My father was a 46 year career journalist, and editor of a newspaper. He started telling me back in the late 1990's that Rupert Murdoch was the single worst thing to happen to the media. He continued to tell me this until he passed away. I never really understood what he was talking about then, but I certainly do now. My dad would like you Mark and I wish he was here to help me through all this sick disinformation. Keep up the fight. We need more of you out there.
I’m pretty sure the presidency of Harvard wasn’t at the top of the polls when the Times plastered it all over their front page for a month. So Kahn isn’t just lying about the polls; he’s lying about the importance of the polls.
They focused on the presidency of Harvard because Chris Rufo told them to. They didn’t just run excerpts from the Clinton Cash book; they paid for the privilege. They are the No. 1 reason (yes, including Fox) that Donald Trump was (sort of) elected president. And they want him back so, so badly.
The narcissistic careerists in "Mainstream Media" are every bit as culpable as right wing media. Even more so because right wingers identify themselves so we know who and what they advocate for but the "Mainstreamers" put forth an air of detachment and cynicism which they use to lie about or suppress accomplishments of Biden/Harris administration and Democratic Party. They therefore have more influence with "Independents" and voters who aren't MAGA but don't pay attention close attention to politics and that makes them more dangerous. ETA Thank you for your excellent summary/analysis.
American media is not only controlled by a UK cabal, it's a disreputable group linked inextricably with Murdoch's atrocious ambitions. Meantime, alas, we have our own home-grown and untrustworthy characters, among them the NYT.
I believe NPR is also touting Trump. On and on about no clear message from Biden. However, I readily found an AP article listing those things. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197963712
Bottom line is that the mainstream news media is not coming to save us. You could devote your entire platform to the NYT with its horse race political coverage and false equivalents. Recently, David Leonhardt wrote a weird piece alleging a new centrism in lawmaking, although he wrote, the Democratic Party has moved to the left, and the Republican Party "BY SOME MEASURES," has moved to the right. What is this man smoking? When the right-wing media is engaging in slash and burn, hyper-partisan coverage and the mainstream media has a misguided sense of objectivity, the net effect is one of right-wing dominance. Keep up the good work.
I agree with your father about Murdoch. Rush Limbaugh was also a major factor. But what I believe really made the problem so much worse was the mainstream media’s unwillingness to recognize how serious the threat was. People like Tim Russert and Katie Couric went on Rush’s show. In fact Russert told Rush he was honored to be his guest!
The mainstream media repeatedly allowed itself to be manipulated into spreading right wing lies. It was the NY Times that pushed the bogus Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Chinagate scandals just like it later fell for the Bush administration’s WMD lies and then Steve Bannon and Peter Schweizer’s lies about the Clinton Foundation in Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash”.
The mainstream media’s bothsidesing issues and holding Democrats to a far higher standard than Republicans is also corrosive to our democracy. Trump repeatedly talks crazy, loses his train of thought, slurs words but it’s Biden who gets the “too old” treatment. The media’s hyping negative economic news like inflation but downplaying good news such as months of solid economic and jobs growth has seriously misled the public and damaged Biden. The World Bank recently announced our “‘Impressive’ US economy is powering the world”
That should have made headlines in all the major US media outlets yet WaPo buried in the economics section and NY Times headlined it as the World Bank predicting rosier outlook but……
Change the "toothless" category to "scrupleless." It's not that they -- specifically the New York Times and NBC... not so much Welker, she's just feckless, which is another category that should be added -- are self-serving to the point of harm, it's that they are ACTIVELY ENGAGING in the harm while trying to maintain their image of being heritage, unbiased news sources. The reason for that is their corporate ownership; who AREN'T merely right-wing for the tax breaks, let's make THAT clear, too.
Change the "toothless" category to "scrupleless." It's not that they -- specifically the New York Times and NBC... not so much Welker, she's just feckless, which is another category that should be added -- are self-serving to the point of harm, it's that they are ACTIVELY ENGAGING in the harm while trying to maintain their image of being heritage, unbiased news sources. The reason for that is their corporate ownership; who AREN'T merely right-wing for the tax breaks, let's make THAT clear, too.
When you look at journalists I hope you would look at people like Aaron Matte, Max Blumenthal, Abby Martin. Go to Scheer Post there are many good writers ther or Consortium News. You could call they often pick up articles from some one like Caitlin Johnstone who has a good substack. I think they have some of their own in house writers but it is a good place to find good stories. Chris Hedges. I would say they are all progressives but they are really ticked by his support of Israel. And there other reasons they don't like him. They certainly think Trump is terrible. I am in facebook group Scheerpost named after Scheers site. He as no affiliation to the face book group. The memeship is small and while there are a lot of posts there they are by a very small minority. I think their dislike of Biden is blinding them to what Trump wants to inflict on the country. They are like the MAGA's in one way and that is their mistrust of the main stream media. Including the Times and the Post which will no doubt be even worse now.
A lot of the people you mentioned are Kremlin-backed pied pipers for the Left, either to demoralize or to provide cover for Russian disinformation operations (e.g. Taibbi and Greenwald). The only question is whether they are active measures or useful idiots (as Taibbi called his former podcast--he's winking and laughing at all of us).
My father was a 46 year career journalist, and editor of a newspaper. He started telling me back in the late 1990's that Rupert Murdoch was the single worst thing to happen to the media. He continued to tell me this until he passed away. I never really understood what he was talking about then, but I certainly do now. My dad would like you Mark and I wish he was here to help me through all this sick disinformation. Keep up the fight. We need more of you out there.
This is an excellent summary of the major problem we're facing in our media ecosystem. It should be spread far and wide. I hope it will be!
Also, "running for dictator." THIS is the correct terminology and should also be widely adopted. I will be using it going forward. Thanks!
I’m pretty sure the presidency of Harvard wasn’t at the top of the polls when the Times plastered it all over their front page for a month. So Kahn isn’t just lying about the polls; he’s lying about the importance of the polls.
They focused on the presidency of Harvard because Chris Rufo told them to. They didn’t just run excerpts from the Clinton Cash book; they paid for the privilege. They are the No. 1 reason (yes, including Fox) that Donald Trump was (sort of) elected president. And they want him back so, so badly.
The narcissistic careerists in "Mainstream Media" are every bit as culpable as right wing media. Even more so because right wingers identify themselves so we know who and what they advocate for but the "Mainstreamers" put forth an air of detachment and cynicism which they use to lie about or suppress accomplishments of Biden/Harris administration and Democratic Party. They therefore have more influence with "Independents" and voters who aren't MAGA but don't pay attention close attention to politics and that makes them more dangerous. ETA Thank you for your excellent summary/analysis.
"Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the official slogan of The Washington Post. They should change it to "Democracy Dies in Lies."
American media is not only controlled by a UK cabal, it's a disreputable group linked inextricably with Murdoch's atrocious ambitions. Meantime, alas, we have our own home-grown and untrustworthy characters, among them the NYT.
I believe NPR is also touting Trump. On and on about no clear message from Biden. However, I readily found an AP article listing those things. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197963712
Excellent. Thank you.
Bottom line is that the mainstream news media is not coming to save us. You could devote your entire platform to the NYT with its horse race political coverage and false equivalents. Recently, David Leonhardt wrote a weird piece alleging a new centrism in lawmaking, although he wrote, the Democratic Party has moved to the left, and the Republican Party "BY SOME MEASURES," has moved to the right. What is this man smoking? When the right-wing media is engaging in slash and burn, hyper-partisan coverage and the mainstream media has a misguided sense of objectivity, the net effect is one of right-wing dominance. Keep up the good work.
I agree with your father about Murdoch. Rush Limbaugh was also a major factor. But what I believe really made the problem so much worse was the mainstream media’s unwillingness to recognize how serious the threat was. People like Tim Russert and Katie Couric went on Rush’s show. In fact Russert told Rush he was honored to be his guest!
The mainstream media repeatedly allowed itself to be manipulated into spreading right wing lies. It was the NY Times that pushed the bogus Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Chinagate scandals just like it later fell for the Bush administration’s WMD lies and then Steve Bannon and Peter Schweizer’s lies about the Clinton Foundation in Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash”.
The mainstream media’s bothsidesing issues and holding Democrats to a far higher standard than Republicans is also corrosive to our democracy. Trump repeatedly talks crazy, loses his train of thought, slurs words but it’s Biden who gets the “too old” treatment. The media’s hyping negative economic news like inflation but downplaying good news such as months of solid economic and jobs growth has seriously misled the public and damaged Biden. The World Bank recently announced our “‘Impressive’ US economy is powering the world”
https://thehill.com/business/4715951-world-bank-impressive-us-economy-is-powering-the-world/#:~:text=The%20World%20Bank%20upgraded%20its,growth%20predicted%20for%20the%20year.
That should have made headlines in all the major US media outlets yet WaPo buried in the economics section and NY Times headlined it as the World Bank predicting rosier outlook but……
Change the "toothless" category to "scrupleless." It's not that they -- specifically the New York Times and NBC... not so much Welker, she's just feckless, which is another category that should be added -- are self-serving to the point of harm, it's that they are ACTIVELY ENGAGING in the harm while trying to maintain their image of being heritage, unbiased news sources. The reason for that is their corporate ownership; who AREN'T merely right-wing for the tax breaks, let's make THAT clear, too.
Change the "toothless" category to "scrupleless." It's not that they -- specifically the New York Times and NBC... not so much Welker, she's just feckless, which is another category that should be added -- are self-serving to the point of harm, it's that they are ACTIVELY ENGAGING in the harm while trying to maintain their image of being heritage, unbiased news sources. The reason for that is their corporate ownership; who AREN'T merely right-wing for the tax breaks, let's make THAT clear, too.
What organization is the very first to be stifled in a
Fascist authoritarian regime?
The 4th estate/the news.
NYTimes would not survive and WaPo is already in big financial trouble and an easy
mark.
When you look at journalists I hope you would look at people like Aaron Matte, Max Blumenthal, Abby Martin. Go to Scheer Post there are many good writers ther or Consortium News. You could call they often pick up articles from some one like Caitlin Johnstone who has a good substack. I think they have some of their own in house writers but it is a good place to find good stories. Chris Hedges. I would say they are all progressives but they are really ticked by his support of Israel. And there other reasons they don't like him. They certainly think Trump is terrible. I am in facebook group Scheerpost named after Scheers site. He as no affiliation to the face book group. The memeship is small and while there are a lot of posts there they are by a very small minority. I think their dislike of Biden is blinding them to what Trump wants to inflict on the country. They are like the MAGA's in one way and that is their mistrust of the main stream media. Including the Times and the Post which will no doubt be even worse now.
A lot of the people you mentioned are Kremlin-backed pied pipers for the Left, either to demoralize or to provide cover for Russian disinformation operations (e.g. Taibbi and Greenwald). The only question is whether they are active measures or useful idiots (as Taibbi called his former podcast--he's winking and laughing at all of us).
Of course you have no proof that they are backed by the Kremlin