Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? Press with No Ovaries Edition
Ryan Chittum:
Elizabeth Warren Is Smeared, and the Press Is Along for the Ride: You’d think the press could resist the he said-she said copy when the truth is easy to discern. Congressman Patrick McHenry’s smearing of Elizabeth Warren is a good test of how the press handles dishonest politicians and their lies. And most of the press gets a big fat F on this one. On Tuesday, McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, called Warren a liar, both on CNBC before she testified and during her actual testimony. Here’s how The New York Times, with its delicate sensibilities, put it:
Decorum Breaks Down at House Hearing
Goodness! Pass the smelling salts!
The NYT piece is about as pure an example of he said-she said reporting as you’ll see and a good showcase for why such false equivalence is a bad thing for readers.... The Wall Street Journal was no better, nor was Reuters, The Hill, or almost any of the other mainstream news stories I read.
But for anyone half paying attention, much less a beat reporter, this is not a close call: McHenry is full of it...
