Good morning,
THE PROSECUTOR AS COLOR COMMENTATOR
My primary disagreement with Special Prosecutor Hur’s report on President Biden’s retention of classified documents after his service as Vice President is similar to my disagreement with James Comey’s pronouncements about Hillary’s emails. The role of each investigator was to report the facts and make a recommendation regarding prosecution. Both elected not to prosecute, yet each made statements that would materially affect our elections. They overplayed their hands and went beyond the tasks they were assigned in providing “color commentary” on their findings and impressions. Their role should have been more “show, don’t tell,” perhaps sharing some reasoning regarding their recommendations, but not a lot of gratuitous conclusions that could have an impact on our elections.
The essence of my point is something I came to as I was watching the Super Bowl. In sports reporting there typically is a play-by-play announcer partnered with a color commentator. The play-by-play announcer describes for the listener or viewer what is happening on the field. The color commentator will stray from direct reporting to provide some analysis of the “how” and the “why.” Often, color commentators learn that sometimes it’s best not to talk. Vin Scully was famous for punctuating his play-by-play with silence, in order to allow the listener to take in the sounds of the ballpark. It’s too bad Messrs. Comey and Hur couldn’t be driven by the same instinct—to report the facts and then let the response of the public to provide the reaction.
It is the job of the prosecutor to gather facts and provide a good summary of those facts. This is the play-by-play. He or she can even step a little outside the box and observe, for instance, that “this witness was unable to recall even the most basic of facts.” Where the line is crossed when the prosecutor begins to infer states of mind, comment on their opinion of behaviors, or make gratuitous comments. The damning comments of Mr. Hur about Mr. Biden’s appearance were unhelpful, politically damaging, and likely politically motivated. It would be as if one of Mr. Trump’s prosecutors described him as a “boisterous, obese, blowhard, repeatedly using terrible sentence structure and grammar, often, cursing, and using invective, who wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise.” All true, of course, but something we don’t need help to conclude.
TOO MUCH COLOR COMMENTARY AND NOT ENOUGH PLAY-BY-PLAY
As I think about it, it’s not just these Special Counsel who don’t know when to draw the line on their commentary. Walter Cronkite and Huntley/Brinkley and other newscasters of mid- and late-20th century America perceived their jobs primarily to be the delivery of the news. Certainly, they had their biases that no doubt bled into their attempts otherwise to be descriptive rather than normative or judgmental. But the predominant intent was to offer the play by play—“here’s what happened today.” Indeed, Cronkite ended his broadcast with a definitive statement of “And that’s the news, Tuesday January 3, 1965.” He didn’t say, “That’s the news and my opinions about it.” And it wasn’t just broadcast journalists who attempted to act more as play-by-play announcers. “Mainstream” newspapers and newsweeklies also attempted to be fair transmitters of the news and when there was analysis involved, it would be clearly identified as such or included in the opinion pages.
What has emerged in cable news and social media is that delivery of the news often is overrun with endless color commentary. Indeed, often the lead is the color, with the actual facts upon which the opinions are based merely an afterthought. Events are analyzed first within the preestablished opinions and narratives of the speaker. This is not by accident, as the purveyors of the news have analyzed what their viewers want (often confirmation biased information) and are delivering the product.
Cable TV today is replete with color commentators who pay little attention to the play-by-play. It’s all about the color, the stoking of outrage and making their own news. And some of those who are providing this color often aren’t even watching the game.
AGING AND CARING LESS
I received this poem from Adam Torson. It encapsulates the point in life when you realize you can just say what you want!:
In youth, it was a way I had
To do my best to please,
And change, with every passing lad
To suit his theories.
But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!
-- Dorothy Parker, “Indian Summer”
Have a great day,
Glenn
The Poem is Great. Thanks for Sharing! I love it