The headlines today scream, “Koch-backed network aims to spend nearly $1 billion on 2016 elections” as the Koch’s confab in Palm Springs was the setting last weekend for the billionaires to display their first three potential bought-and-paid-for puppets before the other billionaires who hope to get in on the effort to buy the oval office in 2016.
To some fanfare and a bit of criticism, ABC News’ Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl was the “journalist” tapped to moderate a panel between the three wanna-be candidates vying for the big donor bucks from the .0001% in attendance.
The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics states that journalists should “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived,” and “avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.”
To say that Karl is right at home among this group wouldn’t be an understatement.
This is not the first time Karl’s journalistic biases and ethics have been under scrutiny. In 2011, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting noted that Karl was an alum of a media training program aimed at promoting conservative media on college campuses (it highlights Karl as a prominent alum, along with conservative stalwarts Ann Coulter, Dinesh D’Souza,Maggie Gallagher, and Laura Ingraham). The group highlighted numerous cases in which he’d made comments that appeared to favor a right-wing position, including praise for Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) controversial budget plans.
In 2013, Karl had to apologize for an incorrect report in which he mischaracterized White House emails related to the 2012 attacks at U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya and falsely suggested ABC News had reviewed them, when he was relying on an anonymous source. Media experts called the botched report “sloppy” and “inaccurate.”
I still remember when there was a difference between a journalist and a commentator. It appears that objectivity is no longer a requirement when reporting the “news” – which makes sense at a time when the word “literally” no longer literally means “literally”.
The morning show on cable “news” channel MSNBC – Morning Joe – is hosted by a former Republican congressman, Joe Scarborough. More accurately, he’s a former congressman, current Republican, hosting a show on the station positioned as the left’s cable “news” alternative to Fox. His co-host, Mika Brzezinski, ostensibly there to provide the view from the left, does little more than smile adoringly at his demagoguery.
Following a weekend that gave us both Steve King’s parade of political panderers in Iowa and the Koch-kissing cabal, one might expect that the cable-news channel aimed toward the Democrats might present a somewhat objective look at the gang hoping to get an early jump on the big money in play for 2016. Instead, we got Joe & Mika Make a Porno, aka Koch Sucking in the Morning!
Think I’m kidding? Take a look for yourself:
Interestingly enough, although the Morning Joe page at MSNBC.com features lots of the show’s segments, this one isn’t there. Thanks to ThinkProgress.org for posting it!
Just to be sure I wasn’t unfairly calling the Morning Joke gang out, I did a Google search for Morning Joe/ Koch Brothers. All I found were attacks on anyone who dared criticize the billionaire brothers. Hypocrisy much?
Today on the show, the always brilliant Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, joined me to talk a bit more about the Kochs and the massive amount of money they’re willing to spend to buy the White House in 2016, just as they took advantage of the SCOTUS rulings on Citizens United and McCutcheon to buy the Senate last November.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
And because we need to counter the madness with laughter, GottaLaff joined me in the second hour to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
And, oh yeah, it snowed in the northeast. Note to media: Not everyone lives in the northeast. Some of us live in places that have weather too, and we don’t expect the rest of the world to stop because it’s raining here. But when we do have a hurricane, it would be nice if you devoted a few minutes to cover it too.
That said, to my friends in New England: stay warm and dry.
Talk to you tomorrow, radio or not!
