A few weeks ago, when I heard myself described by Sarah Palin as being a member of the “liberal elite media,” I thought for sure it was just another Palinism.
I’ve gotten used to hearing “liberal media” spat out like sour milk; even “mainstream media” can sound like a fatal disease. But being called the “liberal elite media” by someone who went to journalism school (well, several) yet makes far more than any member of the media I know…well, it was like getting a shiny red stiletto heel in the gut.
First of all, everyone I know who is a member of the liberal elite media is not elite. Most of us started out in free internships in small markets to get in the door. We were offered laughable starting salaries of $20,000. We have been laid off at least once already in our careers, forcing us to set up our own small freelance businesses (where we still make far less than, say, prominent members of the plumbing industry).
In fact, journalists are notorious for being some of the lowest paid professionals in the country; the national average for 2008 was $41,000. But that’s just the people who have bylines and hosting gigs and on-camera appearances. The rest of the industry is made up of people who deliver the paper, and change studio lights and wipe down the conference rooms after edit meetings—yes, these, too, are the proud members of the liberal elite media.
You’d think Sarah Palin, as the only major party presidential or vice presidential nominee in history with a journalism degree, and an inner knowledge about how tough it is to get a gig in broadcast journalism, would be our advocate, or at least, a sympathizer for our industry. Yet not only was she unable to name a single one of the publications we slave over, she claimed to be “annoyed” with someone who took the time to interview her, and during the VP debate she gave this as the reason: “I like being able to answer these tough questions without the filter, even, of the mainstream media.”
I’m sure by “filter,” she meant “all those people who stayed up late editing the footage and designing the graphics and transcribing my answers and adding content to the CBS website.”
But that wasn’t enough. A few days later, she decided to outright mock my profession.
“There is a lot of interest, I guess, in what I read and what I’ve read lately,” Palin commented, her voice syrupy with sarcasm. “Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times and I was interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago…Turns out one of Barack’s earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, and they are hardly ever wrong, was a domestic terrorist.”
The simple mention of the phrase “the New York Times” was later booed at a Palin rally. Down with newspapers!
Even John McCain, who was once the Straight-Talking darling of the liberal elite media, revealed his newfound contempt for the press in a recent article by Robert Draper. Draper told WWD that McCain is “rather disdainful” of blogging as he sees it as “gotcha” journalism. This one’s even better: According to the McCain camp, reporters are “primarily young, snarky, blog-obsessed and liberal.” So, um. You know reporters vote, too, right?
But it’s gone beyond accusations of bias. The McCain-Palin campaign has actively worked to disenfranchise the entire field of journalism. They have convinced a portion of the electorate to ignore the press because we are lying to them. And, amazingly, along the way, they have discredited my career. It’s a brilliant strategy, except for one thing: I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but things aren’t going so great for the liberal elite media at the moment.
These vicious attacks on my industry came amidst reports of plummeting circulation, just before the Los Angeles Times laid off another 75 people, Radar re-folded, dozens of magazines announced they’re shearing their staffs—here are just the major announcements from McGraw-Hill, Conde Nast, Gannett, American Express Publishing, Time Inc., and oops, I had to add this one after I’d already published this post, Rodale—and when the 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor, undoubtably one of the least in the tank for any candidate, shifted from print to an entirely web-based publication.
We’re a large (albeit shrinking) constituency of voters that is now out there working overtime to cover every single move they make.
Yet, the McCain-Palin team has done so much damage to journalism, they have turned our readers against us. Now, stories reporting slashed employment turn into comment flame-fests by their supporters who want to rejoice in the downfall of the American media industry.
Like this one:
Oh wait, most journalists are too stupid to even make it into law school. Oh well, they can go live in the gutter where they belong.
Personally, I like this one:
DIE DIE DIE! Lying, anti-American media.
Let’s roll America…..McCain/Palin ’08
Does anyone really wonder why Obama’s winning by a landslide in newspaper endorsements? Even more in the endorsements of college newspapers, those training camps for the liberal elite media?
I can’t speak for all members of the liberal elite media but I can speak for the journalists and writers, filmmakers and producers who I pal around with. We chose this profession because we knew there were stories that needed to be told. I remember one of my teachers describing what we do as “giving a voice to those who don’t have one.” I wanted to be an advocate for beauty, nature, humor, science, justice, and, yes, even truth. If anything, it’s one job I can do where it truly feels like I’m serving my country.
Especially when you consider that the only other group of people who have volunteered to risk their lives in Iraq are reporters. That would be primarily young, snarky, blog-obsessed, liberal, and in the line of fire.
But maybe they’re right. Maybe we are elitists. After all, our whole job is about showing off what we know. And we pore over copy, and sleep in the studio, and chase down sources, and grab our notebooks and get on planes to Iraq because we believe in our hearts what we do matters. That real change is possible, because we have seen it. We have seen influential articles rip through the blogosphere like wildfire. We have saved buildings, started movements, stopped scams, caught criminals. We think that the dissemination of ideas and free speech and open discourse and knowledge and intellectualism and being articulate are all good things.
And, as Sarah Palin so pointedly reminded us, WE ARE HARDLY EVER WRONG.
So, when I go to vote today, am I going as a laptop-carrying, reporter’s hat-wearing, proud member of the liberal elite media?
You betcha.
