Gotcha? You Betcha!

John McCain and Sarah Palin have been complaining that there's too much "gotcha journalism" going around.

If only.

When they say "gotcha journalism," what they're really trying to do, of course, is to demonize journalism itself -- to de-legitimize asking tough questions, and following up with more tough questions when the answers are mealy-mouth evasions, and holding politicians accountable when they inadvertently emit a truth.

McCain says gotcha journalism is reporting that Palin, at a public event, told a voter her thoughts about attacking terrorist targets in Pakistan -- which inconveniently is the same view that McCain is excoriating Obama for holding.

The McCain camp cried gotcha journalism when Charles Gibson asked Palin whether she agrees with the Bush Doctrine, and when Katie Couric asked her what Supreme Court cases she disagrees with, and when Gwen Ifill asked her about the powers of the vice president. But I didn't hear Republicans complain about gotcha journalism when debate moderator George Stephanopoulos twice asked Obama, "Does Reverend Wright love America as much as you do?"

If gotcha journalism means asking presidential candidates which of their dreams will have to be deferred because of the $700 billion bailout, as a frustrated Jim Lehrer did again and again, then maybe we need more of that kind of questioning, not less.

We certainly could have used more gotcha journalism during the decade leading up to the worst economic debacle since the Great Depression.

In 1999, when the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed, letting commercial banks go into the investment banking and insurance businesses, the country would have been a lot better off if the mainstream media had paid gotcha attention to the downside of deregulation, instead of being obsessed by the mythical Y2K bug.

In 2000, when Senator Phil Gramm slipped a measure forbidding the SEC and the CFTC from regulating credit default swaps into the omnibus spending bill, imagine if the press had blown the whistle on that lobbyist-owned legislator taking advantage of the final moments of a lame-duck session of Congress instead of focusing single-mindedly on the hanging chads story.

In 2003, when Alan Greenspan told global investors that he was going to keep the Fed Funds rate at an unappetizing one percent, thus opening the global floodgates to the mortgage backed securities industry, just think what might have happened if the surge in no-income-no-asset mortgages had been covered as intensely as the goings-on at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

In 2006, when the size of the global collateralized debt obligation market approached $2 trillion, with Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia becoming the top CDO underwriters, consider how investigative journalism might have revealed the fatal vulnerability of those houses to toxic assets when the housing bubble would inevitably burst, rather than spending its energies falsely convicting the Duke lacrosse team of rape.

In 2007, when the subprime mortgage fiasco hit, think how things might have played out differently at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if cable news had spent as much time covering the liquidity crisis as it did the death of Anna Nicole Smith.

In 2008, when SEC chairman Chris Cox told the Senate Banking Committee that he wanted no increased authority and no increased budget to oversee conflict-of-interest riddled credit rating agencies like Moody's, what if the consequences of Cox's emergency ban on naked short-selling - bizarrely lasting only one month and affecting only 19 companies -- had been pursued as aggressively as the first photos of the Brangelina twins?

We could have used a whole lot more gotcha journalism about Wall Street and banking deregulation than most people regularly encountered over the past decade. And we would have been better served as citizens if terms like "naked short selling" and "mark-to-market" and the rest of the gobbledygook now haunting us had long ago become part of the minimum daily dose of financial literacy delivered to us by the news media.

The exceptions to this journalistic inability to know what's important, and to explain what's difficult, are worth celebrating. Chief among them are public radio programs like This American Life and Planet Money, and public radio reporters like Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson.

There's no better way for a lay person to understand the current crisis than by listening to two episodes of This American Life - "The Giant Pool of Money," which aired last May, and "Another Frightening Show About the Economy," which aired last weekend. And while you're at it, check out the "Now You SEC Me, Now You Don't" segment of This American Life from last month, and the two interviews with former CFTC director Michael Greenberger that Fresh Air host Terry Gross did in April and September.

Yes, reporters for business publications like The Wall Street Journal have also kept their eye on the ball, but the real need was and is for mass media to serve as storytellers for general audiences, as Paul Reveres to warn ordinary citizens when the redcoat-wearing masters of the universe are coming. If the kind of gotcha journalism that so irritates John McCain and Sarah Palin were more woven into the fabric of our civic life, we might not be in the mess now consuming us.

The benign explanations for this failure of journalism are the inherent complexity of the financial story, and the imperative of media conglomerates to maximize profit, which means cultivating and satisfying the audience's appetite for entertainment.

But there's also a less benign explanation for the media's negligence, and it's captured by something President Andrew Jackson said nearly two centuries ago: "If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning."

"If the people only understood": that's the news media. "A revolution before morning": that's the opposite of sucking it up for a $700 billion bailout.

(This is my column for The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, where you can email me if you'd like.)

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan

Comments

[live by the golden rule]

What about covering the next disaster. Finally, two weeks before the election, there has been a little attention to the problem of election theft [although unfortunately most of it has been misfocused on Mickey Mouse, rather than the Republican operatives who are hard at work creating barriers to legitimate voters]. Why did the Indiana nun story last only one day? Why wasn't there more attention when the Republicans passed a so-called "Help American Vote Act" to follow up the 2000 election theft? Why are we always looking back at the last press failure, rather than warning of the current one?

[SpaceyG]

Thank goodness for that paranoid (ex) boyfriend who turned me on to Clusterf*ck Nation a long time ago! http://www.kunstler.com/index.html

[vrgtm]

Both primaries were staged by corporate TV, and the acceptable candidates were showcased and included and the rest nearly ignored. This was intended to result in two opponents, Democrat and Republican, both acceptable to the Tycoons in a "safe" election.

The good news is, the voters rebelled and ignored Clinton, Romney, Giuliani...... I suspect that Obama was showcased only to help display Clinton, and the strategy backfired. I suspect that Obama was considered a "safe" actor who couldn't possibly win in the planned charade . The "impossible" choice. Rebellious voters of both parties rejected their "handlers" and continue to. Now, we clear away the wreckage and get on with America if we do it like real Americans; fair, considerate, and responsible. Chance of a lifetime!

[vrgtm]

Conservative propaganda technique on journalism:
1. To acknowledge that corporate media has watered-down the news, citing the obvious.
2. Follow-up with Real News without citing that it came from the Fatso on the Radio or Fox. Absolute confidence and detailed reasoning come with that Real News, every day. A sales pitch.

[wendynyc]

This is the lazy, complici,t corporate-infotainment media - we are busy watching Britany and Sarah and Anna Nicole - and meanwhile our country is definitely going to the dogs!!

[Jeffin90019]

The press set a dangerous precendent by accepting the idea of a"candidate" who did not have to speak to the media. By covering Sarah Palin and reporting on her, the media gave its seal of approval that presidential campaigns can now be waged in utter secrecy.

The press stepped aside and allowed the idea of an open and transparent goverment to be trampled by a pair of high heels. The media's job should have been to impose a complete media blackout on Palin. If the McCain campaign is too cowardly to put their "candidate" in front of a room full of reporters with unvetted questions, then the media should have found the fortitude to insist on Democracy. If McCain and Palin are elected, the media will have no one to thank but themselves when they are cut out of the information loop completely. Sarah can put her $35,000 tanning bed in what used to be the press room.

Future presidents will conduct their campaigns like product marketing for consumer products: package it nicely and sell the story. It all could have been different, had the media simply opted not to be conned again, as it was connect by Bush. The damage that Bush has done to America, her place in the world, her traditions, and her honor will reverberate for generations to come. And now the media stands back, makes a few grumbling noises, and treats Sarah Palin like a legitimate candidate. Heckuva job, mainstream media!

[oafishcad]

The media has been completely tamed and make wonderful pets ever since 9/11. No one wanted to appear "unpatriotic" by criticizing or investigating the Republicans in charge. Only when things got ridiculous, like Katrina, did even a peep come from the press. Couple that with the corporate consolidation of the media and you get the press as eunichs in a harem. If McCain/Palin are worried that the press distorts their views, let them take dirrect questions from the public, and not just supporters. Let's see their bravery they seem so proud of.

[alumtrix]

When the government relaxed the requirements to buy a house is a form of regulation - not DEREGULATION. The banks/ loan offices that initiated these bad loans were scrutinized by YOUR government to see that they were meeting a quota of selling to low income/ minority home buyers. That's called REGULATION people.

[lhurley3171]

I can't believe the Huffington Post is defending the MSM.

[Buffkat00]

Duh.

[Aimleft]

Uh...if you read the article, you will see that it is doing exactly the OPPOSITE of defending the mainstream media.

[wbl1946]

Amen Brother!!!! Great article. You nailed it. The press has been almost afraid to report bad news as they have been blamed for the bad news by those in power. It has given them a complex. They cover events that the National Inquirer use to cover and in reality the National Inquirer has done a better job as proved out by recent events related to John Edwards. I watch Jim Leher Report at night and Washington Review on Friday nights. I also listen to NPR. I feel I am getting at least an explanation of the issues. I hope the Main Stream Press finds its soul and will report the hard news, good, bad or ugly. I know FOX will cringe. They are a joke to legimate reporting.

[ARTIST50]

My frustration with the MSM is that they continue to play Sarah's soundbites but they never get to interview her. So everyone assumes what she says is true. I think they should boycott her until she's willing to do interviews. This is blatantly unfair.

[Pulladigm]

Our founding fathers established a free press so that an informed electorate armed with the truth can make the best choices to "...form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity,..."(The Constitution of the United States of America, 17 September 1787).
A while ago it was revealed that the major news networks were reporting false propaganda scripted by the pentagon and the administration. Now Senator McCain and Governor Palin deplore "Gotcha"journalism. reporting that reaveals uncomfortable truths that the candidates would rather the public not know. But the truth will out.
By focusing on irrelevant male bovine excrement, false propaganda from government sources and creating a distraction from an impartial, unbiased presentation of all of the pertinent facts they(the news media) are violating the sacred trust granted them by the First Amendment to the Constitution. They are abrogating their responsibility to inform the public. Both of these repudiations of their sacred trust borders on treason.
Paul Diamond
yahoo.comyahoo.com

[BeltwayBette]

This article offers information links Americans desperately need as McCain/Palin play their shell game.

Tonight , no doubt McCain will use OUR TIME to try to dirty up Obama while we need " the information necessary to govern our selves in a democracy.' (Prof Meicklejohn -- First Amendment expert)

Help us get what we need. Email Brokaw NOW at msnbc.com.com

We need to bombard Brokaw NOW and ask him to ask both candidates this question:

How will you pay for your health care plan and how many Americans will receive health care because of your plan?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SENIOR ALERT!!!

Sen. McCain has said he will tax all health care benefits given to workers by their employers.

The second shoe fell last night.

A Florida state senator reported on the K. Olbermann show that Sen. McCain has announced **** he will cut Medicare benefits by $1.5 TRILLION **** and use that to pay for his health care plan – which will only provide health care for relatively few.

President Bush -- without public discussion -- has PRIVATIZED MEDICARE already – the company he handed all our Medicare dollars over to is Trailblazer.

Its result? Doctors in Texas struggled to get their payments; the whole system got so screwed up that doctors began to turn away new senior patients who only had Medicare for their health insurance.

And who knew?

[lucite]

Americans are too busy watching talking heads and their baseless opinions. There is no time for real news, the airwaves are clogged with pompous opinionated losers. Where are the real journalists and news reporters? I am afraid they are in front of Brittany Spears house waiting for her to come out.
It's about news ratings large profits and even bigger yearly contracts to our talking heads. It's not only time to evaluate our economy, it's time to evaluate those given the public the days headlines.

[MTOrtega]

Dear Mr. Kaplan,
What about the under reported story of Senator McCain's mental health.

I imagine time for POW’s pass in seconds, maybe minutes, maybe hours. Not years.

I imagine while being tortured (constant noise, constant bright light, broken limbs, deplorable nutrition, wretched living conditions, emotional torture) time for POW’s does not pass fast enough. Every second is unbearable.

Now imagine being an individual living under the unrelenting threat of torture; being the recipient of intermittent torture. Being unable to escape for some 157,680,000 consecutive, incessant, relentlessly harsh seconds; or put another way, some 2,628,000 consecutive, incessant, relentlessly harsh minutes; or yet another way, some 43,800 consecutive, incessant, relentlessly harsh hours of horrendous existence.

Does that individual return from such a horrific experience in the same mental health he entered it with? How does the residue of such a horrific experience, hidden from view, express itself? How does the residue of such a horrific experience currently influence this individual’s world view? This individual’s thinking process?

Is this individual prone to erratic behavior? Is this individual prone to impulsive behavior? What is the likelihood, under duress, this individual could, would, act in a self-destructive manner bringing down all those around him?

Is this an individual prepared to lead hundreds of millions of human beings? Over see a fragile national economy? Command the largest national armed forces on earth? Be a rational guardian of a nuclear arsenal?

Can this individual be trusted not to act against the best interests of humanity?

[mspye]

As someone who has studied trauma I have to agree with you - nobody came out of Vietnam unscathed, let alone a man imprisoned and tortured fro years in Vietnam.

My father, a Vietnam vet with PTSD, said the very same thing you're saying to us now - McCain is exhibiting classic PTSD symptoms which include, erratic behavior, living in the past - constantly referring to the past and the trauma, etc.

Unfortunately, Obama's campaign can't touch this topic because they don't want to be seen as unpatriotic.

For me the most dangerous thing about McCain's past is his obsession with Victory. He seems to believe that our withdrawal from Vietnam cast a shadow of shame on the US and the soldiers who fought valiantly and that somehow, our government's realization that we didn't belong there and the fact that the toll on our soldiers was too great meant it was all for nothing.

I don't know any American who believes that about Vietnam or Iraq. We support the troops and their honorable service, regardless of the men leading them.

Anyway, he is viewing the world in terms of victory and failure rather than in realistic, concrete terms of strategy.

He is bound and determined to lead us to victory in Iraq no matter how long it takes or how many American lives are lost or how implausible it is that we could stabilize the Middle East and eradicate the region of extremists.

The most important part of leading -