In my haste to get last week's post published, I neglected to make a few additional points about the media's role in it, now and for the next several months. In addition, there was one tragic story this past week with a media-related angle. So I take this week's opportunity to blog to make the points, and reflect a bit on the story.
I've written more than once about the fact that the corporate media, including legacy publishers and broadcasters, exercise their freedom of the press not on behalf of their readers and viewers, nor by giving the full reign of that freedom to their employees on the front lines of the news, but solely to protect the property rights of the media's owners. That is, not only their rights in the media itself, but the other assets they own in an age where 1% of the nation controls all aspects of our economy. But, for the most part, they have done so on the proverbial QT, hoping that most of us won't notice.
That, however, may have changed recently. CBS News, the former platinum standard of broadcast journalism that pursued the truth of what matters without fear or favor, announced that they were hiring a former Donald Trump henchperson, Mick Mulvaney, to provide commentary during the upcoming election season. Why Mulvaney in particular? Well, as it turns out, CBS is betting that the Republicans will win big, and they need to preserved their "access" to the powerful in the event that happens. That's right: it has nothing to do with any election expertise, or other journalism credentials, that Mulvaney might have. It's all about making it easier to line up GQP talking heads to offer "puff pieces"--or, to be more candid, lies--in lieu of doing the job that the First Amendment supposedly protects: the job of giving the public everything it needs to know about who is governing them.
Leaving aside the question of whether Mulvaney has the ability to do this at this point, given his own abrupt departure from the Trump administration, this brazen currying of favor with those who are only prospectively powerful would be laughable at best and a constitutional betrayal at worst if it came from a news organization with a lesser lineage. That it comes from the network of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Dan Rather is a disaster that will resonate for a long time. Assuming, that is, that it isn't surpassed by something worse. And, as former Representative and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is fond of remining his viewers, it can always get worse.
If you had any doubt that the media is not as "liberal" as conservatives are constantly screaming, the Mulvaney hiring should end them once and for all. This brazen move by CBS was made openly, without any concerns about public backlash. It's now up to all of us to ensure that there is one.
And all of us, as it turns out, includes at least some conservatives, such as the former contributors to the late "The Weekly Standard" who now publish thebulwark.com, a Web site devoted to salvaging our democracy and, in the process, beginning a saner political dialogue. For that reason, they are in what is for them the uncomfortable position of rooting for, and providing guidance to, Democrats for the sake of bringing an end to Trumpism. Here is an example of a post from that site by Mona Charen, a syndicated conservative columnist whose pieces have, in the past, provoked several letters to the editor on my part that, in hindsight, were far harsher than they should have been. In her own way, by emphasizing the need for Democrats to stop dithering amongst themselves and focus on selling their accomplishments to date, she is reinforcing the point that the press is not going to do the Democrats' heavy lifting for them. And Democrats absolutely need to have that point reinforced. My thanks to her for doing so.
I will add one observation, regarding her post. She notes the disapproval rates of both parties in the polls, and correctly points out that Democrats fare worse than Republicans in these polls. I would just note that the difference between the two is exactly 4 percent--essentially a statistical tie. This is consistent with what I have observed previously about generic congressional polls. That hardly guarantees a Democratic victory in November, but it does make it clear that, no matter what CBS may think, the game is far from over.
Finally, and sadly, I note the untimely and devastating passing this past week of Eric Boehlert, a well-known media critic who, for decades, decimated the legacy media's coverage of Democratic presidential campaigns, exposing not only their falsehoods but also the craven and frankly unpatriotic motives behind spreading those falsehoods. I can do no better, for his memory, for providing a measure of comfort to all those who were fortunate to know or work with him, and for reminding all of you that today's American press is not a friend to either you or democracy, than to provide this link to one of the many, many deserved tributes to him, his work, and his memory.
May we all honor all three of those by applying a line from the Terminator movies to what we do from now until Election Day: no fate but what we make. Everything good about this country is on the line this time; all of us need to act like it.
Let's prove them wrong. Let's prove to ourselves that the people truly run this country.
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