The problem with that is that it’s so fragmented that there isn’t any common source where people are getting their information. Most people don’t even know where to turn for it.
When it comes to political journalists I believe the kind of information they owe the public is the information that can help be informed citizens, to make vote based on substantive information, to be able to form and express our opinions based on the relevant facts, not spin. I believe that is why our Founders gave journalists special protection in the constitution. They didn’t do that to make sure they could entertain us and themselves with trivia and lies.
You’re totally right. They are criminally negligent if you ask me. But I don’t think they’re going to change anytime soon. I’m grateful for substack too.
I have been complaining about how horrible our mainstream media coverage is since the media decided to partner with the right wing Arkansas Project’s effort to take down Bill Clinton with phony scandal after phony scandal. There were multiple investigations of those pseudo-scandals — Whitewater, FIlegate, Travelgate, — conducted by Republicans and costing us taxpayers over $70 million dollars. Nothing was found except an affair despite the fact that Ken Starr had all the resources of the FBI put at his disposal by the Clinton-hating rightwinger Louie Freeh. (The media put Freeh on a pedestal, deeming him a “Boy Scout” when in fact he was constantly breaking DOJ rules by leaking to the media to hurt Clinton who had appointed him.) Then came the WMD lies, the dishonest smears against Gore and Kerry that the media either helped spread or refused to push back against. The media didn’t even get our outraged over the multiple investigations of the insane, vicious slander that the Clintons had murdered one of their closest friends, Vince Foster. They also didn’t try to hold Chicken Hawk Bush accountable for the disgusting Swift Boat Liars attacks on Kerry’s war heroism.
Back then most people didn’t seem to realize just how the media refusal to hold Republicans to account made them complicit with the rise of Republican extremism. Today it seems that has really changed. The outrage over the media’s non-coverage of Trump’s terrifying “you won’t have to vote again” speech and, worse, their white-washing of it’s meaning shows me that people have finally caught on to the media’s unwillingness to hold Republicans to the standards of our democracy . The fact that the NY Times only covered the speech after a barrage of criticism from the public and Dems tells me they are finally feeling intimidated by Democrats the way they have been intimidated by Republicans for decades.
THIS. Heather Cox Richardson said she thinks the broken major media will be replaced by a grassroots effort....and Substack is a big part of it.
The problem with that is that it’s so fragmented that there isn’t any common source where people are getting their information. Most people don’t even know where to turn for it.
When it comes to political journalists I believe the kind of information they owe the public is the information that can help be informed citizens, to make vote based on substantive information, to be able to form and express our opinions based on the relevant facts, not spin. I believe that is why our Founders gave journalists special protection in the constitution. They didn’t do that to make sure they could entertain us and themselves with trivia and lies.
You’re totally right. They are criminally negligent if you ask me. But I don’t think they’re going to change anytime soon. I’m grateful for substack too.
I have been complaining about how horrible our mainstream media coverage is since the media decided to partner with the right wing Arkansas Project’s effort to take down Bill Clinton with phony scandal after phony scandal. There were multiple investigations of those pseudo-scandals — Whitewater, FIlegate, Travelgate, — conducted by Republicans and costing us taxpayers over $70 million dollars. Nothing was found except an affair despite the fact that Ken Starr had all the resources of the FBI put at his disposal by the Clinton-hating rightwinger Louie Freeh. (The media put Freeh on a pedestal, deeming him a “Boy Scout” when in fact he was constantly breaking DOJ rules by leaking to the media to hurt Clinton who had appointed him.) Then came the WMD lies, the dishonest smears against Gore and Kerry that the media either helped spread or refused to push back against. The media didn’t even get our outraged over the multiple investigations of the insane, vicious slander that the Clintons had murdered one of their closest friends, Vince Foster. They also didn’t try to hold Chicken Hawk Bush accountable for the disgusting Swift Boat Liars attacks on Kerry’s war heroism.
Back then most people didn’t seem to realize just how the media refusal to hold Republicans to account made them complicit with the rise of Republican extremism. Today it seems that has really changed. The outrage over the media’s non-coverage of Trump’s terrifying “you won’t have to vote again” speech and, worse, their white-washing of it’s meaning shows me that people have finally caught on to the media’s unwillingness to hold Republicans to the standards of our democracy . The fact that the NY Times only covered the speech after a barrage of criticism from the public and Dems tells me they are finally feeling intimidated by Democrats the way they have been intimidated by Republicans for decades.