Media top headlines October 18
In media news today, NBC fact-checks Anthony Fauci's COVID superspreader comments, Jon Stewart says the media is making a 'mistake' casting Trump as a 'supervillain,' and CNN's Brian Stelter frets that Katie Couric's editing scandal further damages the media's reputation
Reporters from several outlets supported calls to end "both-siderism" in media with even harsher treatment of Republicans after another columnist decried covering Democrats too critically.
Los Angeles Times columnist Jackie Calmes published an opinion piece titled "Why journalists are failing the public with ‘both-siderism’ in political coverage." Calmes, a New York Times reporter before joining the Los Angeles Times, called out "journalistic pressure" to produce seemingly balanced stories that prevents journalists from reporting what she referred to as "the new truth."
She targeted journalists who "focus critically on President Biden and Democrats" as opposed to "Republicans’ obstructions."
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"To the extent, then, that journalists and pundits focus critically on President Biden and Democrats and give short shrift to Republicans' obstructions -- as if the cancer of Trumpism was in remission, if not cured -- that indeed distorts reality and disserves readers, listeners and viewers," Calmes wrote.
Calmes repeatedly criticized Republicans, warning that "democracy is literally at stake" surrounding the GOP’s recent election laws.
"This is a Republican Party that is not serious about governing or addressing the nation's actual problems, as opposed to faux ones like critical race theory," Calmes wrote.
She concluded her op-ed writing, "Democrats can't be expected to deal with these guys like they're on the level. Nor should journalists cover them as if they are."
Various journalists or former journalists voiced their support for the op-ed and also condemned an alleged "both-siderism" in reporting.
New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer tweeted, "Good point from longtime reporter @JackieCalmes: Missing from much political coverage is that only one party is even trying to govern."
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New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones added, "Every political journalist should read this and the book ‘How Democracies Die.’"
Former VP at NPR Bill Buzenberg tweeted, "Great Op Ed — important message for every journalist. (NPR and PBS this includes you). Please don’t ‘balance’ the truth with an outright, calculated lie, and call it objective reporting or interviewing."
It was also praised by liberal CNN White House correspondent John Harwood and left-wing commentator Jay Rosen. Both lauded NBC's Lester Holt this year when he proclaimed earlier this year that "fairness is overrated" in journalism.
"I think it’s become clear that fairness is overrated ... The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in," Holt said.
CNN's liberal "Reliable Sources" newsletter team proclaimed it a "sharp critique of bothsidessism."
Fox News reported earlier this year on the growing trend of journalists throwing away the appearance of objectivity to the applause of fellow liberal media figures.
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"I do think it is a trend, and it frankly started with Trump even before all this election stuff," one network news reporter told Fox News Digital at the time.