Original Video: Counter-Journalism – Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston is Fake News
At this point, I’m certain that most people have seen a movie or television show where one of the heroes chooses to do something against the law or otherwise unethical, and when questioned says something along the lines of: Hey, I’m no boy scout. The implication is that because the person is not held to any specific standard, they are free to use more unethical methods. Well, it seems Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston has discovered the journalist’s version of this excuse.
In the video linked above, one commenter told me a story of confronting Johnston about his lack of ethics. The conversation ended with admitting that he isn’t journalist, and never studied to be one.
Now, whether that story is true or not is beside the point, because if this story is true- would anyone be surprised?
This is the type of behavior we’ve come to expect from the anti-bully bullies who gatekeep nearly every facet of media. In fact, we’ve heard this excuse before in other forms.
“The dictionary says feminism stands for equality between men and women. So, it can’t be a female supremacist movement.”
“Racism is prejudiced plus power, so my racism isn’t really racism.”
“Sexism is prejudiced plus power, so my sexism isn’t really sexism.”
Johnston conducts interviews, he reports on the latest media news, and he mimics a detached tone in his writing that makes his articles appear like objective news. But, as I explained in the video, Rich Johnston is not objective. So, no, he’s not a journalist. He’s a spin doctor, a propagandist masquerading as a journalist. It’s similar to Bill Nye the Science Guy looking like, talking like, and playing the role of a scientist without actually being a scientist. Both Rich and Bill can play the parts of journalist and scientist respectively, generate the same respect as a journalist and scientist, and even reap similar rewards as a journalist and scientist…but with the easy excuse of not actually being a journalist and a scientist.
If Johnston admitted that he doesn’t consider himself a journalist, but acts like one, then it seems like a cheap excuse. Gain all the reward without having to meet the standards of being one. He can write whatever he likes, about whatever he likes, and however he likes. No consequences for being blatantly biased. No consequences for running an obvious con over his readers. So, after looking into the article he wrote on Jawbreakers, my only conclusion is to do to Bleeding Cool what everyone should already be doing to the mainstream media…stop listening until they start telling the truth.
Literature Devil 