There was a time in the not-so-distant past when America’s leading paragon of journalistic virtue was widely regarded to be the ancient Washington Post columnist David Broder.
The big tell about the idpol left and mainstream journalism is the widespread, outright demonization of the right. The right is guilty of this, too, but the biggest megaphones are on the left. And the reason I say this is that it is simply impossible for any human being with any combination of opinions and beliefs about anything to always and forever be 100% wrong. The inability to admit that Trump supporters, for instance, just MIGHT have a point on any substantive issue is revealing, even if we believe they're, say, 99% wrong about everything else.
I worked for a conservative media outlet for several years, and while the pundits were reliably right-wing, the political orientation of the staff covered the entire spectrum. Based on what I've seen personally, and heard from friends in the business, that kind of viewpoint diversity does not exist in the left-wing outfits.
I suspect you're correct. In fact, I'd go further. I spent 32 years in the supposedly objective newspaper business before it collapsed, and a sort of neoliberal outlook predominated to the point that any other orientation was viewed suspiciously. BTW, I say that as someone who leans well to the left and who, nowadays, finds himself more repelled by liberal intolerance than most of what I see on the right.
The Fox News lair on Sixth Avenue was around 90% left wing a few years ago. I imagine it's closer to 100% now. But they do a heck of a job capturing eyeballs, which is their primary job in that office.
Yeah, one of my best friends was a producer there for many years, and he's quite left-wing. He was also unafraid to challenge his colleagues' opinions, and I don't think that dynamic would work in a lot of places these days.
But Michael - isn't this an example of where fighting the last war is working? I mean, it's obviously not working for the individual, lower-case-j journalists at crusty old legacy outfits like "Vox" and Huffington Post, whose descent into temp work and un-unionized penury I'm loving every second of.
But is it not working for the broader media environment? Five-alarm activism over Trump, BLM, and so on provokes far more *loyalty* among consumers than reanimated corpses like Broder ever did. A permanent fake revolution. I know of one older lady who literally cannot go to sleep without MSNBC on in the background, singing a lullabye of jackboots and #StopAsianHate every night. Lovely person but literally, and quite possibly physically addicted to the outrage machine. Did anyone ever do this for All Things Considered?
And the viewer is taken along for the ride! If the field reporter is out there participating in protests, well, isn't the viewer there by proxy? For the older cadres it's forever 1968; for younger viewers, White Supremacy, shaped like a giant Q, is always just one bunker away. Who *wouldn't* be tuned in every night?
And isn't all of this leading to what you cover in the last three paragraphs - that, well, the media is getting what it wants? CBS is getting a seat at the legislative table. I'm sure they're quite sincere in their support of voting rights, whatever those are - I'm equally sure they know which way the wind is blowing and that getting on the wrong side of the ascendant Democratic coalition means that the party of the left might turn on its corporatist wing. Why would they *not* be cheering on the burning of Main Street USA? Why would they *not* be screaming about quotas on Fortune 500 boards while cities pump out leaden water?
For a certain Republican - including virtually every elected one, and a good proportion of the voters as well - it is forever 2002, and the Democrats Hate Our Troops and corporate tax rates are Literally Communism. The Dixie Chicks are personae non grata, and American Christianity isn't a rotting husk. For these people, fighting the last war is at best pathetic and at worst delusional. But for the ascendent, corporatist, woke "left" - if their Orange devil didn't exist, they had to invent him. If Dean Wormer wasn't stopping them from activist reporting in the campus newspaper, they'd have to pretend he was. They act like they're rebelling against Mom and Dad, but they've been boss of the house since the Obama administration. Yes, it's a complete inversion of reality, but does that matter? It's working!
Who will be the first current or former Democrat Congresswoman/man or Senator to publicly acknowledge and confirm the scam of the century -- the Russia-gate conspiracy?
There is no "unity and healing" until that, including in corporate media journalism...
Yes but here response to Hillary's criminal accusations are immortal:
"Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton . You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why.
Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose. It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies."
Boris you are a Russian, how are you holding up under the endless bigoted attacks against you and your people. Russia is only discussed as a threat. Bigotry, nothing else.
Hi RJF -- I am actually not of Russian origin although I love to hear the Russian language which I don't understand and love Russian literature and art ;-)). The DNC/CIA oligarchs ignore that:
- Russia is not a Communist country for more than 30 years
- That the US is becoming more and more like a United Soviets country (better would be United Fascist name but it has already been fascist since 1950-s)
Boris is originally a Bulgarian name -- links is a symbol of courage in Slavic cultures - the name means "To fight like a links." My last name was five characters longer in English version.... ;-))
A BIG event/news is coming:
Going Underground: Oliver Stone exposes JFK assassination cover-up -- OUTSTANDING
Oliver Stone Exposes JFK Assassination Cover-Up (JFK Revisited) - YouTube
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to legendary film director Oliver Stone about his new film ‘JFK Revisited: Through The Looking Glass’. He discusses JFK’s often overlooked campaigns for peace with the Soviet Union and Cuba prior to his assassination, as well as work furthering civil rights, the details exposing an alleged cover-up of the assassination of JFK, including rapid policy changes from the successor LBJ administration, and alleged CIA involvement in the assassination, why larger powers wanted John F. Kennedy dead, JFK’s preparations to shatter the CIA and his belief that the war in Vietnam was a mistake, how the events leading up to the assassination of JFK were meticulously planned and the CIA’s involvement on the day, Lee Harvey-Oswald’s supervision by the CIA, and much more!
I’ve watched all Oliver Stone’s Putin interviews and his American history untold stories. Both are very interesting. I will take a look at what you sent.
Thank you -- I was impressed how Stone's Putin interviews in text/Kindle have well researched annotations -- an amazing work but foolishly ignored by US foreign policy "experts" a la Blinken (a thin Pompeo) and others.
But ultimately reality asserts itself...I am old enough to know that from among other things the AIDS crisis (or GRID....gay related immunodeficiency as AIDS was first called). So much denial at the beginning stages within the gay community, until it was no longer possible to keep the pretense.
I am fascinated by how propaganda is made, so the last few years have been great for me. (BTW, I think "fake news" is merely a demotic way of saying "propaganda".) It's been particularly rewarding to see how fragile and penetrable the propaganda manufactured by formerly more trustworthy organizations (NYTimes) is. Hence the constant monitoring and Herculean effort to silence and "cancel".
An example: It was really extraordinary to see almost day after day, during the fall of 2019 and beyond, the attacks against Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. The New York Times practically ignored it, the New York Post was more attentive to reporting, including video. Again and again, the attackers were not white....ditto Asians.
So, the question for me becomes this: Eventually the public skepticism will grow and grown, So will these journalists act as handmaidens of a corporate power that dresses itself in the morality of "wokeness"? Big ads about voting rights, silence on Muslims in China.
I admit I haven't been paying attention, but I would expect the new crop of therapeutic trauma jargon journalists to be only too happy to reveal their voting record. After all, in any given election, there is only one Correct candidate; and a vote cast for anyone else is a vote for fascism, white supremacy, misogyny and the right to work.
Funniest line: “.. with the full institutional weight of CBS behind him..” I mean, I agree with your point, Michael, but does anyone really think CBS has any credibility left (let alone, “weight”)?
In all seriousness, my comments to you, Glenn Greenwald, and Matt Taibbi always seem to follow the same pattern: Thank you for speaking out against the erosion of journalism in America. The three of you are, in my humble opinion, heroes for being honest, unflinching, and unafraid. Keep it up!
This was a great read. This new breed of "activist" journalist is still telling us we need to wear a mask, maybe two, in day 397 of #14daystoflattenthecurve. I'm here because of your article on the 2020 riots being crowded, maskless and lionized by these activist journalists. They, and their elected brethren are a joke. A bigger joke are the people who listen to them.
Truth in advertising would be a nice change. If the woke activists want to have their own *news* programs, that is totally fine. It would just be nice to see a disclaimer like what they do with the 700 Club. The production quality might be better but they are still nothing more than a left wing mash up of news and religion. Fox may be equally guilty of this but I don't watch them so I couldn't say.
A key point: "It’s not as though these activist commitments always stem from a deep independent study of the philosophical or political issues at hand — in fact they’re often mindlessly imbued by an environment which makes affirming them almost obligatory to obtain entry into elite institutions. Including media institutions." This is the ruling ideology at present, so fealty to it is the price of admission into our elite institutions.
Excellent post Michael, it brings mild pleasure to me to at least see a contemporaneous accounting of the travesties committed by "journalists." The firing squad needs targets, and it is turning circular. I wrote a critique of your post here https://riclexel.substack.com/p/moral-clarity
I feature one post per week focusing on fellow Substack writers my readers may not have heard of. Find me at riclexel.substack.com and please share!
I appreciate this column. I think the old objectivity school can be caricatured though Tracy was not doing so here. Even though I'm not a journalist, I'm old enough, 47, to remember a time when people knew that journalists did not perfectly compartmentalize their political views. Journalists were expected to make up for that in a proud effort to be honest and fair. They were to be at least trustworthy. In the same vein, the butcher is expected not to sell rotten meat or the baker to put burnt bread on the rack. The journalists' "product" was to be free enough from ingredients like strawmen, fake sources, grand standing and condescension in order to be trustworthy enough to inform those no where near the subject. This was required in maintaining an "informed citizenry". That imperfect system has been replaced by an industry seeking to create a directed citizenry. This is dangerous. It is like a doctor administering treatment on an competent adult without his knowledge. It is not manufacturing consent but rather bypassing consent. In some cases where the narrative is riddled with falsehoods, they are manufacturing dissent. It is ugly and with today's algorithmic supercharging, will not end well.
Michael I appreciate this uncompromising depiction of the media landscape. The people I follow on SubStack are mostly to help me keep the media in check in my own mind.
I hope you are going to give some coverage to the recent CNN coverage from Veritas. While I like your style here, having it laid bare with such clear evidence is vital to convincing others.
Generally I'd love to get a more honest evaluation from a journalist's perspective on that org.
It’s almost as if they need to resurrect the ghost of Broder in order to have some adversary to posture as opponents of, even as their preferred ideology has consumed the entire media ecosystem.
is exactly the point. The need to create an enemy is real, because the created enemy is not real. Just as race and rape hoaxes exist, so does this illusionary opposition. I wrote this last week in a piece titled Freedom from Choice https://riclexel.substack.com/p/freedom-from-choice
The sliver-lining to this cloud is that the firing squad just turned circular. For so long, the bullets were pointing away from the espousers of group-think. The ranks of false enemies, red herrings, and straw men built an army of illusion. And their alleged crimes make up a dystopian reality of the new thought law.
would love some new readers! please check out my content - thanks
Well written, per usual. Count me among the group does loves your style and content, and the points are well reasoned. I don't always agree, but I always learn something. I like the part about agency, especially for the self as a writer. The most frustrating aspect about the est. media is the sameness, which turns into my 10th grade chemistry teacher, Mrs. Watson droning on. I like reading someone's take and backstory, and when I know that, I can engage. Keep writing, I will keep reading!
Thank you Michael Tracy! I have the same question and no answer- how much did the protests of 2020 cost? Can we see a dollar figure? Just the amount in insurance claims would be acceptable. This information must exist! One Axios report is all I've ever seen, examining a two week period during June 2020 and declaring the riots the "most expensive in history". That, apparently, is as much as our state news organizations care to report on the subject. The lack of curiosity, the duplicitousness is appalling- not to mention the outright lying.
The big tell about the idpol left and mainstream journalism is the widespread, outright demonization of the right. The right is guilty of this, too, but the biggest megaphones are on the left. And the reason I say this is that it is simply impossible for any human being with any combination of opinions and beliefs about anything to always and forever be 100% wrong. The inability to admit that Trump supporters, for instance, just MIGHT have a point on any substantive issue is revealing, even if we believe they're, say, 99% wrong about everything else.
I worked for a conservative media outlet for several years, and while the pundits were reliably right-wing, the political orientation of the staff covered the entire spectrum. Based on what I've seen personally, and heard from friends in the business, that kind of viewpoint diversity does not exist in the left-wing outfits.
I suspect you're correct. In fact, I'd go further. I spent 32 years in the supposedly objective newspaper business before it collapsed, and a sort of neoliberal outlook predominated to the point that any other orientation was viewed suspiciously. BTW, I say that as someone who leans well to the left and who, nowadays, finds himself more repelled by liberal intolerance than most of what I see on the right.
The Fox News lair on Sixth Avenue was around 90% left wing a few years ago. I imagine it's closer to 100% now. But they do a heck of a job capturing eyeballs, which is their primary job in that office.
Yeah, one of my best friends was a producer there for many years, and he's quite left-wing. He was also unafraid to challenge his colleagues' opinions, and I don't think that dynamic would work in a lot of places these days.
But Michael - isn't this an example of where fighting the last war is working? I mean, it's obviously not working for the individual, lower-case-j journalists at crusty old legacy outfits like "Vox" and Huffington Post, whose descent into temp work and un-unionized penury I'm loving every second of.
But is it not working for the broader media environment? Five-alarm activism over Trump, BLM, and so on provokes far more *loyalty* among consumers than reanimated corpses like Broder ever did. A permanent fake revolution. I know of one older lady who literally cannot go to sleep without MSNBC on in the background, singing a lullabye of jackboots and #StopAsianHate every night. Lovely person but literally, and quite possibly physically addicted to the outrage machine. Did anyone ever do this for All Things Considered?
And the viewer is taken along for the ride! If the field reporter is out there participating in protests, well, isn't the viewer there by proxy? For the older cadres it's forever 1968; for younger viewers, White Supremacy, shaped like a giant Q, is always just one bunker away. Who *wouldn't* be tuned in every night?
And isn't all of this leading to what you cover in the last three paragraphs - that, well, the media is getting what it wants? CBS is getting a seat at the legislative table. I'm sure they're quite sincere in their support of voting rights, whatever those are - I'm equally sure they know which way the wind is blowing and that getting on the wrong side of the ascendant Democratic coalition means that the party of the left might turn on its corporatist wing. Why would they *not* be cheering on the burning of Main Street USA? Why would they *not* be screaming about quotas on Fortune 500 boards while cities pump out leaden water?
For a certain Republican - including virtually every elected one, and a good proportion of the voters as well - it is forever 2002, and the Democrats Hate Our Troops and corporate tax rates are Literally Communism. The Dixie Chicks are personae non grata, and American Christianity isn't a rotting husk. For these people, fighting the last war is at best pathetic and at worst delusional. But for the ascendent, corporatist, woke "left" - if their Orange devil didn't exist, they had to invent him. If Dean Wormer wasn't stopping them from activist reporting in the campus newspaper, they'd have to pretend he was. They act like they're rebelling against Mom and Dad, but they've been boss of the house since the Obama administration. Yes, it's a complete inversion of reality, but does that matter? It's working!
A solution, including for journalism:
Who will be the first current or former Democrat Congresswoman/man or Senator to publicly acknowledge and confirm the scam of the century -- the Russia-gate conspiracy?
There is no "unity and healing" until that, including in corporate media journalism...
Tulsi Gabbard? Although she's been thrown out of the club last I checked ;-)
Yes but here response to Hillary's criminal accusations are immortal:
"Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton . You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why.
Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose. It’s now clear that this primary is between you and me. Don’t cowardly hide behind your proxies."
Boris you are a Russian, how are you holding up under the endless bigoted attacks against you and your people. Russia is only discussed as a threat. Bigotry, nothing else.
Hi RJF -- I am actually not of Russian origin although I love to hear the Russian language which I don't understand and love Russian literature and art ;-)). The DNC/CIA oligarchs ignore that:
- Russia is not a Communist country for more than 30 years
- That the US is becoming more and more like a United Soviets country (better would be United Fascist name but it has already been fascist since 1950-s)
Boris is originally a Bulgarian name -- links is a symbol of courage in Slavic cultures - the name means "To fight like a links." My last name was five characters longer in English version.... ;-))
A BIG event/news is coming:
Going Underground: Oliver Stone exposes JFK assassination cover-up -- OUTSTANDING
Oliver Stone Exposes JFK Assassination Cover-Up (JFK Revisited) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVso_wpata4
On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to legendary film director Oliver Stone about his new film ‘JFK Revisited: Through The Looking Glass’. He discusses JFK’s often overlooked campaigns for peace with the Soviet Union and Cuba prior to his assassination, as well as work furthering civil rights, the details exposing an alleged cover-up of the assassination of JFK, including rapid policy changes from the successor LBJ administration, and alleged CIA involvement in the assassination, why larger powers wanted John F. Kennedy dead, JFK’s preparations to shatter the CIA and his belief that the war in Vietnam was a mistake, how the events leading up to the assassination of JFK were meticulously planned and the CIA’s involvement on the day, Lee Harvey-Oswald’s supervision by the CIA, and much more!
Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rt/id1457821689?i=1000528833406
Thank you for that Boris.
I’ve watched all Oliver Stone’s Putin interviews and his American history untold stories. Both are very interesting. I will take a look at what you sent.
PS: Slavic "ris" == lynx in English -- thank you for tolerating my total misspelling into "links" (a phonetic version of it ;-))
Thank you -- I was impressed how Stone's Putin interviews in text/Kindle have well researched annotations -- an amazing work but foolishly ignored by US foreign policy "experts" a la Blinken (a thin Pompeo) and others.
But ultimately reality asserts itself...I am old enough to know that from among other things the AIDS crisis (or GRID....gay related immunodeficiency as AIDS was first called). So much denial at the beginning stages within the gay community, until it was no longer possible to keep the pretense.
I am fascinated by how propaganda is made, so the last few years have been great for me. (BTW, I think "fake news" is merely a demotic way of saying "propaganda".) It's been particularly rewarding to see how fragile and penetrable the propaganda manufactured by formerly more trustworthy organizations (NYTimes) is. Hence the constant monitoring and Herculean effort to silence and "cancel".
An example: It was really extraordinary to see almost day after day, during the fall of 2019 and beyond, the attacks against Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. The New York Times practically ignored it, the New York Post was more attentive to reporting, including video. Again and again, the attackers were not white....ditto Asians.
So, the question for me becomes this: Eventually the public skepticism will grow and grown, So will these journalists act as handmaidens of a corporate power that dresses itself in the morality of "wokeness"? Big ads about voting rights, silence on Muslims in China.
I admit I haven't been paying attention, but I would expect the new crop of therapeutic trauma jargon journalists to be only too happy to reveal their voting record. After all, in any given election, there is only one Correct candidate; and a vote cast for anyone else is a vote for fascism, white supremacy, misogyny and the right to work.
Funniest line: “.. with the full institutional weight of CBS behind him..” I mean, I agree with your point, Michael, but does anyone really think CBS has any credibility left (let alone, “weight”)?
In all seriousness, my comments to you, Glenn Greenwald, and Matt Taibbi always seem to follow the same pattern: Thank you for speaking out against the erosion of journalism in America. The three of you are, in my humble opinion, heroes for being honest, unflinching, and unafraid. Keep it up!
This was a great read. This new breed of "activist" journalist is still telling us we need to wear a mask, maybe two, in day 397 of #14daystoflattenthecurve. I'm here because of your article on the 2020 riots being crowded, maskless and lionized by these activist journalists. They, and their elected brethren are a joke. A bigger joke are the people who listen to them.
Keep doing your thing MT.
Truth in advertising would be a nice change. If the woke activists want to have their own *news* programs, that is totally fine. It would just be nice to see a disclaimer like what they do with the 700 Club. The production quality might be better but they are still nothing more than a left wing mash up of news and religion. Fox may be equally guilty of this but I don't watch them so I couldn't say.
Fox used to be like that but now in opposition they are better, more open and less jingoistic
A key point: "It’s not as though these activist commitments always stem from a deep independent study of the philosophical or political issues at hand — in fact they’re often mindlessly imbued by an environment which makes affirming them almost obligatory to obtain entry into elite institutions. Including media institutions." This is the ruling ideology at present, so fealty to it is the price of admission into our elite institutions.
Excellent post Michael, it brings mild pleasure to me to at least see a contemporaneous accounting of the travesties committed by "journalists." The firing squad needs targets, and it is turning circular. I wrote a critique of your post here https://riclexel.substack.com/p/moral-clarity
I feature one post per week focusing on fellow Substack writers my readers may not have heard of. Find me at riclexel.substack.com and please share!
thanks!
I appreciate this column. I think the old objectivity school can be caricatured though Tracy was not doing so here. Even though I'm not a journalist, I'm old enough, 47, to remember a time when people knew that journalists did not perfectly compartmentalize their political views. Journalists were expected to make up for that in a proud effort to be honest and fair. They were to be at least trustworthy. In the same vein, the butcher is expected not to sell rotten meat or the baker to put burnt bread on the rack. The journalists' "product" was to be free enough from ingredients like strawmen, fake sources, grand standing and condescension in order to be trustworthy enough to inform those no where near the subject. This was required in maintaining an "informed citizenry". That imperfect system has been replaced by an industry seeking to create a directed citizenry. This is dangerous. It is like a doctor administering treatment on an competent adult without his knowledge. It is not manufacturing consent but rather bypassing consent. In some cases where the narrative is riddled with falsehoods, they are manufacturing dissent. It is ugly and with today's algorithmic supercharging, will not end well.
Michael I appreciate this uncompromising depiction of the media landscape. The people I follow on SubStack are mostly to help me keep the media in check in my own mind.
I hope you are going to give some coverage to the recent CNN coverage from Veritas. While I like your style here, having it laid bare with such clear evidence is vital to convincing others.
Generally I'd love to get a more honest evaluation from a journalist's perspective on that org.
Michael, the passage you wrote here
It’s almost as if they need to resurrect the ghost of Broder in order to have some adversary to posture as opponents of, even as their preferred ideology has consumed the entire media ecosystem.
is exactly the point. The need to create an enemy is real, because the created enemy is not real. Just as race and rape hoaxes exist, so does this illusionary opposition. I wrote this last week in a piece titled Freedom from Choice https://riclexel.substack.com/p/freedom-from-choice
The sliver-lining to this cloud is that the firing squad just turned circular. For so long, the bullets were pointing away from the espousers of group-think. The ranks of false enemies, red herrings, and straw men built an army of illusion. And their alleged crimes make up a dystopian reality of the new thought law.
would love some new readers! please check out my content - thanks
Ric
Well written, per usual. Count me among the group does loves your style and content, and the points are well reasoned. I don't always agree, but I always learn something. I like the part about agency, especially for the self as a writer. The most frustrating aspect about the est. media is the sameness, which turns into my 10th grade chemistry teacher, Mrs. Watson droning on. I like reading someone's take and backstory, and when I know that, I can engage. Keep writing, I will keep reading!
Please check out my content at riclexel.substack.com
Moral clarity.
These little authoritarian utopian fools think they have escaped history. What has moral clarity usually lead to in human affairs? Pograms?
Such arrogance, such certainty, power-hungry and winning, they have commandeered political debate. How many people are aware of substack? 500,000?
Great certainty, great violence in the name of moral clarity.
Thank you Michael Tracy! I have the same question and no answer- how much did the protests of 2020 cost? Can we see a dollar figure? Just the amount in insurance claims would be acceptable. This information must exist! One Axios report is all I've ever seen, examining a two week period during June 2020 and declaring the riots the "most expensive in history". That, apparently, is as much as our state news organizations care to report on the subject. The lack of curiosity, the duplicitousness is appalling- not to mention the outright lying.