News Journalists and the Pretense of Partisan Neutrality

Three years later in June of 2019 with Mr Trump having become President Trump Stephanopoulos accompanied him on a trip to Iowa During an oncamera conversation in the presidential state car quotthe Beastquot the discussion once again turned to Secretary Clinton and President Trump alluded once more to Stephanopoulos39 previous employment with President Bill Clinton Stephanopoulos served as both the White House Communications Director and Senior Advisor to the President during the Clinton administration Discussing Robert Mueller39s Special Counsel investigation President Trump disagreed with Stephanopoulos39 claimsamp160quotThere was no crimequot he said quotThe crime was committed by the Democrats It was committed by your friend Hillary Clintonquot emphasis addedDespite their occasional clashes President Trump and Stephanopoulos have appeared to get along reasonably well sharing at least a degree of rapport and familiarity with one another President Trump among other interviews in addition to those mentioned above notably joined Stephanopoulos in September of this year at the ABC News town hall in PhiladelphiaWith that said President Trump raises an interesting question Is it reasonable to expect journalists who have previously worked with an opposing candidate or for that matter the other political party to be able to be largely objective in their reporting particularly when covering those on the other side of the aisle This is a concern that has also been raised by NBC39s Chuck Todd who briefly worked for Iowa Senator Tom HarkinFirst of all as I have discussed before the relationship between the press and the political figures journalists cover can be rather closeamp160at times Relationships formamp160politicians choose to break stories with trusted journalists and as a result an incentive exists for said trusted journalists consistently to portray these officeholders in a good light And then there are just the personal relationships forged by running in similar circles bumping elbows in Washington This is nothing newamp160for example Ned McLean the thenpublisher of The Washington Post was known for his close personal relationship with President Warren G Harding They were friendsamp160their wives socialized togetheramp160and McLean attempted to cover up the Teapot Dome scandal the incident that would come to define the Harding presidencyHowever even with this qualifier in mind it does seem to be a bridge too far in those instances where prominent journalists or journalists at any rank actually worked alongside the politicians they may one day be tasked with covering In the case of Stephanopoulos he did for instance conduct a longform interview with Mrs Clinton during her 2008 presidential campaign disclosing at the outset quotFor any who don39t know I worked for President Bill Clinton from 1991 to 1996quot Even with conspicuous disclosures I know the difficulty in interviewing political figures with whom one has once worked closely One seeks to avoid being biased in his or her favor while simultaneously striving not to compensate so much in the other direction that he becomes more critical than necessary There is still though the reality that even if the journalist conducts himself perfectly he still might be dogged by allegations of preferential treatmentRegardless a great many of the most prominent onair journalists of late were once political staffers whether this be Tim Russert who served as chief of staff to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan or Nicolle Wallace who served as White House communications director under President George W Bush Their close past knowledge of the inside of politics might inform their reporting and for that reason they might have an advantage as journalists However the argument to make here is similar to the one I put forward on election day 2019 when I implored journalists to rediscover the lapsing journalistic tradition of abstaining from voting Casting a ballot is a very tangible physical sign of preference Onetime employment is even more so particularly since it presupposes the sort of past loyalty and allegiance that tends to characterize healthy working relationshipsIf the news media would indeed like to pursue the objective of existing as distinct from both partisan politics and the sort of milieu that tends to characterize the political world of both parties it might want to rediscover additional buffers between journalists and the politicians they cover Otherwise one would not be wildly off the mark to assert that the ruse is finally up There is almost no daylight between government and those who pat themselves on the back claiming to be quotholding the powerful accountablequotAs a final aside it is worth briefly noting that this concern does not apply really to those who are expressly columnists opinion contributors and the like Few would have reason to object to say Karl Rove39s presence on Fox News as a contributor based on his previous work with President George W Bush or for that matter George F Will39s erstwhile employment with Colorado Senator Gordon Allott Andamp160besides there are mitigating considerations such as length of time elapsed and the extent of the employment The above discussion is more limited to those who style themselves as impartial tellers of truth Although I will refrain from speculating about the internal mental states of any particular journalist one does tend to know intuitively that the greatest trick the partisan ever developed was to pretend to be neutralClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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News Journalists and the Pretense of Partisan Neutrality

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Erich J. Prince

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