David Broder: Liberal Bloggers Are Right About Media
April 19, 2007 -- 8:25 AM EST // //
This won't be a typical David Broder post, so bear with me. As you know, Broder bows to nobody in his disdain for liberal bloggers. He's called them "vituperative" and "foul-mouthed," suggested that bloggers are "deranged," and written that blogs are "heavier on vituperation of President Bush and other targets than on creative thought."
Yet in his column today, Broder finally appears to have gotten religion about a key point that liberal bloggers have been trying to make about the traditional media for literally years now. Writing about Imus, Broder notes that many traditional journalists have pumped up his credibility by appearing on his show, even as CBS and MSNBC looked the other way while making gobs of money by giving his ugliness a platform. The fact that Broder's valued colleagues sullied themselves by going on Imus appears to have come as a severe shock to him, and he chastises them harshly for it:
I was stunned to learn how many of the journalists I admire had been regular guests on the program. Many are now having a hard time explaining their association...The simple lesson, which some stubbornly are not acknowledging, is that when professional journalists lend their credibility to entertainers or others whose standards are far lower than those of the news organizations for which those journalists work, they not only damage their credibility but also diminish the standards they are supposed to embody...when will we take our responsibilities seriously?
And this comes as a surprise to him?
Seriously, the idea voiced here by Broder or some variation of it, of course, has been central to the liberal blogosphere's critique of the media for a very, very long time. Broder's words could easily have been written by any number of liberal bloggers. Here's Atrios, on April 11:
As I wrote before, the problem with Imus is largely a problem of his large list of guests which make him "respectable," thus reasonably raising the bar for what should be expected from him. Arguably, calling the Rutger's basketball team a bunch of nappy-headed hoes should be a firing offense for anyone on the public airwaves, but it's certainly one for the guy who's simulcast on a "respectable" news channel and is a regular destination for all of Washington's elite.
Of course, Broder has done as much as anyone to prop up the phony construct holding that he and his colleagues are heroically guarding the citadel against the barbarian assault on journalistic standards and civility from without, but perhaps today's column constitutes a revelation of sorts. One can hope. At any rate, I'm sincerely curious to know whether Broder is even aware of just how central the point he made today has been to the lib blogosphere's continuing argument with him and his traditional media colleagues.
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