History confirms the existence of what we might call “fringe folks” in every society–people who, for whatever reason, have embraced conspiracy theories and/or rejected credible evidence of reality. The question for our age is: how did we get to a point where these deluded and arguably dangerous individuals have assumed authority? What has enabled a certified nutcase like RFK, Jr. to hold sway over the health of Americans, or a man seemingly devoid of contact with either knowledge or reality to become President of the United States?
As regular readers of this blog know, I attribute much of this state of affairs to our current information environment–a fragmented environment that allows Individuals to “curate” their preferred realities. (I used to tell the students in my Media and Public Affairs classes that if they really believed aliens had landed in Roswell, I could find them five internet sites with pictures of the aliens…)
I think it is fair to say that one of the reasons for the proliferation of alternate media sources, including widespread propaganda outlets, has been the inadequacy of mainstream, “legacy” journalism. There’s a reason that so many of the most professional journalists have abandoned their positions with those legacy outlets and decamped to places like Substack–a reason why so many of us depend upon the daily reports from reputable scholars like Heather Cox Richardson and Paul Krugman, and look askance at news reporting that continues to “sanewash” and normalize behaviors that are objectively insane and abnormal.
A recent example: my husband and I were watching an NBC national news report on the shocking assault by administration goons on California Senator Alex Padilla, when he tried to ask a question of Secretary Kristi Noem. The report repeated Noem’s assertion that the Senator had failed to identify himself. It didn’t call that assertion a lie, despite the fact that widely available video of the incident showed that Padilla had done so.
Shouldn’t we be able to rely on journalists to highlight lies being told by Trump’s collection of clowns and ideologues? Why has it been so difficult for legacy media to call a lie a lie?
Recently, a reader shared with me an article from the Columbia Journalism Review, exploring that question. It began,
Perhaps the most basic task of journalism is to distinguish truth from falsity. To identify the facts, and to present those facts to a readership eager for information. Journalists may once have believed that their responsibility stopped there—but in today’s media environment, it’s become clear that delivering facts to the public is not so straightforward. Distinguishing true from false, which often entails calling attention to false information, risks amplifying and even legitimizing that information. There is no better contemporary example of this problem than the media coverage of Donald Trump.
Trump’s brazen dishonesty in his public comments is without political precedent in this country. During his first term, the Washington Post’s fact-checking database clocked 30,573 untruths. That rate shows no sign of slowing during his second term, and now he seems to be combating accusations of lying by simply manipulating who is allowed in the press pool.
Granted, as the article notes, journalistic norms weren’t created for a President like Trump. The belief that “both sides” of a situation should be covered ignores the reality that both sides often don’t deserve equal weight. (It also ignores the fact that many issues have more than two sides, but that’s a different problem..)
The article argues that legacy journalists need to find new ways to talk about false information–for example, not describing a tweet or statement as “racially charged,” but as racist; calling a lie a lie, not a “misleading statement.”
The Columbia Journalism Review is a respected journal, and I was happy to see that it was taking on what has proved to be a hugely consequential problem, although its discussion is arguably too little and too late. Thousands–probably millions–of citizens now get their information (or misinformation/lies) from non-legacy sources, from the Internet’s wild west of sources peddling everything from informed analyses to ideological claptrap.
Journalists used to be gatekeepers, deciding what news was needed to keep the citizenry informed. There were certainly problems with that role, but I would argue that the information world we inhabit today–where each of us must be our own gatekeeper–is no improvement. Quite the contrary.
I wonder: If mainstream journalists had been doing their jobs these past couple of decades, would we now have a federal government composed of racist cranks and misfits and conspiracy theorists? I doubt it.
“History confirms the existence of what we might call “fringe folks” in every society–people who”, (because they’re afraid of everything due to lack of real and meaningful knowledge), “have embraced conspiracy theories and/or rejected credible evidence of reality.” And now we have them in authority trying to reduce real and meaningful knowledge even more.
Once again corporate America comes to the rescue of honest journalism. “If it bleeds it ledes” is now quaint, because the main stream of journalism is terrified that they will be attacked and shut out of political encounters. Filtering news by elimination of reporting means lower profits… and, well, we just can’t have that.
The other side of that coin is the political connections and leanings of the ownership (Bezos) that pre-emptively filters the news. Heaven forbid that we should offend our employees in government by telling the truth.
“Too little and too late” is an understatement. Like much of Indiana, our local newspaper was a Gannett-owned rag from McKean, VA. It was supposedly a very high concentration of subscribers, but after I investigated, I found that they even lied about that. That would count all the papers handed out to groceries and convenience stores as purchased papers. Every paper found in dumpsters was already read by newspapers, according to Gannett.
After obliterating the local Gannett rag, I went after IndyStar. Their reporting was even worse than in Muncie. The journalists were buddies with the politicians and were often invited to dinners and golf clubs. How can you hold someone accountable if you’re best friends?
That foray into journalism led me to Noam Chomsky, who blew up the journalism and media business in the 1980s. To answer Sheila’s question and confirm what Vern said, our media industry operates within a business model driven by capitalist free markets. It’s about profits, which most of the time causes editors and publishers to protect their bottom lines. If a major advertiser were caught breaking the law, a journalist might write up the story, but the editor would either kill it or require the journalist to revise it.
And get this, our Gannett-owned newspaper occupied space in a building owned by the local oligarch’s family, who controlled all of East Central Indiana, and is VERY CONSERVATIVE. I later revealed they controlled the Chamber of Commerce, our Convention Center, the hospital, and the university.
In my opinion, journalism, as our Fourth Branch of Government, should play an adversarial role with all branches of our government. However, if you take that stance, you will NOT be invited to dinners and country clubs with the politicos. The corrupt players in Indy refuse to answer their phones or respond to emails. If you work for a large media entity and you cover the government beat, guess what? Once you are closed out, you’re out of a job.
I would say that folks who gravitate to Substack for their news are probably the most intelligent news consumers (Top 10%). You will not find many MAGAs reading newsletters from journalists at Substack for the reason (ignorance) we talked about yesterday. 😉
My belief is independent journalism – NOTHING owned or funded by the ultra rich/corporations will be where we find real news and facts from this point forward. I follow a varirty of writers on Substack and literally tune out all legacy media. It helps my sanity too. I even changed my default browser to Firefox so I don’t get rolling media trash across my screen. I won’t even watch local news on t.v.
Lori,
A “writer” is not necessarily a journalist. Now we have folks who write on Substack or elsewhere on the Web as “content developers” and everyone assumes they are journalists.
To be a journalist, strong reporting, interviewing, research, and writing skills are essential, with a focus on clear, concise, and accurate information delivery. On the other hand, a writer is simply anyone who writes entertain, inform, persuade, or express creativity – all of which often pass for journalism today.
I’ve ben thinking about Bezos, as I’m sure others have, and believe that he is not interested in journalism for its own sake, only in the “almighty dollar, which, nowadays, looks like kissing up to Trump.” He obviously did not come from a journalistic background.
H.W. Bush allowed Murdoch to come here, after, apparently being extruded from Oz, and he set about showing why Oz might have kicked him out. Talk about lies!!!!! “Fair and Balanced” was the first, and major one. And it fooled soooo many people.
“Nuff said.
And note that anybody can have a Substack. It automatically occurs when you pay to support other Substack accounts like Heather, Sheila, etc. I have one, but have never posted anything because I am too shy. A couple of friends have told me that they accidentally encountered my listing, have signed on as followers, and asked when I was going to start writing. I told them that it would be a while.
Raise your hand if you’re happy with your chosen sources of news. I’ve been adding to my sources for fifty years or more. It’s not that I don’t like what I read or hear, it’s just that my interest in new things grows. That’s how I know I’m still with it.
I sometimes feel like I’m repeating myself. If we want to break through the FAUX NEWS Fog, we need to be more mindful of the “keep it short, stupid,” adage. When we have defined the message, we have to put it on billboards, buses, subway cars and walls, and on all social media sites.
I know people say they want to see policy positions, but in two of the past three elections the side that presented policies lost, while the jerk whose policy was hatred of Muslims, resentment of others, and retribution against every perceived enemy (it’s implied that all Democrats are enemies). Maybe no policy can outweigh the misogyny in America.
Also Common Dreams, Democracy Now, The Electronic Intifada and similar Don’t require you to Pay to learn of the lies, distortions and omissions of the CNN’s- example: read Jessica Valenti’s Abortion Every Day- not only re:Abortion- also birth control , women of child bearing age- are investigated and prosecuted- often things Not related to Abortion- MSNBC – if y’r lucky a single Sensatillized story if anything- Jessica- draws out the bigger picture- alternate media important on Israel, Iran, Gaza- not pathetic interviews with PBS “experts “- we need to reach beyond Heather C R – she’s ok, sometimes spot on, …
FYI – Per Pew Research – about 1/3 of Americans get most of their news from Facebook or Snapchat. Journalism????
IT takes hours to pick through the information and find any semblance of truth.
ITS why you’re on my list. Thanks
Come on, Lester, we know who the 33% are getting their news from social media outlets – MAGA. As I mentioned yesterday, I still have a few MAGAs on my FB page, and if you can fit your point within a meme with a picture, you score bonus points with the MAGA crowd.
I have considered conning the right-wingers many times over the past decade for money. It would be so easy, and you can make lots of friends and influence millions. I would have to create a Patriot-sounding pseudonym, which wouldn’t be hard.
My roadblock is my conscience. If I could ignore or evade my conscience, I could be financially set for life.
Todd,
You are not a journalist – fact check – those most likely to get their news from major social media platforms are young people. MAGAs have their own platforms to look at.
If I’m being 100% honest I don’t read the news so much as go with my gut about people. For example, I wanted to know more about Indiana’s Micah Beckwith. So I looked up video of him talking in public. That’s what I used to make my judgment. Not whatever crap people were saying but right from the horse’s mouth. I pay attention to a persons words and actions. Micah says he likes American History but I don’t agree with the conclusions he is coming up with as a reader of history. It seems to me that he is hungry for power and influence and doesn’t get the trouble involved with being called a “White Nationalist”.
I do remember when – In the 1967 Mideast War (labeled the Seven Day war, although the ’56 war also took seven days), national news reported daily on the air battle between Israel and Syria – something like “Israel reported that they shot down five Syrian planes and lost one of their own; Syria reported that they shot down nine Israel planes and lost none of their own; independent observers confirmed the Israeli claims” – after three days, they said that they weren’t reporting Syrian claims since independent observers consistently confirmed the Israeli reports and Syria’s claims seemed unreliable.
With Trump, it’s been “Trump says ten million rapists have been released by the Mexican government into the US; Mexico denies this – in the name of “fairness”, we are reporting both sides. We didn’t find evidence but why bother.
Sorry for the Anecdote, but – about six or seven years ago, I contacted a local “investigative reporter” that I had met and respected. I had found that a local, state-certified Massage School in Carmel was offering two-month course for $10,000. In two phone calls I learned that (1) it was only offered to Chinese students, everyone else needed the ten-month course, and (2) although they certified the number of hours attended, the student would leave unprepared to take the national certification exam (which at that time was an unchanging multiple choice exam). My letters to the State Massage Board went unanswered and it was rumored that Carmel’s separate licensing office was told to accept that school despite the misgiving of their local inspector. Carmel had two “happy ending” massage parlors at that time with locked doors (a fire code violation, but protection against police). The reporter told me to contact her when I had more information. I had thought that uncovering corruption that promoted prostitution in suburban Carmel would be an investigative reporters job. I had neither the time, nor the skills to proceed. Sorry for the anecdote about a reluctant reporter.
Back to the main point – failing journalism
Part has been the whinny threats from the right that they weren’t being treated fairly (since reality and science had a ‘liberal bias’) and much of this has been the commercialization of the news Business.
Reagan once famously told a heckler that “I paid for this microphone”. It was a moderately good comeback, and I dislike heckling when someone (anyone) is speaking, but the underlying message is “the one with the most money can buy the most voice”, codified in Citizens United v FEC.
Len. I found your anecdote right on point and very interesting.
I find HCR’s “Letters to an American” helpful for keeping up with daily news. Heather’s hard-earned perspective through her lens of history helps to put current occurrences into understandable terms.
Today we live in a world where there is a constant battle for controlling the narrative. The news(facts) is politicized. In Authoritarianism people aren’t allowed to question but have to accept what comes down from on high. Fox news presents as an authoritarian silo that miscasts blame to liberal Americans for every problem there is in USA. Intentional misleading news that causes harm and causes bad decision making needs to be reported and opposed. It somewhat is but IMO not enough.
Regarding Roswell, during Biden’s last term there was hard fought legislation to get top secret documents/evidence released to public that was successful. The military in their authoritarian way had all evidence and actual pilot reports classified top secret and not for the public to see. That’s now changed, and UFO’s have been classified as UAP’s (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) due to the need to repair the image of the subject, and some phenomena have been seen not flying, but diving and emerging from large bodies of water. Just saying I’m staying open minded on that subject.
Perhaps with the burning down of cities, following politicians hoaxes marked against others and the citizens, ignoring the enslavement of our children with massive national debt, one could conclude that the fringe movement includes the media itself.
Thank you, Sharon
I have great respect for my local paper, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. It is my go to for local news. Their editorial page is outstanding. They print letters to the editor from local subscribers which reflect the views of northeast Indiana. Their opinion articles feature in depth issues that make people think. I appreciate being able to support this local publication.