The Death of Edward R. Murrow
By Truthteller on April 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM in Current Affairs
The press’s mindless and sycophantic coverage of the First Family and the First Dog gamboling on the simulated verdure of the White House lawn as they each perform their respective roles in that foundational American fiction we call the heteronormative, patriarchal nuclear family located in “nature” prompted this incisive comment from ABC News’s Jake Tapper today:

Tapper weighs his words here. The press, according to him, is nothing more than a disorderly lot, a confused and noisy crowd, a group of drunken spectators; they are so much scrum who push and shove in order to consume the vacuous spectacle before them. For Tapper this heralds the death of investigative journalism, the end of the era of the intrepid reporter who risks credibility and career in order to pen the exposé that will once and for all uncover the power, corruption and lies surrounding the career politician. Duped by the choreographed pageantry, enamored with the glitter and the gleam secreted by David Axelrod’s cosmeticized politics, the press will not and cannot lift the hood and observe the arrangement and the operations of the greasy machinery hidden underneath. Surface sates these dolts’ curiosity.
They, their cameras and their microphones would rather fawn: they would rather passively record; they prefer not to interrogate; they desire to be idolators.

Indeed, they would rather disavow their constitutive role in the production of these insidious and utterly artificial tableaux. Besides, analyzing the dispositif, the elements comprising this elaborate political apparatus, apparently entails too much thought and effort. It also requires a bit of introspection.

Aloof and oblivious, transfixed by the theater on Axelrod’s stage, they have abdicated their erstwhile roles; they have allowed what was once the critical field of journalism to become so much textual and visual reification of a debased political ideology. Students of history members of the press are not.
Lest the press becomes yet another cog in the propagandistic machinery of the White House, let us hope the ghost of Edward R. Murrow will wake these drones from their politically induced slumber. Democracy depends on it.
And yes, Jake, I am embarrassed for you and your colleagues. Please ask them if they are satisfied with the prevailing wages for paid pamphleteers and political prostitutes in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. Also ask if journalism school teaches reporters to treat political analysis as so much boilerplate fit for the tabloids.
But why relegate your criticism of the press corps to the margins of Twitter? Why not unpack these thoughts in an official news article? Or is Edward R. Murrow really dead?






















