How often do the mainstream media misinform or outright lie? How many of them apologize or correct the record for the misinformation and lies? How often do they research and correct the political points they were forced to air from politicians and political operatives?
Currently the mainstream media are scolding the Obama administration for lack of access and for using other types of media (social media and local media) to get their information out directly. They insinuate the behavior is tantamount to state run media.
Maybe if the mainstream media behaved as Jon Stewart in the video below, the administration would be less reticent. It is refreshing to watch Stewart who realizes that inasmuch as he is a satirist, he should apologize and correct the record when he wrongly maligns someone.
Last week he did a skit on Mississippi taking 148 years to ratify the 13th amendment, the amendment that abolished slavery. He implied that the former Mississippi secretary of state Dick Molpus, who presided over a 1995 attempt to ratify the 13th amendment, may have been a casual bigot. It turned out
- Dick Molpus had a long and distinguished record for speaking out for Civil Rights.
- He led charge on voting rights reform.
- In 1989 he spoke at the 25th year anniversary of the three kids killed in Mississippi during the Civil Right conflicts for which he received death threats.
What is telling is no one called the Jon Stewart show to ask him to correct the record. He did it out of duty. One can only hope that in the long run the mainstream media will be forced to act accordingly. They have yet to apologize for all the misinformation that they have put out from the buildup to the war in Iraq to the misinformation about the Affordable Care Act. They could learn a bit from Stewart.
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You mean that the only reporting that we can count on to be the truth is also the only reporting that fact checks themselves? Well, public broadcasting also self-corrects. It’s an awfully short list.