Howard K Smith, Abraham Lincoln, Walter Cronkite discussed on The Lawfare Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Have different conceptions of truth is different acceptance. The facts are they tend to have more bubbled existence. They tend because you can disagree with any of this. They tend because they're hanging out in like minded communities to engage in group polarization. You know you said at the end of the book you ask the question. Which unconstrained institution poses the greatest danger to the body. Politic hyper partisan media flailing to retain readers and viewers or presidency with direct access to tens of millions of admirers. I mean so. I just wonder whether he are you neutral about this change. You think it's bad for the country. I absolutely think that they divisive miss. That afflict society now is a dangerous and never more so than in the midst of a pandemic when health recommendation. So politicized as we've seen. So i think you know. I'm not gonna make an excuse of saying. The book was written before the pandemic but it was but of course it's unhealthy. But i also you know looking at the long view. We in the era of hyper partisanship. We manage to elect abraham lincoln as a leader. Who's who oversaw the greatest crisis in the greatest threat to democracy in american history. So i think partisan journalism is not automatically bad. The difference is in lincoln era. You either read a republican newspaper or a democratic paper and though papers were openly and proudly aligned. I'm waiting for the day when cnn declares itself eight a force aligned with the democratic party. I'm if we can't go back to the days of walter cronkite and howard k smith and others than than maybe people should be aware of the specifics of who they're watching and make the identities more a requirement. You know think it's kind of obvious sure it's obvious but it was. Why was it. Proudly a bannered in the nineteenth century and is so reluctantly admitted to why did fox news begin with. Its its existence. I sang that they were a truth. Teller that the news with all of the fairest news coverage ever. Majesty there's a bit of phoniness involved on both sides. And i would like to see either. I don't think we're gonna get a return to nonpartisan journalism any time soon. I absolutely believe that. What you said was right. And i end my my book with a reminder that pat moynihan said that you can argue about opinions but you can't argue about facts but we do argue facts and we're groping now for away for Social media platforms to address. The statements lies in incendiary commentary. I think that that's a big fight. Going forward yet to the kootenai quote the sentence after you quote pat money handed out in the interview here. The sentence after the moynihan quote is the trump era may usher in a permanent upheaval which americans never again agree on basic information or trust in traditional news service. I like that to happen..