Saturday, May 27, 2017

Fred on journalists


The iconoclastic Fred Reed lays it out.

Do you wonder why the legacy media are such puzzled otherworldly twits? Why, for example, they had no idea what was happening in the recent election? Why they seem to know so very little about America or much of anything else?

Some thoughts from a guy who spent a career in the racket:

Ask journalists when they were last in a truck stop on an Interstate, last in Boone, North Carolina or Barstow, California or any of thousands of such towns across the country. Ask whether they were in the military, whether they have ever talked to a cop or an ambulance crewman or a fireman. Ask whether they have a Mexican friend, when they last ate in a restaurant where a majority of the customers were black.  Whether they know an enlisted man, or anyone in the armed services. Whether they have hitchhiked overnight, baited a hook, hunted, or fired a rifle. Whether they have ever worked washing dishes, harvesting crops, driving a delivery truck. Whether they have a blue-collar friend. Know what the Texas Two-Step is, have been in a biker bar.

Now do you see why Trump surprised them?

Next, ask how many went to fancy schools like Oberlin, Swarthmore, Amherst, the Ivies, Bard. Ask how many even know someone who graduated from a land-grant school. Ask whether they know an engineer.

Now look at how much they write about each other for each other. Look at the endless coverage of what Maddow said about what Hannity thought about O’Reilly’s harassment of soft-porn star Megyn  and how much she might make at CNN. Ask how much time they spend comparing ratings. They are fascinated by themselves.

Ask them how many have ever worried about paying the electric bill, had to choose between a new winter coat or paying the cable, or known anyone who did.

They don’t know America, and they don’t much like it.

There's more at the link.  Recommended reading.

As a corollary to what Fred is saying, see also this report, where Dylan Byers of CNN admits that "most reporters are stuck telling the story of the progressive future as envisioned by Obama and Hillary".  He does so on camera, too - there's a video clip at the link.  I don't know whether or not his fellow talking heads agreed with him, but it made sense to me.  Mr. Byers and the journalists he describes, like the overwhelming majority of mainstream news media staff, come from the circles Fred Reed outlines so well.  They have no idea how out-of-touch with most of America they really are.

The same applies to many on the left-wing, progressive side of US politics, of course.  They just don't get it.  They're so far out of step with 'traditional' American values that they can't understand the rejection they foment when they try to force their non-traditional values on us.  Consider the congressional election in Montana last week.  Many commentators simply couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that the Republican candidate not only won, but raised over $100,000 the day after he body-slammed a left-leaning reporter.  It was because his supporters would probably like to have done the same thing to the reporter, if not worse - but reporters can't admit that, because if they did, they'd also have to admit that they've made themselves the enemy of 'traditional America'.

That's nothing new, of course.  Consider attempts by the left to demonize Chick-Fil-A, or Memories Pizza in Indiana.  They also failed miserably - and they will continue to fail across America, because the left just doesn't get it.  Most of us don't buy into their agenda, and we won't in future, either.  Unfortunately, the reporters who are pushing that agenda don't get that reality, either - or, if they do, they refuse to report it.

Peter

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The conservative right deals with reality every day of the week. We spend our lives working the American Dream. We go to work, we pay our bills, we watch our grandchildren's 8th grade graduation ceremonies. We do all those things, because we know deep down inside that they are right. Those actions are correct. They line up with our instincts.
Also,the conservative right understands, that if there is need for change, then the proper channels are used for that change. Voting being the premier choice.
This is the way of civilized people; a consensus.
The ascension of Trump to the highest office in the land, was a consensus of right thinking folks. It was our way of saying to the deranged left; enough. The election is the adult in the room, by who's mere presence, should have a calming effect on the agitated child.
But, I predict that in the next 4 years, the adults self control and restraint will break and the heavy hand of discipline will be felt.
The left will wail and gnash their teeth like any corrected child. Hopefully they will learn their lesson well.

Steve

Anonymous said...

In addition to Fred's observations, journalists handicap themselves even further: http://www.businessinsider.com/journalists-brains-function-at-a-lower-level-than-average-2017-5



Chuck Pergiel said...

"Look at the endless coverage of what Maddow said about what Hannity thought about O’Reilly’s harassment of soft-porn star Megyn and how much she might make at CNN." That's why I don't watch TV News, or soap opera's for that matter.

I don't think you can blame the reporters for what gets published. They may have written something great or something worthless, but it's the people above them, the editors and publishers who decide what gets published. The publishers decide what kind of slant they want their publication to have, and the editors implement it.

The Publisher's agenda is overwhelmingly driven by newspaper sales, the prime directive at every successful newspaper. This is done by stirring up shit: sex, drugs, politics and dirty money. This covers most of what you see in newspaper.

But what's the point of being a media mogul if you can't bend the world to your will, at least just a little? So there might a thin string of stories getting published in a particular newspaper of a particular subject that I didn't cover in the previous paragraph.

We need a better national newspaper. USA Today, is okay I suppose, but I've never found much meat. Seems to be mostly fluff.

Old NFO said...

Nope, and they haven't understood America for a long time...

Rick T said...

Never forget that our eyes are the product for sale to their true customers: advertisers.

Click bait, no matter how outrageous means money in their pockets.

B said...

It isn't just the reporters and "Left-wing progressive side of politics". The folks who the GOP allows to run for office are just as out of touch. And, they simply don't care.

Which is, of course, why we got Trump. The rest of the choices the GOP bosses allowed us were simply "Less Left".

One of the worst Mistakes Trump made was to take Reince Preibus as an advisor.

Anonymous said...

B, that's the one for me too. Of all the things concerning this administration, that's the one I can't figure.

Everything else makes sense after you twist and turn the stories/players/opinions/strategies around and consider the why or how. Why does this person think that. And, how can that idiot believe that. It is nearly all gamesmanship, with personal goals in place of ideals.

But naming Priebus to the traditional gate-keeping role of Chief of Staff has the appearance of puppet-mastery. Not unheard of in history, Nicholas had Rasputin, Louis had Richelieu. Is that what we have here? Or is Trump the master? I have to admit, I just don't get it.

Everything else, strange days that they are, seems explainable; the things I agree AND the things I disagree with all have their own sense about them. But I remain VERY uncomfortable on Priebus.

Paul

Anonymous said...

Which is, of course, why we got Trump. The rest of the choices the GOP bosses allowed us were simply "Less Left".

Etc., ad nauseum, and so forth and so on....

I'm wondering how to get more Trumps, as governors, mayors, state and federal senators, Congressional representatives, city councilmen (yes, councilmen, not councilboys or councilwomen). A critical mass of Non-Establishment Elites who understand, live in, and practice reality.

SiGraybeard said...

Many commentators simply couldn't wrap their heads around the fact that the Republican candidate not only won, but raised over $100,000 the day after he body-slammed a left-leaning reporter.

I keep hearing that term "body-slammed", yet there seems to be not one photograph that depicts it. Strange how in a room full of reporters, in a world full of video cameras, not one photo or video has emerged. Personally, I have a vague idea of what it might look like, and it evokes the show-business, World Wrestling Federation. The actual descriptions lean more toward "two guys started shoving and they both fell over".

I'm not saying nothing happened, I just wonder what really happened. It sounds like that strange phenomenon that happens with media where everyone uses the same phrase all the time for something. It's almost like they call each other and agree which term to use.

Anonymous said...

"...with media where everyone uses the same phrase all the time for something. It's almost like they call each other and agree which term to use. "

Almost?

They're all joined at the hip, and there's no longer any doubt about which way they're facing.

Anonymous said...

SiGraybeard, my thoughts exactly from the moment I heard the audio. Where mister Guardian is the first to characterize the action. And everyone else has echoed it since. My idea of a 'body slam' is a full body lift, supported at belt and collar-bone, over the head; then drop like a completed clean-and-jerk; optional landing across your opponent on the mat, adding your own slap to the sound effect. Sorry to break anyone's bubble: none of this happens without cooperation and choreography. I think this would have been printed front page, above the scroll, on every digital page you look at. My interpretation: *it never happened*.

In an unfortunate turn, while discussing this with a friend on the other side, I thrust my hand under his chin holding an imaginary iPhone as a microphone in classic '60 Minutes' style technique. He immediately rolled and cocked his fist while I took two fast steps back, apologizing. Still not sure if he made the connection.

Glad to read you,
Paul

qt said...

I write radio plays, and one of the problems you have is that *nobody* narrates his own life. The gyrations you have to go through to explain to the audience what they just heard is one of the burdens of the medium.

In the Thirties, people knew nobody said,"Quick Cato! Open that door across the room and tell me if anyone is coming up the hall!" They put up with it, the way they put up with Superman putting on a pair of glasses and instantly becoming a nice pipsqueak. "Willing Suspension of Disbelief," I think it's called.

If someone said "You just *body-slammed*me!" they'd know exactly who he was really talking to, and trust him accordingly.