The Daily Escape:
Sunrise with sea smoke, Curtis Island Lighthouse, Camden ME – January 2022 photo by Daniel F Dishner. Sea smoke forms on Penobscot Bay when the air temperature is colder than the water temperature.
On Tuesday, Wrongo took aim at the New York Times for itâs confusing editorial that misstated how to use an economic tool, and then went on to use that tool incorrectly.
The media, including the NYT, have become a source of both misinformation and disinformation. We really have two media, the mainstream one and the right-wing one. Although most of the disinformation is centered in the right-wing media, itâs becoming less clear to Wrongo that, at present, the mainstream media can (or will) help to defend our democracy.
If you doubt that, look at the November Marist College poll which found, by 42% to 41%, that American adults see the Democratic Party as a greater threat to democracy than the GOP.
The broader results were that 81% of Americans believed there is a âserious threatâ to our democracy, including 89% of Republicans, 80% of independents, and 79% of Democrats. That was the pollâs headline. But buried in the cross-tabs was the answer to which Party presents the bigger threat â the 42% to 41% split.
This is mostly the result of our media that defaults to sensationalism rather than trying to explain complex issues. One group slavishly supports a GOP that is full of cranks, bigots, conspiracy theorists, and careerist politicians with flamethrowers. Theyâre also the media that say things like âintolerance of racism is worse than racismâ.
The other side makes a pretense of non-partisanship while echoing many right-wing talking points.
Weâve learned over the past few years that the right-wing media has more control over setting the national agenda than the mainstream press does. The idea that the Party thatâs trying to protect and expand voting rights is wrecking democracy isnât just a misconceptionâitâs the result of an orchestrated assault on reality. And nearly half of Americans believe it.
In early December, Dana Milbank wrote in the WaPo about how the media has treated Biden as badly as â or worse than â Trump. Milbank had a data analytics company examine more than 200,000 mainstream news articles about both the Trump and Biden presidencies. Milbank wrote that: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âDuring 2020, when the Trump administrationâs response to and dishonesty about the pandemic led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, when he refused to denounce white supremacists at a debate and launched serial assaults on democracy, he got slightly more favorable coverage in the mainstream media than Biden has received since August.â
Remember that Milbankâs review covered articles and mentions in the mainstream press. Milbank concludes by saying:
âWe need a skeptical, independent press. But how about being partisans for democracy? The country is in an existential struggle between self-governance and an authoritarian alternative. And we in the news media, collectively, have given equal, if not slightly more favorable, treatment to the authoritarians.â
Does the mainstream media have the power to try to counter this? The big question is how will the mainstream press cover the 2022 mid-terms and 2024 presidential campaign?
People want to be light and breezy, but Wrongoâs brand is accuracy. Things have been really bleak for many years. And Wrongo has become short-tempered with those in the media who continue to deny just how deep the hole has become.
After the 2020 election, America had a chance to recover from the anti-establishment efforts of Trumpâs administration. It was clear that Biden wouldnât be able to do all that much, because of the slender Democratic majorities in both Houses.
It was a gamble for Biden and the Democrats to wrap every promise into one big bill that would set us on a course for changing the âeconomic paradigmâ. In the end, that was a failure. Governing isnât simple, especially with such narrow majorities.
And thatâs where Democrats are now, paying a heavy price for overpromising and Bidenâs naive expectations that he would work magic with Republicans getting some of them to vote for his agenda.
Biden and the Dems could still rebound. Passing a smaller, more focused version of Build Back Better, along with an easing of inflation, and a return to something like normal on the virus front could bring a fall comeback wave.
But it will also take a mainstream media that understands and accepts its role with a resolve at least equal to that of the right-wing media.
Letâs close with a palate cleanser. Biden has an uphill fight. He should take inspiration from The Temptations doing âIâm Gonna Make You Love Meâ live on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969. Eddie Kendricks’ falsetto was the best:
The Sullivan Show aired on CBS from 1948-1971. For 23 years it aired a wide variety of popular culture.
The right wing commentators have managed to sell a narrative that the main stream press is liberal. As a somewhat conservative business man (in the old fashioned meaning of the word) I know it is not. Of course if you work on a left vs right dichotomy, you will see a liberal press – after all the press is urbane and those who report are largely writers (so college educated, with degrees in the humanities or similar – they are not engineers, agricultural grads etc). So they write with an urban centered view as writers do. But they disappoint all of us, not just conservatives.
To a rural reader, the press is to their left. To an older reader/viewer, the press is younger, hipper and will also appear left leaning. And to a politician with conservative views, the press will appear very liberal. But to a liberal, the press gives room for ideas that make liberals just as mad at the press as conservative appear to be.
I can remember when those who oppose the teaching of evolution pushed to give voice to a false idea: creationism – not a science theory at all, but an attempt to dispute evolution. The press ran with it.
An example of press absurdity that is non political is the way stock market daily is reported. For most days the end number is meaningless, an artifact of the random walk. And even on days of big losses, no one really knows just how far a correction will go. Yet several times per day, news outlets will note the stock market results and attribute them to⌠something. Much ado about nothing.
A example of a political lie that conservatives managed to put into the press was the notion that estate taxes (at the federal level) kill small business and farms. Writing as someone in the estate planning industry, I can tell you that small businesses and farms are impacted not by the estate tax (which comes late in the process) but by the crop loan or the line of credit. Thus as soon as a farmer dies, if still farming, the crop loan must be paid. Same with the line of credit. A study done years ago pointed out that fewer than 10 small business or farms were impacted by the estate tax in a typical year. (Cannot locate this today).
The press are in essence writers who, if they are lucky, they learn a little bit about what they are reporting and only after years on a particular âbeat.â
Thus we have seen the same nagging questions from the press about inflation (a very complex matter and one not given to an easy fix, the end of Afghanistan (a success in my mind) and about why Biden canât pass his agenda (because he has 48 votes most of the time, and 50 with a good wind.
So good luck if anyone is waiting for the media to fight back against the right wing madness. They canât and they wonât.