The aftermath of the White House Correspondent dinner exposes out-of-touch media elites
If this year’s White House Correspondent dinner taught us one thing about modern journalism, it’s that the elites of the mainstream media are greatly out of touch with what it means to be a watchdog journalist. That the corporate media is unwilling to confront tyranny and injustice when it stares them directly in the face at every White House press briefing.
At his rally mere miles from my hometown in Michigan’s Macomb County, President Trump assured the crowd that the press and the media are the enemy; the crowd of supporters, as expected, went wild for his rhetoric. “They hate your guts”, were the exact words Trump used when referring to the press as he continues his assault on America’s journalistic institutions.
Yet as all this happened, journalists from major news networks were not quick to attack Trump on his fascist-esque rally or for his continued attacks on the press, instead they were busy criticizing comedian Michelle Wolf for speaking the truth.
Wolf comments were justified, they were the truth, when a comedian calls out the president’s press secretary for lying while some of the biggest names in news sit idly by you know things are not right. Yet despite her status as a comedian, Wolf and some of the largest names in the corporate newsroom share one thing in common; they are both actors not journalists.
A real journalist would have left the White House Correspondents dinner angry, but not over some joke about Sarah Huckabee Sanders eye makeup, but for the fact Wolf brought up the fact that Flint still doesn’t have clean water. You think that as somebody who praises themselves as a watchdog in a time when the rights of the working class are being trampled would have left feeling more upset that Flint has been forgotten rather than riled up about a few jokes about the nations biggest liar.
The number one rule of journalism is “seek truth and report it”, when the President has made thousands of false statements right to the nations face, a real journalist would not sit idly by and report those false statements like it is real news, they would fight back and show the country that they are being lied to.
This ethical practice of reporting the truth isn’t the case for most major television news networks, from CNN to FOX and even MSNBC you won’t find shred of ethical decency, instead you will find stories that are determined to rile people up, stories determined to push a corporate agenda that are worded in such a way that the common people will find it hard to tell what truth is being reported. As is the case for most large capitalist corporations, the corporate media only cares about profit not about journalistic integrity, they will alienate truth-seeking journalists in exchange for shills like Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow who continue to push their networks agendas with outlandish and expensive talk shows.
As our rights as humans remain in danger ignore media outlets that remain partisan and loyal to one side of the congressional isle, instead look for journalists that are fighting to inform the working class of the exploitation they face. Stray away for large corporate owned media outlets and support the little guy, the small outlets that run an entire newsroom on the salary of one corporate news anchor at FOX or CNN; listen to the people who report the truth because they care, not because of a six-figure paycheck.
