The meteoric rise of Donald Trump during this campaign season has been something to marvel at, even if his rise has been alarming to many.
There are very few voices in today’s news culture that carry weight with them, that bring a sense of unbiased truth that Americans trust. The news media has broken down to political leanings, which is why someone like Dan Rather speaking out about the rise of Trump is important. According to the Huffington Post, the former CBS News anchor spoke during CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday about the rise of Trump and his criticisms pointed back at the media.
Dan Rather, along with former NBC News host Tom Brokaw, are perhaps remnants of the past, but are still names that the American public are programmed to believe and value their opinions. At least those who remember them. During his interview today, Rather spoke of the media’s complicity with the rise of Donald Trump to help to bolster their ratings.
The other thing that’s disappointed me a bit, and I do think there’s been some media complicity in the rise of Trump. It’s not the only factor, but it has been a factor of providing him so much airtime, and in some cases being complicit in arranging that airtime. So there’s some serious questions. But for the news viewer, for the consumer of news, I think never more has it been necessary to deal with skepticism. Not cynicism, never cynicism but skepticism. Skepticism, saying OK, Trump is on for an hour and a half on this network. Why is he there? The answer, of course, is because he’s very good for ratings and very good for demographics.
He continued to speak about how Donald Trump is incredibly media savvy, but how the media lost their credibility when they fail to present it in an objective fashion by also providing a counterpoint and explanation to their viewers and readers.
But the control has to stay with the journalistic entity. What I worry about is in a way that the media is a political partner, a business partner of Donald Trump. The media wants the ratings. I don’t except myself from this criticism, by the way. Media wants the ratings. Trump delivers the ratings. So in a way, they’re business partners, where the role of the journalist is to be an adversary. So I think the defense is make an editorial judgment, make sure you offer the same to the other side.
Rather has kept a lower profile in recent years after his departure from CBS, moving to Mark Cuban’s AXS TV where he hosted Dan Rather Reports until 2013 and now hosts The Big Interview With Dan Rather that focuses on interviews with influential entertainment figures as opposed to covering hard news.
(Via Huffington Post)