I Cogitate

Mainstream media often disappoint

Dan Radmacher
Roanoke Times editiral page editor
April 8, 2007

Sometimes I think I despise the mainstream media just as much as my friends in the blogger community, although for completely different reasons.

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" does a far better job than I ever could of highlighting the shortcomings of the 24/7 madness of cable news.

My only real exposure to CNN and Fox is Stewart's hilarious show or the very rare occasions that this newspaper ends up as a topic of conversation on one of their segments.

Neither of the most recent such incidents -- Bill O'Reilly ironically calling me a liberal loon on television moments after accusing me of engaging in personal attacks, and last week's CNN segment on the gun database incident, hosted by a reporter best known for allowing himself to be Tazered and waterboarded -- filled me with much regard for the medium.

But even the mainstream print media too often fall down on the job. Some reporters -- especially those covering the nation's capital -- are egotistical, lazy, complacent and addicted to their access to those in power, however little they use that access to actually benefit the public.

Many reporters also believe they've done their job if they simply quote both sides of an issue -- as if most issues only have two sides -- with no further effort to get at the truth of the matter.

A good friend of mine, one of the best reporters I've ever known, calls that "bracketing the truth." It's depressingly common.

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