Monday’s Mtg (9/19/22): The necessity and dangers of calling out the news media

New topics are now ready through next February.  Three are on Meetup now.  CivCon’s main website will be updated shortly, and hard copies will be available on Monday. 

As for our topic Monday, we are back on the news media, often abbreviated as the MSM (Mainstream News Media).  New member Lou said he noticed the way the MSM is demonized these days and suggested we discuss the wisdom and consequences of habitually maligning the press – one of the most important “guardrails of democracy.”  Certainly, every poll and study show public trust in the MSM is very low among Americans of all stripes: Progressives, conservatives, and most other people (who are in between).

To me, though, it is conservative hatred of the MSM that has gone to a dark and dangerous place lately.  Yes, conservatives have distrusted and disliked the MSM for decades.  Fox News went on the air in 1996, but the idea for a Fox News-like TV news channel dates back at least as early as the 1970s when it was the brainchild of a young Nixon aid named Roger Ailes.  In the decades since conservative dislike of the MSM grew into a deep, visceral hatred.  By the end of the Obama presidency, consistent large majorities of conservative voters reported believing the MSM was on the other side, politically and culturally/socially, and literally lies and makes up facts to discredit and belittle conservatives and their ideas. 

Then came Donald Trump.  He called the MSM the “enemy of the people” and routinely denounced them as liars and traitors – and his supporters cheered.  Contempt turned to hatred to thoughts of revenge.  Now, the Republican Party has plans to try to either control or weaken or destroy its MSM “enemies.”  There are plans to loosen press libel law so the NYT, WP, and others can be sued out of business by wealthy conservatives.  GOP leaders openly brag that they will go after the social media platforms that have dared to ban right-wing groups and/or take down their posts.  Wealthy GOP donors are buying up local TV and radio stations.  It is a strategy.

Many Americans on the Left hold the mainstream news media in contempt, too.  Some feel it is too corporate to really be a voice for the voiceless or to be objective about economic and social injustices.  Others are terrified that the MSM is still addicted to the old “he said/she said” “both-sides-are-to-blame” model of journalism that is no longer tenable in a time of an increasingly authoritarian Republican Party. 

Anyway, I like Lou’s phrasing.  It lets us criticize the news media, which it richly deserves, IMO.   But it also reminds us that the MSM needs to be improved, not dismantled.  This is because, even in a hyper-segmented media world, there will always be a mainstream media with outsized power to set the parameters of public debate.  And because a healthy press is vital to a healthy democracy.  Some progressives expect the press to be in their corner because their POVs are, they say, the right ones, even when they are not mainstream.

Below are some optional readings on criticisms of the news media.  Many come from our meeting in early 2022 on how journalism should cover U.S. politics during the next three years.  A lot of the focus is on the how to handle the radicalized GOP problem. 

OPTIONAL BACKGROUND READINGS –

Good CivCon discussions –

• Feb. 2022: How should MSM cover the next 3 years in U.S. politics?
• 2018:  What is the media responsibility in this “post-truth” age?

Public’s view of MSM –

• What is it? People agree on which news sources are mainstream. 
• Democrats trust all MSM sources except Fox; Republicans ONLY trust Fox.
• The public still thinks MSM journalism should cover “both sides’” points of view.

What has being demonized taught the press?

• Five questions the political media must wrestle with.  Recommended.
• Liberal POV (inc. by my favorite media critic):
  • What the press learned from the Trump presidency. 
• • MSM now has two paths going forward: Go back to biz as usual or prioritize defending democracy.  Recommended.
  • Easier read:  Lies are bad but a press corps enabling liars is worse.
• Conservative POVs:
  • Anti-conservative media bias is real, although not always deliberate. Recommended
• • MSM’s main audience is White educated liberals, so they report accordingly.
  • Note:  NOT representative.  Conservative opinions on MSM typically seethe with rage and contempt and (frequently) demand revenge. 

NEXT WEEK (9/26):  No Meeting. 
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