Free Press? But Where’s The Integrity?

Posted on by under Election 2024, Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Social commentary

For some time now I have been disappointed and disgusted by the coverage in media outlets I have long placed much faith in, namely The Washington Post and the New York Times, but also Politico, CNN and others.  It seems almost as if they think that for every story they print about Donald Trump or other Republicans, they feel the need to seek a false equivalence by running a story about President Biden’s age, or some faux pas he made, such as tripping over a sandbag that shouldn’t have been there to start with.  I’ve long been a supporter and advocate for a free press, but in return I expect honest reporting with integrity … and lately I don’t think we’ve been getting that.  Turns out I’m not alone, and Robert Reich has a command of words and an understanding far better than my own, so I shall turn this post over to him.

Four ways the mainstream media is quietly helping Trump and his Republican allies

By Robert Reich

27 November 2023

The mainstream media is helping Trump and his authoritarian allies in four ways.

First, it’s drawing a false equivalence between Trump and Biden — claiming that Biden’s political handicap is his age, while Trump’s corresponding handicap is his criminal indictments.

Rubbish. Trump is almost as old as Biden, and Trump’s public remarks and posts are becoming ever more unhinged — suggesting that advancing age may be a bigger problem for Trump than for Biden.

Why isn’t the mainstream media reporting on Trump’s increasing senescence?

Secondly, every time the mainstream media reports on another move by Trump and his Republican allies toward neofascism, it tries to balance its coverage by pointing out some fault in the Democratic Party (such as the ongoing federal corruption and bribery case against Senator Bob Menendez).

The net effect is for readers to assume all politics is rotten. A recent Washington Post article was headlined, “In a swing Wisconsin county, everyone is tired of politics.”

Voters who are turned off by politics are less aware of Biden’s accomplishments — and the media is hardly reporting on them.

One person interviewed by the Post admitted, “I can’t really speak to anything [Biden] has done because I’ve tuned it out, like a lot of people have. We’re so tired of the us-against-them politics.”

As if the “us-against-them politics” is the fault of Democrats as much as it is Trump Republicans. In fact, Trump’s GOP is the party of dysfunctional politics.

Which brings us to the third way the mainstream media is quietly helping Trump. It makes it seem as if the dysfunction in Washington is coming from both parties.

“How do Americans feel about politics?” The New York Times asked recently, answering in the same headline: “‘Disgust isn’t a strong enough word.’”

What the Times failed to report is that much of the GOP no longer accepts the rule of law, or the norms of liberal democracy, or the legitimacy of the opposing party, or the premise that governing requires negotiation and compromise.

Yesterday, the Times attributed the coming wave of departing lawmakers across both chambers and parties to the “breathtaking dysfunction on Capitol Hill,” without telling readers that the dysfunction is entirely due to the Republican Party.

Finally, blaming both sides for this chaos plays into Trump’s and his allies’ goal of wanting Americans to believe the nation has become ungovernable, so it needs a strongman.

The worse things seem, the more convincing is Trump’s case for an authoritarian like him to take over. “I’d get it done in one day.” “I am your voice.” “Leave it all to me.”

Focusing on government dysfunction ignores Biden’s steady hand. This makes America more likely to fall into Trump’s and his allies’ neofascist hands.

As we head into the critical election year of 2024, the mainstream media must adapt to a new political reality: The contest is no longer between Democrats who want more government and Republicans who want less. It is between democracy and fascism.

Discover more from Filosofa's Word

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

28 thoughts on “Free Press? But Where’s The Integrity?”

  2. Hi. As ryinger77 said, media is now corporate owned by large conglomerates and profit is king. So as the republicans promise businesses / wealthy more profit along with fewer regulations, the media is more slanted / bias to favor Republicans. Then there is the profit for the media outlet, and again they love elections because competing candidates spend large sums of money on advertising and attacking their opponents. That equals profit for the media outlet. That is why they are desperate to drum up a horse race, they need to make it competitive to make the profit. Lastly one retiring host for a news show was asked why they treat Republican guests differently than Democratic Party guests. They let republicans say anything with very few corrections or challenges, no matter how clearly they are lying. They do not attack republican guests. But they constantly interrupt or question democratic guests, they argue with them, they do not treat them deferentially. The host said the reason why is the RNC tells them that if they want any future republican on their shows they will not correct republican guests, they won’t point out lies, they will just move on and accept what the republican is saying. The RNC demands that or not one member of congress or state Republican Party will go on their shows. The DNC don’t do that. They don’t set conditions nor demand special treatment. They don’t stop party people from going on the shows.

    Those are the reasons for the bias and one-sided reporting by media. IMO. Hugs. Scottie

    Liked by 1 person

    • I’m stunned, though I shouldn’t be, by that revelation by the outgoing news show host. Such blatant corruption. I don’t watch television news, so I’m spared that b.s., but there’s enough of it in the print media, too.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Thanks Jill. And, that is the whole point of the Trump, and before 2015, Republican mantra – discredit all institutions and people to make the playing field the same. This enables the loudest megaphones the opportunity to influence.

    As Michael Lewis noted in his well-researched book “The Fifth Risk,” the attempts to discredit the deep state is intentional as the deep state are the folks who know what they are talking about. As Lewis noted, the Trump transition team was not operational in November, 2016 so numerous positions went unfilled for the longest time. So, transitional documents were unread and briefings were unattended. Lewis based his book on reading these unclassified briefing materials and getting briefings, so he knew far more than Trump and the Trump team on the greatest risks facing America.

    Biden is old like Trump, but he is knowledge and moral whereas Trump chooses to be neither.

    Keith

    Liked by 3 people

  7. Pingback: Free Press? But Where’s The Integrity? | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  8. You can forget the main stream media, you know what, nowadays Al Jazeera is the best bet for relatively factual news (maybe not with respect to the Israel-Hamas war though). That is astonishing and sad (not for Al Jazeera but for the rest of the media circus).

    The democrats have done great damage to themselves when nominating Hilary Clinton as presidential candidate. That woman isn’t any better than our head of state here in Denmark. And many democrats would agree with me. Even if Bernie also is an old geezer, he seems to be honest to me, integer. Like it or not, President Biden is getting very fragile, which is sad. Even President Obama didn’t live up to the expectations of his voters. They all promise more than they can keep, it is the same everywhere in the world. Maybe they should research before their campaigns what is doable and what isn’t. In Denmark, when confronted with unkept promises, they just say “the situation changed” or “the circumstances didn’t allow it”; very handy.

    Liked by 4 people

    • I generally find The Guardian to be fairly reliable, too.

      I respectfully disagree about Hillary Clinton … I think she would have done a fine job as president. No, she’s not particularly personable, and yes, she’s a woman, so there are two strikes against her, but she is intelligent and not given to game-playing. But, that’s water over the dam now. The reason it seems that they all promise more than they can keep is because they are limited in how much they can do without approval of Congress and the Court, but I do believe that Obama did as much good as he possibly could, and I think the same is true thus far of Biden, especially given that the Republicans have thrown roadblocks in front of every single thing he’s tried to do.

      Liked by 3 people

  11. “How do Americans feel about politics?” The New York Times asked recently, answering in the same headline: “‘Disgust isn’t a strong enough word.’”

    Well DO SOMETHING about it People!!!! (It has been decided the rest of the commentary should not be shown on the grounds of good taste and possible alienation of those the comment is directed at)

    Liked by 3 people

Comments are closed.