Sep 27, 2023·edited Sep 27, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
Because what we refer to as the media is simply not real news. It’s entertainment dressed as information, propaganda playing its part in our pretend democracy all the while maintaining the status quo and keeping the masses feeling like we have actual debates. The bigger question is why we spend so much time watching and discussing media outlets that have failed to properly report on every major event of the last half century. I’d love to see a post on the outlets you suggest we turn to instead of these false sources of discussion and news. Let’s drain the media swamp of clicks and viewers and ad money. It’s one thing to know the real role of these outlets is to distract us with bread and circuses. But when even the most learned among us continue to willingly pay tickets to the show, it really begs the question of why we should expect them or the country to change if we are not willing to make even the smallest changes in our own information consumption habits.
Especially since Trump has recently warned Biden that Biden is on course for starting WW II, when Trump clearly meant WW III. Or that the Iraq War was started by Jeb Bush.
On another media failure, it was depressing to watch Dana Bash Sunday on State of the Union, interviewing Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett, tax cutter and darling of the Heritage Foundation. They were discussing his willingness to shut down the government because of the budget deficit.
He kept repeating, in a drawling southern monotone: “Ma’am, you can’t keep spending 7 trillion dollars a year when you’re only taking in 5 trillion.” To which the obvious response should have been “Well Congressman, the deficit was created by a $2 trillion tax cut to the corporations and to wealthy Americans by Donald Trump. Jeff Bezos pays less in taxes than a corporate secretary. Why don’t you just raise taxes on those who can afford to pay, and allow your constituents to sleep at night?”
I just came from the Australian Democracy Museum with a huge display about freedom of the press and its responsibility to report accurately and truthfully. Every US journalist should be required to see it and read it all. Honesty and integrity in US reporting is gone; making $$$ is what rules. American has gone to the dogs fighting over the bone of audience.
Professor Reich: in your poll, i answered "other" because you didn't mention the press' fear of losing their jobs for reporting the truth.
basically, i think the press is well aware that "fear of appearing partisan" is merely a false flag for their real fears. of course, there are a vast sea of so-called journalists who are mere stenographers, so there's that, too. but journalism (in general) pays poorly, demands long hours, doesn't (in my experience) reward ethics or deep thought and careful research & writing, and often hinges on pleasing an often impossible-to-please boss. and owner.
especially the billionaire owner, these days.
cuz THAT'S a big reason that the press stubbornly refuses to tell their readers and the electorate the truth.
- The truth is Biden is competent and has an impressive record of accomplishments asl President.
- The truth is Trump is inept and was an utter failure as President.
- And if the media reported the truth the results of the coming election would be an obvious foregone conclusion and people would stop following election news. Which means millions upon millions upon millions of ad revenue the news shows and papers would not get.
So the media HAS TO have it look like it’s a horse race. They HAVE TO promote questions about Biden’s age and downplay Trump’s crimes and make the two seem equivalent.
Anything else means the networks get no viewers, no millions for running political ads, the reporters get no “special” report airtime to make themselves famous, no book deals.
Considering Bernie Sanders is a year older than Biden, I would suggest we deny at our peril a fundamental, albeit regrettable, fact—that age and rhetorical fluency often get conflated. While my post is not intended to dismiss the false equivalences nor the media’s repeated failures to ask the obvious follow-up questions to expose deceptions and get at verifiable truths, I, nonetheless, would submit that Biden’s inability to take full advantage of the bully pulpit places further demands on us to help beat back the lies, the falsehoods, the hatred, and the divisiveness within which much of the GOP traffics.
Murdoch still tries to control us Aussies through regional newspapers too. But we don't fall for his bull shit like Americans do. He had to leave the country to get rich and scam off Brits and Yanks. We exported him. We don't like him either!
If we're collectively afraid of what trump's base would do if a judge or politician said "Stop" to trump's lying and bullying well I say we all collectively need to press-to-test that button and endure the noise and panicking that MAGA crowd would incite until the bubble of fear pops and we're all freed from that fear. Hopefully...hopefully some Rs would abandon their lust for power and trump's approval and vote for a secular American politic.
Unfortunately, most, but not all of the media, is a sham. Honest reporting for the sake of America doesn't seem to be a priority. Money, ratings, fear of losing a job...whatever feeble excuses one can think of, the horrid truth is that something as important as the future of our country doesn't seem to be important nor valuable to the media. It is frightening that Trump should even be thought of as a candidate in a sane world. I sometimes wonder how history will view this period if, there is a country left to consider what is happening. As you have pointed out the comparisons between the two men is absolutely ludicrous. How could anybody begin to defend such insanity?
I watch 5 minutes of Hannity last night. All he talked about was Biden’s mental condition. This tells me that they are concerned about Trumps mental condition.
The profit motive often outweighs objectivity, truth and accuracy. Nowhere more so than in the news media. And money = power so moral values take a back seat.
Biden is sane. Trump is nuts Robert, may I quote you, please? I'd be rolling on the floor if I wasn't in bed. It's going to be a good day beginning with such a laugh.
In many instances, such as Faux News, media outlets prefer to tell people what they like to hear to keep their viewer ratings high. And like Faux News, unfortunately, most of the U.S. media outlets have become profit driven businesses that use algorithms to decide what to publish to push up profits, rather than news organizations driven by the desire to seek out and publish the truth with advertising dollars being used as a way to fund such journalism.
donney trumpet 🎺 every word is now and since Jan 6 been Intended to get him out of accountability for his attempted coup and overthrow of our democratic government .
His blunders are designed to reinforce his upcoming “ alzheimer’s, I have a mental disability defense” with the goal of a reduced reduced prison sentencing.
He knew what he was doing on Jan 6 and its legal implication if it failed.
Now we are seeing his long game for a sentencing, and or pardon.” I’m just and orange hued grandfather that had corrupt legal advice” house arrest is worse case full pardon his best case .DINT BE FOOLED his mental “slips”
Are calculated long game “Get Trump out of Jail Free “window dressings...
Because what we refer to as the media is simply not real news. It’s entertainment dressed as information, propaganda playing its part in our pretend democracy all the while maintaining the status quo and keeping the masses feeling like we have actual debates. The bigger question is why we spend so much time watching and discussing media outlets that have failed to properly report on every major event of the last half century. I’d love to see a post on the outlets you suggest we turn to instead of these false sources of discussion and news. Let’s drain the media swamp of clicks and viewers and ad money. It’s one thing to know the real role of these outlets is to distract us with bread and circuses. But when even the most learned among us continue to willingly pay tickets to the show, it really begs the question of why we should expect them or the country to change if we are not willing to make even the smallest changes in our own information consumption habits.
"Why no mention of Trump’s mental condition?"
Especially since Trump has recently warned Biden that Biden is on course for starting WW II, when Trump clearly meant WW III. Or that the Iraq War was started by Jeb Bush.
On another media failure, it was depressing to watch Dana Bash Sunday on State of the Union, interviewing Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett, tax cutter and darling of the Heritage Foundation. They were discussing his willingness to shut down the government because of the budget deficit.
He kept repeating, in a drawling southern monotone: “Ma’am, you can’t keep spending 7 trillion dollars a year when you’re only taking in 5 trillion.” To which the obvious response should have been “Well Congressman, the deficit was created by a $2 trillion tax cut to the corporations and to wealthy Americans by Donald Trump. Jeff Bezos pays less in taxes than a corporate secretary. Why don’t you just raise taxes on those who can afford to pay, and allow your constituents to sleep at night?”
But, not a peep.
I just came from the Australian Democracy Museum with a huge display about freedom of the press and its responsibility to report accurately and truthfully. Every US journalist should be required to see it and read it all. Honesty and integrity in US reporting is gone; making $$$ is what rules. American has gone to the dogs fighting over the bone of audience.
Professor Reich: in your poll, i answered "other" because you didn't mention the press' fear of losing their jobs for reporting the truth.
basically, i think the press is well aware that "fear of appearing partisan" is merely a false flag for their real fears. of course, there are a vast sea of so-called journalists who are mere stenographers, so there's that, too. but journalism (in general) pays poorly, demands long hours, doesn't (in my experience) reward ethics or deep thought and careful research & writing, and often hinges on pleasing an often impossible-to-please boss. and owner.
especially the billionaire owner, these days.
cuz THAT'S a big reason that the press stubbornly refuses to tell their readers and the electorate the truth.
- The truth is Biden is competent and has an impressive record of accomplishments asl President.
- The truth is Trump is inept and was an utter failure as President.
- And if the media reported the truth the results of the coming election would be an obvious foregone conclusion and people would stop following election news. Which means millions upon millions upon millions of ad revenue the news shows and papers would not get.
So the media HAS TO have it look like it’s a horse race. They HAVE TO promote questions about Biden’s age and downplay Trump’s crimes and make the two seem equivalent.
Anything else means the networks get no viewers, no millions for running political ads, the reporters get no “special” report airtime to make themselves famous, no book deals.
It’s simply all about the money! 💵💰💲
Considering Bernie Sanders is a year older than Biden, I would suggest we deny at our peril a fundamental, albeit regrettable, fact—that age and rhetorical fluency often get conflated. While my post is not intended to dismiss the false equivalences nor the media’s repeated failures to ask the obvious follow-up questions to expose deceptions and get at verifiable truths, I, nonetheless, would submit that Biden’s inability to take full advantage of the bully pulpit places further demands on us to help beat back the lies, the falsehoods, the hatred, and the divisiveness within which much of the GOP traffics.
Murdoch still tries to control us Aussies through regional newspapers too. But we don't fall for his bull shit like Americans do. He had to leave the country to get rich and scam off Brits and Yanks. We exported him. We don't like him either!
I would also like to see a comparison of what Trump was doing at this point in his term contrasted with Biden’s current agenda.
If we're collectively afraid of what trump's base would do if a judge or politician said "Stop" to trump's lying and bullying well I say we all collectively need to press-to-test that button and endure the noise and panicking that MAGA crowd would incite until the bubble of fear pops and we're all freed from that fear. Hopefully...hopefully some Rs would abandon their lust for power and trump's approval and vote for a secular American politic.
Unfortunately, most, but not all of the media, is a sham. Honest reporting for the sake of America doesn't seem to be a priority. Money, ratings, fear of losing a job...whatever feeble excuses one can think of, the horrid truth is that something as important as the future of our country doesn't seem to be important nor valuable to the media. It is frightening that Trump should even be thought of as a candidate in a sane world. I sometimes wonder how history will view this period if, there is a country left to consider what is happening. As you have pointed out the comparisons between the two men is absolutely ludicrous. How could anybody begin to defend such insanity?
Because we don’t have a liberal press in this country. If we ever did Nixon would have went to prison and Trump would be there now.
I watch 5 minutes of Hannity last night. All he talked about was Biden’s mental condition. This tells me that they are concerned about Trumps mental condition.
The profit motive often outweighs objectivity, truth and accuracy. Nowhere more so than in the news media. And money = power so moral values take a back seat.
Biden is sane. Trump is nuts Robert, may I quote you, please? I'd be rolling on the floor if I wasn't in bed. It's going to be a good day beginning with such a laugh.
In many instances, such as Faux News, media outlets prefer to tell people what they like to hear to keep their viewer ratings high. And like Faux News, unfortunately, most of the U.S. media outlets have become profit driven businesses that use algorithms to decide what to publish to push up profits, rather than news organizations driven by the desire to seek out and publish the truth with advertising dollars being used as a way to fund such journalism.
donney trumpet 🎺 every word is now and since Jan 6 been Intended to get him out of accountability for his attempted coup and overthrow of our democratic government .
His blunders are designed to reinforce his upcoming “ alzheimer’s, I have a mental disability defense” with the goal of a reduced reduced prison sentencing.
He knew what he was doing on Jan 6 and its legal implication if it failed.
Now we are seeing his long game for a sentencing, and or pardon.” I’m just and orange hued grandfather that had corrupt legal advice” house arrest is worse case full pardon his best case .DINT BE FOOLED his mental “slips”
Are calculated long game “Get Trump out of Jail Free “window dressings...