The problem with broadcast journalism today is that many anchors or reporters on political talk shows have a political axe to grind and hold up their axe for all to see. There are fewer on-the-air personalities now who will challenge an outright falsehood. And one of those few is CBS’s Bob Schieffer, a journalist from the Edward R. Murrow/Walter Cronkite school of journalism. Indeed, I have consistently maintained that CBS should have replaced Cronkite with Schieffer.
And today we see another example. It came when Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noon, a former Ronald Reagan speechwriter, called New York’s new Mayor Bill De Blasio a “former Sandinista.” Schieffer wouldn’t let that assertion stand. FOOTNOTE: as someone who was in the news biz, writing for newspapers from India, Bangladesh and Spain, and later working as a staff reporter for two American daily newspapers, Schieffer here reminds me of how MOST print journalists would respond during an interview with a source: the reporter would ask (or insist) for a clarification on that assertion. And, yes, like Schieffer, many reporters I know would chime in and say what Schieffer said with a polite smile.
You don’t see this as much on TV these days. Watch Schieffer in all of his great, old-school journalism glory:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.