Amid the fanfare for CBS newsman Bob Schieffer upon his retirement, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh provided a helpful translation for some of the code in Schieffer's parting remarks.
Schieffer appeared on CBS This Morning on Friday and was asked how Washington and journalism have changed since he jumped in the game back in the '60s. While Schieffer was optimistic about the future of Face the Nation, the Sunday morning political show he hosted since the early '90s, he was troubled by what he described as vast disruptions from a "revolution in communications."
With an avalanche of info now available 24/7, much of it wrong "on purpose," he said, it's gotten "harder and harder" for journalists to do their work. Limbaugh wasn't buying it and on his radio show Monday he deciphered what Schieffer was actually saying (compilation audio with three separate clips)
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Bob Schieffer, yeah I had this Friday and I just didn't get to it. ... But the sound bites we had for Schieffer, now everybody's been using it over the weekend and he's added to it with his final show on Sunday and it kind of ticks me off at myself that I didn't use the stuff on Friday. But what we had on Friday was Schieffer saying (on CBS This Morning) that the news business isn't what it was anymore and it's forever been changed and there's too many people doing news and nobody knows what's reliable and nobody knows what's good and bad or anything anymore and it all started, he says, in about 1988.
An allusion to the media going after Gary Hart for lying about adultery (in '87, not 1988) -- or did Schieffer mean to say 1998, when Drudge broke news of the Lewinsky scandal (on the Internet!) that Newsweek was too skittish to publish?
Something happened, late '80s, he said, he just can't figure it out but whatever. Now everybody does news and therefore nobody does news and it's not good. It's just his way of saying we've lost or we did lose our monopoly and now we don't own it and we have to compete but we don't like competing and so I'm retiring, you know, I'm quitting, I'm heading back to Texas, I want to go to a state that doesn't have a drought. I don't have to worry about this kind of stuff so I'm going back.
Now he's added some things to it, that he admitted they didn't vet Obama well enough, the drive-bys didn't vet Obama well enough in 2008, but then he said that that's not our problem really because it's up to the people to figure out what they want and it's up to the Republicans to tell people who Obama is. Well, he's got a point on that, he really does. Now, I know what Republicans say, we, we, we wouldn't be listened -- no, Republicans on this, you never had the guts to go after Obama and you still don't. So Schieffer's got a point. OK, if the drive-bys are not vetting -- we did! We vetted Obama. You know, a lot of conservative media vetted Obama but the Republican Party didn't! And they're still not!
After a break, Limbaugh elaborates on Schieffer's remarks --
Legendary Bob Schieffer called it a career yesterday as he hosted his final edition of 'Slay the Nation' and it says here, this is a CBS News story, Schieffer noted that Washington has changed dramatically (from) when Schieffer began covering the nation's capital. Schieffer was on CBS This Morning on Friday and said that the "revolution in communications" has turned Washington "upside down" -- "we now don't know where people get their news but what we do know is they're bombarded with information 24 hours a day, seven days a week" and "most of the information is wrong and some of it is wrong on purpose."
I wonder -- is that a confession? Be nice if that was a confession. I doubt that it is.
Limbaugh briefly switches gears to weigh in on John Kerry's baffling compulsion to race his bicycle through the Alps during the most consequential negotiations since Munich --
Here's a good point (apparently alluding to suggestion from listener), John Kerry (who served in Vietnam, by the way) should apply for another Purple Heart. Yeah, another Purple Heart. Well, it was an on-the-job injury, kind of, taking a break from sensitive negotiations with the Iranians, riding his stupid bicycle. I mean, really, seriously, folks?
Anyway, we have the audio sound bite from Friday that I had and didn't get to and it is from Friday's CBS This Morning. The co-host on the program was Vinita Nair and she said, there have been so many wonderful things written and said about you at this point, Bob, so many wonderful things written and said. And one of my favorites, Bob, was simply, quote, he's someone that never became Washington, unquote. But I'm curious, Bob, in that chair, how do you feel like Washington has changed from when you started to now?
SCHIEFFER: It's been turned upside-down, I mean, as has everything because of this revolution in communications. You know, we know don't know where people get their news but what we do know is they're bombarded with information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most of the information is wrong and some of it, wrong on purpose. It is our job, I think, in mainstream journalism to try to cut through this maw of information and tell people what we think is relevant and what they need to know about. That is the job of the journalist and I have to say, it's harder and harder.
LIMBAUGH: That is fascinating to me, that is classic! So obviously he's not confessing when he says that most of the information is wrong and some of it wrong on purpose. No, and I was just joking about him confessing, I didn't expect that. Now listen to this -- "it is our job, I think, in mainstream journalism to try to cut through this maw of information." Translation -- We always decided what was news and what wasn't. We were in charge of deciding what people got to know and what we hid from them, based on several things. Do they need to know this? No. Do they need to know this 'cause it'll help us? Yes. Do they need to know this 'cause it'll help the Democrats? Yes. Do they need to know this because it might hurt the Democrats? No. That's the basis on which the news has always been edited. And now that's the case more than ever. Mainstream journalism is simply a branch office of the Democrat party. And it exists to advance the Democrat party agenda and it's not a generalization and it's not really an attempt at humor. But he says yeah, yeah, mainstream journalism, we try to cut through all that maw of information, tell people what we think is relevant. ...
Considering how "this revolution in communications" cited by Schieffer has made information more readily available than ever and access to sources around the world much easier, why has it gotten more difficult to work as a journalist, Limbaugh asks. Because Schieffer is actually lamenting something else, he points out --
So Bob now says it's the job of the journalist to weed through all that crap and figure out what people need to know and it's harder and harder. Why is it harder and harder? Why is it harder and harder? There's more news than ever today! There's more access. Why is it harder? So that's not what he means. You know what he means by, it's harder? It's harder to ignore the stuff they used to ignore. It's harder to promote the stuff that they always have promoted and only want to promote. That's what's harder. It's harder to cover up what they don't want you to know because there are other people out there telling you what they don't want you to know or don't think you should know or don't think you're capable of knowing. That is what he means.
The revolution invoked by Schieffer could just as accurately be described as a revolt. Long gone and good riddance to the days when the liberal elite who ran the major papers and a few television networks determined what news was suitable for public consumption. And the prospects for this ever happening again are equal to that of the horse and buggy supplanting the automobile.
