Althouse: "Reporters labor under the terrible requirement that what they report must be true. Opinion writers need to endure the less stringent demand..."

March 20, 2018

"Reporters labor under the terrible requirement that what they report must be true. Opinion writers need to endure the less stringent demand..."

"... that what they opine be at least plausible. Nobody ever expects what cartoonists do to be either true or even plausible. That’s why we’re all as happy as larks."

Said Robert Grossman, who lied implausibly about Nixon, Bush, etc. etc. and tied the airplane in a knot in the "Airplane!" movie poster, quoted in his NYT obituary. He was 76.

Asked whether there was something undignified about his caricatures, he said: "Undignified?... Virtually anything has more dignity than lying and blundering before the whole stupefied world, which seems to be the politician’s eternal role."

13 comments:

rhhardin said...: Trump raging in weekend tweets, for example. Rather than coolly setting the table.; 3/20/18, 7:12 AM
PJ said...: The origin of fake news is cartoonist envy?; 3/20/18, 7:17 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Those funny cartoonists. Not lying always, but when they do, always lying in the same direction. Even items critical of someone like Hillary are in the service of a greater leftist like Barack or Bernie.; 3/20/18, 7:26 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Reporters labor under the terrible requirement that what they report must be true."

"Nobody ever expects what cartoonists do to be either true or even plausible."

The second sentence explains the first.; 3/20/18, 7:33 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Reporters labor under the terrible requirement that what they report must be true.

NYTimes v. Sullivan proves otherwise.

Opinion writers need to endure the less stringent demand that what they opine be at least plausible.

NYTimes opinion page proves otherwise.; 3/20/18, 7:34 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/20/18, 7:46 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I wish they would bring back reporters but they are extinct. Now we have nothing but well credentialed but very dopey journalists and almost all of them are bigtime libruls.; 3/20/18, 7:47 AM
Larry J said...: "Reporters labor under the terrible requirement that what they report must be true."

Depending on how you define the word "true".; 3/20/18, 7:52 AM
Hagar said...: Endure? Need to endure?; 3/20/18, 7:59 AM
tcrosse said...: Think of the terrible requirements that carpenters, plumbers, and electricians must labour under, and the less stringent demands that doctors and lawyers must endure.; 3/20/18, 8:16 AM
Otto said...: Luke 6:41 - "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
IMHO the genius of that verse is the size of wood. We all think everyone else's sin is so much worse that ours. But Jesus turns the table just to emphasize that point.; 3/20/18, 9:21 AM
PB said...: Reporters, opinion writers, but what about "journalists"? They seem to be a mix of the two and claim to be the high priests whose motives can't be questioned.

Reporters don't really exist anymore.; 3/20/18, 11:04 AM
Darkisland said...: Here's an exercise for everyone here:

In your lifetime you will probably have seen 1-2, maybe more, newspaper article about something on which you have first hand knowledge because you were there. Or maybe something in your field of expertise.

How many of those articles had at least one significant factual error?

In my life it has been everu single one.

And yet we still think they are right on other stuff.

See Gell-Mann effect for more info.

John Henry; 3/20/18, 11:56 AM