Lamppost journalism

I had meant to write a post about this a few weeks ago but time was wanting; fortunately, Linda Greenhouse is nothing but predictable, and provides another opportunity.

In my post covering the 7th Circuit Bar Assoc. meeting's panel on MSM, I suggested that while journalists may not be able to maintain the guise of neutrality while writing an article that directly takes a point of view, they are easily able to circumvent that limitation using something that - for reasons that will become clear - I have dubbed "lamppost journalism." The trick is to choose who quote quote, and what part of what they said you quote. I quoted Judge Sack, who

has observed that "Judges use [law review articles] like drunks use lampposts, ... more for support than for illumination...." [For example, Prof.], Althouse recalled ... the experience of journalists calling her to talk about a case, clearly with a particular quote in mind, and probing until they get it. [Joan] Biskupic can't write that Kennedy's [Carhart] opinion dripped with disdain for abortion rights, or that it's designed to put abortion in the worst possible light, but she can find a law professor to quote saying essentially the same thing. That is, you have to wonder how journalists choose which quotations to include in their stories, and you have to wonder to what extent trad media use quotations "like drunks use lampposts": to say whhat they themselves would like to say through the agency of another person.

A couple of weeks ago, Linda Greenhouse illustrated the point finding a parade of sympathetic profs to speak through (of five profs quoted, only one was someone likely to disagree with her thesis), and today she's at it again, as Ann reports. Greenhouse of course can't directly militate for liberals to develop a cohesive strategy to seize back control of the courts (note the non-indisputable predicate: that they have lost control thereof), but she can provide the cause with something approximating a full-page ad, carefully selecting quotations to make her arguments through. Lamppost journalism, ladies and gentlemen.

Post facto:
Careful with that inference, Eugene (2/15/08)
It's back... (2/6/10)