If you read the New York Times, Washington Post, or other mainstream newspapers, or tune into NBC, CBS or ABC, you should be blown away to discover that these elite power brokers of public opinion have abased themselves. Even after almost a decade of daily coverage of Donald Trump, they persist in (1) reporting on him as if he were a normal candidate, and (2) covering the presidential campaign as if it were a normal campaign. Bothsidesism, whataboutism, and false equivalencies prevail. By treating the two candidates as coequals, competing on a level playing field, headline writers and reporters mislead their readers and viewers.
The differences between the two candidates are not subtle policy nuances. But you would not know that if you read the headlines and articles in the mainstream media (MSM). Instead of calling Trump out about his misdeeds and plans for much more American carnage, they whine about Kamala Harris’s lack of policy specifics. To read and listen to them, you would not know that one candidate’s treason and sedition are central to his persona and not at all comparable to his opponent’s policy vagueness. They disregard the former while obsessing about the latter. How pathetic—and dangerous—is that?
The MSM appear unaware of the lasting damage they are doing. They ignore the fact that the rival propaganda machinery that fervently undergirds the Trump cult—Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, radio shock jocks like Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin, etc.—are not constrained by similar qualms about being perceived as biased. The propagandists support Trump’s daily fusillade of lies and character assassinations with megadoses of their own falsehoods. They present his insanity and nonsense, and the existential danger he represents, as legitimate.
The fact that Trump attempted the overthrow of the government, was twice impeached, is a 34-time convicted felon, a serial sexual assaulter, a scammer who stole the life savings of hundreds who signed up for his bogus university, a slumlord, a bigot, an inept president incapable of confronting a pandemic, a commander-in-chief who lamented that “his” generals did not measure up to Adolf Hitler’s in terms of fealty, etc, etc., is not worth a mention by the MSM poohbahs who arbitrate what we read and hear. They will stick to their journalistic insistence on neutrality until they are marched away to a Trump “re-education” camp. If they don’t get a grip, there won’t be any free press left to extol if this fascist tool is re-elected.
The MSM does a huge disservice to the public with its horse race coverage, fueled by their delusions as to what constitutes honest reporting. They do not have a clue. They have abdicated any claim to the moral high ground.
This is an example of the media abandoning the conceit that they are a Fourth Estate. Along with that exalted label came the need to act responsibly and defend the very system that allows for the existence of a free press. They have surrendered that to Trumpist corruption. A modicum of partisan bias in favor of democracy, the rule of law, and basic decency and integrity would be appropriate. If they continue to contribute to normalizing and legitimizing him and his accomplices, it will be at their own peril.
MSM, Do Your Job!
Dick Hermann
September 7, 2024
The differences between the two candidates are not subtle policy nuances. But you would not know that if you read the headlines and articles in the mainstream media (MSM). Instead of calling Trump out about his misdeeds and plans for much more American carnage, they whine about Kamala Harris’s lack of policy specifics. To read and listen to them, you would not know that one candidate’s treason and sedition are central to his persona and not at all comparable to his opponent’s policy vagueness. They disregard the former while obsessing about the latter. How pathetic—and dangerous—is that?
The MSM appear unaware of the lasting damage they are doing. They ignore the fact that the rival propaganda machinery that fervently undergirds the Trump cult—Fox News, OANN, Newsmax, radio shock jocks like Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin, etc.—are not constrained by similar qualms about being perceived as biased. The propagandists support Trump’s daily fusillade of lies and character assassinations with megadoses of their own falsehoods. They present his insanity and nonsense, and the existential danger he represents, as legitimate.
The fact that Trump attempted the overthrow of the government, was twice impeached, is a 34-time convicted felon, a serial sexual assaulter, a scammer who stole the life savings of hundreds who signed up for his bogus university, a slumlord, a bigot, an inept president incapable of confronting a pandemic, a commander-in-chief who lamented that “his” generals did not measure up to Adolf Hitler’s in terms of fealty, etc, etc., is not worth a mention by the MSM poohbahs who arbitrate what we read and hear. They will stick to their journalistic insistence on neutrality until they are marched away to a Trump “re-education” camp. If they don’t get a grip, there won’t be any free press left to extol if this fascist tool is re-elected.
The MSM does a huge disservice to the public with its horse race coverage, fueled by their delusions as to what constitutes honest reporting. They do not have a clue. They have abdicated any claim to the moral high ground.
This is an example of the media abandoning the conceit that they are a Fourth Estate. Along with that exalted label came the need to act responsibly and defend the very system that allows for the existence of a free press. They have surrendered that to Trumpist corruption. A modicum of partisan bias in favor of democracy, the rule of law, and basic decency and integrity would be appropriate. If they continue to contribute to normalizing and legitimizing him and his accomplices, it will be at their own peril.
MSM, Do Your Job!
Dick Hermann
September 7, 2024
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