Will Bunch (@willbunch, but he's unfortunately not active here) is probably the best currently working Big Journalism commentator on where we are headed as a nation.
In this must-read piece, he expresses the contempt for his contemporaries -- who are utterly refusing to do their jobs in the face of incipient American fascism -- that they so richly deserve.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/media-2020-election-trump-authoritarianism-20230827.html
"yet not one pundit was able to explain why tens of millions of everyday voters are so eager to return to the White House this man who attempted a #coup on #Jan6, 2021, or why his poll numbers rise with each #indictment. I guess the 20th-century author and socialist Upton Sinclair really nailed it when he wrote, ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
~@willbunch
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/media-2020-election-trump-authoritarianism-20230827.html
"If you watch enough not-Fox cable TV news, you’ll occasionally see an expert on fascism like NYU’s Ruth Ben-Ghiat or Yale’s Timothy Snyder explaining the roots of this American #authoritarianism...
But then it’s back to your regular programming, including a desperate desire to frame today’s clash in the context of long-lost 20th-century democratic norms, & to blame any transgressions on a mysterious “tribalism” that plagues “both sides.”
~@willbunch
"These are the stakes: dueling visions for America — not #Democratic or #Republican... but brutal #fascism or flawed #democracy. The #news media needs to stop with the horse-race coverage...
We need to hear from more experts on authoritarian movements, and fewer pollsters...
We need the media to see 2024 not as a traditional election but as an effort to mobilize a mass movement that would undo democracy"
~@willbunch
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/media-2020-election-trump-authoritarianism-20230827.html
The greatest problem I see in modern journalism is the fallacy of "equal time for both sides".
Why is radical opinion reported as fact just because we need to hear all sides?
This used to be a courtesy given to people debating valid policy choices - it has devolved into a click-driven maelstrom of false narrative to support the maniacal exploitation of idiots as social soldiers
@rouxdoo @dangillmor @willbunch
Aaron Sorkin once wrote a great line about this in "The Newsroom":
"'Bias Toward Fairness' means that if the entire House Republican caucus were to walk onto the floor one day and say ‘The Earth is flat,’ the headline in the New York Times the next day would read ‘Democrats and Republicans Can’t Agree on Shape of Earth.’”
@dangillmor @willbunch It's not that simple.
Remember, it's not just one country, one election. Western civ has not done well by large numbers of citizens, and institutions seem incapable of adapting. Because things are falling apart, we are weak to unscrupulous attack.
Historians might be in a better position to offer insight than journalists. I'd suggest Jacques Barzun.
His From Dawn to Decadence or maybe https://www.c-span.org/video/?156386-1/from-dawn-decadence (marginal quality audio)
Mr. Barzun talked with Mr. Schlesinger about his new book [From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life], published Harper Collins. The two addressed a number of issues from the book, from the rise of the nation-state, the resurgence of fundamentalism, and the status of cities as centers of culture and creativity. They also responded to questions from members of the audience.
@Scienceisnotopinions @Vegematic @dangillmor @willbunch
PoiLIEvre lies, gaslights, accuses, insults, and spreads disinformation. But he never comes up with detailled policies, platforms or solutions. He uses the Trump playbook: always on the attack, never offer information or facts.
They both do Putin's work to destabilize our democracies.
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