Truthdig: The End of an Institution (Political Media)

The End of an Institution
Posted on Aug 28, 2008

By Bill Boyarsky



DENVER—I suppose I should be sad to watch the decline of the once mighty political media, an institution that trained and nurtured me.

But that’s not how I feel. For this was the institution that cheered when President Bush took us to war. These were the political reporters who were once transfixed with Barack Obama and are now ripping him to shreds. And these are the journalists who are still so awed by John McCain’s years as a prisoner of war that they won’t dig into his record.

This is also the institution that is getting this Democratic National Convention wrong, obsessed with a phony feud between Obama and Hillary Clinton, wasting time interviewing that small but vengeful cult, the die-hard Hillaryites.

That vision of the convention is not what’s happening. Rather, Democrats are beginning a process of coming together after the long and intense battle for the nomination. A few more words from Clinton—“he beat me fair and square”—would have completely sealed the deal, but she’s too much of a competitor to say that. By Election Day, the past battles will have been put aside.

Luckily, for the good of the Republic, this bad reporting has had little impact on events, unlike the effect it would have had in the past. The mass media have been weakened greatly in the last few years, hurt by a loss of readers, viewers and advertisers and the growing power of the Internet. That came through clearly on the first day of the convention when I saw the Los Angeles Times sharing a workspace with the other Tribune papers. When I was covering conventions for the Times, we had our own big workspace and all kinds of big shots came calling. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080828_the_end_of_an_institution/