Clinton’s Email And The Slow Death Of Both Accurate Journalism And Critical Reading

Posted by | March 9, 2015 08:00 | Filed under: Bob Cesca Contributors Opinion Politics Top Stories

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At the risk of making this about me, anyone who’s followed my writing since the 2008 Democratic primary fracas knows that I’m far from being a Hillary Clinton superfan. Since then, and due to how she comported herself following Barack Obama’s nomination, I’ve warmed up to Clinton — slightly — though I still have reservations. Not so much in terms of another potential dynasty-based president (U.S. politics has always featured dynastic candidates, see also Kennedy, Adams, Roosevelt, Bush, Rockefeller, etc) but I’ve always been weary about a return to old school, baby-boomer Democratic politics, which, by the way, the Obama presidency has mercifully sidestepped for the most part.

Put another way: I don’t have skin in the Clinton game. I’m neither an activist nor a Democratic Party apparatchik. For personal reasons, and to be perfectly frank, I hope a Democratic candidate wins in 2016, but my job isn’t to campaign or shill for whomever the nominee happens to be.

My reporting surrounding the Clinton email story so far isn’t intended to be a defense of her email practices or her veracity one way or another. Not unlike my coverage of the Ed Snowden saga, I have grave concerns about the lack of quality in the journalism and the kneejerk assumptions that follow it, both in terms of secondary reporting and the conventional wisdom that grows out of the muck.

This is where we are with this story. Based upon two very flawed articles, one from The New York Times and another from the Associated Press, the reaction among talkers, analysts, writers and observers is reflective of bad or absent information. Neither bombshell revealed any laws that were broken, and the AP article about Clinton’s alleged “homebrew” email server explicitly stated, “It was not immediately clear exactly where Clinton ran that computer system,” but only after stating in both its headline and its text that Clinton was “running her own email server.”

Then there’s an AP story published on Friday, titled “‘HOMEBREW’ EMAIL SERVERS: GENIUS AS WELL AS SNEAKY?” The second line of the article:

The personal email server used by Hillary Rodham Clinton during her time as secretary of state was most likely about the size of your office desktop computer and could have been tucked quietly in a corner somewhere.

Again, the original source article stated: “It was not immediately clear exactly where Clinton ran that computer system.” Yet… CONTINUE READING

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Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca is the managing editor at The Daily Banter (www.thedailybanter.com) and a Huffington Post contributor since 2005. He's worked in journalism since 1988 as a print writer/editor, a radio news anchor, a digital media columnist/editor, a book author and blogger. He's the co-host of the Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show podcast and a Thursday regular on the syndicated Stephanie Miller Show. He's appeared on numerous other radio shows including the John Phillips Show and Geraldo Rivera Show in Los Angeles. Bob has been a commentator/analyst on the BBC (TV and radio), MSNBC, Current TV, CNN and Sky News. Following him on Twitter: @bobcesca_go

4 responses to Clinton’s Email And The Slow Death Of Both Accurate Journalism And Critical Reading

  1. craig7120 March 9th, 2015 at 11:12

    Now that republicans have found their excuse as to why Ms Clinton shouldn’t be president, can we get back to the fact the republicans want to restrict civil liberties because of race, religion and sexual preference. It’s a bit more concerning if you ask me.

  2. Tim Coolio March 9th, 2015 at 21:32

    How about digging up all e-mails, private ones
    and later destroyed in the Bush administration
    about the events leading up to Iraq, the worst
    millitary blunder since Vietnam, costing 4000
    American lives and hundreds of thousands of
    Iraqi lives!

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