There's your problem right there. You went to CNN for "news". Can't trust any of them.
Since high school when I first wondered who determined what was news I have been concerned about news filtering. (Our daily newspaper was the
New York Times.) Decades later as a teacher I defined politics as the struggle for control over people’s picture of reality. We certainly see that in FUD, other communication and resultant volatility in markets. I think it was Murray Chotiner, Nixon's advisor, who said "If you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will soon follow." I believe the reverse is true.
For years critics have faulted our press for being “stenographers with amnesia,” Tom Wickers, or over worked, ill paid, and lazy. My friend and colleague is a well-recognized scholar of journalism. He and a former student of mine hit the big time with "Reporting Iran the Shah's Way," the cover story in
Columbia Journalism Review, Jan./Feb. 1979, just as the Shah hit the fan, so to speak. Their UC press book is entitled:
The U.S. Press and Iran: Foreign Policy and the Journalism of Deference, where the duo argued the mainstream press always favors whatever U.S. administration is in power. A lot of evidence proves the point without reading the book. JFK famously apologized to the
New York Times for suppressing on his watch a report about planning for the Bay of Pigs invasion. “I wish you had ignored us and printed it.” A more devastating example is how the
Times, Post, and others completely missed Dick Cheney’s dumb arguments in justification of Sadam’s weapons program in advance of the Iraq War. The Knight-Ridder service, on the other hand, uncovered almost all of the shenanigans leading up to the war. Their reporters took the time to do due diligence.
I think the wisest short qualification of your position is the notion of “uncritical acceptance” of news reporting. That interpretation is worthy of respect. Further, it is quite clear to me the mainstream media is not deferring to the administration now, except for Fox News, which says a lot. I hope more Americans pick up on reporting of direct quotes of Administration pronouncements. There is a clear way, then, if you observe carefully that the administration lies constantly, personalizes any slight, and is slowly becoming unhinged from a sense of reality. I think Senator Corker is right and his concerns should be taken seriously. Much of the press is just providing evidence for his conclusions.
Please do not tune out because the news is bad. We need good journalism and that means the press will always be pricks in the side of government. I believe it is Richard Reeves, a reporter, who said: “cynicism is the rust of democracy.”
Edit: Fixed unnecessary word.
