Friends, there are few subjects on which I am more passionate than the pure loathsomeness of the mainstream media. The lack of balance and breadth in their coverage, the plain ignorance of many reporters and editors, and the blatant partisanship and runaway Trump-hatred is enough to drive any decent American batty...and quite a few have already succumbed. Our excellent President has an approval rating in the 40s. Russia's President Vladimir Putin has an approval rating closer to 80%. What's the difference between them? There are plenty, but from a public opinion standpoint the principal distinction is that Putin controls the Russian media, which fawns over him, while the American media works in overdrive to undermine our elected President. One simply cannot discount how important this is, since constant toxic media coverage destroys confidence with spectacular effectiveness. True, there are now alternative media outlets from which Americans can, and sometimes do, get high quality news and analysis, but most alternative media sources are even worse, and less professional, than the mainstream crowd. Fake news flourishes in the alternative media, and the big networks, newspapers, and popular websites are, to a large degree, throwing journalistic standards out the window simply to stay competitive with the no-holds-barred muckrakers that dominate talk radio, social media, and other popular forums. The point is this: our country's cynicism, quarrelsomeness, and self-hatred will never be healed until we obtain a more responsible press. Bad and biased reporting is killing our democracy, I firmly believe, and time may be running out to reverse the downward spiral. After all, we're already in a situation where most Americans assume the amorality of our political elite, and they take for granted that, if their chosen candidate didn't win an election, then his/her opponent must have cheated. You simply can't sustain democratic institutions for long under these circumstances. We need to change course!
You can read all about it in my latest article:
Burying the Lead: The Media Ignores
Trump's Victories
It's no secret
that the mainstream media loathes President Trump. The coverage of
the Trump administration has broken all records in terms of
consistent, vitriolic negativity. (One study found that the coverage
on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts was critical 90% of the
time.) This leads the media to devote ample column inches and airtime
to arguably trivial smears, like the alleged Russian ties of
low-level campaign aides and volunteers, the dirty laundry (real and
imagined) of the President's family members, and unverifiable
non-claims of past affairs made by professional strippers.
Essentially, the media has long since been weaponized in the war on
Trump.
The
other side of this sordid coin, however, is the media's indifference
to important, positive stories far more worthy of the public's
attention. In particular, journalists eschew any mention of President
Trump's successes and breakthroughs. The list of these political
victories is a long one, although you won't read about them in the
Post or
the Times.
Lest we forget,
the economy is booming. All indicators, including economic growth
rates, unemployment rates, manufacturing growth, and stock market
gains, are pointing to a level of dynamism unknown in the Obama
years. The relaxation of bureaucratic regulations and the achievement
of a historic tax reform package certainly have played a role in this
economic renaissance. Whether President Trump deserves the credit for
all of this good news is debatable, but the simple fact is that, if
he were a Democrat, the media would be crediting him much more often
than it is.
Recently, thanks
to President Trump's unapologetically aggressive policy towards North
Korea, including harsh rhetoric and biting sanctions, Kim Jong-un
expressed a willingness to consider denuclearization, and the U.S.
announced an upcoming summit between Kim and President Trump. Had
President Obama achieved a diplomatic breakthrough of this magnitude,
his (second) Nobel Peace Prize surely would have arrived by priority
mail the very next day. Trump's hard-won progress, though, is ignored
and slighted.
Likewise, the
administration's successes in protecting U.S. technological and
industrial preeminence, by preventing the foreign acquisition of
critical American technology companies, and by shielding our steel
and aluminum industries from unfair overseas competition, is ignored,
or worse, undercut with wild speculation about possible retaliation.
In both cases, Trump's actions have clear precedents in the moves of
previous administrations, including that of Barack Obama, but the
media always frames Trump's actions as entirely novel and abjectly
foolish. The inconvenient truth is that real, tangible American jobs,
and American workers, are safeguarded by these actions, but those
stories are simply never told.
In
yet another example of the media's selective coverage, the Trump
administration's unprecedented success in reducing illegal
immigration, which every administration since that of President
Eisenhower has at least claimed
that it wanted to achieve, is completely subsumed by the media's
focus on anecdotal accounts of allegedly virtuous illegal immigrants
facing deportation. The media could, of course, tell the story of the
crimes committed by the many thousands of violent illegal immigrants
who no longer prowl America's streets, thanks to President Trump. It
won't, naturally. It literally can't, since any reporter who spoke of
those crimes would be besieged with charges of “racism!”
The list of
Trumpian achievements goes on: a stronger military, improved services
for veterans and the firing of many incompetent VA employees, ISIS on
its last legs, reams of useless regulations obliterated, an
increasing realization among our allies that they must solve their
own problems and provide and pay for their own defense, dozens of
sterling conservatives appointed to our nation's courts, etc. And the
media's attitude to these triumphs is invariably the same: denial,
dismissal, obfuscation.
When it comes to
all things Trump, the media is hopelessly blinkered. Unfortunately,
their acidic commentary on the Trump presidency has had a cumulative
effect on public attitudes, and it is almost certainly responsible
for Trump's artificially low approval numbers, which make no sense
given the basic strength of America itself.
Years ago,
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared to his fellow Americans
that they “had nothing to fear but fear itself.” What he meant is
that perception is critically important, and it can even create, by
its own power, new political realities.
I would argue
that the media, with its relentless and intentional efforts to
undermine the Trump administration, is actually reducing confidence
in America itself and its political institutions. The negativity has
reached such a crescendo that the stability of our democracy is under
threat.
President Trump
has his faults, yes, but the irresponsibility and lack of
professionalism in our media knows no bounds. It is time to turn off
the mainstream media and start over. Alternatively, it is time to
reconsider our libel laws in order to hold the worst journalists
accountable for their fabrications.
Information is
the lifeblood of democracy, and, sad to say, our country has never
been so ill-informed.
Dr. Nicholas L.
Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs
at: www.waddyisright.com.
You can also find the article here, on the TownHall website:
