Give Us Liberty

Shameful state of U.S. journalism
Joseph Farah blasts news organization for 'advocacy,' 'unprofessional screed'

By Joseph Farah

I hate to sound like a broken record.
I hate writing on the same topic ad nauseum.
I hate criticizing the same corrupt institutions over and over again and sounding like I expect different results.
I hate all those things, but, nevertheless, I feel compelled today to address the shameful state of journalism in America, using, once again, for example, a recent dispatch from the largest news-gathering organization in the world today – the Associated Press.

May 18, 2011, 3:18 p.m. The dateline is Washington. The reporter is Erica Werner.
In what amounts to a shameless promotion of a fundraising effort by Barack Obama's 2012 presidential re-election campaign, the story begins: "You've seen President Barack Obama's birth certificate. Now you can wear it."
"The Obama campaign is selling T-shirts on its website that show Obama's face on the front along with the words 'Made in the USA.'

"On the back is an image of the president's long-form birth certificate from Hawaii – the one the White House finally produced in April in an attempt to squelch the 'birthers' who claim Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, and therefore ineligible to be president.
"The campaign advertised the T-shirts Wednesday, along with birth certificate mugs, in an email to supporters describing a new book by birther Jerome Corsi, a longtime Obama attacker. Corsi has a new publication out titled 'Where's the Birth Certificate?' in which he makes false claims about Obama's purported ineligibility for the presidency."

Let me interrupt this incredibly unprofessional screed right here to draw your attention to the italicized conclusion to the previous paragraph. In the good old days of American journalism, there was an industry-standard requirement that any assertion by the reporter be backed up with hard-cold established facts. There was no room in news stories for reporters to express opinions – even those bolstered with facts.

That leads to the obvious question: What are these false claims about Obama's purported ineligibility for the presidency?
The "reporter," or intern, or editorial copy girl, or whatever she is and represents, doesn't give a hint.

We're just to take her word for it. Based on what? Has she read the book? I doubt it. But, even in the extremely unlikely event she has, her copy still exceeds the bounds of all standards and practices for reporting – especially for a news agency whose copy is prepared for hundreds of newspapers and radio stations and TV outlets around the country and the world.
This is just unbelievable to me.

This is advocacy journalism. This is commentary, not news. This is brazen edification of the status quo – hardly the journalistic ethic of "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable." This is an example of a poor excuse for a journalist attacking someone who actually works hard at the craft.

And here's how the story ends: "In the email Obama deputy campaign manager Julianna Smoot writes, 'There's really no way to make this stuff completely go away. The only thing we can do is laugh at it – and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke.' She then suggests supporters purchase a birth certificate mug (starting price $15) or T-shirt (starting price $25).
"'If the facts can't make these ridiculous smears go away, we can at least have a little fun with it,' she writes."

Back in the day when I was learning the craft of news writing, had I turned in copy like this, the grizzled old city editor would have turned to me and barked, "You call this a story?"
I would have sheepishly walked away and vowed never to make the same mistake again.

If only there were such accountability in the newsroom today.
-----------------------------------