Quote of the Day: "A Baseline of Facts"

From President Obama's remarks at last night's White House Correspondents Dinner:

"I realize it’s an enormous challenge at a time when the economics of the business sometimes incentivize speed over depth; and when controversy and conflict are what most immediately attract readers and viewers.

The good news is there are so many of you that are pushing against those trends.[ed.: the bad news is that most of you aren't]. And as a citizen of this great democracy, I am grateful for that. For this is also a time around the world when some of the fundamental ideals of liberal democracies are under attack, and when notions of objectivity, and of a free press, and of facts, and of evidence are trying to be undermined. Or, in some cases, ignored entirely.

And in such a climate, it’s not enough just to give people a megaphone. And that’s why your power and your responsibility to dig and to question and to counter distortions and untruths is more important than ever. Taking a stand on behalf of what is true does not require you shedding your objectivity. In fact, it is the essence of good journalism. It affirms the idea that the only way we can build consensus, the only way that we can move forward as a country, the only way we can help the world mend itself is by agreeing on a baseline of facts when it comes to the challenges that confront us all." (emphasis added)

That needed to be said, loud and clear, to a "both sides do it", broken press corps that has been more interested in the political "horse race", in fluffing fake scandals fed to them by the Wingnut Wurlitzer, and in maintaining political access than calling out lies.