The week American journalism died
My dear friends, we are gathered here today to pay our respects to our dearly departed: the press.
Journalism was expensive, and it’s gone. I’ve been here a while and I haven’t seen him move a muscle.
Journalism died in America shortly after its twin, democracy. Both succumbed to self-inflicted injuries caused by arrogance, greed, and a government ostensibly by and for the people.
It turns out that although all animals are equal, some are more equal than the rest of us.
I would invite a few important and critically-minded people to praise both, but it remains questionable whether there are such people in government or the media today – and what few of them are doing is struggling desperately to stay above the rising tide of autocracy, oligarchy and artificial intelligence. And social media and stupidity and bigotry and ignorance and all those stupid stories about drones.
Donald Trump He dealt the final blow to journalism and democracy, but he put them out of their misery. Some may even consider it a mercy killing. Over the past 50 years, starting with Richard Nixon’s cancer stain, government has faltered. It started when we threatened to impeach the president for serious crimes — like wiretapping the Democratic National Committee, and lying about it, during re-election. Our democracy endured at the time, and Nixon resigned rather than face the wrath of Democrats and even Republicans who pledged to do the right thing. But starting with Ronald Reagan and his successful appeal to the vulgar, the ignorant, and the arrogant, it soon became clear that Nixon was not an anomaly among our leaders. It was his trial.
Since then, our government has tolerated a variety of ridiculous and seditious men, from Colonel Oliver North to Michael Flynn. While Reagan succeeded in convincing us that he alone ended the Cold War, rats like Mitch McConnell infiltrated the ship of state and began eating away at its foundation like so many rabid termites with a head full of nasty hallucinogens and a stomach full of tapeworms.
The cancer has spread. Reagan gutted the foundations of a free press by doing away with the principle of fairness, while at the same time allowing the integration of the media. Large companies bought smaller bureaus, closed their offices, and laid off experienced editors and reporters. They saved money by hiring beginners and then letting them go once they had enough experience to demand a larger salary. The wealth of institutional knowledge of the White House’s veteran press corps is beginning to evaporate.
to Four years Biden was unable to communicate. Millions of people believe his historic infrastructure bill is about six electric vehicle stations in California. For four years, traditional reporters had no access to the facts. We couldn’t communicate. It’s officially time for an autopsy because the press has no pulse.
And all the while, the government and the media continued to divide us. Cultural schizophrenia ensued. Besides cancerous greed, by the time Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House, it was clear that democracy and the American press were in despair. The rise of Fox News, MSNBC, and the rise of extremist media has hastened its demise. By the time we elected a man convicted of 34 felonies to office, and TV anchors started preaching that you shouldn’t talk to MAGA relatives, the sick were dead.
The evidence is everywhere. On the left, members of Congress preach to us about what “political parties” are. Instead of asking voters, “What do you need?” The left tells us why they are better and what they will do to us and for us. If you don’t agree with them, you’re ignorant, misogynistic, and probably racist.
On the right, it’s about God and the American-born, Bible-trading, gun-toting men and women who voted against their own self-interest because they thought Donald Trump was “one of us.” They would all rather shoot their neighbors than talk to them.
Trump has shown how dead democracy is by nominating nearly a dozen billionaires to senior positions in his next government, who are worth more than the vast majority of Americans will earn in their lifetime. His other nominees are former Fox News employees, their friends and family members — the icing on the con president’s cake. It shows us in real time the death of American journalism, because, as Politico reported, “no modern president — including Trump in his first term — has personally sued the media while in the Oval Office.”
Technically, he’s not back in the Oval Office yet, but speaking for the first time at a post-election news conference before reporters on Monday, Trump promised more lawsuits against journalists and pundits he doesn’t like.
This came after ABC News settled a lawsuit filed by Trump against the news organization for defamation. The lawsuit stemmed from a March 10, 2024, ABC news article in which George Stephanopoulos repeatedly said Trump had been “convicted of rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case. Although Trump still denies any wrongdoing, a jury was seated last year It found that Trump had sexually assaulted CarrollIt is enough to hold him responsible for the beating, even though he did not find that Carol proved that he raped her.
Since Trump is a public figure who claimed ABC was guilty of “malice” toward Trump for calling him “rape,” the judge allowed the case to proceed on that basis, opening the network to pretrial discovery including emails and private correspondence — so the network settled.
Sam Donaldson, a former ABC White House correspondent, said the settlement represents a clear victory for Donald Trump. “The first instinct is to find the compromise distasteful and wrong, but then it’s not ABC News that does it, it’s Disney – the news department had no choice; the company like all others is afraid to challenge DJT. So, was it Iger (Bob Iger, Disney CEO) was wrong when he didn’t stand up? The great speaker, Sam Rayburn, often used an expression to explain to recalcitrant members what they had to do to have a successful time in the House of Representatives: “You’ve got to get along and get along,” and in the end he decided. Iger is in this case to “go along.” Let’s see if it’s okay for him and Disney even though the news department is taking it seriously!
Trump wasted no time in making his point of view on the issue. Later that day, he made good on his pledge: he He filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register And veteran pollster Anne Selzer, regarding a pre-election poll that showed Trump trailing Kamala Harris in Iowa shortly before last month’s elections. Pure revenge against the poll.
“You might as well sue a meteorologist because you don’t like the weather,” one veteran First Amendment lawyer told me. “These are expectations. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former coordinator, said the onslaught of lawsuits against the press has only just begun. On CNN’s “Newsnight” on Tuesday. Cohen said Trump does not have to win such lawsuits because the costs associated with them could have a chilling effect. He predicted that the record would eventually stabilize.
“Not only does Donald Trump have money, he has money with the Republican National Committee,” Cohen said. “He has money through his super PACS and his money has money in it. Look at all the tech billionaires around now. There’s an indefinite amount of money out there. And I believe that wholeheartedly The Des Moines Register will surrender, just like ABC Disney. And I think Donald Trump has really figured out a way to change the way the media deals with issues.
Trump’s moves are classic examples of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Currently, 34 states and the District of Columbia have a variety of anti-SLAPP laws to prevent these costly and time-consuming lawsuits that can intimidate critics into silence. Not only does it benefit the media, but more importantly, it benefits every day Individually Who want to speak against the government.
Trump and his followers like Elon Musk, who claim to support freedom of expression, have finally killed that freedom, and with it, democracy.
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There is other evidence. new Poll of hundreds of journalists Those who received safety training from the International Women’s Media Foundation found that 36% said they had faced or been threatened with physical violence on the job — and felt particularly threatened at Trump campaign rallies.
“Journalists reported feeling high risks while covering Trump rallies and ‘Stop the Steal’ protests, especially when some Trump supporters and protesters openly carried weapons,” the report said.
But wait there’s more. Joe Biden and the Democrats are no champions of free speech either. Biden has failed to take any action as president to break up media monopolies. During his supporters’ annual Christmas party this week, Biden, who has appeared in the White House Brady Media Room once to speak with reporters, met in the Roosevelt Room with his favorite social media influencers. At least Trump met his fan base publicly in the Rose Garden. It was certainly a loud meeting as she commented that his influencers looked like a bunch of people yearning to become demon-possessed, but Trump did it in public.
Biden met with influential people separately. According to a few in the room, Biden and his communications staff told them they were the “new leaders” of the media. They pumped in ideas of “patriotism” and said influencers need to make sure they let people know that Donald Trump will take credit for the Biden administration’s successes. “It’s great that they want us to deliver the message they couldn’t deliver,” one explained. Another said: “We wouldn’t have to do this if the administration had done it successfully.”
exactly. to Four years Biden was unable to communicate. Millions of people believe his historic infrastructure bill is about six electric vehicle stations in California. For four years, traditional reporters had no access to the facts. We couldn’t communicate. It’s officially time for an autopsy because the press has no pulse.
Democracy is dead, and the large number of Americans watching from the grave the burials are too busy spitting on the corpses to understand that they are the ones being thrown into the grave as well. Those tearing out their hair and gnashing their teeth on the right shout that their friends and neighbors who disagree with them are communists, Karens, and anti-American porters who would rather get a free meal from the government than do an honest day’s work. While health care, education, and Social Security evaporate in a puff of smoke.
On the left, extremists shout that they are “authoritarian” and “minority” as they worry about their friends, relatives and neighbors turning to the government — without once wondering why Democrats are losing the race and support in rural America.
Unless you surrender to the Almighty Leader, your goose is ripe.
So, as we end our eulogy, let us pray with the time-honored saying that Pogo left us, “We have met the enemy and he is us. Amen, brothers and sisters.”
We will end our services with a pipe organ playing of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones.
Let it bleed.
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