I think Jonathan Chait did a masterful takedown of Sam Youngman, but I couldn’t really enjoy it because, despite all the flaws in Youngman’s piece, I think he was mostly correct on his key point. I think merely being in Washington DC does something negative to reporters. Far and away, most of the political commentators that I enjoy do not live anywhere near the capital. And I find that those who must work that beat and develop sources and compete with each other for attention, tend to become almost relentlessly cynical, but cynical about the wrong things.
They get caught up in the game and focus on the score. That can be their own personal score: their place in the pecking order. But it is more often the polls, the outlook for the next election, who’s winning the news cycle, etc. Those are the facts they focus on when they try to educate the public. For the less partisan journalists, there is a tendency to take this a step further and actually lend credence to a lot of bullshit, either because they cynically see it as effective, or because they don’t want to anger their sources and lose access to them. You don’t educate people when you give up on the importance of the truth. It’s always tough to balance the need to nurture sources with the imperative to report the truth as you understand it, but a lot of Washington reporters do a very pitiful job of it.
It’s easy to mock much of Youngman’s piece, but its confessional nature argues against taking it too personally. I think the following is dead-on:
I suppose part of my disillusionment had to do with my breakup with bourbon, after a real-life, devastating romantic breakup that was followed by a downward spiral. When I returned from my 28 days in rehab, in January 2010, it was harder to ignore the near criminal disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country, especially in an industry that has turned neighbors against each other while its instigators clock out and meet for a beer together, skilled actors who in many cases spend the day feigning hatred for each other on camera but are actually bound by their shared nihilism and reckless self-absorption. In Washington, a divided America is good for business.
The saying there that indicates someone can be trusted as a source or Washington “friend” is that he or she gets the joke. Without a drink (or seven) at the end of the work day, the joke just wasn’t funny to me anymore.
Not every Washington reporter is fairly treated in that representation. Much of it would be more fairly placed at the feet of pundits and operatives. So, I understand why many Washington-based journalists have pushed back and blamed Youngman for his own decisions and refused to be painted with his brush. Yet, there is no question in my mind that there is a disconnect between what most Washington reporters are focused on and what really matters to most Americans. I think the problem is primarily with Congress, which has reached a point of dysfunction that encourages nihilistic coverage, and which is reflected in the historically low public-approval numbers they are receiving. A town without hope cultivates cynical reporting.
That’s why Youngman is correct that getting out of town for a while can be a real tonic. But it’s the capital, and someone has to stay and cover what goes on. That’s why Youngman is wrong to offer a blanket solution of self-exile. That might work on a personal level, but it won’t fix what’s wrong with Washington-based journalism.
Well, these points certainly reinforce the adage that shit runs downhill. Because when you’re a grassroots activist, like many here, you see the effect of this nihilistic paradigm on the views expressed and attitudes held by many of your friends and neighbors. It has infected everything, all the way down to the local level.
The cynicism that originates in the circle of DC operatives, pundits and politicians is blasted out from the radios and televisions in every nook and cranny of every burg, borough, township and village in this country. And it is now so deeply rooted in the political psyche of regular citizens, that it is hard to even get anyone interested enough to stick their toe in the water of the politics that should matter most to them, and that is local politics.
I shouldn’t let it bother me. Things have been this way for some time. But when you go out there, week after week, and bang your head against a proverbial wall trying to convince people of the personal relevance of good governance and all you get thrown back at you is this same disillusionment and disgust cited by Youngman, you really do begin to wonder if anything really fucking matters anymore. The whole system, from the top down, is just a major clusterfuck. And the supposed sentinels at the gate for the citizenry are all just treating it like one big fucking game. It makes me really want to hate those bastards. In some ways, I already do.
What makes it worse is that Chait is no different than Youngman, except Chait is still in DC.
At least Chait wrote a readable piece. Had to give in to my eyes glazing over halfway through Youngman’s piece. A visceral and intuitive response that is close to 100% accurate in telling me that I’m reading BS.
Well, dayumm, Mr. BooMan. What an on-target kick-ass take on the controversy between Chait and Youngman.
Yes, the joke is getting a little thin. Especially when anything done bipartisan winds up screwing the rest of the country.
The first step is admitting there is a problem. DC is no where near taking that first step. So fixing what is wrong with DC ain’t gonna happen.
I also wondered if Youngman was trying to ride the vehicle that Leibovich rekindled with his book in July, “This Town”. Chait did a good job dismissing Youngman, and deservedly so, but I think Chait deliberately misleads on the main point. I’m less interested in the self serving tone of Youngman’s piece than Chait’s failure to deal with the obtuse, ignorant, pompous habits of beltway media.
So what is this whole dance about? This makes me think back to Colbert’s masterful skewering of the White House correspondents dinner. Are there any more “confessionals”, faux or legitimate, on the way? More of these “journalists” have to be thinking that maybe they really are out of touch and maybe the rest of the country really does resent them. Are beltway infotainers nervous about their TV ratings if more people in the US wake up about the BS they promote?
No matter what our political leaning, ambitions, differences or policies, there is no effective national process without good information. There are a lot of causes for our malfunctioning government, but the for profit industry of misinformation will always have the power to enable or sabotage this nation. A pox on all of them.
These are important overtures towards something that could be fantastic in the long run, but they’re still nowhere near achieving the necessary enlightenment that will make it possible.
These people all have dim apprehensions that something’s very wrong…but they can’t get outside their own limited, solipsistic focus and see the real problems.
In the end I don’t care about their personalities, their proclivities, their “weaknesses.” These are just the first steps. What matters is that they grow up and start to see the very real, concrete reporting biases and policy-related effects of what they’re doing wrong.
Chait, Youngman…all of them. They all need to take the next step down the path and recognize that, beyond their own narcissism, there’s a whole world of real politics and real causes and effects that’s in desparate need of repair.