3rdi
Dan GillmorAs the U.S. sinks into dictatorship -- malevolent rule by corrupt politicians and oligarchs -- the institution I know the best has almost completely failed to recognize, much less counter, the threat. Big Journalism will be remembered for its cowardice and capitulation. https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog
max oakland@dangillmor This happened because media conglomeration was allowed.
McSquank (formerly: McSquank)@dangillmor seems more a partnership than cowardice or capitulation
ShnoofleBear /ʃnuːfɛlbɛːr/@dangillmor Citizens United and the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine in tandem are the cause for this, together with a couple dozen other factors.
If a journalist can get canned for doing what they're supposed to do, and in consequence lose a lot more than income, in an environment without any social net, i wonder if it's really fair to call them out on it.
Ownership of media by very few, equally aligned, billionaires, that's the actual problem.
nanowiz
antt5@dangillmor What do you mean "sinks"?
Elisabetta@dangillmor as Italian, this worries me much. What can we actively do to prevent this outcome in countries like ours, where autocracy is leading the way? It's not rhetorical, I honestly don't know.
Pauline@gilraen79 @dangillmor i'm from germany, i have the same fear and we can do nothing. The media are in the hand of billionaires and television in the hand of politics. It's a worldwide problem.
@Mirabeaulacht @dangillmor I agree, and I wish we could some kind of coordination in order to be able to, at least, try to do something.
Johan Diederik@dangillmor At least two trolls in the replies.
You’re hitting the nail on its head indeed.
You’re hitting the nail on its head indeed.
Grantantt5 is Russian too. Oh! What a surprise.
Fenix@gsymon Russian trols, they are easy to locate. 😂
Vluciamonteirop@dangillmor and criminals.
Gregory Dodwell@dangillmor FROM DAY ONE, if not before. This obscene circus has been worth too many clicks. Let’s not forget network TV for creating & boosting his mythology thru trash like The Apprentice.
2 Russian trolls in this thread. I expect all your posts are affected by this?
For those wondering, open antt5 in his home server.
As for the collapse of democracy. I'm 68 and began wondering in my 20s if the post WWII effect and shaming the far-right, would last my lifetime. I think that Russia/Putin are behind almost all of what's happening today. Horrible people and we need to start telling them.
spdrnl@dangillmor Fighting #fascism has always been a fight of individuals against the system.
A fascist takeover implies the take-over of journalism. I do not think journalism just surrendered. It was slowly appropriated by #Neoliberalism
The Heritage foundation has been at it since the 1940's.
That is the point. It is the individuals and the community that matter.
The secret history of Neoliberalism | The Invisible Doctrine | Full Film
tuv@dangillmor Journalism, an inconvenient department of our publishing business that we haven't been able to optimize away
not ch1c@dangillmor yes, and the cowardice long predates today’s masks-off fascism and of course did so much to open the road for it. I don’t see it mentioned yet in the replies so I want to note the causal financial dimension too 🙂
not ch1c (@[email protected])
Every once in a while I find myself talking to someone who doesn’t understand that the very rich people who own news operations also control what information those properties choose to share or suppress, and they use that power to shape public opinion and political processes to protect their interests. So I tell them about how late on election night in 2000 I was at 30 Rock with the producer in charge of the entire live news broadcast both right before (totally calm) and right after (extremely freaked out) she was summoned upstairs by ownership and ordered to call the famously too-close-to-call Florida results in favor of George W. Bush. NBC was the first network after Fox to do so that night and all the others fell in line soon after. The Supreme Court later cited Bush’s presumption of victory on election night as justification for its ruling to install him as president. Guess I don’t need to tell that story anymore? #USPol #WashingtonPost #WaPo #LATimes #LosAngelesTimes #Bezos #Capitalism #Billionaires #Fascism #News
Mirishuli@dangillmor They recognised the dictatorship and the fascists. It is what they wanted, owners and journos.
CynAq🤘Big Journalism is big business. Businesses in capitalism are de facto dictatorships.
Liberals, right alongside conservatives, by vehemently opposing socialism and its values over the decades perpetuated business-as-dictatorship-of-the-owner instead of democratic management of the workplace.
Journalism as a business was a dictatorship in the US from the very beginning, thus, couldn’t be trusted to guard against a government level dictatorship anyway.
martin lentink 🇪🇺 🇺🇦📎@dangillmor He has never not been aiming for dictatorship.
Truth Or Consequences ✅ 🇺🇦Using the propaganda model...news businesses favoring profit over the public interest succeed, whilst those favoring reportorial accuracy over profits fail — and are relegated to the margins of their markets (low sales and ratings).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media)
Neil Moffatt@dangillmor In very large part because the media have been effectively commandeered by those with nefarious agendas.
Way, way too tempting for a means of influencing public opinion to be a tool for the powerful - those rich in wealth and power and profoundly poor spiritually.
Ox1de@dangillmor money, money, money
SueDiOh@dangillmor Big journalism in the U.S. has been the death of our free press.
decapitae@dangillmor The silent aquiesence from those responsible for stopping it is deafening. The majority of congress kneels before shitler.
aspragg> The report identifies the UK as a “new autocratiser”, driven by “a substantial decline” in freedom of expression[…]. “In the UK, it began [with] the Elections Act 2022 […]” Lindberg says. “The Policing Act 2022 decreased civil rights and free speech. The Online Safety Act 2023 was used to penalise online speech […]. The Higher Education […] Act 2023 increased demands [to] police free speech. What’s worrying is that once the democratic backsliding begins, it’s often hard to stop.”