Contributors

Thursday, December 29, 2016

"The U.S. has only one president at a time."

The U.S. has only one president at a time, responsible for setting foreign policy. To avoid confusion during the transition, incoming presidents usually avoid those topics, but not Mr. Trump. Twitter has given him a 24-hour megaphone, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford.
That is not a line from a commentary, but from what is meant to be a news story -- specifically, "John Kerry on Donald Trump: U.S. allies won't be 'intimidated by a tweet'" at CBSNews.com.  Does CBS really consider it news that "[t]he U.S. has only one president at a time..."?  Since that's not a new development (by almost 230 years), and since CBS presumably knows that, it's hard to overstate the contempt they are showing for their viewers (or readers) with that statement.  And what's with quoting the gal who sits in the cubicle next to yours as a source?  Is CBS News in the business of reporting the news, or of creating it?

Maybe the public would be less likely to turn to "fake news" if the establishment journalism at least made an effort at professionalism.