Why won't "the media" change its own culture and respond responsibly? Why won't "the media" stop treating lies as if they are truth? I watch MSNBC for hours every evening and see this pattern repeated regularly. I read the Washington Post, NY Times, Sacramento Bee, and LA Times every single day. They often treat the lies as if they are truth. "The press" has adopted a binary, win/lose, sports competition model instead of the "seeking the truth" commitment that is at the heart of press freedom in the United States. As my press consumption illustrates, I always thought the press was the arbiter of truth, not the amplifier of lies. Coverage of democracy has truly become like watching sports with play-by-play and color commentary. You are on Team Red or Team Blue. This is going to destroy democracy.
Nearly everything now is framed in right wing talking points. Remember when the press kept asking if the Biden administration was going to pack the court? Republicans packed the court. Why would any news agency use the Republican frame when they knew it wasn't true? Our local news reported that Congress was stalled on the Jan. 6 commission. Not Republicans but a deliberate effort to cast all congress as nonfunctional. They followed up with this little gem: "Republicans believe the commission will be partisan." They didn't follow that up with the two Michigan Republicans who voted for the commission. They didn't think it was partisan. Honestly, I'm sick of calling editors and news producers about this. It's like racism, it's so ingrained in the press now many don't even know they're doing it. Someone referred to the way the media gets sucked into Republican false narrative as a self licking ice cream cone.
Great points. The culture wars of my youth were put on my radar by the "moral majority" attacking music and art. Those attacks were all based on dishonest and incurious interpretations of content - just like the "lies" you describe above. Only back then, storming our capitol would have sounded like madness to everyone on both sides.
Why won't "the media" change its own culture and respond responsibly? Why won't "the media" stop treating lies as if they are truth? I watch MSNBC for hours every evening and see this pattern repeated regularly. I read the Washington Post, NY Times, Sacramento Bee, and LA Times every single day. They often treat the lies as if they are truth. "The press" has adopted a binary, win/lose, sports competition model instead of the "seeking the truth" commitment that is at the heart of press freedom in the United States. As my press consumption illustrates, I always thought the press was the arbiter of truth, not the amplifier of lies. Coverage of democracy has truly become like watching sports with play-by-play and color commentary. You are on Team Red or Team Blue. This is going to destroy democracy.
Nearly everything now is framed in right wing talking points. Remember when the press kept asking if the Biden administration was going to pack the court? Republicans packed the court. Why would any news agency use the Republican frame when they knew it wasn't true? Our local news reported that Congress was stalled on the Jan. 6 commission. Not Republicans but a deliberate effort to cast all congress as nonfunctional. They followed up with this little gem: "Republicans believe the commission will be partisan." They didn't follow that up with the two Michigan Republicans who voted for the commission. They didn't think it was partisan. Honestly, I'm sick of calling editors and news producers about this. It's like racism, it's so ingrained in the press now many don't even know they're doing it. Someone referred to the way the media gets sucked into Republican false narrative as a self licking ice cream cone.
Pickup trucks full of flags. Welcome to life under The American Taliban. And they're fast becoming just as deadly too.
Great points. The culture wars of my youth were put on my radar by the "moral majority" attacking music and art. Those attacks were all based on dishonest and incurious interpretations of content - just like the "lies" you describe above. Only back then, storming our capitol would have sounded like madness to everyone on both sides.