Pond Scum Journalism
I don’t blog about TV journalism because I hardly watch TV anymore. But I know what I’m missing on CNN and Fox News, which David Rothkopf reaffirms with this meta commentary on the Rick Sanchez firing:
The problem with CNN is in fact not that they failed to fire Sanchez more explicitly for his anti-Semitism, nor is it that they did not fire him sooner. The problem with CNN is that they hired him in the first place. Just as it is a problem that they thought it appropriate to hire Eliot Spitzer for his own show when at least 50 percent of the fame they are cashing in on is tied to his predilection for prostitutes. Just as it is a problem that they hired Piers Morgan to replace Larry King. Now admittedly, King was no pillar of journalism. He was not even a molehill of journalism. That being said, he attempted to be no more than he was, a living Smithsonian exhibit about the nature of old time radio. But Morgan, known best to Americans for his appearances as a judge on a show that would embarrass the worst burlesque circuits of the 1920s, “America’s Got Talent,” is skimmed from the pond-scum floating atop journalism’s shallowest waters. He is a former editor of Britain’s News of the World and the Daily Mirror, newspapers that make the National Enquirer look like the Paris Review.
If CNN keeps it up, it won’t last five years. It has done the impossible and almost made Fox News look like a better source of journalism — and there is almost no journalism on Fox News.
Damn, that’s good.
As Stephen Fry said ‘What’s the definition of countryside?’.
Murdering Piers Morgan.
I’m missing something.. are Jews an oppressed minority in the US? Is it dangerous to question that? Is it anti-Semitic?
I realise it’s not the point of your post, but I’m struggling with context.
Simon: Perhaps you didn’t listen to the entire rant by Sanchez. Here’s what he said:
“I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart [meaning Jewish], and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart [meaning Jewish], and to imply that somehow they “” the people in this country who are Jewish “” are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”
What part of Jew-baiting don’t you understand Simon? This is the tired old canard that “Jews control the media.”
What was truly pathetic about Sanchez’s rant is that he accused his CNN supervisors, and also by implication all white media managers, for being racist because they supposedly don’t think Sanchez should be an anchor.
I guess we have to ignore the fact that Sanchez has ONLY been an anchor on CNN (and for most if not all of his career everywhere else). And why do you think that is? I suspect because he’s actually too damn stupid to do anything but read words on a teleprompter.
“A lot like Stewart”
Without knowing the story here, this just reminds me of an apparent quote by Johnathan Miller, which I saw for the first time just the other day…
‘I’m not really a Jew; just Jew-ish’
Tom, thanks. I have heard the “Jews control the media” line, but I didn’t know it was a popular taunt. I didn’t find a link to the Sanchez rant, so haven’t listened to it. I’ve only read a mix of quotes and paraphrasing. I’ve never heard the term “Jew-baiting” before, either. Perhaps I’m living a sheltered life 🙂
“Perhaps I’m living a sheltered life”
That’s what investing your time in racing simulators gets you!
Tell me about it! 😀
If someones says that the Hollywood is controlled by Jews – would that also be a “tired old canard” and “Jew-baiting” ?
For the record, I am Jewish; I came from the country where the Jews were an oppressed minority and I don’t believe this is the case in the USA (irrespective of whether or not CNN is actually ran by the Jews – I have no idea and am not really interested). I don’t understand why one cannot says so aloud without being being accused of anti-Semitism.
Don’t take it as if I’m on Sanchez’ side in any other respect.
The Sanchez rant can be heard at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcBVk6eLTE4
Listen, learn and laugh at his exercises in projection! Sanchez repeatedly accuses Stewart of being a “bigot” – but whcn challenged for evidence to substantiate his claims, he can only escalate his fact-free allegations!
In my previous incarnation, I spent many years in the trenches of the newsgroup alt.revisionism – which was the favourite posting-ground of Holocaust deniers and other assorted anti-semites. It was not pleasant, I can assure you.
(As an aside, when I first entered the battlefield of the “climate wars”, a few weeks “BC” [Before Climategate], I was quite horrified to find myself labelled as a “denier”!)
There were very few deniers whose posts at some point did not descend to the level of Jew-baiting (and/or Israel bashing), which invariably included (as Tom Yurlsman noted above) “the Jews own the media” canard (along with other choice excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion).
There were a few somewhat more “genteel” anti-semites … who invariably declared that some (or at least one) of their best friends were Jews – which is exactly how Sanchez concluded his rant.
Thanks, Hilary. I’ve listened to the Youtube clip.
Clearly Sanchez was out of line and inappropriate. It seems to me that he conflated several of his own personal issues and as a result of failing to recognise his own inferiority complex, he perceived his situation to be the result of others’ superiority complexes. Another TV anchor without presence of mind bites the dust.