Monday, July 10, 2006
The Arrogance of the Media - The New York Times and Media Voices
Well, it has now been two week since the New York Times did their third exposing of secrets in the past year. And Bill Keller is out there saying things like “the terrorists didn’t learn anything” and “this will have a chilling effect on journalism. So why do I say arrogance?
Quite honestly the New York Times and their defenders sound an awful lot like the medieval Catholic Church - the only voice of authority and the one voice that cannot be questioned in any situation.
This is dangerous, very dangerous. First off, because the media is not one of the three institutions that the Constitution establishes. Yes, we have the First Amendment (which I am a great supporter of, though I wish that the media were as great of defenders of the right to worship/practice faith). But the First Amendment does not make the media the supreme power of the land, the one institution whose actions cannot be questioned. They are not, so to speak, the voice of God on earth.
But it is also the arrogance of journalist claiming the same level of knowledge on military, national security, theological, or other expertise as people who are trained specifically and have dedicated their lives to these areas. To listen to Bill Keller say that we have no damaged our anti-terrorist efforts by their disclosures is a joke - on what professional basis can he make that?
Hugh Hewitt just interviewed Amy Sullivan from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who is a smart and experienced foreign troubles journalist. However, she fought with Hugh, as he quoted experts in the field of national security, saying repeatedly that this latest leak did not hurt our efforts against terrorism. I mean come on. This is the same mistake that the Church made when she said (via Papal declarations) things against science. Being a great theologian does not make you a great scientist...and that is when things get terribly out of whack.
So maybe Bill Keller will wake-up and realize that he is bringing on the Reformation that is the new media. The only questions is whether the old media can make the efforts of reforming that allowed the Catholic Church to survive and come out stronger from its challenge from the Reformers. Will the old media?
