion from the federal government, coverage was nearly universally favorable when it came to the stations
