I generally resist characterizations of “the media.” There are literally thousands of Internet sites maintained by newspapers and magazines, specialized sources of information on everything from foreign affairs to medical conditions–in short, a massive number of sites offering “news” about pretty much everything, and doing so from a wide spectrum of perspectives.
That said, it is true that what we sometimes call “legacy media” (or, in Sarah Palen-speak, the “lamestream media”) exert a disproportionate influence over popular opinion. When it comes to political coverage, accusations of inadequacy or downright bias have been mounting–with good cause. (If you want to read a scathing–albeit accurate–description of political coverage, click this link.)
The question, of course, is why? (Of course, that question isn’t limited to the media’s reluctance to call a lunatic a lunatic–it also extends to the question why millions of Americans actually intend to vote for a mentally-ill ignoramus, but today’s post is about the media.)
Talking Points Memo is one of the most reliable sources of political news, and a column by its editor/publisher Josh Marshall recently considered the issue. Responding to a reader who noted the almost-exclusive media focus on the horse-race rather than on policy–and the GOP’s utter lack of policy under Trump– Marshall wrote
At an important level, Harris shouldn’t want to and can’t expect to be judged by the bar set by Donald Trump, a degenerate scamp on his best days and a virulently racist wannabe dictator on his worst. But the comical disconnect between the two standards is one elite political reporters as a whole need to have some reckoning with. And beyond that, NR’s and many others’ responses to these complaints show the anger that has built up over the years over the almost total click-the-snooze-button, we-don’t-have-time attitude of most campaign reporters when it comes to discussions of policy. Sure, everyone hates the press and just finds their own reasons to do it. Sometimes the press as a group and concept does indeed become the punching bag for all of people’s gripes and grievances about how campaigns and politics generally play out. But there’s a very legitimate gripe here. And it’s the source of the intensity of a lot of the pushback on this front.
The New York Times has come in for significant criticism for what–to a rational reader–appears to be a reluctance to apply the same standards to Trump that it applies to his opponent. Before Biden withdrew, the paper focused relentlessly on every indicator of Biden’s age, while generally ignoring evidence of Trump’s (he’s only three years younger) and his manifest mental infirmities. There was particular anger when the Times fielded a poll asking responders whether Biden was too old to be President. As one angry reader wrote in his “cancel my subscription” missive: “did you ask your random voters whether Trump is too insane, doddering, racist, sexist, criminal, traitorous, hateful to be effective as President? This is not a poll. It is your agenda.”
There are numerous other examples, and I return to the question I posed earlier: why??
Some observers have speculated that the media–always a target of Trump’s enmity–is simply frightened that Trump will exact revenge if elected. Others attribute the seeming bias to the profit motive: to the extent newspapers can even the electoral odds, they sell more papers. I have difficulty believing either of these motives–the Times and Post have been courageous truth-tellers in the past. But the skewed and inadequate reporting is too obvious to ignore.
Before the 2024 campaigning began, PBS Public Editor considered a unique aspect of Trump coverage:
Never in the half-century I’ve been paying attention have the media faced a major candidate who inspired the loathing Trump provokes. I haven’t seen polls that address this—and the media have little incentive to commission them—but I can say with confidence that Trump is widely despised by the working press. For the most part, aside from an ideologically committed sliver, journalists find him dishonest, corrupt, depraved, cruel, and very likely sociopathic, and fear his re-election would be a historic calamity that could do lasting harm to core democratic institutions.
Now, it’s reasonable to ask whether if you believe that, you can do your job as a journalist.
Is the political press simply over-compensating? Who knows?
If Faux News has taught us anything, it’s that “fair and balanced” is very different from “accurate.”
All that said, I think we may be detecting a shift in the wake of a “Democrats in Array” Convention showcasing excellent speakers and enthusiastic delegates.
Let me know if you see it too…..
Another example is the press demand that Harris do a major press conference while the Orange monster has never done a real press conference. In Indy, following the strong DNC convention the Indy Star featured SPORTS stories. Just stupid.
After a week where the quality media has done cartwheels about the Democratic convention and ticket (deservedly), sending a “blame the media” blast seems a little out of tune. I’m pro-Biden, pro-Harris and a Democrat, but some balance is called for here. About horserace reporting vs policy reporting: Quality media does cover policy, but whether much of that gets read is up to readers. Daily news can’t repeat the same stories every day. Polls are misleading and misread, any reporter will tell you, but they have to write what’s fresh in front of them. On Biden: The Times and others did nitpick reporting about the president, but I believe some of that was generated by the intense efforts of the Biden campaign to hide his decline. That’s why the debate was so startling. On Trump: Many polls have included favorability measures of Trump, Biden and Harris. Here, for example: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/donald-trump/ The first time Trump ran, reporters chronicled his lying, cheating and crooked business practices. David Farenthold of the Washington Post won a Pulitzer for his series.
Sure, the media has its faults. So do the politicians. So do readers.
One aspect of the “Horserace reporting” is to continue insisting that the race is close. That is a major source of inspiration for me to continue to work as hard as I can to achieve a Democrat victory. If the MSM were to begin showing Harris growing a substantial lead, which I suspect and hope is the reality, that would lead to complacency, which kills.
Whatever the polls say, keep working, GOTV. Do not relent, run this race all the way through the finish line.
David,
Excellent Response. We, the news consumers cannot shirk our responsibility to do our own due diligence if we are so intent on knowing the facts and truth about everything.
This is really interesting. One one side of the political equation we have an obviously sick, as in malignant narcissist sick, unintelligent, uncaring, unserious, incurious felon, guilty (by a jury of his peers) of sexual abuse, fraud, and charged by the DOJ in 4 deadly serious cases against him that will disappear if he is reelected, and on the other side, a rather normal, smart, caring empathetic, energetic, sane person talking about ways to improve on the quality of life in these United States. No one is perfect, but this is so off-the-charts whacko not on the same page as to seriously wonder what planet supporters of the former are living on.
So…..how in the hell do you report on this totally incongruous situation? Certainly not by treating them equally, right, Oh wait, this is a political race for the highest office in the land, in the WORLD, and one of these candidates isn’t qualified to be elected dog catcher. But reporting can’t even whisper the atrocities of trump?
I’ll keep watching MSNBC, where the conversations may veer left but there is no fear of telling the truth. CNN does a pretty good job as well, making even more of an attempt to include input from both sides, but honestly, Project 2025, the disavowed but obvious playbook of trumpism, couldn’t be much further from mainstream America, so that any attempt at “fairness” falls flat. VOTE BLUE!
One thing I don’t see defenders of the press doing is grappling with the sheer volume of the Biden-is-old coverage by the New York Times (192 stories in 8 days) and others. Quantity has a quality all its own, and “they’re just reporting the news” doesn’t cut it.
One might argue in regards to media journalism, that Israel conjures the most contentious news daily around the world. It is a huge challenge for an American, who identifies Christian, to have access to reliable journalism covering fluid raw violence. So I strengthen healthy skepticism reading three sources published from Israel: Israel Haloum, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz. This seems to help reconcile skepticism over time with some confidence I can at least discern some evidence of truth in Israeli journalism. I work to read different sources from journalism
of the homeland as well. It is a challenge to be a responsible informed citizen.
Correction with apology. It is Hayom Israel, one of three newspapers published from Israel I read. My spell check caught me off guard when I wasn’t paying attention. In Hebrew, Hayom means today. The three newspapers I mentioned publish both Hebrew and English editions. Then when I read American journalism I have come to learn what writers I can trust and whose opinions align with peers in Israel.
I can tell you from personal experience that a journalist might be inclined to overcompensate when personally favoring one side of an issue while trying to maintain objectivity about the other side. I have long thought this might be what’s happening with Trump. But rather than overcompensate, all journalists should convey what is happening in plain sight. That’s the real challenge.
Janet, on that same note what ever happened to “who, what, where and when”? I don’t want the reporter’s opinion. I want just the facts. Is journalism even taught anymore?
As much as I grew up in N.Y.C., and the times was seen as god-like in my household, my spin is that it is simply supporting the oligarch class, in its political reporting. If Doug’s 192 count is real, and I do not have reason to doubt it, that’s just too crazy, and obvious, and IS their agenda.
I do not know about the other essentially silent sources.
As Deep Throat said in “All the President’s Men”, “Follow the money.”
I believe 100% that most journalists are forced to focus on profit. The C-Suite members of the ‘news’ corporations tell their journalist employees what they can and cannot write to ensure they don’t anger their ‘mostly’ republican corporate advertisers.
The news sources that actually focus on telling the truth are the nonprofit ones that do extensive research. Their fully researched news stories are extensive and take a long time to read. That doesn’t work for the outlets that are focused on profit and making sure they don’t anger their corporate advertisers.
Let’s face it: All broadcast media and much of the Internet run on a simple financial model that balances income and expense, or how cheaply a product can be produced versus how many eyeballs it attracts, holds, and compels back. Couple that with the fact that many of our lives here and now are focused on extreme comfort and perfect safety, and you have captured the US in a bottle.
We could call this the Murdoch Perspective.
Where are MSNBC and CNN and even PBS “out there” taking seriously the words that I hear regularly through Peter Beinart and Democracy Now? Besides the obvious as a few point out- listen to alternative perspectives- look in Depth at the Intersection of Issues- like Racism, Israel and the fears of many of “the other”- look seriously at Fascism – not the 2 minute sound bite and the ways that Democrats and Republicans play on Fear and listen carefully and deeply to both right and left wing pundits- but quit trying to pretend for example that things are “equal”- some voices a curios one might listen to: Tareq Baconi, Rashid Khalidi, Avi Shlaim on Palestine- Shelly Tochluk and Esther Armah on Racism, Peter Beinart etc.
Although I have a paid digital subscription to and follow several Washington Post news offerings from their writers via Wapo email news coverage, I find it odd that people like Dan Balz still give Trump credence for a presence that I feel is undeserved and maybe even a little conciliatory. I was one of those who canceled my NY Times subscription because several of the ways Trump was covered infuriated me. But I have to believe that, even with its shortcomings, the press deserves defense against the whacko attacks from the Republican, now metastasizing into a fascist MAGA right, political force that make no sense to me. Attacks on the press from a Republican Party that seems to be scared to death that it will completely lose relevancy in a (hopefully) post-Trump political reality that includes all Americans need to be covered for what they really are. Fair and balanced just doesn’t cut it with the garbage we are being forced to smell, but it seems to be the best we have. Yes, there are Democrats like Bob Mendez that show us corruption of all guilty politicians needs to be sanitized by the light of day that only the press can shine down, but it seems to me that we need the press help every politically sane American focus on the huge lie that Trump didn’t do the many things we SAW him do and is still doing that are inexcusable, but enabled by a very dangerous fascist MAGA element that has infected the rest of the former Republican Party. I used to vote mostly straight ticket Republican prior the other big weapons of mass destruction lie that sent me not just packing, but running away to independence from both parties. It really causes me to lose my peace, serenity and cool to be lied to on this level. The truth can only be bolstered by the press and books that would certainly be banned if possible. I am afraid that, even though I will always support it, I don’t feel like the press is getting the job done, so all I really have is my voice and a vote that may or may not mean anything in Indiana. I have never missed a general election vote and rarely a primary one. I am really motivated by the fact that this next vote may be the last one that, in reality, actually counts for the foreseeable future.
My wife and I were kind of musing about how now could be an important time for a Democrat version of Rex Early to emerge to save Indiana from itself. I get terribly depressed by living in a state that idolizes and enables the existence of one of the most despicable forces in American history, but we can’t afford to move away. A state that has the audacity to tell me through too many Republicans enabling, what I plainly saw on on legitimate, live coverage news in real time – an ugly, brutal, deadly, insurrection against my country didn’t happen. A state that enables an evil little man to get a pass from one Senator and too many Congressmen and Indiana State elected officials to prevent accountability for his acts that require hard evidence and an incredibly legitimate and mostly solid legal system to become involved. A state that most likely is already actively considering implementing the evil of the 2025 Project if not a home grown version of its own for its own ends as it already has done with its’ terrible treatment of public education.
I attended an Indiana Coalition for Public Education event yesterday to ask Jennifer McCormick how I could get involved in voter registration here in the Indianapolis or accessible surrounding area after I could not find any way to help locally on the internet. She took my name and phone number, but I am frustrated that it has been so hard to become engaged. I am pissed off and want to do something.
Today’s responses to Sheila’s blog post were really good. I always have two tabs open for fact-checking when I read any article. I’ll even click through Wikipedia articles to the source link and have Google Translate ready to convert French or German to English. Why?
Being a news consumer is much different today than it used to be, and it’s getting worse every day because societies are closing down via censorship. The governments claim they are combating “misinformation” or “disinformation,” but that’s a bullshit cover story.
Good luck if you sit in front of your TV hoping to become informed. As others have noted, these “news” entities are profit centers, and where you have profit centers, you have corporate watchdogs within the newsroom. These are called Editors, and the New York Times overcompensated with Biden after the poor debate performance because they couldn’t discuss it before the debate.
I know many who comment on this blog think only the GOP has corporate donors, but corporations also own the DNC. It’s why both parties have endorsed Neoliberalism for 40 years. Inside news agencies, the Editors have the final say on what is printed and how the story is written. The DNC was hiding Biden’s mental cognition issues just like the GOP hid Ronald Reagan’s. Due to corporate donors’ threats to yank expensive ads, the media writes what they can get away with and nothing more.
The NY Times had the Harvey Weinstein story for almost a decade but they buried it. Why?
The NY Times hired an Israeli activist to write the story about what happened in Israel by Hamas last October. It was riddled with lies and untruths. They did no fact-checking and got their lunch eaten by independent journalists. Insiders from the NYT and WaPo sent internal emails to independent journalists, which were sent by editors telling them the exact words to use when covering the “conflict” in Gaza. Why?
For those paying attention, Telegram is the main global social media source for free speech. Palestinians and Israelis post videos to this site—the same thing in Ukraine. Pavel Durov wanted to set up a headquarters in California, but the FBI insisted that he play ball with them (let them spy through backdoors), but he declined. Well, he just got arrested in France under a terrorist charge.
Isn’t it odd that Pavel Durov was arrested but not Elon Musk, who owns X? Elon hasn’t even lost his federal government contracts while he constantly posts how much of an outsider he is and asks followers if he is too rebellious! LOL
Why hasn’t Musk been arrested? It’s rather obvious to me that Elon is cooperating with the federal authorities, or he’d be in the same position as Pavel Durov.
These are interesting times, and not all the “news” is created equally for obvious reasons.
I know almost nothing about media outlets in other countries but have no reason to think that they are more trustworthy than ours. They may give a different perspective but, surely, are subject to the same kinds of pressure to skew their stories. Read them, by all means, but don’t assume they are any more reliable. The most trustworthy sources are probably your own personal experience and observations. Combine those with critical thinking to inform your actions. The critical thinking part is vital.
I just want to say after 30 years of Rush Limbaugh and Fox Spews brainwashing our country’s right leaning listeners or watchers, we had a massive fraud happen on actual news that isn’t skewed by their anti-American slant. Thankfully, I read this blog and follow many others like the Democratic Underground website that post all kinds of information for readers that lean left. We unsubscribed from the NYT last fall and my hubby said he was happy that we did last month although he did it reluctantly. He sees that every section of the Times is limited to a subscription so when you do subscribe, they nickel and dime you for every section you want to read. Kinda like the cable companies that make you select packages but you can’t pick some sections over others unless they set it up for you that way. Just like everyone here, we have trusted the Times to give us proper news but they have bowed to their corporate masters and we are all the worse off because of it. As JoAnn says, FOLLOW THE MONEY! Everything is about the money and the public be damned.
If it bleeds it leads!
I’ve heard every one of these speeches before. And when it’s all said and done, does anything change? Even Barack Obama gave his lofty speeches, and most of them never came to fruition. He did manage to ram through some sort of healthcare which unfortunately was capitulated on.
It’s Great to listen to an ethotic, parabolic, discourse completely mesmerized by a dogmatic soliloquy, that really catches the ear, and, in turn, stirs emotion, but, ends up to be an oratory with one’s self looking in a mirror.
Everyone hears what they want to hear, And that’s why they work against their own self-interests. They would rather burn it all down, and be burnt down with it, than to see others benefiting from anything.
That’s the definition of insanity, willfully ignorant, and arrogantly stupid.
“legacy media” is virtually gone, purchased by oligarchs and hollowed out so they no longer provide adequate journalism to fulfill the roll our constitution envisioned. We are arguing over the crumbs. Huge sections of the market are owned by the right wing. Large swaths of the country only have access to the news Newcorp or Sinclair provide. Most reliable local newspapers are gone and more get bought out every day. once great papers like the WA Post of the NY Times have changed management an are slowly moving to the right too. Need evidence, how about the treatment of hacked emails. When they were Hillary’s they flooded their papers and news reports with daily stories but when Trumps emails were hacked the supposed MSM did backflips and contortions that would make Simone Biles bow in awe to justify not releasing them. Or how about knowing that Alito flew an upside down flag for years without reporting it. The media has sold our democracy down the river for a few pieces of gold. That’s the majority, not a few bad apples
I cancelled my NYT subscription yesterday due to its kid gloves for Trump and iron hammer for Harris.
I guess that the Indiana ladies have all of the help they need. I sent nice checks to each of them, along with my contact information offering to assist them with canvasing and distributing literature. The checks have cleared the bank, but nobody has contacted me about the offered assistance. Go figure!
It’s the editorial staff who make decisions about what does or doesn’t get covered in newspapers and magazines. If you’re a young reporter, looking to get published, you bring the editorial staff what they want. That’s how you get 192 mentions of Biden’s age and mental acuity in a few days.
To coin a phrase – Inquiring Minds Want to Know.
News is, by definition, something we don’t already know. This makes it challenging for reporters to cover Trump in a way that satisfies those who care about the truth. “Trump lies” is not news…it’s a given. I do admire most major news outlets for continuing to “fact check” Trump. It’s important that they continue to do so. But it would be more newsworthy to catch him in a truth.