Bernstein: Modern Reporting Is 'Atrocious,' 'Abdication of Responsibility'

Nicholas Fondacaro | May 22, 2016
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Host Brian Stelter raised a very important question on Sunday’s Reliable Sources, “Is media to blame for political polarization?” The popular opinion on the panel was yes, the media does deserve blame for the “hyper-partisan” nature of modern politics. But Journalist Carl Bernstein went farther with a scathing condemnation of how reporting is now conducted by the media. “It's been an abdication of responsibility,” he exclaimed, showing his disgust with modern journalism.

Bernstein was upset about how the modern media refuses to delve deep into the candidates’ lives and dealings:

We have not delved deeply into their lives, the arc of their lives, the arc of their business dealings, their foundation dealings, et cetera, et cetera. We're operating in a daily news cycle vacuum 24/7, without context. It's been an abdication of responsibility.

One of Bernstein’s biggest knocks against the reporting done this election cycle is the complete lack of documentaries about the histories of the candidates. “We've had no documentaries about any of the candidates. And the election primaries are over,” he argued, “There had been a Hillary documentary that was going to be done, and the Hillary people were able to shut it down with the producers of the documentary because they didn't want it done.”

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