The media should tell the truth — about themselves.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak with reporters about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Friday, May 22, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Last week, in this very space, the subject was the “mainstream media” (I always put that term in quotes) and its now undeniable bias against Republicans and conservatives in general and Donald Trump in particular. As if he had read or seen the piece (I’m certain he did not), former CBS News president Van Gordon Sauter wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that serves as public acknowledgement of what we on the right have been saying for a long time. (Article is behind a paywall.)

It’s an amazing piece coming from a top veteran of the old-line, legacy media. For as long as I have been in the business, and for all of the occasions that I have had to speak to individuals at Sauter’s level – and there have been many – I have never heard such candor. Often when I have confronted top New York media executives with incontrovertible examples of lefty bias, they have acted as if I were accusing them of child molestation. “We are professionals,” they puff up and say. “Our duty is to tell the truth.”

Mr. Sauter’s Wall Street Journal piece is, by contrast, refreshingly honest. Here’s one pull-quote:

News organizations that claim to be neutral have long been creeping leftward, and their loathing of Mr. Trump has accelerated the pace. The news media is catching up with the liberalism of the professoriate, the entertainment industry, upscale magazines and the literary world. Recent arrivals are the late-night TV hosts who have broken the boundaries of what was considered acceptable political humor for networks.”

Giving credit where it’s due, I nevertheless hasten to correct Mr. Sauter as follows. The news organizations to which he refers aren’t ‘creeping,’ they’re lurching leftward. Some more than others, I’ll concede – CNN, and NBC in all of its iterations, are practically tripping over one another in their leftward rush. But in truth all of the old-line outlets, ‘creeping’ left as they might have been in earlier days, are dashing in that direction now.

Nor is the media any longer “catching up” with the liberalism in academe and entertainment, as Mr. Sauter states. Today, in 2020, the media is leading the charge.

Still, Mr. Sauter, as a former top industry insider, is to be commended for at last telling the truth – or at the very least broaching the truth. It’s time for the old-line media to end their delusional self-righteousness and Sauter opens the door to that long overdue introspection.

He goes on to say that the only sensible thing for the media to do now is just admit to the bias and be proud of it. A sudden reversion to more balanced journalism won’t happen, wouldn’t be trusted anyway and would alienate the very audience from which the ‘mainstream media’ is currently profiting. The media doesn’t much care that we here in flyover country don’t like them or trust them anymore. They’re happy doing what they’re doing.

Ultimately, says Sauter, “The media finds the ‘deplorables’ deplorable.”

As I say, at last the truth.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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14 Responses

  1. Buddy Saunders says:

    And we find the “mainstream media” deplorable with far better reason. “News” that is intentionally slanted, and “news” that ignores facts that are inconvenient to the chosen narrative, is “news” that cannot be valued or trusted. Fortunately, better news sources now exist. One need only look at the ratings to see where our trust is going.

  2. First the networks, now Twitter!
    Where CAN we turn?

  3. Jean Bammel says:

    Mr. Gleiser,
    I have given up on the main stream media. I have a hard time understanding what has happened to my country. It was a wonderful place with strong, honest, hardworking citizens, but now?
    I have gotten you a few readers in Indonesia and continue to spread your messages.

  4. Michael Reagan says:

    Latest polls, with even the lefties, saying the media is anything but truthful. Do I believe in polls, no way. But, what I find interesting with the most recent ones is the vast majority was found lacking in trust. Amazing if you think about it. No surprise to us who follow the news and do our own research; but still pretty darn telling.

    • Michael Reagan says:

      Note: I did say here lately I (have not asked my buds or family) have found FOX news day time lacking in impartiality. Been a bit irritated at the left leaning. Read past posts and you will see that comment. Night time is anything but left leaning; thank you very much!

  5. Darrell Durham says:

    The left has succeeded in the effort to influence the information the public receives through tv and print, and now it appears as if the internet has fallen victim to their censorship. Twitter has accused Trump of disseminating “misleading” information in his frequent tweets on covid 19. So they decided to fact-check his account. If his opinion somehow AGREED with theirs would they bother to verify it? I’m not saying i agree with everything Trump has to say, but our most basic freedom is at stake if he is not allowed to say it. And they are trying to do just that.

  6. Michael Reagan says:

    What is very interesting in the last day or two, is the CDC and WHO (gag) bickering on actual importance of face masks. Lets face (yes pun intended) it, being outside is the BEST place to NOT get any virus period. Chicken-cooped up inside is a breeding ground for bacteria and virus. Get outside in the air and sun. UV kills everything!!!! Even you and me.

    • Ron Eagleman says:

      Yep Michael, not only will sun and open air kill bacteria and virus, but these proven purification methods would certainly help disinfect some of the rotting garbage that we smell coming out of our “unbiased” media. Let the sun shine in!!!

  7. Melanie Linthicum says:

    It’s so infuriating how the media treats our president. The worst of them is The View, who regularly refers to our president as “That Man”. It is the most disrespectful garbage. I immediately change the channel every time it comes on. To me it shows an enormous double standard, if they would have referred to Obama in such a way they would of been removed from air and shunned. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but there is no reason to be disrespectful to a man who we as a nation elected as our leader. Now I vote we remove this show and its negativity from the networks and replace it with something postive.

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