Monday, October 26, 2020

It’s Amazing What You Won’t Find If You Don’t Look

“Anyone who is still clinging to the notion that the mainstream press isn’t a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party needs to watch the exchange between premier journalist Christiane Amanpour and Republican National Committee spokeswoman Liz Harrington.” - Issues and Insights

Set aside for a moment the MSM’s refusal to mention the Hunter Biden laptop story due to “lack of verification.” The critical exchange in Armanpour’s interview entails whose “job” it is to provide such verification: mind you, that “job” was once assumed to be the Fourth Estate’s primary role in society – regardless of which party it exposed.

Starting at about the 2 minute mark Amanpour condescendingly dismisses the laptop story by saying it is some sort of a Russian disinformation scheme and sneeringly (I&I’s words) tells Harrington:

“As you know perfectly well, I’m a journalist and a reporter and I follow the facts. And there has never been any issues in terms of corruption,” referring to the Bidens. Here is what follows:

HARRINGTON: Wait, wait, wait!
AMANPOUR: The FBI —
HARRINGTON: How do you know that?
AMANPOUR: I’m talking about reporting and any evidence. I’m talking to you now —
HARRINGTON: I would love if you guys would start doing that digging and start doing that verification.
AMANPOUR: Now, we’re not going to do your work for you. I want to ask you a question —
HARRINGTON: That’s a journalist’s job!
AMANPOUR: —contrary to what —
HARRINGTON: It’s a journalist’s job to find out if this is verified!

And there you have it:

According to Amanpour, for the mainstream media to spend time investigating a Democrat for wrongdoing amounts to a violation of journalistic standards. It is “doing Republicans’ work for them.” She just admitted that she believes a journalist’s job is to do the Democrats’ bidding.

For Christiane’s benefit, here’s a brief refresher course in investigative journalism:

Investigative Journalism: Definition & Examples - Video & Lesson Transcript  | Study.com

Investigative journalism is a type of journalism that uncovers what others don't want uncovered. Investigative journalism is also called watchdog journalism. An investigative journalist digs deep into one story, whether it be corporate financial corruption, violent crime, or other topics that might not get covered in everyday news.

One of the main goals of investigative journalism is to spur change. An investigative journalist might spend four years following a politician and uncovering a money laundering crime to protect the people from electing a criminal.

But not now, certainly not at CNN; they can spend four years chasing a manufactured Russian dossier that might get rid of President Trump but they can’t spend four minutes looking at a potentially explosive corruption case that might harm “their” candidate. Or in the words of Jim Treacher’s evergreen tweet:

It is amazing what you won’t find if you don’t look.