Sunday Smiles

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We often, quite correctly, talk about people living in bubbles. 

Most of the time, the evidence for this is strong but inferential, since even people you would expect to be in a bubble turn out to have successfully pierced it and developed a more balanced and synoptic read of the world. 

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Bill Maher, for instance, has pierced the bubble, if imperfectly, which is pretty good. I'm not sure that my bubble is much more pierced than his, since I spend much more time in conservative media, and on X, than any normal person should. What's more important than being well-informed on every issue, which none of us can be, is being open to data and viewpoints that don't support your priots. 

But sometimes the evidence that somebody lives in a bubble is so indisputable, and beyond inference, that you can just point and say, "See!"

Like this:

Scott Pelley is a "newsman." A "journalist." Not just a journalist, but a journalist at the storied 60 Minutes. Somebody who we are told is at the pinnacle of his industry, a master of his craft, and one of the most informed people in the universe. 

And he thinks that Bari Weiss was gaslighting the staff when she asked them why people thought they were biased. 

Where's the evidence, Bari? I bet you are just making it up, or reading your 4-Chan fascist threads, or trusting randos on Reddit, because nobody I know thinks we are biased!

That, my friend, is a bubble. A bubble so impenetrable that the most mainstream polls, such as Gallup, don't penetrate. A trend that gets discussed endlessly outside the elite bubble, and that many people find tiresome because it is so obvious. Most people who follow journalism as journalism, instead of merely consuming it passively, have moved on from "are they biased" to "are they biased on purpose, or just in a bubble, and how much of both?"

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Not Scott Pelley. He's not challenging the claim that the media IS biased—that is so far outside his thinking that he won't consider it—he is challenging that ordinary people, not just extremists, think they are. Because he has never encountered anybody who would suggest such a thing, and is utterly incurious about why anybody would not agree with his arrogant self. 

When Gallup—not Rasmussen Reports or some other right-leaning pollster tells you that 28% of people trust the media, you would think that fact would penetrate into the bubble of, of all people, media folks. But no. Information like that does not penetrate, and don't trust me—ask Scott Pelley, and he will tell you that Bari Weiss repeating a fact almost as well known as New York City bagels are the best in the world is pure speculation motivated by a desire to "kill" CBS News. 

Of course, his failure to know this, in and of itself, is reason enough to kick the arrogant ass to the curb. Personally, I think his superciliousness would be enough, but then again, I am a tough grader. If an investigative journalist is so obtuse that he doesn't know one of the most basic facts about the profession he purports to be at the pinnacle of, he is worse than useless. 

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Give me a break. I worked at Viacom/CBS (now Paramount) for over a decade. Of course, it was +90% Democrats. 

Everyone knows this. Everyone. 

And newsrooms in particular vote Democrat to a higher degree than Berkeley, California. 

And you know what? Fine. I have lots of friends with whom I disagree from my time there. It was a great place, actually. 

To act as if this claim about bias is controversial, let alone inaccurate, shows that he’s either a liar, an imbecile, or so deeply incurious and tunnel-visioned that you don’t belong anywhere near any job involving information discernment.

But he’s got that familiar anchor voice, so we’re supposed to act like he’s not being a complete clown. Give me a break. You people are a mess.

But then, there is the fact that he refused to meet with his bosses, led a staff insurrection, publicly attacked everybody to whom he is supposed to report, and is playing the martyr. Anybody would get fired for that. 

It's telling that he wasn't fired by his immediate bosses, whom he treated like serfs. He was hauled into the office of the President of CBS himself, told he was fired, and kicked out, without even the opportunity to plead his case. The equivalent, if I can think of one, is Peter Strzok being hauled into the Oval Office to be fired, rather than the FBI Director doing it. He wanted to look you in the eye and kick you in the nuts for being such an ass. 

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The fact that Pelley told this story on a New York Times podcast, just assuming that his interlocutor would understand how absurd it was that anybody could believe that the public doesn't trust the media, tells you how strong the bubble is. 

I tend to think that the younger folks in the media are pretty self-aware regarding their being propagandists, because it is baked into the ideology of J-schools, which teach that journalism is supposed to be used to restructure society to make it "better." But it's likely that people like Pelley imagine themselves to be Edward R. Murrow, telling it like it is. 

I'm not sure about Murrow, not having followed his career, and I assume he wasn't completely objective, but today's younger journalists are more Walter Duranty than Murrow, for sure. They live to convince you of Narratives that fit their ideological priors. 

Pelley? He's more like an aristocrat from a declining society, such as Rome in the 5th century, hanging on to an idea of a society that once existed. 



BEST OF THE BABYLON BEE:

I am aware that there are some problems rendering these tweets due to a change in how the Babylon Bee posts its headlines on X. I am trying to figure out what I can do about it, but haven't yet. I hope I can fix it. If not, I may have to drop this section. 

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