The Greater Scandal

Matt Taibbi is worried that the corruption of the media is actually the worst scandal of the present:

The flow of information in the United States has become so politicized – bottlenecked by an increasingly brazen union of corporate press and tech platforms – that it’s become impossible for American audiences to see news about certain topics absent thickets of propagandistic contextualizing. Try to look up anything about Burisma, Joe Biden, or Hunter Biden in English, however, and you’re likely to be shown a pile of “fact-checks” and explainers ahead of the raw information:[…]

Other true information has been scrubbed or de-ranked, either by platforms or by a confederation of press outlets whose loyalty to the Democratic Party far now overshadows its obligations to inform.

But Fox does the same thing!

Obviously, Fox is not much better, in terms of its willingness to report negative information about Trump and Republicans, but Fox doesn’t have the reach that this emerging partnership between mass media, law enforcement, and tech platforms does. That group’s reaction to the New York Post story is formalizing a decision to abandon the media’s old true/untrue standard for a different test that involves other, more politicized questions, like provenance and editorial intent.

Republicans started complaining about the partisanship and corruption of the media during the Obama Administration and, apparently, they were right. It all just went on steroids when Trump was elected.

My views on all this are pretty simple. If we’re going to have partisan media as the UK does, we should have libel laws like the UK’s. Simple as that.

13 comments… add one
  • Drew Link

    Fox does it, too, is a red herring. Opinion shows and hosts should be so identified. News shows so identified. These days I rarely read any article except for rare pieces of fact, and the rare well structured argument. But its mostly spin, and lying by omission, so I just keep moving.

    “My views on all this are pretty simple. If we’re going to have partisan media as the UK does, we should have libel laws like the UK’s. Simple as that.

    For news, that’s right. Opinion gets a bit more murky. But libel is libel.

  • Grey Shambler Link

    Whether or not Walter Cronkite deserved the status and trust he had, the business has changed dramatically and news organizations have had to adapt to increased competition.
    Now they’re in the business of delivering an endorphin rush through bias confirmation.
    This is entertainment, not news.
    Viewers who scan the channels are fed a competing and repetitive propaganda attack.
    Facts are so distorted as to be irrelevant and voters are left making their decisions in the end, on feelings.
    And that’s the way it is, Tuesday, October 27th, 2020.

  • CuriousOnlooker Link

    Like it or not, the media is responding to incentives.

    The incentives are very different when revenue and profits is driven by advertising in a market with high barriers to entry (the media landscape 40 years ago); vs revenue and profits is driven by subscriptions in a market with low barriers to entry (the media landscape today).

  • Grey Shambler Link

    I’m certain they have lawyers who demure, but Facebook , in my book, is a monopoly. I’ve heard people say the young are leaving it behind in favor of Instagram. Sure.

  • TarsTarkas Link

    ‘I’ve heard people say the young are leaving it behind in favor of Instagram.’

    My Gen Z nieces considers Facebook a boomer platform.

    My views on all this are pretty simple. If we’re going to have partisan media as the UK does, we should have libel laws like the UK’s. Simple as that.’

    Reverse NY Times vs. Sullivan (1964). Simple as that.

    When there is no liability for defamation of political figures and celebrities, and in fact if there are financial and/or fame benefits from doing so, said figures will be defamed constantly. It’s been four years of defamation and smearing of OMB and anybody associated with him. Muh Russia, Pee Tapes, Stormy, Charlottesville, Ukraine call, soldiers are losers, and on and on. Jesus F**kin Christ have the media gone nuts. The man’s done some pretty rotten things in his life, his screwing of contractors in NJ one of the bigger in my memory. But they need to stop acting like he’s Mr. H times ten. Show us some godd**n proof of the accusations for a change. Apologize for your proven lies for a change. The media were all in on front page spreads and Chyrons on all that stuff ‘to let the public make up their own minds’, but when the Laptop from Hell shows up and corroborating witnesses make sworn statements asserting its accuracy it’s all fabrication or Russian disinformation and they bury it bury it bury it bury it. The Mamet effect in full cry.

    Bari Weisz said it best in her resignation letter to the NY Times; Twitter now effectively runs the Grey Lady. I always thought it arrogant their statement on the masthead, ‘All the News That’s Fit to Print’. Now it’s basically ‘Only the Narratives We Think you ought to know’.

    https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter

  • steve Link

    “Stormy, Charlottesville, Ukraine call, soldiers are losers, and on and on. Jesus F**kin Christ have the media gone nuts.”

    Yes. The media should be prevented from quoting Trump. Makes him look bad.

    ” let the public make up their own minds’, but when the Laptop from Hell shows up and corroborating witnesses”

    If the GOP and conservatives had ever found anything in all of their other investigations maybe it would have been possible to take this seriously, but they hadn’t.

    Steve

  • steve Link

    Oops, forgot. That solidly right wing, Dave says it is centrist, WSJ refused to carry the laptop story. Soeven though it favors the right it does value its reputation.

    Steve

  • jan Link

    According to Kimberly Strassel of the WSJ it was a falsehood that the WSJ dismissed the Biden laptop story. Charlottesville’s incomplete quote was lifted out of his statement in order to distort it’s meaning and label Trump a racist. This has been debunked many times, but Steve just loves dem gossip that perverts DJT. The same goes for the anonymous accusation that Trump called soldiers losers, which was solidly rejected as true by over 2 dozen people going on the record with their identities. The Ukraine call was about as contrived as the Steel Dossier, by an “anonymous” whistleblower who had ties to disgruntled bureaucrats, Adam Schiff (the biggest liar in the House), and Biden.

  • jan Link

    BTW, nothing will come from evidence and the allegations of a whistleblower recounting the Biden Family history of profound corruption. It will be derided, called a conspiracy and summarily buried like so many unseemly revelations about democrats are. For, investigations, into what should be serious scandals revolving around a democrat or a democrat administration, are blunted by a helpful, incurious media who masquerades as an objective, free press. Aided and abetted is a democrat party who slow walks, overly redacts or overly classifies incriminating documents requested, running out the clock to their usefulness or being of interest to a public having a short attention span and thin knowledge to the extent of various democrat misdeeds.

    IOW, Dems get away with a lot s**t that republicans would be prosecuted for and hounded for, forever.

  • Greyshambler Link

    My mention of Instagram was to point out that it’s owned by Facebook. Monopoly.
    But a monopoly that it appears will have the advantage of having chosen the next president.
    And along with the rest of the media elite will chose and give blessing to Republican candidates from now forward.
    If Trump is ruined by this gauntlet, who next will defy them?

  • steve Link

    Thank you for bringing up Strassel. As an opinion writer she is making one set of claims. On the news side, which is the one area of the WSJ that might be sort of centrist, they are writing the opposite of what she claims. Strassel is a Hannity for the WSJ. GGGo find a credible person.

  • jan Link

    Anybody you disagree with, Steve, is automatically dismissed. Your sources, though, of absolute “truth” are mainly the soothsayers only appearing on or writing for known left- leaning media.

    Strassel, OTOH, is one of a handful of journalists who actually research their stories, with genuine attempts to deliver objective facts. She has dissed Trump when he is wrong, and supports stances when data and evidence back up his policies and/or opinions. She also pulls no punches when she sees media delivering misleading stories or covering up and refusing to report on newsworthy news .

  • steve Link

    ” Anybody you disagree with, Steve, is automatically dismissed. ”

    It was the news people at the WSJ who did the researching disagreed with her. If I have to choose between the news people vs an opinion writer, I take the news people.

    “Your sources, though, of absolute “truth” are mainly the soothsayers only appearing on or writing for known left- leaning media.”

    I told you my source, the WSJ news section.

    “Strassel, OTOH, is one of a handful of journalists who actually research their stories, with genuine attempts to deliver objective facts. ”

    Nope, she is a right wing hack. She could have done the research or contacted the new people. She didnt.

    Steve

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