I tuned in to The Rachel Maddow Show tonight, actually the podcast, hoping somehow to have an apology for her guest Pat Buchanan the night before. I knew she wasn’t going to take direct shots at him, a man who by loose definition, is a colleague.
What I believed would happen is that she would acknowledge the pain, anger, and frustration of her audience as we listened to his racist bile. She would let us know with certainty that she did not agree with his words. She would not provide full satisfaction, however, because she would not be making the announcement that his career on her network had ended with that broadcast.
Instead, Rachel Maddow presented a contrast so stark as to make any mention of Buchanan a defilement. She had to announce that the great Walter Cronkite had died. She correctly dedicated the entire broadcast to news of his passing, remembrances and official messages of condolence.
She had 2 of the best possible guests to help remember Cronkite. Tom Brokow, and of course, Dan Rather. Brokow kindly mentioned the third of his generation of anchormen, the late Peter Jennings, and the way the three were influenced by the way Cronkite had defined the role of reporter-anchor.
Rachel sweetly acknowledged how she was “humbled” by her 2 interviewees, in the context of covering the death of Walter Cronkite, saying “she felt like she’d just been moved up from the kids’ table at Thanksgiving,” in their presence.
Had “Uncle Walter,” lacked his deep integrity and sense of mission, the “most trusted man in America” he would have wielded far too much power. He did decide what it was important for us to know, and what was fit to report in the homes of millions of Americans.
That was an editorial role that even with the best intentions told us what to think just by what was selected and the effort made to remove any bias.
Television news, if it can still be called that, is vastly changed. There are any number of on-air and cable sources, from shows that still follow the traditional format–to a lesser extent, to those that have little mission but to provide entertainment. In addition, are the news programs that seek to speak to audiences with an ideological bent, starting with Fox, that at best, caters to conservatives and at worst, to the lowest common denominator of listeners, happy to repeat known untruths that it’s audience have come to believe as articles of faith.
Counterbalancing Fox and Fox wannabes is the recent ascent of MSNBC’s evening shows with Schultz, Olbermann, Matthews, and Maddow.
These shows do still try and present supported, well documented, credible news stories. But with a more liberal editorial slant, one that they make no secret of. (Fox presents its very tilted news as being “fair and balanced,” attributes that most thinking people see as ironic or an outright lie.)
It was interesting tonight, as it was around the inauguration of President Barack Obama, to see the MSNBC anchors leave off their entertainment orientation and present the news straight, much as the long traditions they were reporting on. In both cases, it was the only right thing to do, and there was no question.
My satisfaction regarding allowing Pat Buchanan on the air will have to wait for another day. Maybe that satisfaction is a long time coming. If I live longer than Mr. Buchanan, I’ll remember that Walter Cronkite occupied many headlines. Buchanan will be a footnote and missed by few.
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