Dershowitz: I get it right because I’m objective
Indeed he does and indeed he is.
One would think objectivity would be a requirement for success as a legal analyst, but anyone who thinks that would be very wrong because “success” isn’t defined as getting it right and certainly not as being objective, but as drawing interest and ratings from audiences. And the best way to do that seems to be to offer what partisans want to hear, wrapped in a thin patina of legalese.
Dershowitz doesn’t operate that way, but he’s in a very small group; I’d say the others in it are Andrew C. McCarthy and Johnathan Turley (at least those are the ones I think of off the top of my head). Dershowitz is an old-fashioned liberal Democrat, McCarthy a moderate Republican, and Turley a libertarian.
Dershowitz is right about this, too (although since I haven’t seen “every single one” of his predictions, I can’t swear to that detail):
I think I’ve always tried to be objective. I am neutral and nonpartisan when it comes to analyzing the law, and every single one of the predictions I have made over the last two years has come true…
I don’t allow wishful thinking to substitute for careful legal analysis. And what happened as a result of that is, for example, CNN, which used to have me on all the time, on Anderson Cooper, on Cuomo, on Lemon, as a centrist analyst, decided no, no, it is okay to have extreme Trump supporters to use them as kind of stick figure exhibits, and then everybody else will do the narrative of CNN. What they didn’t want was a centrist liberal who went against their narrative.
That is just about the last thing they want.
They had a choice of a Harvard law professor for 50 years who’s been getting it right, who’s a centrist liberal and who has credibility, or Michael Avenatti. And they picked Michael Avenatti. In fact one night I got a call from CNN saying ‘We have to cancel you. We have Avenatti! He is coming on tonight.’ He became their go-to guy and every one of his predictions turned out to be false…
Remember when Avenetti was the darling of the left and cable news?
[NOTE: My finger is itching to index posts about Alan Dershowitz under the category “political changers.” But so far, no go.]
Totally agree with you. Dershowitz, along with McCarthy, and to some extent Turley, have been voices of reason. Unfortunately, their microphones have been muted to a certain extent since their narratives do not fit the mold.
Just yesterday, Mark Levin went off in a big way on the poseurs who do get air time as legal analysts.
“CNN — [they] decided, no, no …”
Who is they? I’m guessing it is primarily Jeff Zucker who was stinking up NBC and CNBC before he became the head of CNN. His track record was quite bad before they hired him at CNN. A little bad in terms of viewership, and extremely bad in terms of bias. Why hire him?
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I remember Dick Morris used to be Fox regular. He had been deep inside the Clinton machine, was something of a changer after the Clintons leaked his extra marital affairs to the press, and his expertise was as a pollster so Fox used him in that capacity. But because he hated the Clintons so much, he continually biased his commentary on polls and elections towards Republicans.
To Fox’s credit, after his last spectacularly wrong election prediction, they dumped him.
I don’t watch CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any of the major news outlets. I actually stopped several years ago. I use Drudge Report as my main gateway and then a curated selection of trusted blogs. It has served me well.
On occasion, I’ll watch video segments that have been uploaded to YouTube or embedded in someone’s blog post. But other than that, I pay no attention.
Dershowitz has shown himself to be a man of honor. I wish we had more like him.
While most television news has been infotainment for sometime, CNN is the epitome of “fake news”. One could simply read Think Progress’s daily talking points and get the same “information”
Turley is a nut about the environmental issues, though. And Dershowitz is still quite gun grabby. I’ve noticed that with some IDW and other liberal intellectuals who can not stomach the punitive progressive stupid/groupthink but don’t want to completely abandon their cherished left wing bona fides.
Haha. It was accepted wisdom that whatever Dick Morris said was going to happen, the opposite would probably happen instead. He strung people along.
Avenatti has been memory-holed. He never existed.
Yesteryear’s liberal. As are [American] conservatives, classical liberals, tempered by Judeo-Christian morality. #PrinciplesMatter
“Dershowitz is an old-fashioned liberal Democrat, McCarthy a moderate Republican, and Turley a libertarian.”
That’s a diversity we can applaud.
Since none of my 3 favorite bloggers (Neo, Instapundit, Askblog – econ Arnold Kling) talk much about Turley, I don’t know him. I do think Dershowitz should be on more often; McCarthy is great at Nat Review.
I prefer transcripts of the news rather than hearing it; so I read McCarthy articles.
I understand there’s a relaxation / thinking about world problems instead of your own problems, reasons for watching TV news at night. But most news I see snatches of seem like infotainment on the Fake News side of info. Russia Today is more balanced (all the bad stuff done by Reps AND bad stuff done by Dems).
There is a reason Lady Justice is depicted with scales *and* a blindfold. Dershowitz rates high imo because he tries his best to be objective and judge in the true spirit of the word. Wish more were like him.
My list of people whose opinions I trust implicitly — to meet a standard of “a reasonable non-crazy person thinks this so I should consider it accordingly” — has been severely winnowed since 2015.
Probably more bloggers on the list than media types.
This experience, no doubt, matches that of many others here and across my favorite “newsy” blogs.