If a reporter from an ideologically-anchored publication interrupts a President by shouting out questions right in the middle of his statement and it’s unprecedented, will some partisans immediately rush to his side to defend him and claim this is the way real, respectable, professional journalists operate? Yep.
Will all his fellow partisans defend him? Happily: Nope. But once again the bar has been lowered on how political business is conducted in the United States — lowered so far that the sharks are now ordering Bloody Marys.
The bar was lowered on June 15 when The Daily Caller reporter Neil Munro interrupted President Barack Obama as Obama was delivering a statement on his administration’s historical immigration policy shift. Munro later claimed he didn’t intend to interrupt, but at least one journalist there insists it was clear he did and video confirms that view.
Munro yelled a question akin to one that would be screeched by an ideological cable talk show host: “Mr. President, why do you favor foreign workers over Americans?” The defenders (the green-card carrying) of Munro, including his enabling, cheering-section boss Tucker Carlson, later defended his question, equating Munro with retired ABC newsman Sam Donaldson’s shout outs to President Reagan. Donaldson told The Huffington Post: “Never once did I interrupt a president in any way while he was making a formal statement, a speech, honoring awardees or in any other way holding the floor.”
In reality, Munro wasn’t emulating Donaldson. He seemed to be channeling the late, obnoxious Morton Downey, Jr. Some conservatives later got footage showing Reagan interrupted as he was turning a podium over to someone else. But the bottom line is authentic journalists at all media levels and political persuasions have never screamed out questions at public officials who are speaking, even if they don’t think they’re getting answers.
If journalists interrupted every politician they felt was not being candid answering questions, politicians would have to learn to sign and mime. And Mitt Romney — who evaded Bob Schieffer’s question several times about whether he’d rescind Obama’s immigration order — would be the first in line.
The larger issue is that we’re again seeing the bar lowered on expected and “given” behaviors in American discourse in the never ending partisan struggle for power and political dominance. It’s not just about civility. It’s about being willing to listen to another point of view without trying to drown someone out, keep him from making an argument, or demonizing him.
If this behavior is allowed to stand and not totally repudiated, then it will occur again. And if it does, say goodbye to any vestige of politicians or leaders being allowed to finish statements or speeches without being interrupted by some loudmouth who wants to advance his career, or who has a political axe to grind, or who has an editor who realizes that notoriety brings hits, readership and audience share from many like-minded, angry partisans.
Reporters everywhere let officials deliver speeches and public statements and ask questions after. When I was a reporter in Spain, India, Baja California, California and Kansas, not one American or foreign reporter would ever interrupt an official speech or statement because they were there to gather information — not to halt information that was being given.
Top conservative media types (Michael Medved, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Kristol, and Chris Wallace) were critical of Munro and Carlson. Meanwhile, CNN”s Don Lemon did a withering piece taking Munro and Carlson to task — even asking Carlson how he would have liked it if someone had interrupted him when he was performing on “Dancing with the Stars.”
And Carlson? His descent from a once promising young, serious conservative pundit into partisan hackery was complete when he told Fox News’ Andy Levy that he was “proud” of Munro and not worried about “thinking through the consequences for society.” (Oh.)
Due to his being an editor who enables and encourages his reporters to discard worldwide standards of journalistic behavior, I suspect the even the sharks wouldn’t let Carlson sit at their bar far below.
They’d tell him to go jump in the lake — and sit with the crappies.
Copyright 2012 Joe Gandelman. Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote for newspapers overseas and in the United States. He is Editor-in-Chief of The Moderate Voice, an Internet hub for independents, centrists and moderates. He can be reached at jgandelman@themoderatevoice.com.
Masterrogue666 posted at 8:41 pm on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
President Obama doesn't repect the MAJORITY of US citizen's opinions. You want respect, you've got to earn it. This President is a complete failure in that department....
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:27 am on Sat, Jun 23, 2012.
The Columnist, Mr. Gandelman, from "The Moderate Voice" is no more "moderate" than those folks over at MSNBC.
"Moderate" is just another synonym for "Liberal/Progressive/Democrat".
Don't beleive me.....then go look at the Columnist's "The Moderate Voice" website.
1. An article moaning about all the "patriotic" newspaper articles from Memorial Day where Americans remember and honor our Military Fallen Heroes and July 4th, Americia's Birthday............just something more for the "non-Moderate" Moderates to ridicule and demean Patriotic Americans.
2. An article extolling President Obama's Appearance before the Pro-Illegal Alien Amnesty Convention in Florida.
The EVT reader can also go into this Newspaper's "search" and type in "Gandelman" and this Columnist's previous EVT columns will be displayed...be sure and read Mr. Gandelman's past Column......'SKIN COLOR NEVER A SMALL ISSUE"........................yup, Folks ....this "moderate" Columnist throws out the old "race card" just like all the...........LIBERALS/PROGRESSIVES and DEMOCRATS".....that we read and shake our heads in disbelief.
chatmandu002 posted at 10:07 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
Shame, shame on Mr Munro for interrupting our Imperial President while pandering for votes. LOL
mrconservative posted at 8:42 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
Munro hardly screamed out the question. And Obama was visibly angry. How can anyone defend that? He was very condenscending. And very obnoxious.
mrconservative posted at 8:40 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
The Fox News Channel is in reality the only "right-wing" news media. All the others are very liberal. Ever heard of Bill Maher? Brian Williams?
chuckles3 posted at 3:35 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
I guess the bar wasn't lowered when reporters were interrupting Reagan in the the 80's. Please do your research before you tsk tsk somebody doing a reporters job-unlike the left wing cheering section this Prez usually enjoys.
In my experience, "Moderate" is a short word for "I'm really a liberal but don't like the label"
And AZ Willie, you have been in the Sun way too long if you think there is right wing slant to the mainstream news networks.....one example...remember the daily body counts out of Iran and Afghanistan when Bush was in the WH? The solemn stories on the 1000th, 2000th death of our brave soldiers in Iran?
Well, we just passed 2000 in Afghanistan and what did we hear from the mainstream? Crickets.
VofReason posted at 3:32 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
Yes, that right wing slant on all the news is troublesome. A Fish don't know that they are in water.
Arizona Willie posted at 1:16 pm on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
One of the main problems is that all of the major media is owned by only 6 corporations.
And the MBA bean counters have control and the only thing that counts is profit ... profit ... profit ... and then more profit.
All of them are owned by Republicans so you have a right wing slant on all the major news.
sockratties posted at 8:02 am on Fri, Jun 22, 2012.
This incident has occurred as a result of the shift in news media from informant and public watchdog to entertainment. I’m surprised we don’t see olympic style signs being held up at political debates scoring the candidates. Political hacks are right at home in this arena because it is about profit over substance. It all began when 60 Minutes attracted more viewers than other prime time shows. Dumb down the audience, dumb down the candidates, make pseudo-reporters into stars and forget about the issues. The breed of White House pet or the First Lady’s dress becomes more important than our fiscal policies.