For 16 years, bloggers warned journos about “truthiness.” Citing AEI, Cato, Hoover, Peterson as if they were neutral sources of facts. And so the earth was plowed to prepare us for the age of Trump. Media mainstreamed falsehoods as fact, tainting the body politic.
Every time we attacked, cajoled, begged for reality-based journalism, the response was “Both sides do it.” Or: “I must be doing my job if both sides are mad at me.” Don’t flatter yourself, guys. We were angry about the damage done by your lies.
How hard can it be to run an op-ed that notes, “The author is a long-time member of a Koch-funded think tank that denies climate change”?
Why would you send readers out into the political wilderness without a guide? You took their trust and abused it. Now we have Trump.
Your media institutions betrayed the public trust. They can’t even tell what’s true anymore, and you built that. All you had to do was to identify the specific political affiliations and agendas of the people you quoted as authorities. You didn’t even do that. Many reporters clearly swallow propaganda. Almost any story on Social Security will include Peterson “facts” you could spot if you tried.
But you didn’t. Too much work, easier to be a stenographer to the powers that be. Instead of afflicting the comfortable, you afflict the oppressed with your indifference to the facts. C students in charge! Thanks for bringing us the McDonald administration.
It didn’t help that many J-Schools converted to strategic communication programs that focus on digital PR and advertising rather than invest in ways to make digital media work better for delivering news and investigative reporting.
Perfect post except for the grade inflation.
Good post.
The 1% owns or controls nearly everything.
BTW, I think you meant to say AEI, not AIE.
Not to mention wall-to-wall Republicans on the Sunday news talk programs Face the Nation, Meet the Press, for thirty years. When a Republican is in the White House, it’s all Republicans because they’re steering the ship. When a Democrat is in the office, it’s half and half (or even slightly R-leaning) because “balance.”
Thanks for catching that.
I am excited for you. You are really on a roll. It couldn’t come at a more necessary time.