Can anything fix the media? Honestly, I’ve given up. CNN is run by a Republican billionaire, the Washington Post is run by a billionaire Murdoch crony, and Twitter is owned by an aspiring fascist. Local newspapers (even the ones that aren’t owned by hedge funds) are still tiptoeing around hot-button issues that might drive away their financial support.
I’ve been blogging for 22 years. I was a journalist for 20 years, and when I started blogging, I still thought most of the awful journalism I saw was just laziness, or badly trained staffers without an experienced editor.
Eventually, it became impossible to ignore the fact that far too many journalists were simply jockeying for power, access, and influence. The Iraq war was only the beginning. So I no longer defend my former profession.
If I were running for office, I wouldn’t talk to the press, either.
And then we have the standards now set by the New York Times, whose work product is often beneath contempt. Maybe the best thing would be a polar shift that left all these media giants buried under a mountain of ice, like in “The Day After Tomorrow.”
Bruce Bartlett (former conservative-turned-progressive who served in every Republican administration), wrote about the problems with the media on Twitter. He made so many good points, but this is the most significant: “The Times’ constant repetition of certain stories or lack of such coverage on others constitutes bias. But it’s hard to find bias in any individual story. It’s the sheer repetition of stories that should have been dropped that constitutes the bias.’
Like Hillary’s emails. Like Biden’s age.
Now the media mob is howling for Harris to do their bidding. Dear God, I hope she has the strength not to fold under pressure. Because they want to punish her for not courting them, and it will be bad. They resent her for sneaking in under the wire as the nominee, because (and this is important) they see themselves as the only legitimate gatekeepers for the ultimate prize: the White House. They can’t believe she’s doing it without their seal of approval.
Our job will be to show them how much Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have our support. God knows, they will need it.
