No kidding. This is from Margaret Sullivan's newsletter:
Journalists should be telling these disastrous and consequential stories with clarity, tough reporting and a reliance on verifiable facts.
Thankfully, some of that is happening, and I’ll give a few examples in a moment. But first, I have to draw your attention to — and express my disgust at — the way the Jan. 6, 2021 anniversary was portrayed on CBS Evening News. It was almost kissed off altogether, but the attention it did get was rife with appalling “both sides are equal” commentary.
“President Trump accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack. Hakeem Jeffries accused Trump of whitewashing it,” was the summation by newly installed anchor Tony Dokoupil, as images of the Trump faithful hoisting banners that thanked him for their pardons played in the background.
That’s what this is about? Both sides equal?
“SHAMEFUL,” was the response of Larry Sabato, who runs the nonpartisan Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
He’s right, of course. And the broader context makes it even worse.
“Dokoupil’s disgraceful framing served as a reminder that Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle co-founder who bankrolled his son’s takeover of CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, assisted Trump’s efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election,” was the apt reminder from Jon Passantino of the Status newsletter.
My Guardian colleague Jeremy Barr looked at the anchor’s first week on the job, which was mostly an embarrassment to the legacy of the storied network, despite his relatively strong interview with border czar Tom Homan.
On the one hand, it's possible that all of these Damascene awakenings are too little, too late. On the other hand, it's been damn lonely out here on what, for a very long time, were the disreputable, and roundly derided "Both Sides Don't!" fringes of journalism, so the companionship is welcome, even though, more often than not, our new companions have no idea that we exist, and believe they're stepping out onto the untouched terra incognita of media criticism.
My hope for them is that they'll lose what appears to be some lingering timidity, because we all need people with much larger platforms than this one calling out the guilt parties by name, title, profession and corporation.
For example, Margaret Sullivan did a fine job here calling out Tony Dokoupil and CBS under its new MAGA overlord, Larry Ellison. But before she retired (and moved on to the Washington Post for a few years, and thence on to the Guardian and newsletter writing), she was The New York Times' public editor for four years. And, without any doubt, the Times is one of the prominent and defiantly Both Siderist media corporations left in American.
And while Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. is never going to return my call, nor is his assistant, nor his assistant's assistant, nor his assistant's assistant's intern... Margaret Sullivan worked face-to-face with the man for four years. And since she almost certainly still has the publisher of the Times on speed-dial, imagine what a service to civilization it would be for her to do what 99.9% of us cannot do: call him directly and get him to either speak on the record...or refuse to speak on the record... about why so many lying, equivocating hacks and Both Siderist trolls are employed by him to write under his masthead.
What a great service that would be.
Similarly Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman here.
At around the 20:19 mark, HCR and Freeman go on a long tear about "both-sidesism" that was so blunt and lucid you'd think you were listening to [checks notes] The Professional Left podcast from 15 years ago :-)
But seriously, it was so... what's the word I'm looking for? Soothing? Nah. Reassuring? Thrilling? Close. Affirming? Near enough. It was so affirming to hear someone with millions of readers and listeners, speaking the truth so plainly and clearly.
From Wikipedia:
Letters from an American (2019–present)
In September 2019, Richardson began writing a daily synopsis of political events associated with the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Originally posting late every evening or in the early hours of the next day on her Facebook page, Richardson pivoted to writing a daily newsletter, entitled Letters from an American. The newsletter deals with contemporary events she explains and relates to historical developments, with a focus on the health of American democracy.
As of December 2020, Richardson was "the most successful individual author of a paid publication on . . . Substack" and on track to bring in a million dollars of revenue a year. The newsletter received a "Best of Boston" award for "2021 Best Pandemic Newsletter" from Boston magazine. By January 2024, the newsletter had about 1.3 million people reading each edition. The Nation described her journalistic voice as "sincere, humble, approachable, and jargon-free."
Continuing, here's a small excerpt from the aforementioned YouTube:
HCR: And it made me think about the way that we are covering the small steps toward dictatorship. And people saying, "Well, you know, let me... let's take a look at at... really, they say... the ICE guys say that this happened." And it's like they have been lying to you all along. It has been proven in court that they are lying to you! Why are you still saying that, you know, taking what they say at face value?
And that's true across this across this administration. They get out there, they lie, and the newspapers put it in there as if this has the same kind of weight as a video taken at the time that shows something very [different]. It is making my head explode. And it is time for us to say no, we're not going to look at we're not going to sit there and... and both sides these things. We are marching toward a dictatorship. This is the bigger picture. And when that bigger picture happens, the way you push back is the way the United States used to push back against fascism. By calling it out.
Freeman: And... and here's the thing. And here's part of the way I think we... we got to the long trail of both sidesing murder and everything else that's being both sides right now. I think casting our mind back in time, if you're thinking about a small "d" democratic mentality of... of tolerating more than one point of view. We were primed to at least allow for there to be more than one side, right? That that felt like what you're supposed to do as a small "d" democratic thinker is allow tolerate other points of view. So that felt like, way back in time, "fairness". And I think it... it hung on longer than it should have because of that because of that link.
Well, we're being fair.
We're allowing both sides past the time when that should have been there because then it... it hung on. It hung on long past the time when the other side was no longer feasible or possibly good in any way and people didn't necessarily see that or want to see that.
But... but there was like a residue of that idea clinging. Now we have people both sidesing in part because it allows them to kowtow to the regime in one way and also it allows them to claim no responsibility for anything. And they're just, you know, "Here we go. Uh... there are two ways of looking at it. Thank you very much. We're going to go back now and print out our newspapers. It's a cop out. It's a double copout. It's a copout of not wanting to take a stand. It's a copout by folding to the people who have power. Uh and it's, you know, a failure uh at just the moment... and again, the moment that we're in, there are no two sides.
It goes on quite a bit longer than that, and kudos to both women for saying what they said.
Except...and it kills me to point this out because I really don't want to come across as "Yesterday's Enterprise" Picard --
...except this is how HCR began her critique.
HCR: You know, I was looking today as I [do] every morning. I read all the papers across the country -- all the [ones] from the major cities -- and I'm not going to call this large famous newspaper out by name -- but they're both sidesing what happened on the streets of Minneapolis.
But you have to call them out by name, Heather. By name, title, profession and corporation.
You absolutely have to.
Because, respectfully, anything less at this perilous moment is simply not good enough.
