The long decline of major-media news journalism has been quite a story. We’ve been following it for years — perhaps all our lives.
Back when there were only three channels in the U.S., and when most cities had a newspaper or two, all competing to “cover the news,” we thought that there was some objectivity to it all — that facts were paramount. That may have been naive. But with the rise of cable television news and the 24-hour news “cycle,” and then Internet blogging, vlogging, and podcasting, all fixed around a few social media company platforms, all pretense of rigorous reporting has evaporated.
Even corporate tool Stephen Colbert now admits that the very idea of objectivity is popularly regarded as a joke.
As it was in the beginning of the country — with Federalist papers competing with Republican papers — so it is today, except most major media outfits are Democrat, and only one major channel, Fox News, presents anything like a “Republican” spin on “the news.”
So, let’s congratulate the Democrats for finally recognizing reality.
At their national convention, just wrapped up, most journalists were not allowed on the floor. Press passes were given to loyal Democratic “journalists,” sure, but not to any of the few still trying to do actual reporting. Glenn Greenwald was refused a pass.
Instead, the Democratic Party let in a whole bunch of “influencers” and TikTokers.
Greenwald sees this as a horrific degradation of the role of honest journalism.
But maybe we should see it as the only sign of honesty we can expect from Democrats.
If propaganda be the norm, accept it and “move on.”
Silly Republicans, stuck in the past, allowed all sorts of reporters into their convention.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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7 replies on “Democrats Move On”
Even journalists who sought to be objective were rarely ever any good at it. And they’ve almost never begun with a good foundation; we need journalists who have at least the competence of an undergraduate degree in something other than journalism itself, if we’re going to get proper reporting.
Now-a-days, journalists can openly reject objectivity even as an aspiration to be imperfectly realized. But, also, we’ve all encountered people who, one way or another, insist that bias consists in deviation from whatever is now the “progressive” narrative. This idea is related to the notion that the ideologic center is neither the logical center of possibilities nor some multidimensional median, but simply what the person regards as the most acceptable view. Note how often some conception of centrism is confused with neutrality. The first is an ideologic commitment, the second is a meta-ideologic commitment.
Either way, a large share of the public is simply most comfortable embracing a narrative provided to them by others. The alternative would involve considerable effort, and exposes frightening truths whenever tried extensively.
In all this discussion, let’s recognize that, though Republicans and conservatives get the short end of this stick, they are largely responsible for the problem. If they truly championed reasoned discourse, then they would undermine their own positions even as they undermined those of Democrats and of “progressives”. Republicans and conservatives have chosen a guarantee of the short end of the stick rather that the possibility of getting no end of the stick.
The Democratic party is the last defense line protecting democracy by shutting down anyone who doesn’t see the idea of democracy the way they see it. It’s just too bad their rank and file don’t see the writing on the wall. But to the leadership of their party, they are all useful idiots,
The corporate Ministry of Truth is the only one that will get access. Because they are so important to the usurpers. Can’t maintain power over a dissatisfied majority. Even Mao and Stalin spent millions on message control, lest the majority become aware.
The picture at the top says it all. A complete clown show. No policies shared, just HATE TRUMP. The network were having the proverbial “tingling” sensation. Not one drop of substance.
They just HATE TRUMP.
That was when the Republican thought Trump was a lock!
At best, I would say Fox News is maybe 10% better than the rest.
The whole idea of “objective journalism” was a 20th century innovation popularized by Walter Lippmann and and denounced as a scam not that long after (by, among others, Hunter S. Thompson — “With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”)
There’s always a bias. The question is whether it’s to be worn on one’s sleeve so that the reader can judge it, or buried under faux “objective” language to try and fool the reader into accepting its assumptions.