Moyers vs. Murdoch: Journalism vs. Megalomania

Rupert Murdoch's favorite megalomaniac Bill O'Reilly sent a crew to Minneapolis this weekend to stalk journalists Bill Moyers and Dan Rather. This probably doesn't surprise you. And that's exactly why Moyers and Rather were in Minneapolis. They were speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform, a gathering of 3,500 people aimed at finding ways to get better journalism to the American people.

How dare they! So Fox decided to crash the party; smear as angry radicals thousands of good people who took three days out of their lives to help improve our democracy; and play games with Moyers and Rather -- two actual journalists who understand the crisis in their craft.

That's right. Fox News sent grown men with cameras to lurk behind doorways, hide in alcoves, and crouch in the bushes at night (literally) waiting to surprise two reporters in their seventies with angry questions and a boom mic.

You can see this pathetic ambush -- and Moyers classy response -- here on Olbermann. But the attack-dog tactics are already backfiring on Bill O. because they illustrate so clearly what so many of us already know: The corporate media system is broken, and it's hurting our democracy.

The O'Reilly ambush is typical cable news entertainment-posing-as-journalism whose purpose is to sell eyeballs to advertisers, not to inform citizens or better society. Add in a good dose of shouting, name-calling, head-shaking, and spurious guilt-by-association invective... and voila! Ratings points.

The standard model for cable news has become ridiculous. The facts are selected to fit a hysterical narrative that arguably makes for good TV but bears no resemblance to actual journalism. It breaks every common sense convention of the profession.

Rule No. 1 of journalism is that you don't write a story about something you do not understand or witness yourself. None of the three talking heads in Monday night's O'Reilly segment were at the conference they were trashing. The organizers of the event were not called or interviewed. The facts were not checked. They just don't care about that stuff.

Is this what journalism has become? Really? This great country deserves better.

The conference that Moyers, Rather, Arianna Huffington and others addressed was about the failure of corporate media to inform and reflect our communities and our democracy. It is about consolidated TV, radio and newspapers turning the news into sound bites, trivializing critical issues like elections and war, and failing to hold power accountable.

It is a free speech movement at its core, calling for a stronger democracy. We want more channels and more opportunities for voices and views of all kinds.

Some of us may be angry about what the media -- including Fox -- say and do, but I would defend Bill O'Reilly's right to speak his mind and entertain his audience however he chooses. I would defend his right just as firmly when he agrees with me as when he uses his show to launch angry attacks on what my community says and believes.

By the same token, every American that believes in the Bill of Rights should demand that O'Reilly respect our right to speak and be angry as well. There is more than a little irony in watching him angrily criticize people for angrily criticizing him. What's good for the goose is apparently treason for the gander.

So what are people so angry with the media about? They are angry about many things they perceive as injustices. But let's take just one -- the war in Iraq. It is now clear that we are fighting a war that was started and waged on false presences. No matter how you feel about the war today, the nature of its origins is hard to dispute. It is a war that was sold to the American people with a coordinated political campaign -- using the mainstream media as its outlet.

This is not the view of a radical fringe of left-wing political activists. This is the premise of an expose written by the White House press secretary whose job it was to execute the propaganda campaign. This is the inescapable conclusion of the New York Times story exposing the Pentagon's years-long secret program to shepherd retired generals with administration talking points to better than 4,500 news interviews.

And this is the self-indicting opinion of Dan Rather, America's most famous anchorman in the Tiffany network's No. 1 chair at the start of the Iraq war. That's actually what Dan Rather said in his speech at the conference: "These [media conglomerates] are entities that, as publicly held and traded corporations, have as their overall, reigning mandate, [the need] to provide a return on shareholder value. ... In the current model of corporate news ownership, the incentive to produce good and valuable news is simply not there. "

He laid down a critique that was directed just as much at himself and CBS as it was at Fox or any other media outlet. Let's also recall that it was the New York Times that has the most famous examples of complicity in botching this story. This is a very serious matter of historic importance by any reasonable standard.

So. Yes, Mr. O'Reilly. You can find people who are angry in America and not afraid to say so. Lots of them -- on the left, right, and center of the political spectrum. Tens of millions of Americans are angry at the costs of war in lives and treasure. Tens of millions more are angry about how the media has handled the global warming debate, tax cuts for the wealthy -- and the list goes on. Calling them "lunatics" and "fascists" and "fringe" would be offensive if it were not too silly to warrant a retort.

It is the perfect embodiment of what is wrong with the media today that one of its most visible talk-show entertainers puts his own self-righteousness above the plain facts in the news. Rather than helping guide and inform the American people in difficult times, Bill O'Reilly has made himself more important than the news. By personalizing everything, he turns the media into a megaphone for his own megalomania instead of helping people understand why their country is in trouble and what we can do about it.

The people in Minneapolis weren't asking to silence Bill O'Reilly. They were -- and are -- asking for something more than Bill O'Reilly. They are asking for journalism -- a craft the founders saw fit to put in the Constitution. That aspiration stands squarely in the best tradition of American freedom.

Ben Scott contributed to this post.

Comments

[Photofarm]

This is funny, Dan Rather had no ethics in George W. Bush's National Guard story. He was making up facts and creating a story with no proof. In other words he was going off on his own personal political vendetta, and he is invited to keep an independent press? LOL, Dan Rather is ticked off because he can't set the leftest socialist agenda like he wants too.

[thehand]

Yeh strange how much that story ended up helping Bush

[snarkopolitan]

Back when Karl was on his game, planting doctored evidence was a favorite tactic. Actually, the sad part was---the story was true. The letters were fake, but the real story, that your pampered faux flyboy was a cowardly AWOL sh*theel--- entirely true.

Never, nowhere, was there a fellow Guardsman willing to step up and say, "Hey, he was there, he served with me!" They knew what he was. And now he has been able to prove, to the nation, to the world, to everyone but his own deluded self, what a quality piece of work he truly is.

[Jose11435]

The

[noamjunior]

in 50 years -people will read sentiments similar to the one you expressed here and marvel at the stupidity

[lmgoodwi]

PREMISE: Dan Rather a single mistake in a career spanning decades, which he apologized for repeatedly.
CONCLUSION: Not only is everything Dan Rather without merit, anything he attends or supports is by extension without merit.

PREMISE: (nonexistent)
CONCLUSION: Dan Rather wants to "set the leftist socialist agenda" for this country.

You can definitely tell the second one is true by the way the US turned towards Marxism while Rather was the most popular news anchor in the country in the 80s and 90s.

[anon004]

Look at Bill Moyer's work -- it is all about enlightening people and lifting them up. He is a hero to me.

[walk0nwalls]

MOYERS IN THE FRICKING HOUSE

[MarkInEugene]

Bill O is not interested in anything other than cash. He will say or do anything for cash. And as long as he and Fox can remain controvertial, they'll continue to make money.

Somehow these jokers need to be marginalized and ignored by the public. Only then will advertizing dollars dry up.

[Cathyblj]

Oh, Murdoch's promise of $20 per barrel of oil (as a result of invading Iraq) was just a slight misunderstanding. He meant $20 per gallon of gasoline.

What is very sad is that most kids in journalism school don't really want to be journalists, because there's no money in it. They want to go into PR. I wish we could clone Moyers, Cronkite, and Murrow.

People who watch Faux News are not interested in news. They want to be entertained (while claiming to follow the news), and there needs to be drama (careful, K.O., you're acting more and more like B.O.) or they'll get bored and watch sitcoms.

Does anyone have a transcript of the ambush? I saw the video but had a hard time understanding what was said, especially by Berry.

[maribelle1963]

"(careful, K.O., you're acting more and more like B.O.) "

Oh I agree. I am a longtime supporter of KO but lately, he's been over the top. I initially started watching because of his "special comments". But the last one against HRC for the RFK remarks were completely over the top and hysterical. I was horrified by her remarks, but by the end of the show I was embarassed for him.

[bigbingtheory]

I thought he was spot on personally and happy someone called her on the despicable comment. He was correct in poining out she meant no ill will but remained outraged at even mentioning it, again. Nothing over the top about it.

[VideoHammer]

You are misinformed Cathyblj, I work in media and quite a few of the people that I work with, IN TV news, actually do believe that Fox News Channel provides real news. When I speak to non-news people, the number of true believers is even higher. Do not misunderstand me, MOST people that I encounter do not take Fox seriously, but there are many people that really do.
When you hear people ask if Obama is really Muslim, or supporting President Bush on every policy, you are seeing the impact of biased sources being taken seriously. Even when the discussion turns to fist bumping, there is a force driving those discussions with the intention of having it stick to the less informed or vulnerable.
Our last couple of Presidential elections have been decided by a very narrow margin, thus you only need to confuse a relatively small group of people to have a major impact.

[Mike789]

"....you are seeing the impact of biased sources being taken seriously. Even when the discussion turns to fist bumping, there is a force driving those discussions with the intention of having it stick to the less informed or vulnerable­."

Absolutely. The progenitors are quite well aware of the demography of our electorate. And "We the People" who have the compunction to become informed citizens are being systematically marginalized.

I'm an advocate of some kind of public service as a requisite for voting. It doesn't have to be military or for extensive stints. Or....mayb­e some kind of criteria of understanding civics. I feel that my vote is diminished in weight by a tide of subterfuge.

[305Rider]

Well, I'm one of the people in Journalism school that actually wants to be a journalist. Most of my classmates want to be the 'Anti Bill O' because we are seeing how he is trying to destroy our chosen trade. I personally want to follow in the footsteps of Murrow, Moyers, Olbermann, Jim McKay, and amzingly enough Stephen A. Smith.

And Cathyblj, while it does seem that K.O. maybe is acting more like like Bill O. he has something in his arsenal that Bill O lacks, and that is the truth.

[booksnmore4you]

Moyers will be interviewed on MSNBC Countdown TONIGHT.

[booksnmore4you]

Bitchin' and moaning is fine and good - and wholly warranted in this case, I think - but what's the solution?

[Desiderata]

The solution is to email, write letters and phone the adverisers that pay the salaries of these manure shovelers. Tell them to correct this depravity or you will not buy their products. There has been great sucess with this approach that spawned the real or fake "greening" of corporations. Let's make them have to be just as green when it comes to cleaning up the polluted airwaves.

[ChristianEcon.com]

Amen to that.

[vipersdad]

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!

[RoloTomassi]

A constitutionally mandated independent watchdog agency that requires absolute journalistic integrity in reporting for a news agency/program to qualify as legitimate NEWS.

Sans a reinstated/new version of the Fairness Doctrine, a rating system could be inforced to distinguish between news, opinion and entertainment programs.

[martinchill]

"It is now clear that we are fighting a war that was started and waged on false presences.­"

all this talk about 'journalism' has my proofreading eyes open wide.....

[awcbuddy8]

Britt Hume is on at six.

[RoloTomassi]

And why would anyone care?

[zekeandrick]

In 1967, after returning from a trip to Vietnam, Walter Cronkite made the now famous comment on his nightly news cast that in his opinion the war could not be won- hearing Cronkite say this live, Lyndon Johnson turned to an aide and said, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite I've lost the American people"; five weeks later Johnson got on prime-time TV and announced that he would not seek or accept the nomination from his party for another term as president.
QUESTION: I defy anyone to name just one current (ahem) "journalist" who has the respect that Walter Cronkite earned from the American people just ONE generation ago. Cronkite may have been at the top of his field, but back then there were many who were just as qualified to be called journalist, and not just be interested in ratings, ratings rather than honesty and truth to make arguments as infotainme­nt........­where the motivations of the media have gone in one generation is truly a sad indictment on not just the media, but the "head in the sand" Americans who simply arent' paying attention to the direction our once proud country IS heading!!!

[janvoght]

i love it!!! Bill Moyers is the man! and he is in good company with Keith Olbermann.­..the class of these two reporters exudes....

obama '08

[WorkingClass]

Its not about journalism and its not about ratings. Its about the corporate media political agenda.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

Exactly. So many people repeat the mantra that's its all about the money.

It's not about the money; money is just the tool that keeps the agenda going.

[jayburd]

And the agenda is to make more money.

[kellygrrrl]

Bill Moyers is truly one of the Greatest Voices in America!!!!

[daffey]

And the problem? So what? So they ambushed them. Apparently Mr. Silver didn't grow up in the seventies and eighties (or didn’t pay attention), when such news programs as 60 minutes and 20/20 lived off the strategic ambush. For me, it's refreshing to see journalists held accountable, getting hit with the same sword that for so long was journalism’s unique privilege to wield. I would like to see O'Reilly and company ambushed in the same way, of course. But I have never known why the news media thinks it should be so far above the same tactics it so freely and gleefully uses on just about everyone else. After all, God didn't exactly make journalists slightly better than the angels, and they should be just as ready to speak on the fly to defend themselves as so many they have ambushed over the years have been forced to do.

[Strywever]

It wasn't the "ambush" -- it was the ridiculous questions that tMoyer was asked, which clearly had nothing to do with researching facts. All they seemed to want to know was why Moyer hadn't gone on O'Lielly's show. Surely they didn't need a camera crew to ask that question! It was very clear that the intent for this ambush was to see if they could get the subject to say something that could be made to look "damaging.­" That is NOT journalism. It adds no value to the discourse in this country -- in fact, quite the opposite, since so many of our less educated citizens appear unable to to tell the difference between reportage and editorializing. (Much like Faux News.)

[Mojane]

What was the guy asking Moyers? Sorry, the video is no longer available. The 60 Minutes and 20/20 people were basically doing investigative reports which is a one of the standards of good journalism, actually digging for facts, embarrassing, confrontational and tacky maybe, but still looking for the facts.

[scottellington]

At the moment, there's a block of unedited footage here:

http://the-uptake.groups.theuptake.org/en/videogalleryView/id/65/

Porter Barry's question is difficult to hear, but it seems to be;

"Mr. Moyers, why is a highly reputable, professional journalist like you addressing
a fringe, amateur, loony, Leftist seance like this?

[3reddogs]

Call me crazy but didn't KO mention during his show last night that he hoped to have Moyers as a guest tonight? Here's hoping!