I don't think there's ever been a time in history when the press was responsible along the lines you suggest. For one thing, there will be a counter-press with a counter-narrative. Or at least there almost certainly will be one for the rest of our lives. I don't know if you'd have similar criticisms of the press of the 50's through the cable/internet revolutions -- I think you probably would -- but that's gone. And no matter how moral the press was in, say, the 40s through the 60s, segregationists thrived, until they didn't. I'm sure the press played a role -- heck just reporting stuff, even negatively, can help movements -- but of course it was the lives, blood, sweat and tears of advocates, plus some masterful presidenting and legislating, that did most of the work. And of course there was a lot of other awful stuff going on too that the press didn't stop.
There's something else I think about in these critiques. You know what's happening, and are able to make clear moral judgments, despite the fact that everything you know comes from the press. (Obviously, the same is true for me.) A whole lot of people are able to make those judgments, which agree with our judgments. Trump got skunked in the midterms, and his approval rating is very low in a booming economy when Americans are not dying in wars (in significant numbers, anyway).
How are those of us clued in to the current horror able to form these judgments? By critically analyzing the news. The first step of that, as your reading of Mascoro demonstrates, is separating BS from fact. Recognizing the tendency of some, but not all reporters, to stick to pre-existing narratives and frames, we don't read Mascoro to tell us what to think, and probably wouldn't use her as a source of information anyway. (We just read them to criticize them.) I don't know about you, but I can say I never, ever watch cable news. That would rot my brain, and wouldn't keep me nearly as informed as I am, since in the hour it would take me to watch Wolf palaver, I can read a whole lot of newsletters from folks like you (Bouie's back! You need more recipes, Stoehr!) and other stuff in newspapers and various blogs.
Critical thinking is hard! Colleges are full of very smart kids, but in disciplines where critical thinking is critical to success, kids taught the same material by the same teacher get different grades, because some are better at analysis than others. (Sometimes, I was one of the bright ones, sometimes not.) And many people don't even try. Some folks are able to analyze baseball far better than I can, because that's where their energies and passions are, whereas mine are politics. And of course a lot of people think an hour or two of cable news a few or most days of the week is keeping them informed, which mostly indicates that politics is not as important to them as other things.
I guess the bottom line is that the press could certainly do a better job; there will always be room for improvement. But if we're expecting that a better press will result in better politics, I think we'll be disappointed. Except that there will endless examples for critics to criticize.
I don't think there's ever been a time in history when the press was responsible along the lines you suggest. For one thing, there will be a counter-press with a counter-narrative. Or at least there almost certainly will be one for the rest of our lives. I don't know if you'd have similar criticisms of the press of the 50's through the cable/internet revolutions -- I think you probably would -- but that's gone. And no matter how moral the press was in, say, the 40s through the 60s, segregationists thrived, until they didn't. I'm sure the press played a role -- heck just reporting stuff, even negatively, can help movements -- but of course it was the lives, blood, sweat and tears of advocates, plus some masterful presidenting and legislating, that did most of the work. And of course there was a lot of other awful stuff going on too that the press didn't stop.
There's something else I think about in these critiques. You know what's happening, and are able to make clear moral judgments, despite the fact that everything you know comes from the press. (Obviously, the same is true for me.) A whole lot of people are able to make those judgments, which agree with our judgments. Trump got skunked in the midterms, and his approval rating is very low in a booming economy when Americans are not dying in wars (in significant numbers, anyway).
How are those of us clued in to the current horror able to form these judgments? By critically analyzing the news. The first step of that, as your reading of Mascoro demonstrates, is separating BS from fact. Recognizing the tendency of some, but not all reporters, to stick to pre-existing narratives and frames, we don't read Mascoro to tell us what to think, and probably wouldn't use her as a source of information anyway. (We just read them to criticize them.) I don't know about you, but I can say I never, ever watch cable news. That would rot my brain, and wouldn't keep me nearly as informed as I am, since in the hour it would take me to watch Wolf palaver, I can read a whole lot of newsletters from folks like you (Bouie's back! You need more recipes, Stoehr!) and other stuff in newspapers and various blogs.
Critical thinking is hard! Colleges are full of very smart kids, but in disciplines where critical thinking is critical to success, kids taught the same material by the same teacher get different grades, because some are better at analysis than others. (Sometimes, I was one of the bright ones, sometimes not.) And many people don't even try. Some folks are able to analyze baseball far better than I can, because that's where their energies and passions are, whereas mine are politics. And of course a lot of people think an hour or two of cable news a few or most days of the week is keeping them informed, which mostly indicates that politics is not as important to them as other things.
I guess the bottom line is that the press could certainly do a better job; there will always be room for improvement. But if we're expecting that a better press will result in better politics, I think we'll be disappointed. Except that there will endless examples for critics to criticize.