Legacy media bristles
The Respectable Meeja continue to pretend Trump is normal.
Journalist Parker Molloy recently detailed the media’s extensive efforts to “rationalize Trump’s incoherent statements,” tracing back to his catastrophic covid response. The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote back in June about the media’s “bias toward coherence” when covering Trump. But the question still remains why the press insists on covering Trump like a normal politician.
Legacy media bristles at the accusation that they treat Trump more generously than past presidential candidates, both Democrat and Republican. New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger claimed in a recent self-serving Post op-ed that Democrats want his paper to “cast aside neutrality and directly oppose [Trump’s] reelection.“ But that’s a strawman argument. The problem isn’t that the Times is “neutral.” The problem is that the Times in particular artificially balances the scales with coverage that makes it seem as if Kamala Harris is running against a normal Republican candidate, a wacky, off-color Mitt Romney.
Because, it seems, if they reported on him without artificial “balance” it would come across as unbalanced aggression. It’s such a fine trap, from Trump’s point of view. He’s exaggeratedly awful, incompetent, stupid, abusive, mendacious, corrupt, sadistic – so if you point that out you look “biased” and he looks like the victim. The worse he is the less the media can afford to say how bad he is.
A common defense of the media’s Trump coverage is that it’s almost impossible to detail every awful thing he says and does. But there’s a consistent narrative through line with Trump: He’s a criminal who’d use the power of the presidency to seek revenge on his enemies. That’s not complicated, and his every action supports this thesis. The mainstream media simply chooses to ignore the obvious.
It’s not complicated, and it’s true, but if they say it they’ll get yelled at.
A good example from yesterday’s NYT – “Vance, Republicans elevate false claims about immigrants eating American pets.”
My underline. They could have just said ‘lie’. So much of the legacy media has become trapped in trying to sound polished, erudite and neutral that they’ve forgotten how to be honest and direct. That’s giving them the benefit of the doubt. The cynic in me wonders if they also regard the discord created by Trump, MAGA, and the fascists who’ve been unleashed as good for circulation numbers – they don’t want MAGA crushed by an informed and angry electorate.
Hmmm, I must have borked the underline somehow. Belongs under ‘elevate false claims’.
Cui bono?
Let’s face it, most legacy media is owned by capitalists, most capitalists prefer a dictatorship to a democracy. Democracy is messy; policies, rules, laws, change. Under a dictatorship, capitalists have certainty of the law, wages, worker’s “rights”, and are free to make as much loot as they can as long as enough is shoveled to the dictator.
Trump is far better for Capitalists than anyone the Democrats can find.
Capitalists always think they’ll do well under a dictator, and many do for a time at least. Thing is, dictators (whether left or right) don’t ultimately follow the rule of law that sets a neutralise playing field (or at least a transparent level of bias) for all participants. Instead special favours are granted to the chosen few based on backroom deals. A path to wild riches if you’ve got the inside track, but you’re locked out and can be ruined if not. You only need look at Franco’s Spain, Putin’s Russia, Xi’s China, or Orban’s Hungary to see what can happen to even the immensely rich and powerful if they fall foul of He Who Must Be Obeyed. It turns capitalism into a corrupt lottery, usually a kleptocracy, rather than business and laws. For all it’s faults give me a liberal social democracy every time.
Rev, no due respect, that’s absolutely insane… The places where capitalism does best are all democracies barring China (and it’s suffering a bit there with Xiping clamping down). In democracies you can lobby; in dictatorships, well, you can hope he likes you (Putin’s Russia).