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It’s 2021, and as your new Spectator media columnist I’m here to tell you that the American media is a disaster. It’s not that there aren’t still many exceptionally talented reporters and editors doing good work, against all odds — there are. It’s that the overall scene is being destroyed. Newspapers are on the verge of extinction. Newer, supposedly more agile online-only outlets are shedding staff or shuttering as well. No one has come close to developing a replacement for the funding model that kept journalism humming along nicely until the internet came along and broke everything.
But the vast majority of mainstream outlets are left-leaning, and I’m worried that that side — my side, if I’m being honest — is starting to exhibit certain tendencies I’ve long associated with right-wing media. There is what feels like a heightened sense among many mainstream journalists (particularly younger ones) that they are not only observers but active participants in vital social-justice battles. Knowing this doesn’t require any dramatic leaks of internal chats, or anything like that — they’ll simply tell you. And this attitude leads directly to unjournalistic editorial decisions which degrade public trust in our institution.
The fight over where the line between journalism and activism should lie — or if there should be one at all — has sparked a series of high-profile internal meltdowns at elite journalistic institutions, garnering a massive amount of media coverage (and delighting the right, of course). At the New York Times alone, there was former opinion staffer Bari Weiss’s fiery resignation note, precipitated by what she said was widespread internal bullying and revulsion at any sort of dissent from progressive orthodoxy; the internal revolt that led to the ouster of the highly decorated science reporter Donald McNeil Jr for mentioning the ‘n-word’ on a student trip to Peru; and the resignation of former editorial page editor James Bennet after dozens of staffers claimed a Tom Cotton column calling for the military to be deployed against violent protesters put the lives of black staffers ‘in danger’.
Many of my fellow progressives argue that there’s really nothing to see here. These convulsions within media organizations are simply the result of historically underrepresented people asking to be respected, of a long overdue reckoning after a seeming eternity of white men dominating newsrooms. There’s a kernel of truth here — of course it is the case that until fairly recently, many groups were effectively shut out of media, and that any shift toward sensitivity and inclusivity will bring with it certain tensions — but that also misses the bigger picture. The meltdowns which have occurred in many major media outlets are mostly the result not of ‘traditional’ battles over equitable treatment, but reflect the rise of a very particular set of political, moral and causal claims that are draped in this language but go well beyond it.
It’s one thing to ask that journalists from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds be allowed to do their jobs in peace, free of harassment or innuendo that they are too ‘biased’ to cover their beats, and there’s certainly work to be done on that front. It’s another to argue, apparently in earnest, that merely printing a column expressing a commonly held belief causes danger to one’s colleagues. Yet this attitude is endemic in top-level mainstream outlets. At Vox, for example, a staffer publicly complained to her bosses after Matt Yglesias signed the milquetoast pro-free-speech Harper’s letter (which I signed as well), on the grounds that his doing so made her ‘feel less safe’ at work. This eventually contributed to Yglesias’s own departure for the sunnier, more independent skies of Substack.
These sorts of beliefs are not even particularly popular within mainstream newsrooms, at least if the quiet messages I get are any indication: a Times staffer pointed out to me that the 150 names on a strident letter demanding Times management re-investigate McNeil’s trip to Peru represent a tiny fraction of the paper’s total employees. Rather, they are held mostly by a very passionate vanguard. But that vanguard has managed to exert a surprising amount of influence via its messaging, which repeats, ad nauseam, that if you are against their very specific claims, argot and actions, you are an enemy of justice itself. You don’t get it.
And think about where we are now—that certainly was not in evidence in the last administration,” she continued, referring to the administration of former President Donald Trump.
“It was truly shocking to me during the 2016 [presidential] campaign to hear and see journalists and newspapers of record… you know, even any attempt or pretense or trying to be objective, and rally behind these political operatives and political organizations, to ensure that this person doesn’t get into office,” Logan added.
Many journalists in their reporting now blur the lines between fact and opinion, Logan said, criticizing reporters who rely on anonymous sources in their pieces—something she argues can be exploited to conceal motivation.
“Sourcing is so important, and today that’s just been completely obliterated for the worst possible reasons to give cover to political operatives and people with political motives, to spread disinformation that harms the profession of journalism,” said Logan. “That is a disgrace to every one of us who call ourselves journalists. Most importantly, it is really harmful to the ability of the American people to understand and know the truth so they can try to make the best possible decisions.”
“They’re not journalists. They’re political assassins, working on behalf of political operatives and propagandists, who do not care one bit about real journalism or honesty or anything like that,” Logan argued.
Logan also suggested that media entities are working hand in hand with Big Tech companies to shape narratives and public discourse.
Companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google have drawn intense scrutiny for perceived political bias and alleged unbalanced moderation of users’ content. Critics say much of the companies’ moderation in the past year has unfairly targeted conservative speech and speech from individuals deemed to be supporters of Trump.
Meanwhile, groups on the other side of the aisle have been taking issue with how social media companies are operating, claiming that the Silicon Valley companies have failed to adequately address misinformation that is being proliferated online.
“What it’s all about is absolute control,” said Logan. “If they control the narratives, they control this flow of information, they control what we report, what we don’t report, how we report it, what we do with it, what people say about it—they manage perception, they distort perception.”
Here, check out this video of our amazing president test-driving the new electric F-150 and joking with a reporter about running her over if she asks any questions about Israel (so funny):
Oh man! You gotta love the crowd's reaction to that KILLER joke!
Our press is definitely top-tier, aren't they?!?
And my goodness, now that I've seen Joe Biden test-drive the new electric F-150, I think I've completely forgotten about the inflation crisis, the crisis in Israel, the unemployment crisis, the gas crisis, and the crisis at the border.
Wow, what a guy! Driving that electric truck. Such a man. And so funny!
It's also so appropriate when President Biden jokes about murdering members of the press in such a whimsical fashion! No harm no foul!
Everyone knows it was just a harmless joke! Just like how everyone always gave the benefit of the doubt to our last president who also liked to crack jokes! HAHA!
In 2018, I compiled many of those personality-driven and mental health smears that had been weaponized back then against Chomsky because, at the time, other liberal outlets — such as The New Yorker and New York Magazine — were already using the same mental health and personality-based themes to expel me from the precincts of liberal decency due to my rejection of their Russiagate conspiracy theories, which had turned into a virtual religion, including at The Intercept. Both of those long profiles were devoted to a central theme: I refused to accept what everyone who is sane and mentally healthy could see — that Trump had colluded with Russia and Putin exercised some sort of clandestine control over Trump — because I had rage-based trauma from childhood that I never resolved.
In 2012 and in the years after I frequently described how the same mental health themes were weaponized by liberal establishmentarians against Julian Assange: an incessant focus on the WikiLeaks founder's personality and alleged mental health pathologies to discredit his pioneering work. I've often noted that the reason the Nixon administration ordered a break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychoanalyst as a response to his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers was because depicting someone as psychologically unwell is the preferred method of power centers to distract attention away from valid critiques and to expel dissidents from their salons. The script which The Intercept and their liberal allies are using against me is an old, stale, and trite one.
All of this, quite obviously, is an attempt to distract attention away from The Intercept’s serious journalistic sins. It is also designed to personalize the anger which their behavior validly provoked onto me, to conceal the fact that numerous journalists across the political spectrum — not just me — reacted with disgust at what they did and what they are still doing.
Columbia Journalism Review Abandons Neutrality – Adopts Gun-Control Advocacy
Trust in traditional media has declined to an all-time low, and many news professionals are determined to do something about it.
Why it matters: Faith in society's central institutions, especially in government and the media, is the glue that holds society together. That glue was visibly dissolving a decade ago, and has now, for many millions of Americans, disappeared entirely.
By the numbers: For the first time ever, fewer than half of all Americans have trust in traditional media, according to data from Edelman's annual trust barometer shared exclusively with Axios. Trust in social media has hit an all-time low of 27%.
56% of Americans agree with the statement that "Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations."
58% think that "most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public."
When Edelman re-polled Americans after the election, the figures had deteriorated even further, with 57% of Democrats trusting the media and only 18% of Republicans.
...
As vaccine rumor hunter Heidi Larson puts it, "we don’t have a misinformation problem, we have a trust problem.”
News organizations have historically relied mainly on advertising income, and as those dollars flow increasingly to Google and Facebook, that has created institutional weakness that shows up in trust data.
Reversing the decline is a monster task — and one that some journalists and news organizations have taken upon themselves. They're going to need help — perhaps from America's CEOs.
The catch: Mistrust of media is now a central part of many Americans' personal identity — an article of faith that they weren't argued into and can't be argued out of.
USA Today scrubs 'male' from teen's op-ed on competing against transgender athletes
Chelsea Mitchell wrote about competing against biologically male athletes
Former high school track athlete Chelsea Mitchell was the "fastest girl in Connecticut" at one point in time until the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) began allowing transgender girls to compete in women's sports.
Last week, USA Today published an op-ed from Mitchell about competing against transgender athletes and her decision to push forward with an appeal of the case. On May 25, editors at USA Today, without notice to Chelsea, changed the word "male" to "transgender" throughout her piece and condemned her use of "hurtful language."
In an editor’s note, the outlet explained that the op-ed was updated to "reflect USA Today’s standards and style guidelines. We regret that hurtful language was used."
In a series of tweets, Mitchell's attorney, Christiana Holcomb, accused the media organization of "unilaterally" changing Mitchell’s words after acquiescing to "backlash from the woke mob."
"USA Today violated its principles to appease the mob. This blatant censorship violates the trust we place in media to be honest brokers of public debate," Holcomb wrote. The original op-ed has been published in full by the Alliance Defending Freedom, the nonprofit legal group that represents Mitchell.
Mitchell is one of three Connecticut female high school track stars who filed a lawsuit to overturn the state athletic conference's transgender policy at the beginning of 2020.
"I've lost four women's state championship titles, two all-New England awards, and countless other opportunities and spots on the podium to biologically male runners," Mitchell said in an interview with Fox News.
"Title IX is really clear that the reason we have women's sports as a separate category is to protect equal athletic opportunities for female athletes like Chelsea," Holcomb, the Alliance Defending Freedom attorney representing the girls, told Fox News. "And that is just not what's happening in the state of Connecticut right now with biological males having dominated the girls category."
Last month a federal district court dismissed the case, but according to Holcomb the fight isn’t over yet. "Just today Alliance Defending Freedom filed a notice of appeal with the 2nd Circuit," she said.
"The district court still refused to engage with the merits of the argument and recognize that the girls have had significant losses," she said. "The court utterly dismissed their lost opportunities and achievements and so we want to see that remedied."
Having graduated high school last year and now running at the collegiate level, Mitchell says she is doing this not just for herself but for all women athletes in her state.
"It is a big issue," Mitchell said. "Personally, I lost a lot, but there were countless other girls that also lost state championships. I believe there were 15 state championships that the two biological males took from biological females. And there were more than 85 girls that missed out on opportunities to advance in medal and make finals. And so it's not just me, girls across the state were being impacted by this policy."
"We hope that the girls' records will be fixed," Holcomb said and claimed the girls should be recognized for the achievements they would have made had it not been for the unfair advantage of the trans athletes they competed against.
They are also pushing to have the policy changed so trans athletes can no longer participate in women’s athletics. "We want to see the policy fixed so that no other young women in the state of Connecticut have to experience that unfairness," Holcomb said.
Columbia Journalism Review Sets New Standards For Biased Reporting
Consider a first principle of journalism, its purpose. Journalism is supposed to provide observed facts within a framework of objective reality. The “coloring” of facts to subtly shift opinion is not journalism—it is known amongst professional journalists as “framing bias.” Such bias slants the news via a filter distorted by the view of the reporter or organization. Framing bias is unvarnished intellectual dishonesty.
When this pledge uses the term “gun violence” it engages in framing bias. In fact, there is no such thing as a violent gun. Therefore, there is no such thing as “gun violence.” There certainly is criminal violence, but that is not the conclusion the CJR is pushing people to reach. ...
Journalism needs to return to fundamental fact reporting and truth telling. “News” media must:
(1) Report facts in an unbiased way. Cover the inconvenient truths.
(2) Fairly report positive as well as negative uses of guns, especially the legitimate, defensive and sporting uses of guns.
(3) Clearly separate opinion from fact, and clearly state the source of facts and the sponsors of organizations being sought for facts. Operations like The Trace, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Michael Bloomberg anti-gun enterprise, are not journalistic in nature, but are treated by CJR as if they are journalistic.
(4) Commit to reporting stories based on all of the facts, all facets of the gun industry, and the social utility of guns, the lopsided ethnicities of the people involved in gun abuse, and the steadfast refusal of the education establishment to cover even the most rudimentary aspects of gun safety, history or gun sports.
(5) Inform the public that police are under absolutely no legal duty to protect individual citizens. (e.g., Dial 911 and Die, Richard W. Stevens, Mazel Freedom Press, covering no-duty-to-protect statutes in all 50 states; Castle Rock v. Gonzalez (SCOTUS, 2005, no duty to enforce restraining order); Warren v. D.C. (1981, Police have no duty to protect an individual).
(6) Stop sensationalizing violence. Sign on to the Don’t Inspire Evil Initiative, and “Refrain from gratuitous or repetitious portrayal of mass murderers’ names and images.” –JPFO. Endless loops of these villains serves no one but the villains. Do not publicize the names of criminal perpetrators. “We must starve terrorists of the oxygen of publicity which they seek.” –Margaret Thatcher
Charles Heller, a founding member of the preeminent political lobby, The Arizona Citizens Defense League, responsible in large measure for that state’s consistent top national rank for gun rights, has been a journalist since running his high school’s 7,000-circ. newspaper, followed by employment with the Chicago Tribune and 23 years as a radio talk-show host in Tucson.
Washington Post: Labeling Lab Leak as ‘Debunked Conspiracy Theory’ Was Wrong
BY ZACHARY STIEBER June 2, 2021
The Washington Post quietly has walked back its claims regarding the theory that the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Something journalists refuse to report:
Yet Another Media Tale -- Trump Tear-Gassed Protesters For a Church Photo Op -- Collapses
That the White House violently cleared Lafayette Park at Trump's behest was treated as unquestioned truth by most corporate media. Today it was revealed as a falsehood.
Remember how the media said Trump cleared out protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets for a Bible photo op? Yeah, turns out that never happened.
“Nick, it’s not really journalism, is it?” Kenny continued. “They are really stenographers in a way, aren’t they? They are documenting history, but they aren’t being critical. With Trump, ultra-critical. Inflammatory in some instances.”
Austin's premier newspaper wouldn't print a description of a mass shooting suspect because he's black and it "could be harmful in perpetuating stereotypes"
Progressive Democratic operative caught red-handed stealing signed petitions to recall the San Fran school board, media silent on this particular story of voter suppression for some strange reason
PlanetMoron
Jun 14th, 2021 12:48 pm
I suppose that's one way to stop voter fraud:
Stop a vote from ever happening!
The incident took place May 30 as organizers were collecting signatures to petition for the recall of the San Francisco school board.
Here's a summary of how awful the media is in just two pictures, courtesy of Time:
The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸
@ColumbiaBugle
22 Oct 2020
.@DarrenJBeattie: "We see these journalists are not even acting as meaningful journalists. What they're doing is acting as commissars & Neo-Stasi effectively in order to crush the rebellion of the American people against their corrupt ruling class."
Martin
@mbrochh
Jun 20
Replying to @PierreKory @Kevin_McKernan
Can’t force trace tokens and digital vaccination passes unti the entire population if you can just get rid of the flu by taking a simple medicine.
The Hong Kong-based pro-democracy news outlet Apple Daily has been forced to shut down after a police raid last week that saw five of its executives arrested. The paper had been under increased scrutiny since last year after the arrest of its owner and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai.
Apple Daily will distribute its last print edition on Thursday. The 26-year-old tabloid will also stop publishing online from midnight June 23, and its website will no longer be accessible from Saturday.
“Thank you to all our readers, subscribers and clients and Hong Kong for 26 years of immense love and support. Here we say goodbye, take care of yourselves,” Apple Daily said in a statement.
The outlet’s demise further raises concerns about freedom of the press, freedom of expression and other rights in the former British colony, which was handed back to Beijing in 1997 and its freedoms have increasingly suffered in China’s grip.
Our only hope is that the next Jan 6 tour of the Capitol lasts for 100 years in which all reporters are dismembered and eaten by patriots' pets and Fox News and OAN take control of all media.
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