Revelation • Of Watergate's "Deep Throat" Whistle Blower
• About Extremist Tactics Of Scoundrel President Richard
Nixon • Is Pushing Up Comparisons Of Investigative
Journalism That SAVED The Republic •• Versus Today's
Pitiful Profit Puffing Media • That Lets Very Few
Opportunities Pass By • For Sucking Up To The Extremists
In The American Prospect On Line • David J. Sirota • Sez:
"...American journalism today has lost its confrontational,
hold-their-feet-to-the-fire attitude that gave it a reputation as
our government's fourth check and balance. Young reporters
can't imagine what that kind of reporting really is because
they've never experienced it.
Certainly there was Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky
scandal, but those were cheap attempts by journalists to
recreate Watergate without actually doing the real
investigative work. They were pathetic journalists' attempt
to grab the sizzle of scandal without doing the hard work
that uncovers serious crimes like Watergate. Though there
are certainly some very fine investigative reporters left, they
have become a rare breed, usually replaced by blow-dried
blowhards who spend more time sucking up to power than
challenging it.
"... [Judy] Woodruff, one of CNN's senior reporters, had the
nerve to complain about the decline of journalism, even
though she and her television news colleagues have had a
big hand in that decline. Though Beltway insiders lament the
termination of Inside Politics, that show -- like most others --
has cheapened journalism and made politics into a
melodramatic soap opera. For every occasional story that
delves into real issues like health care, jobs, and stagnating
wages, we get hundreds of stories that are nothing more
than "he said, she said" fights between dueling suits, the
reporter never once taking the time to delve into the issues
that are actually being discussed.
Interestingly, one of the much-lauded reporters who broke
Watergate, Bob Woodward, actually epitomizes these
problems. More than any other, his career charts the decline
of the national press corps to the laughingstock it is today.
Here was a tough-nosed reporter who made his name doing
the gritty, unglamorous work that eventually exposed one
of the most egregious abuses of power in American history.
But instead of using the credibility he had earned from
Watergate to build a career exposing corruption, he quickly
dove into the Beltway culture, where that kind of thing is
looked down upon. He used his fame to suck up to those in
power, and then write books like Bush at War that simply
told power's story, ultimately becoming just another
bloviating cardboard cutout on the pundit circuit.
To be sure, Woodward's sad story is just one in a
constellation of similar tales, and certainly he can't be
blamed for all of journalism's current failings. But make no
mistake about it: Woodward's pathetic trajectory was a very
powerful model for young journalists. He helped legitimize
the practice of discarding what journalism should be about
(investigation and challenging power) in favor of exactly
what journalism should never be about (glamour,
propaganda, and genuflection)..."
LINK: Watergate's Lost Legacy •• USA Democracy At
Stake
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