Go to consortiumblog.com to post comments

Order Now

Archives

Age of Obama
Barack Obama's presidency

Bush End Game
George W. Bush's presidency since 2007

Bush - Second Term
George W. Bush's presidency from 2005-06

Bush - First Term
George W. Bush's presidency, 2000-04

Who Is Bob Gates?
The secret world of Defense Secretary Gates

2004 Campaign
Bush Bests Kerry

Behind Colin Powell's Legend
Gauging Powell's reputation.

The 2000 Campaign
Recounting the controversial campaign.

Media Crisis
Is the national media a danger to democracy?

The Clinton Scandals
Behind President Clinton's impeachment.

Nazi Echo
Pinochet & Other Characters.

The Dark Side of Rev. Moon
Rev. Sun Myung Moon and American politics.

Contra Crack
Contra drug stories uncovered

Lost History
America's tainted historical record

The October Surprise "X-Files"
The 1980 election scandal exposed.

International
From free trade to the Kosovo crisis.

Other Investigative Stories

Editorials

Editor’s Note: The insider Washington press corps is well-known for holding a grudge, especially against anyone who challenges its self-image as heroic defenders of the truth. So, even four years after Stephen Colbert’s on-point pillorying of the Big Media’s fawning coverage of George W. Bush, important journalists still haven’t forgiven the comedian.

In 2006, Robert Parry described the pique of the courtier press this way. And, in this guest essay, media critic Jeff Cohen picks up the grudge match from last week when Colbert testified before Congress on behalf of migrant workers:

Let's face it: Some in the Washington press corps still resent Stephen Colbert because he so brilliantly lampooned them to their faces at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner over their coziness with the Bush White House.

On Friday, some elite journalists couldn't contain their anger after Colbert testified before Congress on behalf of immigrant farm workers -- mostly in character (with some funny and not-so-funny jokes) and partly in total seriousness: 

"I like talking about people who don't have any power and it seems like some of the least powerful people in the United States are the migrant workers who come and do our work and don't have any rights as a result . And yet we still invite them to come here, and at the same time ask them to leave."

Thanks to Colbert, a hearing on migrant workers that would have been ignored by mainstream journalists was jam-packed with mainstream journalists. 

But hosting "Hardball" on Friday night, NBC's Chuck Todd was beside himself: "A lot of us frankly are offended." He suggested Congress members should have walked out of the hearing room as Colbert testified.

Ironically, Todd made the Colbert appearance his top story.

And that's a good thing -- because the plight of migrant farm workers is otherwise ignored on "Hardball." I did a quick NEXIS search for variations of "immigrant farm workers" or "migrant farm labor" and found about three mentions in the last decade. 

On Friday night's ABC World News Tonight, correspondent Jonathan Karl did a piece on Colbert on Capitol Hill; Karl rushed up to Colbert, gotcha-style, as soon as he finished testifying and asked if he was "worried about trivializing such a serious issue." 

If it's such a "serious issue," why has ABC World News offered such spotty coverage?

It's been almost a year since Brian Ross's strong piece on child labor. According to NEXIS, there was a solid report a year before that on farm workers in the heat wave. I found a passing reference in 2009 to an astronaut being the son of migrant farm workers, and a 2008 story on a man's journey "from an illegal migrant farm worker to world-class brain surgeon."

If that's how ABC World News covers "serious issues" of human rights, it's Jonathan Karl who needs to answer about "trivialization."

Not Stephen Colbert.

Jeff Cohen is an associate professor of journalism and the director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, founder of the media watch group FAIR, and former board member of Progressive Democrats of America. In 2002, he was a producer and pundit at MSNBC (overseen by NBC News). His latest book is Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.

To comment at Consortiumblog, click here. (To make a blog comment about this or other stories, you can use your normal e-mail address and password. Ignore the prompt for a Google account.) To comment to us by e-mail, click here. To donate so we can continue reporting and publishing stories like the one you just read, click here.

Back to Home Page