When now President-Elect Donald Trump was convicted, the thrill-kill atmosphere around the courthouse and the country was explosive, but no one was more ecstatic than liberal columnist and former prosecutor Harry Litman. The then L.A. Times columnist told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that it was a “majestic day” and “a day to celebrate.” A lawfare advocate, Litman excitedly laid out how Trump could be barred from office, declaring that the raid in Mar-a-Lago was the “whole enchilada” in ending Trump’s political career. Now, Litman has resigned from the L.A. Times because the owner wants more diversity of opinion in the newspaper. Litman went on MSNBC to declare that “this is not a time for balance.”
Those seven words sum up much of what has destroyed American media with millions turning away from the echo chamber created by the Washington Post, L.A. Times, and other publications.
Litman is not alone. Many liberals are dispensing with the pretense of declaring opposing views “disinformation” and are now openly fighting to preserve ideological echo chambers and media silos.
In my new book, The Indispensable Right, I write about the decline of newspapers as part of the “advocacy journalism” movement. Opinion pages became little more than screeds for the left, including legal commentators who have been consistently wrong and misleading on merits of challenges or cases.
Last year, Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis delivered a truth bomb in the middle of the newsroom by telling the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
Litman has been one of the most unabashed lawfare warriors. Even when the Justice Department was seeking to dismiss the Flynn case, Lipman wrote an L.A. Times column advising Judge Emmet Sullivan how to “make trouble” for the administration. Litman admitted there is “very little leeway to reject the government’s decisions to dismiss charges” but encouraged Sullivan to “accomplish what Congress, multiple inspectors general, and a majority of the electorate have not been able to do — hold the president and his allies accountable for their contemptuous disregard for the rule of law.”
On MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, Litman declared to Nicolle Wallace that Trump’s victory is “an absolute five-alarm fire.” He called the effort to restore a diversity of viewpoints as little more than an attempt “to curry favor with Trump.” He then added:
“And I just think this is not a time for balance when you have someone who’s not telling the truth on the other side. And it’s a deep responsibility. And instead, I think they cowered and are worried about their personal holdings and just being threatened by Trump. And that’s a really shameful capitulation, I think. So, I just felt I couldn’t be a part of it and had to resign.”
It was a telling moment. Litman appeared on a network that has lost half of its viewership and is fighting for its existence in an effort by NBCUniversal to unload it. Readers are fleeing to new media after papers like the L.A. Times and the Washington Post literally wrote off half of the country. Yet, these figures would rather lose their jobs and media platforms than their bias.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
An evil man will burn his country down to rule over the ashes.
I’m not at all certain that the so-called decline of journalism, be it newspapers, tv, radio, socialist media, et., al., is actually that much of a decline as it is more of a reflection of the society we now find ourselves in. When someone says the “news” is in decline, I remember back to the yellow journalism of the late 19th century and early 20th century and ask; Is it really in decline, or was it always rubbish? While technology has provided a means of everyone on the planet instantly knowing when a “man bites dog” story arises on an island off Barbados, after reading the headline itself, the story always seems to go the same route of an 1886 news story about the adventures of Wild Bill Hickok. Otherwise, journalism today seems to me to be an expression of the upside down, inside out, characteristics of our global civilization’s overall decline. Lawlessness in the streets begets senselessness in the news so to speak. One can extrapolate that onto just about any segment of our civilizations components, from military to health to education to criminal justice, the legal systems, the governments, etc. The news is in decline because humanity is in decline. Anyone who thinks that the current world affairs are sustainable has either never taken the red pill, or never cracked open the Holy Bible.
“Is it really in decline, or was it always rubbish?”
Very good question. No question that the fundamental honesty, accuracy, and integrity of news reporting in the press has varied over time, but little objective proof of a uniform direction or magnitude of change over any period of significant duration. When viewing the past, most people seem to tend to filter a lot of the bad out of their perspective. I can be as guilty as anyone else when it comes to mourning the “good old days”, but I am honest enough to admit that in many cases, they might not have been quite as good at first hand experience as they seem in recollection.
Litman is a parasite, as are so many leftists. They have to band together to successfully fleece the productive taxpayers in our nation. It’s time to call a parasite a parasite – one who consumes more than he/she/it produces for others. Let’s stop giving these people any subsistence at all. It’s time for a delousing! See Rock Pig’s Word from Future for ideas on how to do it and how to boost humanity toward religious morality.
I doubt that Litman will be missed. It is bad enough to write biased, whacko stuff, but worse to believe it.
The owner of the LA Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, is reportedly going to add a AI meter to detect bias to his own paper,
“Somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias,” he said.
“And what we need to do is not have what we call confirmation bias and then that story automatically, the reader can press a button and get both sides of that exact same story based on that story and then give comments.”
Attorney Litman might benefit from a CLE refresher on California Rules of Professional Conduct 3.1, 3.3 and 8.4, with an add-on for the tort of abuse of process, and special attention to Rule 1.0 Comment [2]. But, he probably need not worry about that: someone will hire him or, if not, there is always the prospect of a book deal, so practicing law would not be needed to put food on the table.
Harry Litman, a line from a movie that should be kept in mind now that you have fomented chaos:
“This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this….” Remember that line as your compatriots rush for the exits, discard their ‘uniforms’ and attempt to dress as civilians à la Assad and the countless fascists the preceded him.
Clickbait.
Some unabashedly Democrat journalists have been openly criticizing this media Dennis McIntyre style journalism since Trump first ran for office. Our gracious host is just a little late to the party, just as he’s late getting around to taking his fellow members of the bar in government and their lawfare against Trump and others to task. The journalism profession has few of it’s own members willing to call out the corruption of their profession, just as the profession of law has few members of that profession willing to name and call out the corruption of their peers working in Democrat government.
This Election Has Disgraced the Entire Profession of Journalism
https://observer.com/2016/11/this-election-has-disgraced-the-entire-profession-of-journalism/
There’s nothing secret about the media’s anti-Trump stance. A formal declaration of war was launched on August 7, when Jim Rutenberg, the New York Times media columnist, wrote a story under the headline, “Trump Is Testing the Norms of Objectivity in Journalism. Rutenberg made clear that he and other reporters viewed “a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous,” which required them to report on him with a particularly critical point of view. how is it that the media has derogated to itself the right to decide what candidates deserve special scrutiny and what policies are acceptable? In a democracy, that is supposed to be the voters’ job.
Columbia Journalism Review: The Unabridged History Of The Press And The Russia Dossier Versus The President
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/trumped-up-press-versus-president-part-1.php
Outside of the Times’ own bubble, the damage to the credibility of the Times and its peers persists, three years on, and is likely to take on new energy as the nation faces yet another election season animated by antagonism toward the press.
Before the 2016 election, most Americans trusted the traditional media and the trend was positive, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. Today, the US media has the lowest credibility—26 percent—among forty-six nations, according to a 2022 study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. In 2021, 83 percent of Americans saw “fake news” as a “problem,” and 56 percent—mostly Republicans and independents—agreed that the media were “truly the enemy of the American people,” according to Rasmussen Reports.
If you’ve been where the action is happening and seen the media accounts, you know that the media are at best mislead and at worst terribly manipulative. It should be taught in school to never trust the media any more than you would trust advertisements for health supplements. They’re all selling elixirs.
Some dogmatists have become so distraught they can no longer cope. What are extreme illiberal progressives to do but to cling to a sinking MSNBC mother ship for their last fleeting gasps of a poisonous air that ironically is of their very own making. Although it is unlikely they will altogether cease to exist in the near future, any interest in what they have to offer will slowly and assuredly fade away.
Ron A. Hoffman,
We know prior to 2016, some MSM were losing audience/viewers. With Trump’s election win, some rode the bash Trump at every turn gravy train which their gullible dupes ate up. It appears this time around, the bash Trump no longer has it’s appeal. I mean who wants to feel nothing but hate all the time? Sounds exhausting. I saw where that Joy Reid person had a melt down after the election and was telling people to avoid, disown, friends and family if they voted for Trump. How miserable does she sound?
Parasites who are on the take are miserable creatures who know deep inside their lack of self-worth. Preaching hatred is their only means of elevating their self esteem. It’s time to stop supporting them. It’s time for a delousing!
* It appears the USA has lost all touch with the civilized world and continues to forge relationships with the 3rd world.
In order for me to understand what you mean, please name 6 countries that you consider to be in the civilized world.
“In order for me to understand what you mean, please name 6 countries that you consider to be in the civilized world.”
In order for us to understand you aren’t just trolling, please name 12 countries we have congenial relationships with that you consider to be from the uncivilized world.
Figure it out. I’m not your parent.
* They are here in name only–> USA, UK, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Japan….
Argue with yourself. The greatest fall and collapse is the USA.
I long for the good days of journalism where they just gave you the news, and the journalists were real journalists, NOT activists pushing their agenda.
Those days never existed.
They did much more so than they do today.
“These figures would rather lose their jobs and media platforms than their bias”. And they thought that Trump Derangement Syndrome wasn’t real Jonathan ??? The Defense rests…..
Turls, it’s laughable you even try to maintain ‘balance’ matters to you given that your employer makes a mockery of the expression ‘fair and balanced’ and you shill for them seemingly at every opportunity.
Littman is right. You’re wrong. There…, we balanced that out nicely. Next.
Watch Fox NEWS with Bret Baier some night and you will see a very slightly right leaning newscast. He ends each newscast with a panel discussion where he will usually have two conservatives and one liberal and once in awhile two liberals and one conservative. He will NEVER have three conservatives in the discussion. Now watch CNN and see 5 liberals, one liberal host and maybe one conservative while MSNBC has 5 liberals and no conservatives. Yet after what I just stated, TRUTHFULLY, you will still claim that Fix is the outlier.
The left cannot countenance debate, they cannot allow any fair discussion of any issue. We turn off MSNBC, they try to get Fox banned. Our children don’t go see liberals talk on campus, their children shout and whistle down conservatives on campus. We may boycott Bud Light, Target or Disney by not buying their product or visiting their businesses, but they want to ban Chic Filet or anyone else that disagrees with them.
Name one conservative that resigned from a news outlet because there was a liberal on board or because the outlet was not conservative enough. Now see guys like this loser, so-called writers like 1691 liar Nichole Hannah-Jones screaming at the NY Times and the little girls at the WAPO DEMANDING Bezos do their bidding.
The left cannot get along with anyone that isn’t 1000% with them and that is why the Democrats are losing. Harris couldn’t pick the Jewish popular moderate governor of a state she needed so she picked a far left lunatic from a state she had locked up. They cannot compromise.
👍
The good professor’s site is more popular and gets more views than MSM.
“Turls, it’s laughable you even try to maintain ‘balance’ matters to you given that your employer makes a mockery of the expression ‘fair and balanced’”
Shyte stained Commie, we saw your phony ass when you were still shrieking “No one is above the law” for your employer while he pardoned his son, his partner in crime.
Keep doing that special political maneuver that Kamala Harris perfected with Willy Brown.
Actually, Anonymous, in his comment addressed to “Turls” stumbles upon an important point…in spite of himself!
In other words, the goal of journalism and journalists is to present the truth to the best of their ability, not necessarily to present balance per se.
But to the extent that certain points of view are expressly and preemptively forbidden as tabu, and thus omitted by an outlet’s editors, journalists
can never even begin to consider what the truth is. From this it should be clear that true journalism that benefits civil society will necessarily require, in its search for truth, a more comprehensive survey of relevant or opposing points of view, not merely to comply with a requirement for more “balance,” but rather in the very reckoning of what the truth itself is.
Lastly, in comments I’ve sent to newspapers over the years, I have often stated that there is nothing more engrossing to read than when competing points of view are presented to the reader in the body of the same article because it creates a sense of vitality, suspense and added complexity. It also makes one desire to keep following the story in subsequent editions just to know how it all turns out. In other words, the reader will be enthralled during the process of coming to know what the actual truth was.
Anonymous, a fabulist to be sure who serves to remind us that the level of sheer TDS delirium amongst his dwindling cohorts is still astronomical.
It is time to start jailing prosecutors and judges who are OPENLY committing Criminal acts!
Very Clear…the Entire Democrat Party has been Brainwashed to HATE America. You don’t import Illegals and run ILLEGAL surveillance of America, jail 1000’s of opponents for NO CRIME…if you love America
It is not time for Trump and Co. to pull punches
There needs to be a Nuremberg like trial to jail Democrats and RINOs for their crimes against America. The People of America are OWED THE TRUTH! Biden giving out get out of jail cards even when you haven’t been charged is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL! If Biden can Pardon, then Trump can UNPARDON! We are TIRED of the ENDLESS Democrat CRIMES! Trump has been charged with 100’s of crimes as he is 100% targeted. Heck I TRULY Believe Democrat powers helped to try and kill him!
I think the left has been conditioned to love interaction without competition, which leads to both sides wasting effort for no benefit. This means hating anyone playing to improve themselves above others. It allows one to wreck a country with migration, etc. It is “inverse innovation”.
Biden giving out get out of jail cards even when you haven’t been charged is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL!
Wrong, wrong, wrong. In our entire history, going back not just to 1788 but centuries earlier, it has NEVER EVER been the case that a pardon may only follow a charge (let alone a conviction). Pardons have ALWAYS been given to people who were never charged, and even to people who were never identified.
If Biden can Pardon, then Trump can UNPARDON!
No, he cannot.
None of this is in any way controversial. You’re just pulling garbage out of your rear end.
Litman is absolutely correct, now is definitely NOT the time for balance. It is time to stop acting like a bunch of fainting goats every time a Lefty calls you a “bad name”.
https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=fainting+goats
It is time for common sense loving Americans to take back as much as they can of the territory lost in the culture wars of the last 50 years. That might restore balance and right the ship for everyone who likes a level deck.
When Lefty loons say “jump” don’t say “how high, sir?”, Just say no, or other negative epithet of your choice. The extent to which you can say NO is an indicator of how free you actually are.
OldFish,
I dont get upset if some woke leftist loon calls me MAGA or whatever they think is an insult. Looking at most of what MAGA stands for, NOT their interpretation as dictated to them by their MSM pundits, most of it is pretty common sense. Secure borders, yeah, no kidding. No biological males in women’s sports, locker rooms, bath rooms, does not take a genius to figure that one out. No pornography in elementary school libraries, not only common sense but just plain decency. I think the woke leftists are now losing the culture war as most people have common sense, look at what they are trying to sell and people just said, “No, I am not buying into your crazy,” as evident by the election results and all those people switching off MSM. The fun part is watching them double or triple down on their own seething hatred for half of America and America in general.
Meanwhile, here is what MAGA winning looks like, https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/02/22/92718815-14150497-image-m-110_1733178548746.jpg
See how happy she looks? That is what the rest of us are feeling!!
When I wrote that I was thinking of politicians and media types who seem unable to challenge the lunacy
Player: I’ll take NEW MEDIA for a thousand Alex.
Alex: who would people prefer to get their news from rather than the LA Times?
Player: Who is CatTurd?
Alex: That’s right, go ahead.
Leftists are Nazis—–by definition and deed. And currently, they bear their evil souls and intentions without apprehension or restraint.
“We had to destroy the village in order to save it”.
J
“I think Litman is in need of some gender-affirming care”.
J
“On January 21st an older gentleman approaches a Marine guard at a White House gate. The Marine smartly says “What can I help you with Sir?”
The old man responds “I was hoping to catch a glimpse of President Harris”
The Marine clearly states “Sir, the current President of the United States is Donald Trump”
The man thanks him and walks away.
The next day the man returns and asks if he might catch a glimpse of President Harris.
The Marine clearly states “Sir, the current President of the United States is Donald Trump”
The man thanks him and walks away.
The next day the man appears before the Marine again. He asks when President Harris might appear.
A little irritated the Marine snaps “Sir, as stated before, Kamala Harris was not elected. Donald Trump is the President of the United States, do you understand?”
The man smiles and says… “I do, I just like hearing you say that”
The Marine snaps a salute and says “See you tomorrow Sir…..”
J
I vote for this as the comment of the day✊🇺🇸🗽🦅
+1
Paranoia strikes deep….into your heart it will creep
— Stephen Stills
…Step out of line the man comes and takes you away.
The most appropriate word for Litman is not “bias”. It is malevolence, or even malignity. Historians will ask: what was it in our culture that creates such types?
We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful. C.S. Lewis