Saturday, August 17, 2013

GOP School of Journalism

Long ago, I wrote a book titled “Media Power: Who’s Shaping Your Picture of the World?” Now the Republican National Committee is working on a sequel, “We Are.”

Not satisfied with the electorate’s perception, GOP honchos are on a crusade not to mend their fractured party but create a journalistic cocoon to obscure that reality. In a world of 24/7 news, lots of luck with that one.

The RNC is breaking new ground in preemptory censorship with a vote to exclude CNN and NBC from partnering any of its 2016 primary debates in protest over projects about Hillary Clinton not yet produced let alone aired. Thought control, anyone?

To take the approach of Chairman Rience Priebus and his minions to its logical conclusion, they should be besieging the New York Times with offers of cooperation based on the newspaper’s takedown this week of the newly renamed Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, which the former President has taken pains to refute.

Those of us who have spent a lifetime in the imperfect world of journalism know it’s impossible to be objective, but fairness and impartiality are within reach most of the time. If Republicans can achieve their current goals, all the media could start to look like Fox News and MSNBC.

Little wonder that the President in his Weekly Address says about ObamaCare, “A lot of Republicans seem to believe that if they can gum up the works and make this law fail, they’ll somehow be sticking it to me. But they’d just be sticking it to you.”

Newspeople are next on their list.

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