Legal Commentary

What About The Rest Of The Media?

By Big Tent Democrat

I wrote that I would not touch upon Cramerama again but Glenn Greenwald wrote such a good post that I can not avoid it. Glenn writes:

Today, everyone -- including media stars everywhere -- is going to take Stewart's side and all join in the easy mockery of Cramer and CNBC, as though what Stewart is saying is so self-evidently true and what Cramer/CNBC did is so self-evidently wrong. But there's absolutely nothing about Cramer that is unique when it comes to our press corps. The behavior that Jon Stewart so expertly dissected last night is exactly what our press corps in general does -- and, when compelled to do so, they say so and are proud of it.

At least give credit to Cramer for facing his critics and addressing (and even acknowledging the validity of) the criticisms. By stark contrast, most of our major media stars simply ignore all criticisms of their corrupt behavior and literally suppress it (even if the criticisms appear as major, lengthy front-page exposés in The New York Times).

More . . .

Glenn is referring to the scandal at NBC regarding its use of Barry McCaffrey as an "objective military analyst" on issues in which "he ha[d] a substantial (and concealed) financial stake." That outrageous behavior was by Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC, who also outrageously defended his behavior. Cramer at least demonstrated some remorse. Williams did not. He vehemently defended his serious breaches of journalistic ethics.

So enjoy the fun with Cramer, but the real journalist culprits are still running around playing the same games.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 13, 2009 (boomark / email).