Mistruths and Snark Combined in Andy Kessler’s Good Riddance to Public Media

Rarely does a Wall Street Journal op-ed eschew snark, righteous indignation, sanctimony, and arrogance. It comes with the territory, but I would not expect writers to get away with mistruths and overstatements to make their assertions more credible and vivid.

Along comes today’s good riddance to government subsidized public media from a hectoring Andy Kessler: We Won’t Miss Government Media; available at:  https://www.wsj.com/opinion/we-wont-miss-government-media-ce321e65 (may be firewall protected). While I agree with Mr. Kessler on the need for a robust First Amendment and quite limited government involvement in speech, the op-ed contains unnecessary hyperbole and worse added to prove his point.

Mr. Kessler refers to a surely unscientific, if not fictitious, survey of the political affiliation of NPR’s Washington, D.C. editorial staff, as reported by a senior editor there. Mr. Kessler, must have the damaging survey results right on his desk: 87 Democrats, presumably including Mr. Kessler’s source, and 0 Republicans. 

Mr. Kessler assumes that such skewed results directly impact the substance of NPR’s reporting.  Who can be “fair and balanced” if everyone has an affiliation with the Democrats?  Mr. Kessler asserts that NPR is awash with politicization and “swamp support,” easily inferred as Democrats, who also are card carrying members of the scum that he so loathes.

Mr. Kessler sees no need for taxpayer funded public media, but I wonder whether he objects to other forms of financial support for conservative radio voices, including nonprofit status that reduces or eliminates tax liability. He also sees no need for radio, at least public media, given the cornucopia of podcasts.

This independent, far from liberal, rural resident listens to and supports public media, because I seek a fair, balanced, and journalistically superior product.

I know it when I hear it.

 

 

Side-by-Side Truth and Mistruth in the Wall Street Journal

             Even as the Wall Street Journal continues to provide important news reporting, its opinion pieces grow ever snarkier and more deceitful.  In the April 23, 2021 edition, readers will see varying degrees in the representation of the truth contained in two opinion pieces, each referring the American Civil Liberties Union.

             In an opinion authored by the Editorial Board,  the Journal notes that the ACLU, true to its longstanding mission, has joined conservative groups in opposing legislation in California requiring organizations qualifying as charities to disclose the identity of their contributors.  (See https://www.wsj.com/articles/donor-disclosure-arrives-at-the-supreme-court-11619217816).

           In this opinion, one could infer that the Journal authors see the ACLU as fair minded, still willing to take controversial and perhaps counterintuitive sides in litigation.

             In another opinion piece in the same online edition, (see https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-have-more-police-shootings-11619213893?mod=trending_now_opn_1), Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. appears to suggest that any arrested person risks death by resisting, even after police have subdued the arrestee.  Did Mr. Jenkins imply that any degree form of resisting arrest entitle police to punish the arrestee, seemingly with no constraint? 

             Mr. Jenkins also even parts company with his usually like-minded editorial writers at the Journal, at least insofar as his perception of the ACLU.  Unlike the Editorial Board opinion noting the ACLU remains an advocate, even for conservative-championed privacy and First Amendment freedom, Mr. Jenkins characterizes the current ACLU as “lately morphed into a pro-censorship promoter of progressive causes.”

             Has Mr. Jenkins concluded that he should continue to target and vilify the ACLU even when it shares his views?