Brought on to discuss “the emerging crisis in journalism and constant clashes over dissenting views at major news organizations,” during Sunday’s MediaBuzz on Fox News Channel, Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace unloaded on The New York Times for their fiasco regarding Senator Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) recent op-ed, as well as the media writ-large for acting as anti-Trump advocates instead of professional journalists.
Teeing up his guest to comment on The Times, anchor Howard Kurtz wondered: “Is journalism becoming more intolerant?”
“You know, it feels like the inmates are running the asylum,” Wallace said. “You know, I've been critical sometimes of The Times and I think that their liberal tendency tends to bleed out onto their news coverage; some people have accused Fox of the same thing in terms of our tendencies. But I thought what happened in the last week at The Times was just extraordinary.”
After giving a rundown of what happened inside The Times, how editors defended publishing the op-ed before capitulating to newsroom outrage, Wallace described it as “a profile in a lack of courage.”
Prefacing his next question, Kurtz pointed out that a double standard existed when it came to reporting on Trump, which dated back to his candidacy:
Now, my view is that this double standard, this new woke standard may have it roots in part in candidate Trump, that there were many journalists in this country who decided they would just toss out the old rule book of standards and fairness because they deemed Donald Trump to be such a threat to the country, they wanted to stop him from winning the White House, then they wanted to get him impeached, now they want to see him defeated in November.
Wallace completely agreed but argued “it's even worse than that,” and pointed to how people compliment him on being a fair journalist.
“It used to be that fairness was what kept you from getting fired. That was the minimum requirement for a reporter is that you're fair,” he lamented. “I think that it's gotten so polarized whether it's on cable news, whether it's in newspapers, that fairness is kind of unusual and that is a terribly sad reflection on our of business.”
Shortly thereafter, Wallace took to blasting the White House press pool, where he used to work. “Some of the press briefings -- the White House press corps is supposed to be one of the top jobs in journalism -- it's more playing gotcha or just trying to get in arguments and advance their point of view,” he decried.
Irked by the state of things, Wallace called out the White House press pool for being “anti-Trump advocates” and not journalists:
That's not what we're supposed to be doing. That's what I see too often among my colleagues in the media. I'm not holding myself up as something grand. But I think too many reporters have fallen into the role of being advocates and, frankly, with this President, anti-Trump advocates. And we've got to be neutral. We've got to play it straight and call balls and strikes whether it's something the President does that's good or of bad, or whether it's something that Joe Biden does that's good or bad. I don't think we can be taking a side in this argument.
“Yeah. And unfortunately, I think taking a side, if you're catering to the anti-Trump side, has become a business model for many organizations,” Kurtz poignantly deduced.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz
June 14, 2020
11:32:42 a.m. EasternHOWARD KURTZ: Back to our top story, the emerging crisis in journalism and constant clashes over dissenting views at major news organizations. Joining us now is Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday and author of a new book, Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days that Changed the World. Welcome, Chris.
CHRIS WALLACE: Good to be with you, Howie.
KURTZ: Is journalism becoming more intolerant? I mean, 10 or 20 years ago would we have seen the publisher of The New York Times completely flipping and criticizing a conservative op-ed that he defended because a bunch of newsroom staffers didn't like it.
WALLACE: You know, it feels like the inmates are running the asylum. You know, I've been critical sometimes of The Times and I think that their liberal tendency tends to bleed out onto their news coverage, some people have accused Fox of the same thing in terms of our tendencies. But I thought what happened in the last week at The Times was just extraordinary.
So, Tom Cotton writes this article about sending the army, send in the military to quell the protests at the height of all of the violence and it's in the op-ed page. The op-ed page where you get columns and various views of various political stripes. And there was a tremendous blowback from inside The Times and so much so that the publisher, as you say, Mr. Sulzberger decided he had to defend it. And then there was so much more blowback that he caved. He then said it was bad. The paper said it was bad. They apologized for it. And the op-ed editor, a pretty distinguished journalist named James Bennett, I'm not quite sure whether he quit or was fired. It was a profile in a lack of courage.
KURTZ: It's clear that he was forced out. Now, given the long history of racism and police brutality in this country, crystalized by the killing of George Floyd, does it now seem to you that there are many people in newsrooms, this goes far beyond The New York Times, who just don't believe that dissenting views; let's say, sending in the military to control riots should be aired at all, that it's too offensive to them?
WALLACE: Yes. Clearly, if you read some of the tweets, some of the online statements that members of The New York Times reporters in The Times said, that's exactly what they were saying.
(…)
KURTZ: Now, my view is that this double standard, this new woke standard may have it roots in part in candidate Trump, that there were many journalists in this country who decided they would just toss out the old rule book of standards and fairness because they deemed Donald Trump to be such a threat to the country, they wanted to stop him from winning the White House, then they wanted to get him impeached, now they want to see him defeated in November.
Do you agree with me and do you think it's a slippery slope?
WALLACE: Yeah, I absolutely do. But I think it's even worse than that. And it didn't start, in my opinion, with Donald Trump. Just put it in personal terms. I get complimented a lot when people see me -- they're not seeing me much right now with the quarantining. I get complimented for being fair. And while on the other hand I like compliments, I actually find it fairly depressing. Because as you and I know – you’re not as old as I am, but I’ll call us both older timers -- it used to be that fairness was what kept you from getting fired. That was the minimum requirement for a reporter is that you're fair.
(…)
KURTZ: You didn't get a medal for being fair.
WALLACE: Yeah. But today, I think that it's gotten so polarized whether it's on cable news, whether it's in newspapers, that fairness is kind of unusual and that is a terribly sad reflection on our of business.
(…)
WALLACE: You see some reporters now who have become advocates. I see it in the press briefings now. You know, I was pretty tough in the press briefings with Ronald Reagan and his press secretaries in the '80s. But we were trying to get information. Some of the press briefings -- the White House press corps is supposed to be one of the top jobs in journalism -- it's more playing gotcha or just trying to get in arguments and advance their point of view.
That's not what we're supposed to be doing. That's what I see too often among my colleagues in the media. I'm not holding myself up as something grand. But I think too many reporters have fallen into the role of being advocates and, frankly, with this President, anti-Trump advocates. And we've got to be neutral. We've got to play it straight and call balls and strikes whether it's something the President does that's good or of bad, or whether it's something that Joe Biden does that's good or bad. I don't think we can be taking a side in this argument.
KURTZ: Yeah. And unfortunately, I think taking a side, if you're catering to the anti-Trump side, has become a business model for many organizations.
(…)
