Listen to This Article: "The Trump-Russia Saga and the Death Spiral of American Journalism"
chrishedges.substack.com
Listen now (13 min) | The media caters to a particular demographic, telling that demographic what it already believes — even when it is unverified or false. This pandering defines the coverage of the Trump-Russia saga.
Wait a minute. I don't get this. I do get that Trump haters were rabid during his presidency. I "unfriended" several on my Facebook page because it became tedious and their self-righteousness was annoying; probably because I am capable of that kind of behavior myself. But this article fails to mention the flat out lies that Fox New doled out. It fails to mention that reporters are human, fallible and naive perhaps to the kind of pathology that Trump brought to us: The flat out lying to our face. The ignorance. The ridiculous at times, and obvious, undeveloped fragile ego. The viciousness. The name-calling. His behavior set him up to be a target. The childish demanding of loyalty. Many were not prepared. I got tired of CNN, at first, trying to "understand" what he was doing. He has a personality disorder - that is obvious to many of us, we were warned by the Yale forensic Psychiatrist. People associating with , reporting on, cohabitating with someone with a personality disorder are in danger of becoming sick themselves. I get it that social media is an echo chamber. That is a real concern. I get it that journalism needs to change and not be part of the problem of divisiveness and hate in our country. I get it that we all can be self-righteous and not acknowledge our own darkness. I get it that there needs to be less editorializing in the media - facts only. I get it that there are several echo chambers out there. Maybe the only way through this conundrum is to do what Mr. Hedges urged us to do a while back. Look at our own darkness - work personally, in our own neighborhood and towns to create change. But to ignore who Donald Trump was and is and make the media's coverage of him the issue seems a stretch. I would ask "What would be the correct way to report on his dangerous, vicious , ignorant behavior?"
My only signs of hope are first: independent media continues to grow and counters the daily MSM narrative. The second hope is based on Jeff Gerth's piece, maybe some future journalists at Columbia and elsewhere understand that true journalism is hard work. Build on sources, create trust, have others play devil's advocate, question their sources' motives, find other narratives that may oppose what you are investigating and understand that it is not simply googling Wiki info and repeating other MSM narratives as if they're the truth. That is easy and lazy, so be ready to offend your viewing (or reading) audience to find the truth. Chris has shown this throughout his career and I am glad he is able to mentor a new generation of journalists such as Matt Taibbi and Aaron Mate. Hope is in sparse supply, but at least it is something, as the alternative is otherwise dystopian.
As I have said before; these type of canards sell soap. the people who watch these purveyors of amphigory, might as well be watching reruns of Gilligans Island.
Seems like lots of folks Hedge's age still long to romanticize the US of A, rather than face the fact that this has always been a government by and for the slavers, war-profiteers, and oligarchs, from day one to the present. The good old USA is number one in the world in: lack of journalistic credibility, genocide ( see Turtle Island), mass incarceration, health care among developed nations, war-mongering, white supremacy, wealth disparity, terrorism, green house gas emissions, mass shootings, the development and use of nuclear weapons, Covid deaths, and slavery, just for starters. It's time to drop the arrogant privilege of being morally aghast and start to strategize about how to structure society for genuine sustainability, no person left behind. Anarchists and Indigenous folks have lots of proven ideas along these lines, but arrogant honkies are incapable of hearing those voices as they continually ( since 1969 at least) rediscover just how shit the US is ( so shocking!) while failing utterly to grasp the larger picture or put the dots together. Your country is objectively the greatest evil the planet has ever encountered, and you're shocked that Donald Trump got unfair treatment by the rigged corporate press. Oh my.
Wow! Thank you for those kind words of support, Mr. Santos. Much appreciated! Nothing can be gained from living in falsehoods. The funny thing is they want to blame teachers, but my curriculum is largely student driven. I provide the standard western narrative, and then we deconstruct it. Many Euro folks still can't face that there ancestors participated in the largest genocide and most brutal slave trades in history. Thanks 🙏 again!
Chiapas. Early Cahokia. The Haudenosuanee Confederacy. I tend to think in terms of cultures and civilizations rather than Nation- States, which are increasingly irrelevant under climate change anyway. Currently there is no country to move to because the US Capitalist Empire is global, and inversely totalitarian.
Fact: Operation Wetback deported citizens, you drunkard. You probably need to lay off the bottle and get high instead. Truth: I'm talking about the breaking of every treaty ever made between the US govt. and First Nations. Native Americans, Frank , the US historically has been incredibly untruthful through that entire, ongoing, genocide. Real Science: And the US put huge amounts of money, time, and resource into buying skulls and doing craniology for nearly a century. Hardly a historic legacy of " real science". Nothing about your hero, Trump, just pointing out that Fred Hampton, John Brown and so many other political activists have met death or incarceration at the hands of your country' s government so our ability to truly allow free speech has always been illusory. And, let's see, your middle name must be sleepy.
Let's shift the window a bit without losing site of this accurate assessment of the broken, twisted and untrustwothy media... and think deeply about this demographic they chase and whore. Because without it might the media have not gone down the skunkhole?
Who are these people, the customers of the dishonet corporate MSM, and where within this country of strong historical support of liberal ideas, including truth, facts, real science and a previous unbending demand to protect free speech, have they devolved from?
The education system that brainwashed them into an anti-American worldview.
And what we are seeing today is a sort of half awakening in a percentage of the people so afflicted... they are growing uncomfortable with bits and joining the voice of criticism for some things... but while holding belief in other bits that, frankly, undermind their overall credibility and effectiveness in what they shift to criticize.
I don't think the problem gets fixed until and unless the education system ideological brainwashing gets eliminated, and a majority of those already afflicted do a full turn against ALL of the illiberal woke ideology that was stuffed in their young impressionable heads.
Reporters make mistakes.
But reporters who are indifferent to truth and facts make a lot more mistakes.
Wait a minute. I don't get this. I do get that Trump haters were rabid during his presidency. I "unfriended" several on my Facebook page because it became tedious and their self-righteousness was annoying; probably because I am capable of that kind of behavior myself. But this article fails to mention the flat out lies that Fox New doled out. It fails to mention that reporters are human, fallible and naive perhaps to the kind of pathology that Trump brought to us: The flat out lying to our face. The ignorance. The ridiculous at times, and obvious, undeveloped fragile ego. The viciousness. The name-calling. His behavior set him up to be a target. The childish demanding of loyalty. Many were not prepared. I got tired of CNN, at first, trying to "understand" what he was doing. He has a personality disorder - that is obvious to many of us, we were warned by the Yale forensic Psychiatrist. People associating with , reporting on, cohabitating with someone with a personality disorder are in danger of becoming sick themselves. I get it that social media is an echo chamber. That is a real concern. I get it that journalism needs to change and not be part of the problem of divisiveness and hate in our country. I get it that we all can be self-righteous and not acknowledge our own darkness. I get it that there needs to be less editorializing in the media - facts only. I get it that there are several echo chambers out there. Maybe the only way through this conundrum is to do what Mr. Hedges urged us to do a while back. Look at our own darkness - work personally, in our own neighborhood and towns to create change. But to ignore who Donald Trump was and is and make the media's coverage of him the issue seems a stretch. I would ask "What would be the correct way to report on his dangerous, vicious , ignorant behavior?"
My only signs of hope are first: independent media continues to grow and counters the daily MSM narrative. The second hope is based on Jeff Gerth's piece, maybe some future journalists at Columbia and elsewhere understand that true journalism is hard work. Build on sources, create trust, have others play devil's advocate, question their sources' motives, find other narratives that may oppose what you are investigating and understand that it is not simply googling Wiki info and repeating other MSM narratives as if they're the truth. That is easy and lazy, so be ready to offend your viewing (or reading) audience to find the truth. Chris has shown this throughout his career and I am glad he is able to mentor a new generation of journalists such as Matt Taibbi and Aaron Mate. Hope is in sparse supply, but at least it is something, as the alternative is otherwise dystopian.
As I have said before; these type of canards sell soap. the people who watch these purveyors of amphigory, might as well be watching reruns of Gilligans Island.
davidwmiller.substack.com
Read “Proof of Collusion” by Seth Abramson, all 448 pages. I really respect Chris Hedges, but it seems to me he has been served some cool aid here. 🌻
Excellent reading of an on-going, dangerously destruction of an American Establishment.
Seems like lots of folks Hedge's age still long to romanticize the US of A, rather than face the fact that this has always been a government by and for the slavers, war-profiteers, and oligarchs, from day one to the present. The good old USA is number one in the world in: lack of journalistic credibility, genocide ( see Turtle Island), mass incarceration, health care among developed nations, war-mongering, white supremacy, wealth disparity, terrorism, green house gas emissions, mass shootings, the development and use of nuclear weapons, Covid deaths, and slavery, just for starters. It's time to drop the arrogant privilege of being morally aghast and start to strategize about how to structure society for genuine sustainability, no person left behind. Anarchists and Indigenous folks have lots of proven ideas along these lines, but arrogant honkies are incapable of hearing those voices as they continually ( since 1969 at least) rediscover just how shit the US is ( so shocking!) while failing utterly to grasp the larger picture or put the dots together. Your country is objectively the greatest evil the planet has ever encountered, and you're shocked that Donald Trump got unfair treatment by the rigged corporate press. Oh my.
Wow! Thank you for those kind words of support, Mr. Santos. Much appreciated! Nothing can be gained from living in falsehoods. The funny thing is they want to blame teachers, but my curriculum is largely student driven. I provide the standard western narrative, and then we deconstruct it. Many Euro folks still can't face that there ancestors participated in the largest genocide and most brutal slave trades in history. Thanks 🙏 again!
Chiapas. Early Cahokia. The Haudenosuanee Confederacy. I tend to think in terms of cultures and civilizations rather than Nation- States, which are increasingly irrelevant under climate change anyway. Currently there is no country to move to because the US Capitalist Empire is global, and inversely totalitarian.
Fact: Operation Wetback deported citizens, you drunkard. You probably need to lay off the bottle and get high instead. Truth: I'm talking about the breaking of every treaty ever made between the US govt. and First Nations. Native Americans, Frank , the US historically has been incredibly untruthful through that entire, ongoing, genocide. Real Science: And the US put huge amounts of money, time, and resource into buying skulls and doing craniology for nearly a century. Hardly a historic legacy of " real science". Nothing about your hero, Trump, just pointing out that Fred Hampton, John Brown and so many other political activists have met death or incarceration at the hands of your country' s government so our ability to truly allow free speech has always been illusory. And, let's see, your middle name must be sleepy.
"an echo chamber for a selected demographic."
Let's shift the window a bit without losing site of this accurate assessment of the broken, twisted and untrustwothy media... and think deeply about this demographic they chase and whore. Because without it might the media have not gone down the skunkhole?
Who are these people, the customers of the dishonet corporate MSM, and where within this country of strong historical support of liberal ideas, including truth, facts, real science and a previous unbending demand to protect free speech, have they devolved from?
The education system that brainwashed them into an anti-American worldview.
And what we are seeing today is a sort of half awakening in a percentage of the people so afflicted... they are growing uncomfortable with bits and joining the voice of criticism for some things... but while holding belief in other bits that, frankly, undermind their overall credibility and effectiveness in what they shift to criticize.
I don't think the problem gets fixed until and unless the education system ideological brainwashing gets eliminated, and a majority of those already afflicted do a full turn against ALL of the illiberal woke ideology that was stuffed in their young impressionable heads.