{"id":1995134,"date":"2023-08-09T08:08:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T12:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/journalists-like-jo-becker-claim-to-hold-power-accountable-but-are-really-establishment-tools\/"},"modified":"2023-08-09T08:15:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T12:15:17","slug":"journalists-like-jo-becker-claim-to-hold-power-accountable-but-are-really-establishment-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/journalists-like-jo-becker-claim-to-hold-power-accountable-but-are-really-establishment-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Jo Becker and other journalists claim to hold power accountable, but they are actually establishment tools."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjournalists-like-jo-becker-claim-to-hold-power-accountable-but-are-really-establishment-tools%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1995134&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>The Power of Storytelling in Journalism<\/h2>\n<p>The \u2062\u201chuman story is the core,\u201d \u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/read\/224447008\/The-Commanders#__search-menu_254177\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was<\/a> Bob Woodward\u2019s\u2062 unintentionally \u2064revealing explanation for how he approached his work \u200cafter\u2062 the Watergate revelations\u2062 made him Washington\u2019s \u200ddean of political journalism.<\/p>\n<p>This approach assured Woodward high-value interviews while\u200d also placing him in the pocket of the \u2062same \u2062insider\u2063 institutionalists who had benefited from \u2062President Richard Nixon\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/1976\/12\/searching-for-the-real-nixon-scandal-a-last-inference\/664319\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">removal:<\/a> the operators \u200bwho \u200dplace the leaks \u2063and drive \u200dthe\u2062 coverage that maintains the power \u2062of the capital city. After all, when\u200b the focus is on the flaws and virtues of\u200d politicians (\u201cthe human story\u201d) what gets lost is\u200d the\u2064 story \u2062about structural power: which\u200d institutions are running what agenda and warding off what threats to their control. By ignoring this story, journalists like Woodward who purportedly keep power accountable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bobwoodward.com\/books\/ba7zqswojqjauhym7am5k1f1vp4hq2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">become its tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Today, Woodward is 80, but \u200das huge segments \u200cof America revolt\u200d against the structures\u2064 he fronted for, \u200dWoodwardism is flourishing in response, most obviously in unrelenting attacks on the Supreme Court: the one Washington institution with the power and the intent to\u2064 limit\u2063 the influence of the capital city. In the process, The New York Times\u2019\u200d Jo Becker, now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/journalists-like-jo-becker-claim-to-hold-power-accountable-but-are-really-establishment-tools\/\" title=\"Jo Becker and other journalists claim to hold power accountable, but they are actually establishment tools.\">receiving front-page\u2064 placement<\/a> for her pieces on the court, is \u2063becoming Woodwardism\u2019s preeminent practitioner. Becker is new to the court beat, but painting \u200bpersonal portraits rather than looking at \u200bpower dynamics has been her real beat for 15 years. Like Woodward, it has assured her considerable success.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Failing\u2063 to\u200d Take on the Administrative \u200bState<\/h2>\n<p>She won her first Pulitzer Prize\u200d in 2008, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pulitzer.org\/winners\/jo-becker-and-barton-gellman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">working with<\/a> \u200bBarton Gellman on a Washington Post series about how and why \u200cVice President Dick Cheney used his influence to\u200d expand the power of the administrative state. \u200dThis was valuable journalism \u200bfor anybody opposed to\u2062 administrative growth, but it also stopped with the vice\u200b president, as any\u200d good \u201chuman story\u201d would, just as he was in disrepute and on his way out of power. It <a href=\"https:\/\/www.corpwatch.org\/article\/us-former-bush-adviser-consulting-halliburtons-iraq-contractor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">didn\u2019t extend<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/feature\/the-stoner-arms-dealers-how-two-american-kids-became-big-time-weapons-traders-176604\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defense contractors<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/biographies\/victoria-nuland\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">government officials<\/a>, the nonprofit \u2064organizations\u2062 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/behind-the-iraq-war-a-story-of-influence-intelligence-and-presidential-power\/2020\/08\/20\/23b610ba-cab3-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">think tankers<\/a>, who helped seed the ground for his actions and stayed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/This-Town-Parties-Funeral-Plus-Americas\/dp\/0399170685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cgilded capital\u201d<\/a> \u200d to benefit from \u200dthem up to today.<\/p>\n<p>By\u200b 2012, Becker was at the Times, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/05\/29\/world\/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">where her approach to another investigative project with\u2063 important national security \u200dimplications<\/a> was even more \u2063personalized and insider-driven. Probing President Barack Obama\u2019s use \u200bof drone \u2063warfare outside congressional authorization at the start \u2062of an election \u2062year, her front-page story quoted anonymous White \u200bHouse \u2063sources calling Obama \u201ca student of writings on war by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas\u201d who \u201cbelieves that he should take \u2063moral\u200b responsibility for such actions\u201d and calling Obama\u2019s national counterterrorism\u2063 adviser John\u200c Brennan \u201ca dogged police\u2063 detective, tracking terrorists \u200bfrom his cavelike office in the White House basement,\u2062 or a priest whose blessing has become indispensable to Mr. Obama.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The piece gave no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world\/middleeast\/la-xpm-2012-jun-25-la-na-drone-oversight-20120625-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">space<\/a> \u200dto the White House\u2019s obfuscations to congressional committees \u2062trying to oversee\u2062 these programs \u2014 the \u200creal story about power in Washington \u2014 and spent five sentences\u2062 airing and dismissing military criticisms that its policies risked creating a new\u200b Vietnam.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>At the same time, Becker found another story to personalize, availing herself of an invitation to embed with \u200d\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-2009-apr-10-et-cause10-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hollywood industry adviser<\/a>\u201d Chad Griffin, who in 2012 became president \u2064of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrc.org\/press-releases\/hrc-names-chad-griffin-as-organizations-new-president\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the LGBT nonprofit<\/a> the Human Rights Campaign. Off this \u2062access, she wrote a 2014 book, <em>Forcing\u200c the Spring<\/em>,\u2062 about a Supreme Court case Griffin, Rob Reiner, and other politically connected Hollywood players unsuccessfully tried \u200bto make\u2063 the hinge of the gay marriage movement.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In the book\u2019s \u2064first page, she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Forcing-Spring-Inside-Marriage-Equality\/dp\/0143127233?asin=0143127233&#038;revisionId=&#038;format=4&#038;depth=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">compared<\/a> Griffin\u2019s decision to fight for gay rights\u2064 to Rosa Parks\u2019 refusal to get up \u2063from her seat on the Montgomery bus, earning <a href=\"https:\/\/dish.andrewsullivan.com\/2014\/04\/16\/jo-beckers-troubling-travesty-of-gay-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">criticism<\/a> from prominent activists for diminishing history, but her book was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/04\/27\/books\/review\/forcing-the-spring-by-jo-becker.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">praised<\/a> by Times\u2019 reviewers and landed on its \u200bbestseller list. Again, the real story about power \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/article\/dadt-repeal-hrc-victory.\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">how<\/a> the \u200bHuman Rights \u2063Campaign was using Hollywood <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/04\/20\/magazine\/how-the-president-got-to-i-do-on-same-sex-marriage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">and<\/a> Washington connections\u200d to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/daily-dish\/archive\/2009\/10\/the-battered-wife-syndrome-of-the-human-rights-campaign\/195585\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">become<\/a> a corporate-funded behemoth interlinked with the Democratic Party\u200d and hated by many LGBT activists \u2014 was \u2063ignored.<\/p>\n<p>Then there was Russia and Trump: the source \u2064of Becker\u2019s second and third Pulitzer Prizes in 2017 and 2018. This was the \u2064most potentially reportorial of her work \u2014 \u2063if the \u200dallegations \u200dhad been true, they would have\u200c represented a clear \u200bpower play by a foreign government aided by Americans \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/national-security\/two-4-warrants-letting-fbi-spy-ex-trump-aide-carter-n1121406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the most flawed<\/a>, since it \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/civil-society\/commentary\/will-new-york-times-washington-post-return-pulitzer-misleading-russia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">flowed<\/a> from clear violations by national security \u2063agencies. After \u2062President Donald Trump\u2019s election, these agencies repeated \u200cwhat was arguably their playbook from 1972, working to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/1977\/12\/08\/reflections-on-political-scandal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">delegitimize<\/a> a president who threatened\u2063 their power, \u2064though unlike in 1972 no smoking gun existed. But\u2062 like in\u2064 1972, the \u2063press was crucial to their play, this time with\u200d Becker not Woodward \u2063at the helm.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SCOTUS Now \u2062the\u2064 Target<\/h2>\n<p>Now, the \u2064Supreme Court is Becker\u2019s\u2062 target. For almost a year and a half, Becker\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/jo-becker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">beat<\/a> has \u200bbeen the\u200c justices, the focus of 12 of the 14\u200c stories\u200d she filed in that time. Six of these \u2062stories have \u200dbeen about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/clarence-thomas-blasts-cancel-culture-and-warns-against-court-packing-at-conservative-event\/\" title=\"Clarence Thomas Blasts Cancel Culture and Warns Against Court Packing at Conservative Event\">conservative activism<\/a> of Ginni Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019 wife;\u200d two about allegations of leaks from the office of Justice Samuel Alito; two about\u200b nonprofits\u2019 and law schools\u2019 ties to the court; and the two most \u2063recent about Justice Thomas himself.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Seven of these \u2062stories have made the Times\u2019 front\u200c page. Their focus is not court cases or tangible connections between the\u200b justices and plaintiffs. Their focus is the reporter\u2019s method (the\u2063 sources she turned\u200b to, the papers she\u200d reviewed) from which she paints a portrait of\u200b the justices\u2019 milieu.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Not \u200bsurprisingly, the portrait is suggestive \u2014 the justices are\u2062 powerful people and \u200cknow powerful people, many of \u200bwhom are tied to \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-tells-packed-house-leaving-easy-life-was-worth-it\/\" title=\"Trump: Leaving 'Easy' Life Worth It, Tells Packed House\">conservative \u200cpolitics<\/a> and \u200bhave indirect stakes in cases before the court.\u200b But it\u2063 also isn\u2019t journalism. None of these stories \u2062are \u201cabout\u201d anything,\u200d reportorially speaking: they reveal nothing people didn\u2019t\u200c know or what they do reveal says nothing about \u200bthe \u200dcourt\u2019s business.\u200d Their \u2064angle \u2063is the \u201chuman\u200d story\u201d: \u201ca <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/04\/30\/us\/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">glimpse<\/a> behind the Supreme Court curtain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/09\/us\/clarence-thomas-horatio-alger-association.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Justice \u2062Thomas\u2019<\/a> \u201cfriendships \u2026 have brought him proximity to a lifestyle of unimaginable material privilege.\u201d His \u201cRV vehicle is a key part of the justice\u2019s just-folks persona\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/05\/us\/clarence-thomas-rv-anthony-welters.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">but<\/a> also \u201ca luxury \u2026 funded by someone\u2064 else\u2019s \u2062money.\u201d Scalia\u2064 Law School at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/04\/30\/us\/supreme-court-scalia-law-school.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George Mason University<\/a> \u200d \u201chas offered the justices a safe space in a polarized Washington \u2026 where \u2026 their personal needs are anticipated.\u201d A\u2063 well-connected minister\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/19\/us\/supreme-court-leak-abortion-roe-wade.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">campaign<\/a> against abortion \u201coffers insights into the court\u2019s boundaries and culture.\u201d Ginni Thomas\u2019s \u201craw feelings\u201d after the\u2064 2020 election <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/26\/us\/politics\/ginni-thomas-donald-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">were<\/a> significant because she and Justice Thomas are \u201ca\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-the-ginni-thomas-brouhaha-is-really-about\/\" title=\"What the Ginni Thomas Brouhaha is Really About\">fiercely close couple<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The implied point, of course, is that the\u2064 social bleeds into the legal, that loose connections outside the bench affect rulings on it. But, without actual evidence and with six conservative justices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/samuel-alito-the-supreme-courts-plain-spoken-defender-precedent-ethics-originalism-5e3e9a7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">holding<\/a> \u200dlong-developed legal philosophies that cause them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2023\/06\/07\/us\/major-supreme-court-cases-2023.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to diverge on cases<\/a>, the stories are just that \u2014 loose collections of anecdotes with \u200ca personal edge.<\/p>\n<p>The real \u200cstory here isn\u2019t what\u2019s in the pieces; it\u2019s that the pieces are getting written at all, by someone who\u2019s reached the top of Washington\u2019s establishment through \u200bturning reporting into a personality beat.\u2064 Woodward once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/ALLPOLITICS\/1997\/06\/17\/sights.sounds\/watergate\/lkl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">elaborated<\/a> on\u2062 his \u2062method that \u2064\u201cI am waiting \u2014 if\u2063 I\u200b can say this \u2014 for the call from somebody on the inside\u200c saying \u2018I want to talk.\u2019\u201d Today, if\u2064 people in Washington want to \u201ctalk\u201d to a reporter \u2062who, like Woodward, can\u2064 be \u200btrusted to follow a line \u200bin their favored direction, there\u2019s a new mantra at hand: Call Jo\u200b Becker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Woodward, the renowned political journalist, unintentionally revealed that the essence lies in the &#8220;human story.&#8221; This approach, shaped by his work during Watergate, granted him valuable interviews but also aligned him with the same insiders who profited from Nixon&#8217;s downfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2269,"featured_media":1995135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1995134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1995134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1995134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1995135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1995134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1995134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1995134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}