I had never thought about it quite this way. But, he’s right. When one of the Sunday morning talk shows invites Gingrich on to speak, it has a way of washing away his accumulated sins so that he can go forth and sin some more. There really ought to be more shunning and much less forgiveness in the relationship between our media and our political leaders.
You come on my show and tell a lie? You don’t get invited back. You come on my show and tell a bunch of lies and won’t take correction? We’re not even finishing this segment. Get the hell out!
I know this is hard to do because you are in a competition for guests. But the only thing interesting about Newt Gingrich (or Donald Trump, for that matter) is that they lie so brazenly without paying any price.
Personally, I think the media’s standard should be total embarrassment if someone comes on their show and tells an uncorrected lie. And if they won’t take correction, they shouldn’t be considered credible enough to have any airtime. Why run the risk of deceiving your viewers.
Another thing the media should do is a weekly accounting of everyone who came on their network and said something grossly inaccurate. In real time, you can’t always know that some statistic is utter bullshit. But it shouldn’t be allowed to stand.
I’d watch more political teevee if it cared about the truth.
Which is why I no longer watch Sunday morning shows. At all! Bad for the blood pressure.
Yes, when they’re interviewing politicians, for the most part it’s just spin, exaggeration or outright lies. Doesn’t interest me at all. At least someone like George Will speaks his mind. His opinions may be wrong, even asinine, a good chunk of the time, but there’s enough sincerity to make it interesting.
Booman, you and the rest of us would watch more if some value were placed on truth, but that assumes the news shows are more about news than profit and entertainment. Unfortunately, we’re not typical viewers and the networks are all about, or at least mostly about, the money.
If the Show had a rep of booting liars off, it would be quite entertaining, and could run in prime-time.
“I’m sorry, you are the biggest LIAR! Good-bye!”
Of course, the GOP would whine and boycott it after the first couple of episodes. Unless the ratings were really, really good.
In Village media, there’s no such thing as a lie, only one person’s opinion and another person’s opinion. Neither is intrinsically right or wrong, even if one is factually accurate and the other is not. It’s all about spin and The Game.
In the past, this sort of behavior was called “moral relativism” and the right hated it – until they figured out that they could make it work for them really well. And they do.
Standards? Competition for Guests? John McCain is on one of the Sunday show almost every week…and he has said nothing new in at least the last 15 years. What needs to change is the people that ask the questions. It is so time for a non cuban latino to ask some questions on sunday. Oh and the reporter that took us to Capone’s secret vault does not count.
The persistence of mccain remains one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. He’s totally irrelevant, and yet, there he is.
I think that’s what the North Vietnamese eventually decided.
That did feel out of bounds? Ouchy.
Reporter!?!?!?
Well, by Sunday morning standards, I suppose so, yes.
Boo:
How can you expect the Sunday shows to hold anyone accountable when we hear today that one of the denizens of CNN’s flagship Sunday gabfest is a fraud, cheat, liar and phony himself. I’m talking about Fareed Zakaria. And there was Jonah Lehrer of course. Versailles is almost as corrupt as the clowns(85% of them) that they cover.
it appears zakaria has a rather extensive history vis-à vis “recycling”:
isn’t it interesting that he’s never been sanctioned before…
Neither was Lehrer before he got axed. They never get caught, until they do.
I wonder now, what if a show really held that out as a standard? I mean, telling the truth? The assumption is that no one would appear on that show. It is indeed the accepted view.
But what if the narcissism of someone like Gingrich all but forced him to accept the implicit challenge? I suspect he could not bring himself to believe that someone could get the best of him or put him in a bad light. I would think that the monstrous egos of some of these people cold not even comprehend that every word they say would not be regarded as a dazzling exposition of righteousness.
I mean, I don’t think an idiot like Palin ever, for even a nanosecond, thinks to herself “Now, did I sound stupid saying that?”
I’d like to see someone at least give it a whirl. I’m sure there would be more than one guest available. “Well, so-and-so sounded like an idiot, but I wouldn’t.”
You’d have to stack guests three-deep – go two weeks without guests and your show is cooked.
Like Fluffyhead’s show isn’t cooked now? Does anyone under 65 watch it? Anyone under 50?
A similar policy needs to exist for lying in background statements. “If you lie to me, I will out you from background.”