Games Journalists Play

Sometimes, as a journalist, you have to reach out for comment on a story that you may not have a lot of time to finish up. You send an email or make a phone call, only it’s too late.

I remember reaching out to the county sheriff back in my newspaper days, only he’d left for the day and I had no way of getting hold of him before the deadline. He called me the next day, upset, but when I discussed it with him, he got where I was coming from and gave me his cell phone number.

I also did a story for the next edition including his comments on the subject.

You see, I generally try to do the right thing, though I’m not always successful. I’m human and fallible.

However, sometimes, there’s no “fallibility” excuse that is going to fly, like this stunt pulled by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow:

Jeremy Redfern @JeremyRedfernFL

Hey @maddow, Is there a reason you didn’t finish reading the rest of the sentence from that statement I sent you?

January 28th 2022

6,573 Retweets25,470 Likes

Redfern is the press secretary for the Florida Department of Health.

Now, it’s possible that while the reached out to comment at the last minute for some reason, he’s not wrong that it’s often an attempt to honestly say you asked for a comment without actually having to get a comment.

And based on the way Maddow framed his response on her show—in a manner made to look particularly flippant but also to hide the games her staff played—I’d be very surprised if that’s the case.

Yet what Maddow forgets is that if this were done by email, then Redfern has a copy as well. Only a fool would think he wouldn’t release it.

And only an even bigger fool would think that someone like me wouldn’t grab hold of it and make a thing out of it.

Meanwhile, people like Maddow and her buddies and MSNBC and CNN seriously wonder why the American public doesn’t trust the media anymore. They’re shocked and appalled not to be held in the highest esteem.

But why would anyone hold them as such?

Look, I get having to reach out at the 11th hour to get a comment from someone. But when you actually get that comment, don’t play games with it to try and make that person look bad.

Then again, what else should we expect from Maddow?

See, the problem is that the American public wouldn’t lack trust in journalists if so many activists weren’t pretending to actually be journalists. That’s all Maddow is. She’s a progressive operative masquerading as a news commentator. She has no interest in the truth, just what she can buffalo the American public into believing.

At least MSNBC doesn’t pretend to be neutral, so Maddow has that going for her, at least.

CNN gets no such excuse, and they play the same kind of games.

Meanwhile, because of this, people don’t trust the media anymore. Hell, I’m part of the media and I don’t trust it, so I can hardly blame anyone else.

If the media wants to change it, it’s time to stop playing these games.