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Jim Lehrer scares me. He takes that bizarre US cultural tradition of neutrality at all costs to an extreme. It doesn't matter how much one side spins and how tr

Jim Lehrer scares me. He takes that bizarre US cultural tradition of neutrality at all costs to an extreme. It doesn't matter how much one side spins and how true the other is. Lehrer must be found in the exact middle betwen the sides, and there he has those cold eyes. I am not kidding, it's scary watching someone be that devoted to this inane idea of journalistic neutrality. The objective truth is absolutely disregarded. Middle of of the road, no matter where the middle happens to fall. I prefer the daily show.

aaronsw 17y ago
Alexander Cockburn once wrote a hilarious parody of Lehrer about this: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06302005.html http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06302005.html
- biohacker42 17y ago
  This is pure gold: The 'MacNeil/Lehrer Report' started in October 1975, in the aftermath of Watergate. It was a show dedicated to the proposition that there are two sides to every question, a valuable corrective in a period when the American people had finally decided that there were absolutely and definitely not two sides to every question Thanks for the link!
jimbokun 17y ago
I am trying to read this in a way that does not suggest you just want someone to regurgitate back to you the views you already hold in an entertaining way. Yes, I realize that John Stewart was the only voice of sanity in the media over much of the last several years. But as he often tries to remind people, he is, in fact, a comedian. Brilliant, cutting, insightful, with an unparalleled nose for sniffing out bullshit, yes, but still a comedian. You may find this hard to believe, but Bill O'Reilly's original schtick was dispensing with the "inane idea of journalistic neutrality", too. When people would say things he found outrageous, he would call them on it. Of course that rapidly devolved to him shouting over people and cutting their mike. I am in no way criticizing John Stewart and the Daily Show. But I find the idea that so many people are un-ironically claiming the Daily Show as their prime news source a little bit troubling. For example, one thing that has bothered me is the obsession with continuing to talk about stupid Republicans. Yes, there are many stupid Republicans, saying enough stupid things to fill a 24 hour news cycle. But in the meantime, we have a Democratic President and Congress trying to put together some of the most sweeping legislative changes in my political memory. It is easy to put together an hour of making fun of Republicans. But couldn't that hour be better spent analyzing the complex health care bills now being debated? Can't we ignore the un-serious, obstructionist Republicans for a little bit to have a good idea of what we might be getting ourselves into? If John Stewart is actually doing that kind of analysis, more power to him. If not, I would say we still need a news source in addition to the Daily Show. Maybe Leher's show does not fit the bill, but I'm opening to hearing about a U.S. news source that's better.
- biohacker42 17y ago
  I am not sure there is a US TV news source that's better. And it's true the Daily Show is in fact not my primary news source. But the uniquely American obsession with neutrality is at best inane, and at worst an active aid to spin and lies. That's perfectly encapsulated by what I quoted here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=784936 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=784936

aaronsw 17y ago

Alexander Cockburn once wrote a hilarious parody of Lehrer about this: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06302005.html http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06302005.html

biohacker42 17y ago
This is pure gold: The 'MacNeil/Lehrer Report' started in October 1975, in the aftermath of Watergate. It was a show dedicated to the proposition that there are two sides to every question, a valuable corrective in a period when the American people had finally decided that there were absolutely and definitely not two sides to every question Thanks for the link!

jimbokun 17y ago

I am trying to read this in a way that does not suggest you just want someone to regurgitate back to you the views you already hold in an entertaining way. Yes, I realize that John Stewart was the only voice of sanity in the media over much of the last several years. But as he often tries to remind people, he is, in fact, a comedian. Brilliant, cutting, insightful, with an unparalleled nose for sniffing out bullshit, yes, but still a comedian. You may find this hard to believe, but Bill O'Reilly's original schtick was dispensing with the "inane idea of journalistic neutrality", too. When people would say things he found outrageous, he would call them on it. Of course that rapidly devolved to him shouting over people and cutting their mike. I am in no way criticizing John Stewart and the Daily Show. But I find the idea that so many people are un-ironically claiming the Daily Show as their prime news source a little bit troubling. For example, one thing that has bothered me is the obsession with continuing to talk about stupid Republicans. Yes, there are many stupid Republicans, saying enough stupid things to fill a 24 hour news cycle. But in the meantime, we have a Democratic President and Congress trying to put together some of the most sweeping legislative changes in my political memory. It is easy to put together an hour of making fun of Republicans. But couldn't that hour be better spent analyzing the complex health care bills now being debated? Can't we ignore the un-serious, obstructionist Republicans for a little bit to have a good idea of what we might be getting ourselves into? If John Stewart is actually doing that kind of analysis, more power to him. If not, I would say we still need a news source in addition to the Daily Show. Maybe Leher's show does not fit the bill, but I'm opening to hearing about a U.S. news source that's better.

biohacker42 17y ago
I am not sure there is a US TV news source that's better. And it's true the Daily Show is in fact not my primary news source. But the uniquely American obsession with neutrality is at best inane, and at worst an active aid to spin and lies. That's perfectly encapsulated by what I quoted here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=784936 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=784936