Tag Archives: CNN

Journalists’ Time To Shine

I’ve been blogging for a good number of years now and never in my wildest imagination did I see my blog playing any kind of a role other than the one where I simply sound off about what’s on my mind, make a movie recommendation, or espouse the benefits of exercise.  I certainly don’t consider myself a journalist and I’m not equipped with either the time or resources in order to undertake any serious investigative journalistic endeavor, however; lately there’s been an increasing propensity to provide opinion when particular current events unfold that have the potential to illicit the kind of societal change which your grand children would find discomforting.

Obviously, the elephant in the room right now is Donald Trump.  It’s become apparent now that it’s not only Democrats who find the man ill equipped mentally and emotionally to execute the power of his office but Republicans are now actually taking legislative measures in order to limit the extent of his power in international affairs.  In lieu of the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s effort to influence November’s general election, Trump’s praise of Putin during the election campaign, Michael Flynn’s (former Trump National Security Advisor) deceit with U.S. officials in response to a Russian relationship, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Senate voted 98-2 in favor of blocking any Trump authority in rolling back Russian sanctions.

Law professor Paul Schiff Berman has commented on the recent resignations of journalists Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Haris from CNN for a recent mistake in insufficiently sourcing a story.  Surprisingly, none of these men were green journalists.  In fact, Mr. Lichtblau was a pulitzer prize winner.  Schiff Berman points out that during the Watergate era, the team of Woodward and Bernstein had made “a few errors” prior to their ultimate revelation. Hence; the question becomes, why now are careers put in jeopardy in the context of a chief White House spokesman via twitter that references “fake news” more often than any policy initiative when during the natural course of discovering news and meeting tight deadlines that historically a journalistic mistake has been made without career reprisals? Perhaps, the industry is actually feeling some heat.  Perhaps, this question is best left to Morning Joe hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.