Bill Maher: Tom Brokaw helps birtherism

[TroyD]

9/10/12

In a blog post endorsing Chris Matthews' recent on-air attack against RNC chairman Reince Priebus during MSNBC's Morning Joe, Maher accused Brokaw and other reporters of stoking the coals of birtherism by championing "'balance' over objectivity," citing Brokaw's attempt to defend Mitt Romney's remark about his birth certificate as an "awkward joke."

"How did [birtherism] grow to the point where half of Republican primary voters believed it? It wasn’t just the silence of Republican leaders, it was the failure of people like Tom Brokaw to just dismiss it as racism from the beginning," Maher wrote.

"People like him are always championing 'balance' over objectivity," he continued. "They have to bring everything back to a discussion about how 'both sides' are guilty, instead of doing his job as a referee. If every single journalist just simply labeled birtherism what it obviously is — racism — the cancer wouldn't have infected half the party. Maybe 25% or so, but most would be like, 'Okay, this isn't socially respectable.'"

"Every journalist knows [birtherism] comes from a racist place, so why can't they all be as no-bullshit about it as Chris Matthews?" Maher wrote.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/09/bill-maher-tom-brokaw-helps-birtherism-135085.html

[DeSwiss]

1. ''...so why can't they all be as no-bullshit about it as Chris Matthews?''

It's been my personal experience when dealing with racists, that birds of the same feather tend to flock together......

K&R

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. Brokaw suffers from the same vanity many politicians do

Popularity over principal.

[DeSwiss]

6. I hear ya.....

[leveymg]

2. Brokaw's "elder statesman" role was a Fail. Back to the props room, zip Tom into a bag, hang

him up in a low-humidity environment before he begins to mold and smell.

[DURHAM D]

4. Jonathan Alter did the exact same thing.

In fact, it was on MSNBC and I think on Tweenty's show.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Stop insulting journalists by referring to Brokaw as one.

He isn't and never has been. PERIOD!

[One of the 99]

7. Jon Stewart called Brokaw our last week

When Brokaw was on the Daily Show and refused to use the word lie, Stewart nicely called him out on it.

[Lucy Goosey]

8. It makes me happy that people are talking about this

About the bias towards 'fairness' or 'balance' over truth and objectivity, I mean. It feels like not that long ago this was not being discussed by the mainstream media. You could read about in Mother Jones, but not Politico. This is a good development.

[Scuba]

9. Perhaps the best indicator that journalism is dead is that fact-checking is now a separate activity.