Blaming Press Won't Wash in Court

As a huge Al Pacino fan it doesn’t get much better than his role in “Scent of a Woman”. It’s impossible not to shiver when Pacino’s character, Lt. Col. Frank Slade, slams his white tipped cane on the table and shouts “If I were half the man I was five years ago I’d take a flamethrower to this place”.

His Oscar winning performance represented a real life metaphor about a power structure that attempts to rationalize and institutionalize the quid pro quo. And although Channel 2’s News Director John Tracy’s recent editorial wasn’t as dramatic as Pacino, his rare appearance certainly was.

For only the second time in twenty years of broadcasting news at Channel 2, he took to the air to defend his station’s news coverage. The accusation: biased coverage with a political agenda. And while media bias has become a common piñata for talk radio, these allegations of bias originated from Alaska’s power structure.

So what exactly does biased media coverage look like? Is it something that would have led Former Justice Potter Stewart to say “I can’t describe it but I know it when I see it”?
Maybe the answer lies in the experience of another straight talking soldier.

The day before Channel 2 responded to the allegations of media bias, Colonel (Ret) David Hunt, a Fox News Military & Terrorism expert, explained to a local gathering why in many cases the perception of media bias exists. The bottom line, government doesn’t answer questions very well.

In his speech to the Association of the United States Army, he was asked about a perceived media bias with news coverage of the war on terrorism. Hunt, the author of a best selling book about how politics has impacted the military, described the challenge with trying to get someone in authority to answer questions to the media. “If Fox News wants me on their show tonight, I’m there in two hours. If they want a General or a soldier, it takes three weeks”.

Without anyone in authority answering questions, speculation lends itself to becoming substance. After that, the loudest voice wins. From my vantage point, John Tracy’s editorial echoed the same message as Col. Hunt’s. But in Tracy’s editorial, political haze is playing the role of Hunt’s bureaucratic maze.

In fact, the rare editorial response can be accurately summarized in just one of its sentences. “The claim of political bias has become a convenient salve for politicians who find it a more immediate remedy for a political problem than answering a few simple questions”.

Today, refusing to answer simple questions has become a profitable option for some government officials. They’ve forgotten that government actually belongs to the people.

The people’s government means their government documents are our government documents. Their government financial dealings are our government financial dealings. It’s the main reasons why we have sunshine laws and mandate financial disclosures for public officials – to protect citizens against the proven threat of cronyism and quid pro quo.

But what’s most peculiar about these allegations of bias is the timing.
 
Immediately after the start of a public trial, dealing with a controversial allocation of public resources that happened to involve a powerful public official, the allegations surfaced. Meanwhile, what the press has reported has been the exact proceedings of the court case, not some speculation based tabloid story.

So will the salve work it’s magic again? Luckily, political spin meets its kryptonite at the courthouse steps. Unlike politics, in court you don’t get to hold a six-minute press conference and then walk away smiling and waving while you’re still being questioned.

Every fair question gets answered in court. Thankfully, with so many fair questions being ignored for so long, the whole truth and nothing but the truth will be a welcome change.

A little over 229 years ago, the constant questioning of government leaders aided by the press led to the American Revolution. Later, it was Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed if he had to choose between a free government and a free press, he’d choose the free press.

Now, where is Lt. Col. Frank Slade’s flamethrower?