Jake Tapper Grills Jay Carney on Hoffa Remarks

Kudos to Jake Tapper for showing his fellow White House press members, save for Ed Henry, how journalism is done.

Media is supposed to be antagonistic towards the government; they are its check and balance. When media doesn’t do its job, government runs amuck, and the citizenry suffers. When media dropped the ball decades ago, the citizenry revolted, and, aided by new technologies, took up the mantle of watching the government.

It’s odd that reporters practicing journalism itself becomes news. That’s how unaccustomed we’ve become to objective media practices. When we see it, it’s like witnessing a two-headed calf.

There are a small handful of journalists out there in broadcasting who fight the good fight for the people, not for any agenda or government. They are the ones viewed as “radical,” simply because they want to report the truth and they will verbally skewer with questions lawmakers who try to dance away from sharing information that rightfully belongs to the public. They are the ones who get the answers that become the news while the rest just do enough to pass as current events prep for the editorialists with their evening talk shows.

This sort of questioning should be applauded, even though if enough reporters did it, it would put citizen journalists out of a job — though I’m an extremist believer in civic and new media. Modern media is, overall, a profession where credit is short-lived, glory is fickle, and an overwhelming passion for truth on behalf of an informed citizenry is required – and a desire for civic participation, as noted by the late public journalism advocate Cole Campbell, is celebrated.

If we expected more from our media, they would deliver. Like politics, media is a reflection of pop-culture, a reflection of self. We still have room for improvement, but we can see the progress in the likes of the exchange above.