Members of the media love to make "clever" analogies and particularly love to draw parallels even when none exist. The latest example is how talking heads seem intent on comparing President Trump's firing of James Comey to Watergate. Still, there's always someone at the ready to take things one toke over that line.
Enter CBS veteran Bob Schieffer who took things a step further Friday, saying he sees more parallels with JFK's assassination than any other past event. Newsbusters provides a synopsis and video segment:
If comparing the James Comey firing to Watergate isn’t enough, why not move on to the Kennedy assassination? That’s apparently the thinking of 80-year-old journalist Bob Schieffer on Friday. Appearing on CBS This Morning to bash Donald Trump as like “something out of a Godfather movie,” he first connected the President’s actions in the Russia investigation to the murder of JFK.
Schieffer bewildered his audience by suggesting, “There are many parallels to Watergate. But I have to tell you, I think all the way back to the Kennedy assassination, to draw parallels.” The veteran journalist stretched, “I was there, as you know. I have always felt that if Lee Harvey Oswald had been put on trial, a lot of these conspiracy theories that are still circulating today would have been put at rest then.”
One can sort of see what Schieffer was aiming for, in relation to dispelling conspiracies about the Russian investigation, but it’s still a bizarre comparison to make. The former Face the Nation anchor took on face value claims, disputed by the White House, that Trump demanded loyalty from Comey:
Norah, this is look something out of a Godfather movie. This isn't something that comes out of the Constitution or the way our government does business. Demanding loyalty of someone who's heading an investigation into your own administration? That borders on obstruction of justice. I don't think we're there yet, but this is totally improper and out of place to even be holding a conversation like that.
While Schieffer was not being literal, it might help if members of the media, particularly ones who are generally held in high regard, would stop drawing irrelevant parallels completely, and simply stick to the facts at hand. Of course, in the day and age of sensationalism and fake news, we know that would be asking far too much.
