It’s not media cluelessness – it’s cowardice and complicity
But there’s another word starting with “C” that describes some journalists: courage.
For more than a decade, I’ve struggled with the question of why major media have underreacted to Donald Trump’s fascist movement, normalizing its corruption and cruelty.
Eventually, I came up with the “Three C’s” – cluelessness, cowardice, and complicity.
Some people assume everything journalists do is intentional. But after spending four decades in a newsroom, I know there’s a lot of sloppiness, naiveté, and delusion. So I attributed the failures of some news outlets to cluelessness.
I’m over that now.
We’re more than a year into Trump’s second term, and no one in the media is so clueless that they can’t see what’s happening. No one can watch videos of masked federal agents executing people in the streets and think this is normal. No one can miss an entire ethnic group being smeared as “garbage” and “low-IQ.” No one can ignore the illegal war with Iran, the attempted takeover of elections or the outrageous pardons for rich people who put money in the Trump family’s pockets.
Journalists – even lazy journalists – can’t miss this authoritarian rot.
It’s not cluelessness anymore. It’s cowardice and complicity. And it’s inexcusable.
THE COMPLICIT
Fox News is practically a de facto arm of the Trump regime, but rivals, including Newsmax and One America News, covet that title. There’s also an army of podcasters promoting fascism. Some made my recent list of the 25 worst people in news media.
Partisan propaganda is one thing, but the media capture of legacy outlets is even more alarming. Jeff Bezos has sacrificed the Washington Post’s credibility in hopes that Trump will spare his other businesses, including Amazon and Blue Origin. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who joined Bezos on the row of oligarchs at the Trump inauguration, helps disinform the public to placate Trump. And then there’s Elon Musk, who also joined the row of oligarchs and uses his X social media platform to spread white supremacist lies.
Meanwhile, the pro-Trump Ellison family has acquired CBS News and trashed its reputation. With Trump’s help, the Ellisons are a new investor in TikTok and appear on track to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.
The Trump regime also thinks it can benefit from consolidation of local TV. The Nexstar chain seeks to acquire Tegna’s stations, a move that would extend its reach over roughly 80% of the country. Achieving that big a footprint would require a change in federal rules, but Trump likes the idea, no doubt pleased by the rightward leanings of Nexstar’s NewsNation channel. It’s not a done deal, however, since last week, a federal judge ruled against it. Nexstar, of course, plans to appeal.
THE COWARDLY
Other major outlets have not thrown in with Trump, but they haven’t thrown in with democracy either. They’re protecting their profits instead of protecting our way of life.
ABC, for example, agreed to a $15 million settlement with Trump in a lawsuit it could have won. It was a shakedown scheme, and they submitted. ABC was also willing to take Jimmy Kimmel’s show off the air at the slightest application of pressure, but then reversed that decision when it proved financially inconvenient for its parent, Disney.
NBC isn’t as bad, but has avoided the confrontation with autocracy that this moment demands. CNN, meanwhile, has claimed a bizarre middle ground where it reports on Trump’s abuses, but also pays contributor Scott Jennings to lie in Trump’s defense.
Then there’s the White House Correspondents’ Association, which seems to live in fear that its members will lose their cool gigs and therefore is willing to host Trump as the guest of honor at its dinner Saturday.
The New York Times may think it’s boldly confronting Trump’s fascism, but it’s not. It reports piecemeal on Trump’s outrageous conduct, but has yet to write a loud, sweeping story with a headline like “Trump Is Dismantling Democracy.” Such a headline would be easy to support with facts that the NYT and other major media report in isolation every day. They’re simply afraid to hit the total button. I’m not sure NYT’s editors fear Trump. They may instead be afraid of coming across as an adversary when they’d rather watch the disaster from the sidelines.
In any case, when news outlets see a dictatorship forming and refuse to sound the alarm, they are cowards.
THE THIRD “C”: THE COURAGEOUS
A few mainstream outlets tell the ugly truth. MS NOW has energetically highlighted Trump’s authoritarianism, with reporter Jacob Soboroff taking a leading role on immigration, detailing the Department of Homeland Security’s abuses.
The U.S. mainstream media do such a poor job overall that one of the most reliable outlets on American politics is the Guardian, based in the United Kingdom. Other shining lights include Democracy Now, ProPublica, and The New Republic. The Associated Press often writes more truth-telling headlines and stories than other mainstream outlets, but occasionally slips up.
The Guardian, Democracy Now, ProPublica, the New Republic, and the AP are free, but welcome donations. Same for the outfit that sponsors this newsletter –COURIER – free to the public, but in need of your support.
Energetic outlets tracking right-wing propaganda include Media Matters for America, Status, and the Media and Democracy Project.
Individual voices that deserve your support include Greg Sargent, Margaret Sullivan, Radley Balko, Jamelle Bouie, Heather Cox Richardson, Jen Rubin, Rex Huppke, Steven Beschloss, Dan Froomkin, James Fallows, Jennifer Schulze, Edwin Eisendrath, Jamison Foser, Nina Burleigh, Brian Beutler, Will Bunch, Jeff Jarvis, and Elie Mystal.
It’s obvious that Republicans are trying to end democracy and establish a dictatorship. News media that don’t tell you that are failing you.
This week’s media atrocity
A CBS headline on Friday declared: “Trump says Iranians have ‘agreed to everything,’ including removal of enriched uranium.” It wasn’t wrong. Trump did say those things. But the story’s sixth paragraph noted that Iran denied Trump’s claims. Why wasn’t that in the headline? CBS couldn't possibly have thought Iran would concede without further face-to-face talks. Soon after, Iran re-imposed restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz. That’s not cluelessness on CBS’ part. That’s complicity.
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Complicit should be changed to CRIMINAL.
You're way more generous than I would be, Mr. Jacob. I would refer to Fox as state-run media, a propaganda arm of the Republican Party writ large. In Hungary Mr. Magyar has gone on record that media outlets such as that will be disposed of. We should consider doing the same in this country or, at the very least, imposing far more regulation.