Michael Goodwin: Scott Pelleys anti-Trump diatribe was more of the same warped, distorted nonsense that puts the BS in CBS
Leaving aside that Scott Pelley probably spoiled graduation day for some Wake Forest University parents and students, his anti-Trump commencement screed last week still has its virtues.Namely, Pelley’s outrageous fearmongering throws open the window to the mindset of a media figure at one of the nation’s supposedly premier outlets.The view we get is so appalling as to be stomach-churning.It turns out that the man from CBS is full of BS.But we already knew that, didn’t we? The surprise is that he outed himself in such a revealing and public spectacle.Pelley’s description of America and Trump’s agenda is so warped by partisanship that he can’t see straight.
His version of reality brings to mind the distortions of a fun-house mirror — without the fun.Carried away by his own grandiosity, he fancies himself a brave truth-teller and reaches for historic comparisons.Only the most celebrated will do, as Pelley links his juvenile scare tactics to the bold wartime broadcasts of Edward R.Murrow while Hitler was bombing London and the prescient warnings of George Orwell about fascism.After quoting Orwell as saying, “If liberty means anything at all, it means something worth saying that some people don’t want to hear,” Pelley not so humbly adds: “I fear there are some people in the audience who don’t want to hear what I have to say today.
But I appreciate your forbearance in this small act of liberty.”What courage! What humor!He never mentions the president’s name, but doesn’t have to.His language steals from the headlines of Trump-bashing media everywhere.It’s a testament to their conformity that we know who and what he’s talking about because the legacy outlets all think and speak in lockstep.Day in, day out, the heights of journalism plumb the depths of conformity.Everything Pelley said, we’ve heard 10,000 times before.
And often with more insight and balance.But he didn’t go to Wake Forest to be fair.He went to recruit those who do...