I love your clear eyed thinking but I must confess I don’t see how anybody can really push back now. FOX is unstoppable. We thought the fine would make them pause but it didn’t. Journalists have obeyed in advance. I went from a news junkie to news sober in a week. I’ll continue to read you for as long as I can.
Journalist and editor, Eric Beecher, joins us to discuss his powerful new book, The Men Who Killed The News: The Inside Story of How Media Moguls Abused Their Power, Manipulated Truth, and Distorted Democracy. He will share his experiences working for and tangling with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and discuss the history of abuse of power by media owners.
I don’t disagree that Murdoch and other media moguls are a major part of the problem but it was the long years of mainstream “liberal” media sanewashing and burying the underlying fascism and theocratic strains of the Republican Party that normalized the extremism for millions of Americans.
As Dana Milbank documented so well in his book “The Destructionists” Republicans first officially let their freak flag fly when the Republicans in the House replaced their long time highly respected, kind leader Bob Michel with the openly nasty, divisive, dishonest Newt Gingrich. Even when Newt played along with the insane, vicious, cruel slander that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster and allowed a bonkers house investigation of that unforgivable lie the media kept treating this blatant extremism and the people behind it as normal politics.
As Steve Bannon told Joshua Green, author of “Devil’s Bargain” it’s the mainstream media that does the real damage to Democrats. Bannon has opnely bragged about hacking the mainstream media. For example he and his partner at Breitbart and the deceptively-named Government Accountability Institute managed to get the NY Times and WaPo to sign exclusive agreements so they could publish excerpts from Schweitzer’s dishonest 2015 book/hit job on the Clinton Foundation “Clinton Cash” before publication. The most damaging accusation — that Hillary had gotten our government to approve the sale of the Uranium One mining company to Russia was blatantly untrue and easily debunked. The Times and WaPo printed the accusations anyway. Hillary’s strong approval ratings tanked and never fully recovered and the foundation for the “Crooked Hillary meme” got its start. The mainstream media playing along with these right wing pseudo-scandals — emails for example — is a major reason the public had unwarranted doubts about her honesty.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
I’m in New Zealand and our election a year ago was handed to right wing parties by the media, who platformed the opposition party leaders non stop, saying the economy was badly run and in a dire state, and only they could save it.
Credit agencies (Standards & Poor’s, Moodys), the IMF, UN agencies etc) would release positive reviews of our economy in the weeks before the election. The national tv networks would put them 20 minutes into the bulletin (if they mentioned them at all). On front pages of the few mainstream sources we have it would be a minor headline in a live stream about something else, or a small box under any other headline possible, put on the front page at 3pm for an hour and then buried on a finance page few would ever look at. It was infuriating and depressing to watch.
Every reputable source, in NZ and worldwide, said our economy was stable, well placed to benefit from expected worldwide inflation easing and well managed through Covid - even going so far as to say we were an excellent example to other countries.
Every news source platformed right wing leaders and pundits stating that the Government had borrowed too much, debt was out of control (it is 40% of GDP - one of lowest rates anywhere) and have plunged us into crisis and we urgently needed ‘good economic managers’ back at the helm.
Those good economic managers promised tax cuts, tax benefits to landlords, and slashing public spending. Austerity, but never mention the A word, tainted as it is by the UK.
Punished for Covid mandates and ‘the dire economy’, a coalition of right leaning parties won - 3 parties needed to get it over the line, so not overwhelming support. Unemployment is now at record levels, growth is stagnant, businesses are closing, cost of living increases continue at pace - local authority rates, utilities and insurance all increasing 15-25% every year. They have given large tax benefits and adjustments to landlords and smaller than promised tax benefits to moderate-high income earners. Nothing at all for those earning under $20K a year, except pensioners who got $2.15 a week to help with ‘the cost of living crisis’.
They have slashed all Government budgets, thousands of jobs, cost cutting and job reviews are never ending - another round of that is expected next year due to the billions handed to landlords.
The only thing helping us is the expected global drop in interest rate, and the reserve bank dropping rates faster than predicted, specifically stating that the economy is stagnant and needs stimulating. The Government celebrated “double whammy, double happy” and said ‘our plan is working’. There was only a brief whisper in the media of the need for stimulus and the stalled and lifeless economy.
We are on a cliff edge right now and people have no idea, they have been told so often the economy is bad, they expect this. I heard an interview with an economist who said every metric you can measure is bad - GDP, construction and manufacturing all down, electronic transactions in shops down, transport of freight measures down, businesses closures and mortgagee sales up. Response “hey, don’t bring us down with that gloomy picture, interest rates are falling so that’s good news again, can’t we just enjoy that…..thank you for your time”. 😖🤦🏻♀️
We are extremely vulnerable to Trump wrecking the global economy, and especially escalation of war affecting petrol prices. But it is only those of us who are paying attention through good sources of information, who are even aware of how vulnerable we are and the risks they have taken with our economy and livelihoods.
The Government party leaders have all been scathing of mainstream media. One, who has strongest links to conspiracy theorists, has threatened them numerous times with retribution if they try to ask difficult questions. We only had two major tv news sources, but the American owners have largely shut one down. The other is the state broadcaster and has had several funding cuts already. They let the Prime Minister give PR speeches at length and grill the opposition leader with detailed questioning and blame.
An investigative journalist was banned from an important ceremony at Parliament yesterday for ‘being difficult’ and the speaker of the house said the police were asked to ‘watch him’. Absolutely no substance to this except persistently asking difficult questions. Due to public backlash (on Twitter!) they reversed this decision.
We are in a post truth world now. The ‘global elites’ have played a blinder - providing their own smokescreen by riling up the conspiracy theorists to vote for the very global elites they claim to hate. It is getting hard to see how we get back to reality.
The UK media definitely played a major role in convincing people to vote for the disastrous Brexit. The people finally realized what an enormous mistake that was and soundly defeated the Tories that sold them all those lies but the damage is ongoing and will be very difficult if not impossible to undo. Our media, both right wing and mainstream, are also largely to blame for the election of Trump and an army of right wing extremists. I am afraid that we will also have to experience the disaster of Republicans gettin their way before we wake up but the damage won’t just tank our amazingly good economy, but will devastate our democracy.
Fox and Musk have gotten away with spreading disinformation because of a misunderstanding of the political speech doctrine: The First Amendment protects ‘core political speech’ above all other forms of expression. But Musk purchasing the world’s town square only to weaponize it with disinformation, and Fox admittedly lying to viewers nonstop to promote Trump, isn’t political speech presumptively entitled to legal protection.
Weaponized disinformation will ultimately kill the First Amendment, which the Supreme Court recognized back in 1969 when it approved the Fairness Doctrine and required accuracy in the media. Even in politics, the foundational role of protecting free speech is the promotion of free ideas, not to protect a nefarious publisher’s monopoly.
So... Who has enough direct and personal injury to sue Musk and Murdoch for fraud and survive a standing challenge? Harris, Walz, and other candidates defeated by disinformation (ie, fraud), but they'd likely consider it political suicide bc it sounds like sour grapes, or an 'excuse.' I say fuck what it sounds like. Sue while there are still federal judges willing to follow the law, or soon that avenue will be closed as well. https://sabrinahaake.substack.com/p/trump-didnt-win-disinformation-did
Totally agree education is key; freedom can’t survive without it blah blah blah. But. 45% of the public gets news solely from right wing media. If we allow the right to keep selling lies as truth, there’s no way to educate, convince, teach, or reach that half of the population. We could say we’re going to actually educate kids in school, but education has been failing for decades, half the adult population can’t conjugate verbs or do simple math. So education a very, very long term solution and I don’t think our system will wait for us to catch up. Litigation is also long term, but it’s five years, not 20.
People keep talking about better educating the American people so they recognize mis/disinformation yet almost no one pays attention to the one country that has actually done a really good job of that. Finland has integrated “media literacy” throughout their curriculum starting at the earliest grades up to the highest. For example folk tales like the Emperor’s New Clothes or the Boy Who Cried Wolf are often used to teach the youngest kids about how we can be fololed. Older kids are taught about deceptive use of data, how propaganda has worked in history, misleading health and science reporting, etc. As a result the Fins regularly top by a big margin the Open Society’s survey of Europeans’ resistance to mis/disinformation.
The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public is a rare exception. They are working with the Fins to learn about their media literacy education.
Our provincial media should be reporting about Finland’s success but they don’t seem to know — or care to know — what is happening in other countries or think we could possibly learn from them.
1. 50 years ago, my sister-in-law was a summer intern on the news desk of an int'l paper in Paris. She noticed that some important stories weren't going to the US, so she asked the Editor how he chose which articles went where. His answer: "Americans don't want news; they want to be entertained."
2. Over 20 years ago I was in London at Xmas, and I saw a report that said something like "Americans are the best entertained and worst informed country in the First World -- and maybe the Second too." Ouch.
3. 60+ years a t.v. show called "The Rogues" debuted. The stars were David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young who played cousins based in London, Paris, and NY; Gladys Cooper was mother/aunt. It lasted 1 season. Why? Because it was "too well-written." I doubt you'll see that as the reason now, but it was stated at the time.
4. In 1990 my sister attended her 25th h.s. Reunion. On a school tour, someone in her group asked the teacher-guide what had changed most during his time there. "Kids don't have critical thinking skills anymore," he said P.S. Our school is one of the long-time "best" public high schools in the country.
I agree that education is key. But where and when do you start? If I don't care about knowing stuff, I probably won't encourage my kids to know about stuff, and they won't encourage their kids, etc. Imo ed standards in the US are pitiful-- but my grandkids help me navigate my computer and cell phone. Which is more important? Knowing who's President or being able to send an email to the neighbors about a lost dog? I say "Both," but most people would probably say "the lost dog" because that touches them. The President is practically mythical (would that it were true!).
Deference was not given to Biden by mainstream outlets. The best economy in the world, record energy production, and historically low unemployment were almost completely ignored. Media types like MSMBC's Andrea Mitchell sounded more like Debbie Downer of SNL when she would say the economic numbers are good, but people don't feel that way. That's because the media made the economy feel like the Great Depression!
Outside of Paul Krugman, I do not recall one legacy media type saying the positives about the economy on a regular basis. Chris Hayes would sometimes bring up the data on how well the economy was doing, but it wasn't a regular event as it was on fox to tell people they were doing terribly and the economy was worse than the Great Depression.
CNN had it's false equivalence panels where one maga clown would yell that people are starving and that millions were living under bridges, and then the meek dem would would squirm in gis xhair and say, but jobs are plentiful, wages are rising, inflation is under control, interest rates are falling, and the US economyis the envy of the world.
Tge corporate media will always be on the side of the powerful, wealthy, and fascism. It is in their DNA where profits are more important than truth or democracy. That will never change as long as conspiracies, lies, misinformation, and fear are so profitable to the bezos, mush sinclair, and fox billionaire crowd. And trump, maga, gop will severely damage the economy and blame it all on democrats which will be carried by every major news network as gospel. They don't want to risk their multi-million $ slaries on the hassle of telling a dimwitted maga mob the truth.
The media treated Biden poorly and with more disrespect than any president I can recall. Media bowed to the criminal trump and slammed the honest and accomplished Biden. I wil not forgive the billionaire media class for that democracy destroying, destructive behavior.
We can only hope that the fight and determination of independent news outlets can counter the both-sides, false equivalence garbage spewed by corporate, legacy media. While there are some great journalists at legacy media, they are often silenced by the bezos cowards and money counters who care more about ptofit than America, or its people.
The media treatment of Bill — and Hillary — Clinton was far worse. The media, led by the NYTimes were playing along with Republican-generated fake scandals like Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate and Chinagate before Monica even met Bill. They even refused to defend Clinton or express outrage when the Republicans not only accused the Clintons of murdering their close friend Vince Foster but held four Republican led investigations of that vicious, cruel and completely insane blatant lie. I do think the media’s playing along with Republicans over-the-top prosecution of Hunter and their obsessing over his dick picks the Republicans released was a close second even though some of the accusations against Hunter had a basis in fact. However even Trey Gowdy as much as admitted this was a vindictive, political prosecution when he said they never would have brought a case like that against an addict when he was a federal prosecutor, they would have made a deal. Bob Woodward has said the stress from worrying about Hunter was really hurting Biden and causing him to falter, so clearly Republicans succeeded.
As much as Joe Scarborough can drive me crazy he actually did highlight our good economy over and over and regularly had Steve Rattner on with his charts highlighting the actual good news our about rising wages, booming job market and stready growth in gdp.
Unfortunately the most influential mainstream media outlet, the NY Times, chose to highlight inflation over all good economic news. Even when inflation was back down to normal levels the Times kept that story alive by talking about the price of eggs and the “vibecession”. They should have run a headline proclaiming that we defeated inflation without a recession but that would have required admitting just how wrong journalists’ and pundits’ predictions of doom had been with the exception of Paul Krugman.
This summer when the World Bank announced that the US an economy was the strongest in the world — for the second year in a row (who knew?) — and that the WB had increased its prediction for global growth citing the strength of the US economy driving up that growth, the Times buried the story instead of giving it the top-of-the first page headlines they gave to things like Biden’s “garbage gaffe”.
While there were a couple outlets that highlighted the good aspects of the economy, of which there were many, most ignored the good news, or created the vibe that good news wasn't good. As with crime, as with economics, if it bleeds it leads. The gact was that a large majority of people thought their own economy was fine, but thought the nation's economy was on the wrong track. What created that national bad vibe? Legacy news outlets, right wing podcasts, fox news, and the big money that backs the crazies and misinformation.
Yes, there were a few holding a candle in the economic news darkness, but the darkness prevailed or trump would not be president.
I also blame dems for not being able to see $20 for $10, since they either tried to run from the economy or say they will do better next time when they were doing fine as it was. If you can't sell historically low unemployment, rising wages, record stock market, large increase in manufacturing jobs, infrastructure spending, high paying and important CHIPS Act jobs, record energy production; both renewable and fossil fuel, and the US economy being the envy of the world, then the message sucks. And the dem economic message was poorly presented and that's being kind. When news outlets, dems and the president are unwilling or unable to sell a great economy, we all suffer the consequences of what transpired this election...
I agree that the mainstream media, aka the corporate media has incredible reach and influence. I think the FCC has a minor but important public interest role here. Let me explain.
The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC policy from 1949 to 1987 that required broadcast stations to present controversial issues in a balanced way, reflecting multiple perspectives. It was created in response to the limited number of broadcast licenses available at the time, as the government wanted to ensure that those using public airwaves provided fair access to differing views. The aim was to foster an informed public by keeping any single viewpoint from dominating radio and TV.
The doctrine was repealed during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, a Republican, in 1987. At that time, the Democrats held the majority in both the House and the Senate. The repeal was not a congressional decision but rather an independent move by the FCC, which had a Republican-appointed majority. Although Congress tried to protect the Fairness Doctrine by passing a bill that would have codified it into law, Reagan vetoed the measure, preventing it from being reinstated. There was no Senate vote to repeal it directly, as the FCC had the authority to make the decision on its own.
Critics of the Fairness Doctrine argued that it infringed on free speech, as stations could avoid covering certain issues altogether to avoid FCC scrutiny. By the 1980s, the rise of cable and more media options led some to believe the policy was outdated, and the FCC ultimately repealed it, reasoning that increased media diversity lessened the need for a fairness mandate.
Today, the Fairness Doctrine might be viewed as a way to bring balance to corporate media, which is often accused of promoting specific viewpoints or agendas. Reinstating something like the Fairness Doctrine could push networks to offer a broader range of perspectives, helping combat echo chambers and rebuild public trust. While concerns about government overreach remain, some argue that with today’s highly polarized media, a modern version could encourage a more balanced and reliable news landscape, reminding us of the importance of access to multiple sides of any issue.
Not going to happen with Republicans in charge. Nor with Trump in charge. While Fox could push lies, NPR interviewed liars for "both sides of the story" and the liars were given the last word with no comment on FACTS. I no longer listen to NPR. Nor MSNBC. I get my news from Mark Jacob, Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, Andy Borowitz and cartoons of Jack Ohman. Those thoughtful people keep me sane.
I don't think it's ever too late. As a new generation comes of age, things will change in the information landscape. Plus, there's no question that we have to fight mis/disinformation. I hope many people read your post! I also like this article in the New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/post/188197/trump-media-information-landscape-fox
This was an excellent analysis, yours and Tomasky's in TNR. We need a concerned liberal, leftist populist media juggernaut to counter MSM enablers and right-wing media across all outlets, print, TV, radio, YouTube, podcasts, TikTok, etc. to reach as many or more people who tune in to the reactionary propaganda.
I blame the mainstream media as much as or more than Murdoch. For decades they normalized Republicans’ nasty divisiveness and extremism. They treated the divisive, dishonest Newt like a political genius and Jerry Falwell as a holy man speaking for Christians even though the media knew both those men and their allies were helping spread the vicious, cruel and completely insane lie that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster.
Falwell travelled around the country hawking the “Clinton Chronicles”, a video that not only accused the Clintons of murdering but also of drug running and assassination scores of people in Arkansas. Newt allowed a House investigation of that insane slander, complete with forensic “evidence” presented by Dan Burton who shot melons in his back yard to “prove” Foster could not have committed suicide. There was more media outrage about Biden’s “garbage” statement than there was about this despicable attempt to destroy a president. After that is it any surprise that millions thought the propaganda Fox was spouting was politics as usual.?
The media’s big sin this election was not shining a spotlight on the astoundingly strong US economy — the best in the world according to the World Bank and other expert sources, not making it clear that inflation was world-wide, that US inflation was not higher than in other counties, and that it has returned to normal levels. (Under Saint Ronnie Reagan in the good ol’ days inflation never went below 4%). The media also had an obligation to explain that the only way prices would go back to pre-pandemic levels would be if we had disinflation, something which would devastate the economy. In addition they should have made it clear that for over a year wages have been rising faster than inflation and that it has risen fastest for the lowest incomes, reducing income inequality.
Given that multiple post-election surveys of non-MAGA voters clearly show the overwhelming reason that they voted for Trump was they wrongly believed our economy was bad. I agree with Dan Froomkin that the mainstream media is to blame.
We need a liberal populist media juggernaut to counter the reactionary right-wing propaganda saturating our information sources. Substack writers and podcasters are helping. We need to have a structure that floods online and airwave spots that faux news and right-wing radio and podcasts now dominate. A billionaire oligarch who is a flaming liberal would help.
Otherwise it is up to us subscribers. Our information opponents own national radio and TV sources, and fund online sources. They will be even more influential during the fpotus cancer of the coming years.
Through consistent and constantly reporting media sources, populist liberals need to identify and amplify the real causes of working class malaise: billionaires and the top 2% income hoarders who own and control the majority of wealth in the US. Wealth that is increasingly rising for them, while suffocating a dwindling middle class and the working poor.
An oligarch run nation, which agenda is depressing wages and our buying power; allowing big pharma to crush us with medicine pricing; large corporations injuring and killing us with workplace violations; poisoning our air, water, and soil, including our food; corporate robber barons colluding in price gouging us with the necessities of living; billionaires bribing politicians with money donations thru PACs to save their tax breaks, and thus make the rest of us pay for the bulk of society's safety and health benefits - road maintenance, transportation infrastructure, law enforcement, fire protection, natural wonders places, and our Social Security (end the cap on the income limit), among other needs.
It's not a question of can we do this. We must do this, to prevent a thorough takeover by a one party rule of oligarchy; headed by a narcissistic monarchist, indifferent to the rule of law and opposed to democracy.
Maybe it goes back to 1987 when the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine during the Reagan administration. Rush Limbaugh went into national syndication in 1988. Fox News went on the air in 1996.
I love your clear eyed thinking but I must confess I don’t see how anybody can really push back now. FOX is unstoppable. We thought the fine would make them pause but it didn’t. Journalists have obeyed in advance. I went from a news junkie to news sober in a week. I’ll continue to read you for as long as I can.
Mark, I believe you may want to pass this along. The new Chairman of the FCC will be Brendan Carr who wrote the FCC section for project 2025. Read what he has in mind. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/trumps-likely-fcc-chair-wrote-project-2025-chapter-on-how-hed-run-the-agency/
We are hosting a discussion on "How Media Moguls Abuse Their Power, Manipulate the Truth, and Distort Democracy".
Wed. Nov. 20 @ 8pm ET. Sign up here: https:tiny.cc/ebeecher
Journalist and editor, Eric Beecher, joins us to discuss his powerful new book, The Men Who Killed The News: The Inside Story of How Media Moguls Abused Their Power, Manipulated Truth, and Distorted Democracy. He will share his experiences working for and tangling with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and discuss the history of abuse of power by media owners.
I don’t disagree that Murdoch and other media moguls are a major part of the problem but it was the long years of mainstream “liberal” media sanewashing and burying the underlying fascism and theocratic strains of the Republican Party that normalized the extremism for millions of Americans.
As Dana Milbank documented so well in his book “The Destructionists” Republicans first officially let their freak flag fly when the Republicans in the House replaced their long time highly respected, kind leader Bob Michel with the openly nasty, divisive, dishonest Newt Gingrich. Even when Newt played along with the insane, vicious, cruel slander that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster and allowed a bonkers house investigation of that unforgivable lie the media kept treating this blatant extremism and the people behind it as normal politics.
As Steve Bannon told Joshua Green, author of “Devil’s Bargain” it’s the mainstream media that does the real damage to Democrats. Bannon has opnely bragged about hacking the mainstream media. For example he and his partner at Breitbart and the deceptively-named Government Accountability Institute managed to get the NY Times and WaPo to sign exclusive agreements so they could publish excerpts from Schweitzer’s dishonest 2015 book/hit job on the Clinton Foundation “Clinton Cash” before publication. The most damaging accusation — that Hillary had gotten our government to approve the sale of the Uranium One mining company to Russia was blatantly untrue and easily debunked. The Times and WaPo printed the accusations anyway. Hillary’s strong approval ratings tanked and never fully recovered and the foundation for the “Crooked Hillary meme” got its start. The mainstream media playing along with these right wing pseudo-scandals — emails for example — is a major reason the public had unwarranted doubts about her honesty.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media
A new report documents how he weaponized the story about the Clinton Foundation and created the ‘Crooked Hillary’ meme.
“How Steve Bannon Played the Mainstream Media.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/08/21/how-steve-bannon-played-the-mainstream-media/
I’m in New Zealand and our election a year ago was handed to right wing parties by the media, who platformed the opposition party leaders non stop, saying the economy was badly run and in a dire state, and only they could save it.
Credit agencies (Standards & Poor’s, Moodys), the IMF, UN agencies etc) would release positive reviews of our economy in the weeks before the election. The national tv networks would put them 20 minutes into the bulletin (if they mentioned them at all). On front pages of the few mainstream sources we have it would be a minor headline in a live stream about something else, or a small box under any other headline possible, put on the front page at 3pm for an hour and then buried on a finance page few would ever look at. It was infuriating and depressing to watch.
Every reputable source, in NZ and worldwide, said our economy was stable, well placed to benefit from expected worldwide inflation easing and well managed through Covid - even going so far as to say we were an excellent example to other countries.
Every news source platformed right wing leaders and pundits stating that the Government had borrowed too much, debt was out of control (it is 40% of GDP - one of lowest rates anywhere) and have plunged us into crisis and we urgently needed ‘good economic managers’ back at the helm.
Those good economic managers promised tax cuts, tax benefits to landlords, and slashing public spending. Austerity, but never mention the A word, tainted as it is by the UK.
Punished for Covid mandates and ‘the dire economy’, a coalition of right leaning parties won - 3 parties needed to get it over the line, so not overwhelming support. Unemployment is now at record levels, growth is stagnant, businesses are closing, cost of living increases continue at pace - local authority rates, utilities and insurance all increasing 15-25% every year. They have given large tax benefits and adjustments to landlords and smaller than promised tax benefits to moderate-high income earners. Nothing at all for those earning under $20K a year, except pensioners who got $2.15 a week to help with ‘the cost of living crisis’.
They have slashed all Government budgets, thousands of jobs, cost cutting and job reviews are never ending - another round of that is expected next year due to the billions handed to landlords.
The only thing helping us is the expected global drop in interest rate, and the reserve bank dropping rates faster than predicted, specifically stating that the economy is stagnant and needs stimulating. The Government celebrated “double whammy, double happy” and said ‘our plan is working’. There was only a brief whisper in the media of the need for stimulus and the stalled and lifeless economy.
We are on a cliff edge right now and people have no idea, they have been told so often the economy is bad, they expect this. I heard an interview with an economist who said every metric you can measure is bad - GDP, construction and manufacturing all down, electronic transactions in shops down, transport of freight measures down, businesses closures and mortgagee sales up. Response “hey, don’t bring us down with that gloomy picture, interest rates are falling so that’s good news again, can’t we just enjoy that…..thank you for your time”. 😖🤦🏻♀️
We are extremely vulnerable to Trump wrecking the global economy, and especially escalation of war affecting petrol prices. But it is only those of us who are paying attention through good sources of information, who are even aware of how vulnerable we are and the risks they have taken with our economy and livelihoods.
The Government party leaders have all been scathing of mainstream media. One, who has strongest links to conspiracy theorists, has threatened them numerous times with retribution if they try to ask difficult questions. We only had two major tv news sources, but the American owners have largely shut one down. The other is the state broadcaster and has had several funding cuts already. They let the Prime Minister give PR speeches at length and grill the opposition leader with detailed questioning and blame.
An investigative journalist was banned from an important ceremony at Parliament yesterday for ‘being difficult’ and the speaker of the house said the police were asked to ‘watch him’. Absolutely no substance to this except persistently asking difficult questions. Due to public backlash (on Twitter!) they reversed this decision.
We are in a post truth world now. The ‘global elites’ have played a blinder - providing their own smokescreen by riling up the conspiracy theorists to vote for the very global elites they claim to hate. It is getting hard to see how we get back to reality.
The UK media definitely played a major role in convincing people to vote for the disastrous Brexit. The people finally realized what an enormous mistake that was and soundly defeated the Tories that sold them all those lies but the damage is ongoing and will be very difficult if not impossible to undo. Our media, both right wing and mainstream, are also largely to blame for the election of Trump and an army of right wing extremists. I am afraid that we will also have to experience the disaster of Republicans gettin their way before we wake up but the damage won’t just tank our amazingly good economy, but will devastate our democracy.
Fox and Musk have gotten away with spreading disinformation because of a misunderstanding of the political speech doctrine: The First Amendment protects ‘core political speech’ above all other forms of expression. But Musk purchasing the world’s town square only to weaponize it with disinformation, and Fox admittedly lying to viewers nonstop to promote Trump, isn’t political speech presumptively entitled to legal protection.
Weaponized disinformation will ultimately kill the First Amendment, which the Supreme Court recognized back in 1969 when it approved the Fairness Doctrine and required accuracy in the media. Even in politics, the foundational role of protecting free speech is the promotion of free ideas, not to protect a nefarious publisher’s monopoly.
So... Who has enough direct and personal injury to sue Musk and Murdoch for fraud and survive a standing challenge? Harris, Walz, and other candidates defeated by disinformation (ie, fraud), but they'd likely consider it political suicide bc it sounds like sour grapes, or an 'excuse.' I say fuck what it sounds like. Sue while there are still federal judges willing to follow the law, or soon that avenue will be closed as well. https://sabrinahaake.substack.com/p/trump-didnt-win-disinformation-did
Interesting thoughts. But I think better efforts to educate the public are a more practical course.
Totally agree education is key; freedom can’t survive without it blah blah blah. But. 45% of the public gets news solely from right wing media. If we allow the right to keep selling lies as truth, there’s no way to educate, convince, teach, or reach that half of the population. We could say we’re going to actually educate kids in school, but education has been failing for decades, half the adult population can’t conjugate verbs or do simple math. So education a very, very long term solution and I don’t think our system will wait for us to catch up. Litigation is also long term, but it’s five years, not 20.
People keep talking about better educating the American people so they recognize mis/disinformation yet almost no one pays attention to the one country that has actually done a really good job of that. Finland has integrated “media literacy” throughout their curriculum starting at the earliest grades up to the highest. For example folk tales like the Emperor’s New Clothes or the Boy Who Cried Wolf are often used to teach the youngest kids about how we can be fololed. Older kids are taught about deceptive use of data, how propaganda has worked in history, misleading health and science reporting, etc. As a result the Fins regularly top by a big margin the Open Society’s survey of Europeans’ resistance to mis/disinformation.
The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public is a rare exception. They are working with the Fins to learn about their media literacy education.
https://www.cip.uw.edu/2023/03/01/finland-media-literacy/
Our provincial media should be reporting about Finland’s success but they don’t seem to know — or care to know — what is happening in other countries or think we could possibly learn from them.
https://www.nordicpolicycentre.org.au/media_literacy_education_in_finland
1. 50 years ago, my sister-in-law was a summer intern on the news desk of an int'l paper in Paris. She noticed that some important stories weren't going to the US, so she asked the Editor how he chose which articles went where. His answer: "Americans don't want news; they want to be entertained."
2. Over 20 years ago I was in London at Xmas, and I saw a report that said something like "Americans are the best entertained and worst informed country in the First World -- and maybe the Second too." Ouch.
3. 60+ years a t.v. show called "The Rogues" debuted. The stars were David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young who played cousins based in London, Paris, and NY; Gladys Cooper was mother/aunt. It lasted 1 season. Why? Because it was "too well-written." I doubt you'll see that as the reason now, but it was stated at the time.
4. In 1990 my sister attended her 25th h.s. Reunion. On a school tour, someone in her group asked the teacher-guide what had changed most during his time there. "Kids don't have critical thinking skills anymore," he said P.S. Our school is one of the long-time "best" public high schools in the country.
I agree that education is key. But where and when do you start? If I don't care about knowing stuff, I probably won't encourage my kids to know about stuff, and they won't encourage their kids, etc. Imo ed standards in the US are pitiful-- but my grandkids help me navigate my computer and cell phone. Which is more important? Knowing who's President or being able to send an email to the neighbors about a lost dog? I say "Both," but most people would probably say "the lost dog" because that touches them. The President is practically mythical (would that it were true!).
And who killed the Fairness Doctrine...?
Deference was not given to Biden by mainstream outlets. The best economy in the world, record energy production, and historically low unemployment were almost completely ignored. Media types like MSMBC's Andrea Mitchell sounded more like Debbie Downer of SNL when she would say the economic numbers are good, but people don't feel that way. That's because the media made the economy feel like the Great Depression!
Outside of Paul Krugman, I do not recall one legacy media type saying the positives about the economy on a regular basis. Chris Hayes would sometimes bring up the data on how well the economy was doing, but it wasn't a regular event as it was on fox to tell people they were doing terribly and the economy was worse than the Great Depression.
CNN had it's false equivalence panels where one maga clown would yell that people are starving and that millions were living under bridges, and then the meek dem would would squirm in gis xhair and say, but jobs are plentiful, wages are rising, inflation is under control, interest rates are falling, and the US economyis the envy of the world.
Tge corporate media will always be on the side of the powerful, wealthy, and fascism. It is in their DNA where profits are more important than truth or democracy. That will never change as long as conspiracies, lies, misinformation, and fear are so profitable to the bezos, mush sinclair, and fox billionaire crowd. And trump, maga, gop will severely damage the economy and blame it all on democrats which will be carried by every major news network as gospel. They don't want to risk their multi-million $ slaries on the hassle of telling a dimwitted maga mob the truth.
You are indeed correct that Biden did not receive the deference that is traditional toward presidents in U.S. mainstream media coverage.
The media treated Biden poorly and with more disrespect than any president I can recall. Media bowed to the criminal trump and slammed the honest and accomplished Biden. I wil not forgive the billionaire media class for that democracy destroying, destructive behavior.
I won't forgive it for both-siding, normalizing, and sanewashing Trump for 8+ years.
I haven't watched a news program since Nov. 4. I hope Bezos' camels get fleas.
We can only hope that the fight and determination of independent news outlets can counter the both-sides, false equivalence garbage spewed by corporate, legacy media. While there are some great journalists at legacy media, they are often silenced by the bezos cowards and money counters who care more about ptofit than America, or its people.
The media treatment of Bill — and Hillary — Clinton was far worse. The media, led by the NYTimes were playing along with Republican-generated fake scandals like Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate and Chinagate before Monica even met Bill. They even refused to defend Clinton or express outrage when the Republicans not only accused the Clintons of murdering their close friend Vince Foster but held four Republican led investigations of that vicious, cruel and completely insane blatant lie. I do think the media’s playing along with Republicans over-the-top prosecution of Hunter and their obsessing over his dick picks the Republicans released was a close second even though some of the accusations against Hunter had a basis in fact. However even Trey Gowdy as much as admitted this was a vindictive, political prosecution when he said they never would have brought a case like that against an addict when he was a federal prosecutor, they would have made a deal. Bob Woodward has said the stress from worrying about Hunter was really hurting Biden and causing him to falter, so clearly Republicans succeeded.
As much as Joe Scarborough can drive me crazy he actually did highlight our good economy over and over and regularly had Steve Rattner on with his charts highlighting the actual good news our about rising wages, booming job market and stready growth in gdp.
Unfortunately the most influential mainstream media outlet, the NY Times, chose to highlight inflation over all good economic news. Even when inflation was back down to normal levels the Times kept that story alive by talking about the price of eggs and the “vibecession”. They should have run a headline proclaiming that we defeated inflation without a recession but that would have required admitting just how wrong journalists’ and pundits’ predictions of doom had been with the exception of Paul Krugman.
This summer when the World Bank announced that the US an economy was the strongest in the world — for the second year in a row (who knew?) — and that the WB had increased its prediction for global growth citing the strength of the US economy driving up that growth, the Times buried the story instead of giving it the top-of-the first page headlines they gave to things like Biden’s “garbage gaffe”.
While there were a couple outlets that highlighted the good aspects of the economy, of which there were many, most ignored the good news, or created the vibe that good news wasn't good. As with crime, as with economics, if it bleeds it leads. The gact was that a large majority of people thought their own economy was fine, but thought the nation's economy was on the wrong track. What created that national bad vibe? Legacy news outlets, right wing podcasts, fox news, and the big money that backs the crazies and misinformation.
Yes, there were a few holding a candle in the economic news darkness, but the darkness prevailed or trump would not be president.
I also blame dems for not being able to see $20 for $10, since they either tried to run from the economy or say they will do better next time when they were doing fine as it was. If you can't sell historically low unemployment, rising wages, record stock market, large increase in manufacturing jobs, infrastructure spending, high paying and important CHIPS Act jobs, record energy production; both renewable and fossil fuel, and the US economy being the envy of the world, then the message sucks. And the dem economic message was poorly presented and that's being kind. When news outlets, dems and the president are unwilling or unable to sell a great economy, we all suffer the consequences of what transpired this election...
"What created that national bad vibe?" Everything you mention. And Trump because media had him on daily without correcting his lies and distortions.
I agree that the mainstream media, aka the corporate media has incredible reach and influence. I think the FCC has a minor but important public interest role here. Let me explain.
The Fairness Doctrine was an FCC policy from 1949 to 1987 that required broadcast stations to present controversial issues in a balanced way, reflecting multiple perspectives. It was created in response to the limited number of broadcast licenses available at the time, as the government wanted to ensure that those using public airwaves provided fair access to differing views. The aim was to foster an informed public by keeping any single viewpoint from dominating radio and TV.
The doctrine was repealed during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, a Republican, in 1987. At that time, the Democrats held the majority in both the House and the Senate. The repeal was not a congressional decision but rather an independent move by the FCC, which had a Republican-appointed majority. Although Congress tried to protect the Fairness Doctrine by passing a bill that would have codified it into law, Reagan vetoed the measure, preventing it from being reinstated. There was no Senate vote to repeal it directly, as the FCC had the authority to make the decision on its own.
Critics of the Fairness Doctrine argued that it infringed on free speech, as stations could avoid covering certain issues altogether to avoid FCC scrutiny. By the 1980s, the rise of cable and more media options led some to believe the policy was outdated, and the FCC ultimately repealed it, reasoning that increased media diversity lessened the need for a fairness mandate.
Today, the Fairness Doctrine might be viewed as a way to bring balance to corporate media, which is often accused of promoting specific viewpoints or agendas. Reinstating something like the Fairness Doctrine could push networks to offer a broader range of perspectives, helping combat echo chambers and rebuild public trust. While concerns about government overreach remain, some argue that with today’s highly polarized media, a modern version could encourage a more balanced and reliable news landscape, reminding us of the importance of access to multiple sides of any issue.
Not going to happen with Republicans in charge. Nor with Trump in charge. While Fox could push lies, NPR interviewed liars for "both sides of the story" and the liars were given the last word with no comment on FACTS. I no longer listen to NPR. Nor MSNBC. I get my news from Mark Jacob, Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Reich, Andy Borowitz and cartoons of Jack Ohman. Those thoughtful people keep me sane.
Thanks for writing this, but I am skeptical that this is practical in today's America.
What's not practical? Staying sane? 😊
I don't think it's ever too late. As a new generation comes of age, things will change in the information landscape. Plus, there's no question that we have to fight mis/disinformation. I hope many people read your post! I also like this article in the New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/post/188197/trump-media-information-landscape-fox
This was an excellent analysis, yours and Tomasky's in TNR. We need a concerned liberal, leftist populist media juggernaut to counter MSM enablers and right-wing media across all outlets, print, TV, radio, YouTube, podcasts, TikTok, etc. to reach as many or more people who tune in to the reactionary propaganda.
Murdoch murdered America
I’ve seen it all happening quite clearly. Drip, drip, drip. Just tune out folks and subscribe to alternative media.
I posted this to a site and Facebook removed it
Any reason stated?
The usual reason they give. Goes against community standards. That I misrepresented myself. Looking for likes.
Sanford, exactly what did you post? Mark Jacob's OP? Thx.
I posted Mark's article
Murdoch! What a lovely man! 😇
I blame the mainstream media as much as or more than Murdoch. For decades they normalized Republicans’ nasty divisiveness and extremism. They treated the divisive, dishonest Newt like a political genius and Jerry Falwell as a holy man speaking for Christians even though the media knew both those men and their allies were helping spread the vicious, cruel and completely insane lie that the Clintons had murdered their close friend Vince Foster.
Falwell travelled around the country hawking the “Clinton Chronicles”, a video that not only accused the Clintons of murdering but also of drug running and assassination scores of people in Arkansas. Newt allowed a House investigation of that insane slander, complete with forensic “evidence” presented by Dan Burton who shot melons in his back yard to “prove” Foster could not have committed suicide. There was more media outrage about Biden’s “garbage” statement than there was about this despicable attempt to destroy a president. After that is it any surprise that millions thought the propaganda Fox was spouting was politics as usual.?
The media’s big sin this election was not shining a spotlight on the astoundingly strong US economy — the best in the world according to the World Bank and other expert sources, not making it clear that inflation was world-wide, that US inflation was not higher than in other counties, and that it has returned to normal levels. (Under Saint Ronnie Reagan in the good ol’ days inflation never went below 4%). The media also had an obligation to explain that the only way prices would go back to pre-pandemic levels would be if we had disinflation, something which would devastate the economy. In addition they should have made it clear that for over a year wages have been rising faster than inflation and that it has risen fastest for the lowest incomes, reducing income inequality.
Given that multiple post-election surveys of non-MAGA voters clearly show the overwhelming reason that they voted for Trump was they wrongly believed our economy was bad. I agree with Dan Froomkin that the mainstream media is to blame.
We need a liberal populist media juggernaut to counter the reactionary right-wing propaganda saturating our information sources. Substack writers and podcasters are helping. We need to have a structure that floods online and airwave spots that faux news and right-wing radio and podcasts now dominate. A billionaire oligarch who is a flaming liberal would help.
Otherwise it is up to us subscribers. Our information opponents own national radio and TV sources, and fund online sources. They will be even more influential during the fpotus cancer of the coming years.
Through consistent and constantly reporting media sources, populist liberals need to identify and amplify the real causes of working class malaise: billionaires and the top 2% income hoarders who own and control the majority of wealth in the US. Wealth that is increasingly rising for them, while suffocating a dwindling middle class and the working poor.
An oligarch run nation, which agenda is depressing wages and our buying power; allowing big pharma to crush us with medicine pricing; large corporations injuring and killing us with workplace violations; poisoning our air, water, and soil, including our food; corporate robber barons colluding in price gouging us with the necessities of living; billionaires bribing politicians with money donations thru PACs to save their tax breaks, and thus make the rest of us pay for the bulk of society's safety and health benefits - road maintenance, transportation infrastructure, law enforcement, fire protection, natural wonders places, and our Social Security (end the cap on the income limit), among other needs.
It's not a question of can we do this. We must do this, to prevent a thorough takeover by a one party rule of oligarchy; headed by a narcissistic monarchist, indifferent to the rule of law and opposed to democracy.
Maybe it goes back to 1987 when the FCC abolished the Fairness Doctrine during the Reagan administration. Rush Limbaugh went into national syndication in 1988. Fox News went on the air in 1996.