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PrintApril 29, 2009
David Broder and the Passing of Old Media Journalism
The demise of David Broder's objectivity as an old media journalist illustrates the end of an era.
Broder was once a fixture on the Sunday morning news shows like Meet the Press and Washington Week in Review. His deadpan, professorial demeanor supported the calm, reasoned meter of his delivery. Were he a film actor, he could have played a dispassionate undertaker or a cold accountant.
At all times, he reflected his academically-trained resume. Although his points-of-view were not uncontestable, he did give evidence of having thought about them.
Since 1966, he's made his home at the Washington Post where his articles have influenced millions of readers.
On the eve of the anniversary created by the media, a resident's first 100 Days in office, Broder wrote an article entitled "Management skills get Obama off to good start."
The first 119 words of the article read as follows:
As we approach the 100-day mark for the Obama administration, you will hear and see a wide variety of grades for the new president's performance.
Remember this. What has happened so far is no more than the overture to the first act of this opera. The big stuff is still to come. The soprano has not opened her mouth for her signature aria. That will be health care reform. The devilish baritone is still offstage. Wait for the first international crisis.
Barack Obama has launched a lot of schemes but has fulfilled few of them. What he has shown - and it is an important accomplishment in itself - is a mastery of the art of managing the presidency.
The Cliff Notes version could read this way:
As we grade the Obama administration today, we note that his biggest challenges lie ahead. But, he's already mastered the art of managing the presidency.
Arguing the existence of old liberal media bias to most American Thinker readers is preaching to the choir. The media's sycophancy toward candidate Obama, and now President Obama, will someday be the subject of historical studies. But today, people either see it or they don't. And most of us have friends dissimilarly sighted.
Every once in a while a journalist or commentator (like Chris Matthews with the tingling leg) writes or says something that stands out among the superabundant laudatory remarks for the ages.
The notion that Barack Obama has mastered the art of managing the Executive Branch of the government in little more than three months is so ludicrous on its face that it's embarrassing to the memory of what was once a fine journalist, even if you didn't always agree with his opinions.
Obama's selection for Vice President is a walking gaffe machine -- an animated whoopi cushion. A noteworthy series of Obama's cabinet nominees failed the tax test, including the tax master himself.
Obama's understanding of international protocol is, at best, crude. He cracks a joke about the people in the Special Olympics. He's reported as being unaware of the Tea Parties.
He chums it up with his new friends Hugo, Raul and Danny; then they stiff him in the Declaration of Cumana where capitalism is said to threaten life on the planet. His Press Secretary is a certified lightweight communicator. His Secretary of Homeland Security begs the question -- So whose homeland is she securing? The list of management missteps goes on.
Now, his 358,000 pound Boeing 747 buzzes the site of the 9/11 attack, sending frightened New Yorkers into the street running like Godzilla was coming, and he says he found out about it the same time Broder's colleagues did. (Do you know where your car is?)
This is mastering the "art of managing the presidency." It just takes your breath away.
On the anniversary of the next 9/11, Mr. Broder will turn 80.
"As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary."
- Ernest Hemingway
Maybe that explains it.
