It’s been interesting following this Brian Williams scandal. The problem NBC executives had in dealing with him, as I read from NBC sources, was that the audience really likes him, and most of the responses they got from their audience wanted NBC to keep Brian Williams on the air. So of course they couldn’t fire him.
That says a lot. The NBC news audience is not really that concerned about integrity. In fact, it is arguable that to be successful in mainstream news, you need to lie a little. But just don’t lie about personal things or try to puff yourself up with your lying–lie about the news. As long as it’s for a good cause (i.e. the advancement of liberalism) it’s a good thing. Look at Candy Crowley. Was she ever even reprimanded for inserting herself into the presidential debate in 2012 contrary to the rules and lying about what Obama said in the Rose Garden about the Benghazi affair in order to put down Mitt Romney?
No, the consumers of liberal news outlets like NBC news like being protected from harsh realities. If that requires having a corrupt media, then that’s okay.
Which brings me to the mantra of many of them, when commenting about Fox News. They call it Faux News, as if Fox were the object of scandal and not establishment news outlets. But it’s a funny thing . . . we’re still waiting for that Fox News scandal to erupt.
We have this Brian Williams scandal at NBC news. We have the Dan Rather scandal at CBS News. We have various plagiarists at the New York Times, CNN, and other outlets. We have CNN admitting that they had scrubbed news from Iraq for years to try to curry favor with Saddam Hussein. Where is the Bret Baier scandal? How about the Shep Smith scandal? Funny thing about that, we haven’t seen those.
I am one consumer of news who likes to know that my news isn’t being scrubbed, massaged, invented, or otherwise manipulated. That’s why I go with Fox News. Yes, they have a slant and I often disagree with their slant. Sometimes, in fact, they make me very frustrated when their commentators who are supposed to be conservative spout the Wall Street establishment line, or others throw commentary into the news. But they don’t lie, and they don’t spike stories for not fitting a certain narrative. They have their liberal anchors and commentators and their conservative anchors and commentators, I do get balance from them, and I do believe they have integrity.
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