Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were the dynamic duo of Watergate in the 70’s. Time has revealed a stark difference between the two. Woodward has mellowed a bit and become wiser. Bernstein has shown himself to be the dramatist, seeking relevance and easily taken to hyperbole. Each has taken a stance on the media’s war on Trump- with it’s complete loss of objectivity and outright butt hurt- and they couldn’t be any different.
Woodward believes the media needs to calm down. He thinks the media needs to stay above the fray and maintain a sense of “fair mindedness” when it comes to Trump, in order to keep the public’s trust:
Woodward, the reporter who broke the Nixon Watergate scandal the media now loves to compare to the Trump administration, said it’s crucial the press retain the trust of the public, and execute a deep “fair-mindedness” when reporting.
He pointed to a list of Trump’s “lies” compiled by The New York Times in which some of the president’s are misjudged as an example of overt bias, after he was asked about the media’s treatment of Trump in a Q&A session at Landmark E Street Cinema.
“[Number three on the list] was that Trump said he was on the cover of Time magazine 14 or 15 times when it was in fact 11 times,” Woodward said. “… That’s not a lie.” He likened Trump’s statement instead to someone getting pulled over for speeding and telling the police officer that they were driving the speed limit.
“Tone matters, and headlines matter, and you want people to [trust you],” he said.
“[It] really betrays the anti-Trump media bias,” Woodward added, regarding the media’s coverage of the investigation into Russian meddling in the election. “I think a kind of brief, deeply fair-mindedness is essential, but as essential or maybe more essential is a game plan for reporting this and going to Moscow and finding the bookkeeper.”
Bernstein has called for a “different kind of reporting” when it comes to Trump. He wants the media to do whatever it takes- fairness be damned- when it comes to Trump:
Carl Bernstein is calling on journalists to commit to a “different kind of reporting” in response to a “malignant presidency” unlike any the country has seen before.
“We’re in foreign territory,” Bernstein said Friday on CNN’s “New Day.”
He added, “We have never been in a malignant presidency like this before. It calls on our leaders, it calls on our journalists to do a different kind of reporting, a different kind of dealing with this presidency and the president.”
He says Trump’s attacks on the media are “more treacherous than Nixon’s.”
Not one word about the media’s bald faced lies about Trump. Not a single word as the integrity of the media evaporates.
But hyperbole is nothing new for Bernstein.
2007: Carl Bernstein: Bush Has Done “Far Greater Damage” Than Nixon.
New York – In an online chat at washingtonpost.com this afternoon, Carl Bernstein, the famed Watergate reporter at that paper and now writing articles for Vanity Fair, took several hard shots at the current Bush administration – almost every time he was asked about the Nixon era. It came just as news of the death of former Watergate ringleader E. Howard Hunt was circulating widely.
After a long explanation of how the American system “worked,” eventually, with Watergate, Bernstein said:
In the case of George W. Bush, the American system has obviously failed – tragically – about which we can talk more in a minute. But imagine the difference in our worldview today, had the institutions – particularly of government – done their job to insure that a mendacious and dangerous president (as has since been proven many times over, beyond mere assertion) be restrained in a war that has killed thousands of American soldiers, brought turmoil to the lives of millions, and constrained the goodwill towards the United States in much of the world.
Later, asked if the Nixon administration was unique in hiring disreputable characters, he replied: “Until the Bush-43 administration, I had believed that the Nixon presidency was sui generis in modern American history in terms of your question…
You will note, of course, that Bernstein’s ire is stoked only when a Republican is the President.
Woodward has it right. The media is chasing it’s tail now trying to take Trump down. That is also an assault on the 62 million who voted for Trump. Until they settle down, separate themselves from the personal issues, report facts and stop crying about being butt hurt, they will continue to watch their reputations sink further into the muck.
It was just fine for the New York times to sponsor a play about the assassination of Donald Trump but they crap their pants when Trump releases a parody of himself taking down CNN.
Trump is now living rent free in the heads of the media. He will continue to do so until they suck it up and do their jobs. Don’t expect that to happen any time soon.
(Via Instapundit)
Meanwhile, as the press licks its ego, Donald Trump is actually getting things done. And just maybe that’s what really eating them.
