The pathetic mainstream media has proven incapable of rising to meet this monumental moment in American history, and as a lifelong journalist I have had enough ...
As a writer who used to proudly call myself a journalist I echo your shock, disbelief, and disgust. I am wondering how you would suggest those of us who share your concern make our opinions known. Experience has taught me that writing to editors (which used to provoke real discussion) does nothing. It is like standing in an empty field during a storm and shouting into the wind. Very frustrating.
It's a damn good question. I believe the only way to cleanse this once proud profession is from the inside.
They must own their dangerous, shoddy work and course-correct. No, I am not holding out hope, but I will continue to pound away at them until (and if) they do.
I'm sorry, but after watching the greed and avarice develop in the absence of regulations for fifty years, it's not going to happen. The love of money and power is too strong for most people to ignore.
We need regulations, just like the oil companies do, just like the tobacco industry, and the power companies and the phone companies... they can't be trusted not to give in to their own greed, and as humans, we should know this.
Johnny Appleseed spread a few seeds here and there, and all of a sudden there was an orchard. Share where you can, Jena. Let's see where it goes. -Cheers
Could this whole issue be because the media is owned by corporations and billionaires who would rather have Trump elected because he is going to give them tax cuts and absolute freedom to pollute the planet and price gouge the public?
That would make the most sense to me.
It’s not actually the journalists but the people who pay their wages that are to blame!
That's a large part of it, for sure, but those who think that way are short-sighted. The economy always does much better under Democrats, & corporations & the very rich do as well as under Republican presidents even with higher taxes. It's just the rest of us do much better under Democrats, so relatively speaking, corporations & the superwealthy seem to do much better under Republicans because they have a larger slice of the pie, which has reached record labels.
All the most esteemed economic experts I have seen predict a much better economy under the plans set forward by Harris & the Democrats than those proposed by Trump & Project 2025. In fact, 50 million of the last net 51 million jobs were under Democrats, & 10 of the last 11 recessions were under Republican presidents, including the Great Depression & Great Recession. Deficits always rise under Republicans, & generally decline under Democrats.
Our debt problem began when Reagan tripled the debt, mainly due to his tax slashing for corporations & the very rich, & continued under the elder Bush, until it got under control under Clinton for the only surpluses we've had for nearly a century. The younger Bush nearly doubled the debt with his tax slashing on behalf of corporations & the very rich & 2 recessions, including the Great Recession that burdened his successor Obama, who finally overcame it, giving us the longest economic recovery in recent history, especially his last 3 years for a robust economy that Trump rode, until the fallout from his tax slashing for corporations & the very rich, trade war against the world, & his government shutdowns (which only happen when Republicans control the House), gave us another Republican recession, which began just before the pandemic hit us, & was greatly exacerbated by Trump's reckless handling of it. Stimulus spending by Congress helped us recover. Biden has brought us 1 of the best economies in recent history, with record job growth, & superior management of global inflation than most of his international peers.
I hope you'll keep in mind these facts when talking to anyone about the economy.
I’m not sure if it works on a phone, but on my iPad I can touch the 3 dots at the lower right of my comment and select edit. I don’t think there is a time limit.
Edit: I don’t use the app because it insists on sizing the view for a phone, which refuses to fill the screen on my iPad. So visit your comment on a browser instead of the app.
Spot on ! It’s a dereliction of duty by the corporate media to treat Trump as a normal person when a democracy is at stake. Trump is clinically insane.
Jaime Ramirez—Your historical economic analysis is spot on, and it’s just so DAMN frustrating that the misperception is that somehow Republicans are better for the economy! Balderdash! That’s just because they lie all the time and say they’re better. Republican propaganda is very effective. Democrats need MUCH better messaging!! (A la Pete Buttigieg (sp?) hailed by one strategist as “the best Democratic athlete in the party,” an apt description I think.)
Mr. Stephens, if you're looking for what John Lewis called good trouble, I've come to the right place by subscribing to your newsletter.
There are two kinds of people. There are perpetrators, and there are victims. Everyone is a victim. Not everyone is a perpetrator. Your 2024/09/14 newsletter is the testimony of a victim. I read it and subscribed because I’m looking to connect with non-perpetrators. So, if you are one, then I made a good investment.
Every victim recognizes the pattern. You have something important to say that a perpetrator needs to hear, and two options. The first option is to talk to the perpetrator, the second option is to talk to the wall, and the effect of either option is the same.
There’s only one way for a non-perpetrator to know if another person is a non-perpetrator, and that is in a conversation. So, my intent here is to initiate a conversation.
What happens if you tell someone suffering from substance abuse that they’re suffering from substance abuse? They don’t believe you. The only way they get to Step 1 of the 12-step program is on their own. You are telling people in the field of journalism that they’re suffering from a delusion, they don’t believe you, and the only way they get to Step 1 is on their own, but then they’re often willing to accept help with the other 11 steps.
The advantage in dealing with a person suffering from a substance abuse is you know what they’re addicted to. So, in the “journalism” collective, what is the addictive delusion? I can explain the delusion. There is a price, unless you’re a non-perpetrator, and then the explanation is free.
If you’re interested in who I am, check out my www.wisdomtheo.com website and go to the Resources page.
One of your best essays, Earl...especially in light of the abominably racist attacks launched against the Haitian community in Springfield, OH. I mean, here is an opportunity for the corporate media to go full-on condemnatory mode against tRump, Hillbilly, and all their shithead racist followers peddling the "eating pets" bullshit...but all we are getting so far is some lame "fact-checking", while tRump is now pledging to "mass-deport" the Springfield Haitians as soon as he takes office. As we so often have asked, "Where's the outrage?"
It's called "stochastic terrorism", & it's been repeatedly used by Trump & Republicans for years without consequence to incite violence against target groups.
What if the plan was to wait for DT to win, then suddenly declare him incompetent so JD becomes the president nobody would have elected? That's a very scary thought!!
Could be. The fascist, theocratic right knows that only Trump has enough popularity to win an election, so he is the vehicle by which they can regain full power, but he won't last forever (we can see him fading & becoming decrepit in front of our eyes), so they have to figure out how to maintain power with less widely appealing figures like Vance. Then they sustain their power by suspending elections or making them meaningless through various manipulations so, like Trump said, we "won't have to worry about voting anymore".
Sad, isn’t it? The corporate media will not report truth. I don’t think they have the courage to report what needs to be reported. Time to move away from them. This is why I trust people like you and I support you. republicans do not and cannot win this election! Please keep reporting and telling the truth! Thank you Earl for reporting what needs to be said!
I think there is more to it than just that simple fact. I believe racism also plays a part. They seem to want to coddle up to the trump campaign and the white supremacy narrative. Maybe the owners want to do this? Complete and epic fails.
Billowing sails, deranged carnival, 98-word sentence ... That was powerful. I could practically see flames shooting out of your head, and I feel the same way. I know many of your subscribers do.
This may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but I just read a Facebook post about Penzey's Spices in Pittsburgh, now being targeted by TFG and Fox News for welcoming Kamala. Bastards. Bullies. (I was already in love with Penzey's for the sign they displayed during the RNC, "WELCOME, FUTURE FAKE ELECTORS.")
I go in and out, absolute certainty we'll win and terror that the Electoral College, gerrymandering, and voter suppression will enable this vile creature to scuttle back into the White House. But today I think it is going to be a blue blowout.
Has any major outlet done a piece about how wrong polls have been in the past and why this is so? I don't read them now so I don't know.
Anyway, thanks, Earl! Let's all stay fired up and do our part.
I love Penzey's Spices since the first time I read their commentary and then bought delicious spices! Justice is a great spice in a lot of different dishes,!!!
Polls aren't usually wildly wrong. The head of the 538 polling agency -- I think his name is something like Nate Silverman -- gives 64% odds of Trump winning, & he has a reputation of usually being right, including predicting Trump's victory over Hillary.
The right-wing disinformational propaganda machine, aided by Russia's own ubiquitous (but surreptitious) sophisticated propaganda machine, troll farms & cyber warfare, with their brainwashing techniques, is so dominant that many people hear almost nothing else. So that accounts for, in large part, how so many people can support someone as obviously (to the rest of us) unfit as Trump for President.
One wildcard is the youth vote. What percentage of them favor Harris, how many of them will vote, & are polls getting a sufficient & accurate accounting of their opinions? Polling assessments of their views have varied greatly over the course of this election.
Nate Silverman was fired from his own blog 538, and now is working for evil billionaire Peter Thiel, he needs to make daddy happy, so he will tell Thiel exactly what he wants to hear.
It’s just insane ! I am going crazy trying to call out all lies and misinformation on social media. Trump supporters don’t care and believe everything he says . It’s unbelievable! Even when presented with hard cold facts . What else can we do besides volunteering?
Finally, someone is saying what we all know or suspect. Trump is a blithering fool! Why has the media treated him like a newborn Jesus? My father was a newspaper columnist for 40 years. He passed away before the orange monster was on the scene or he would have written a column much like the one above.
You're not alone. I finally unsubscribed from my Washington Post emails and have stopped reading them all together. I subscribed for a year up front in March, but I'm no longer able to read the WaPo or New York Times without fear of blowing a gasket... 😳
I am in the same place you are Megan. I pre-paid for a subscription that will end in June 2025. I paid less than $30 for it, so I’m just keeping it going to keep an eye on what they are doing, but my disgust knows no bounds.
Cancel it and tell them why, they will not refund you, and you get to read it until you your sub runs out anyway. I cancelled them in a Feb, and my sub wasn't up until July. I got the satisfaction of cancelling but could still read them anyway until July.
I wrote them a nasty old email about why I quit reading them! They didn't give me an option of asking me why I canceled my subscription on the cancellation page
Convicted Felon Donald Trump's promise to cut taxes yet again for corporations, plus his vow to "go after" journalists who speak badly of him, is a toxic and dangerous combination.
Stop pretending we have a mainstream media, for starters. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, on and on ARE OWNED by the FAR RIGHT. SINCLAIR bros own 294 tv stations. The right wing has a monopoly on the media. Your screaming, writing, commenting will do nothing because they are doing their jobs! That is, they work for trump & Putin. That is who they will continue to lie about, to normalize. The only way out of this is a Deep Blue Congress for Harris/Walz, then a break up of the monopoly.
Over 30,000 documented lies during his administration, & at least as many since! One wonders how many hundreds of thousands or millions of lies this obvious conman has told in his disgraceful life & how so many gullible fools have fallen for his lies. One of the most repulsive, depraved figures to ever disgrace the political scene.
Jaime, More astonishing is that we apparently have no one to arrest this violence inciting terrorist! The 2nd man to take a shot at him will no doubt be hauled off to prison! But trump and his co-terrorists are rewarded for endangering the public. They get more publicity from their Corporate- Putin alliance media propaganda.
He’s touting his “no need to vote ever again” like it’s a good thing. And people completely ignore it! Why in Gods name are people even allowing this felon to speak?!?!?!?!
Trump should've been imprisoned long ago as a national security threat. Then maybe his trials would've moved along. Our legal & judicial systems have failed us almost as much as the news media.
They're both complicit and stupid. They don't see that their careers will soon be over when TRump is defeated in this election, tried in (several) courts of law and convicted of the many egregious crimes he's committed against We the People.
Sure they do. What they seem to ignore is that the press is always suppressed, repressed & oppressed under fascism, which will surely make them depressed.
In her letter yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson discusses that the lies about Springfield were started by neo-Nazis who have been terrorizing the town since August. JD Vance knows exactly how it started and is all in on it- he told his people to keep pushing the story because he thinks it’s a way to defeat Ohio’s Democratic Senator. Absolutely disgusting and where is the MSM coverage? All of us who care about this country and the people of this country have to be sure we take these things seriously- the situation in Springfield goes way beyond Trump being weird and crazy.
Mic drop essay. Holy shit, I wish every newsroom and press outlet would read this and repent. C.S. Lewis gives the media some guidance: “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Earl, I appreciate your posts and perspective, clearly informed by your professional history and understanding of journalistic ideals. As a naive, idealistic j-school grad 30 years ago, I was shocked when an older friend laughed at my statement that newspapers (then a thing) cared about more than the bottom line. It saddens me that his cynicism was accurate. Rather than ranting about corporate media, could you discuss how Congress might rebuild the separations that once were mandated among media outlets? And in the age of social media, what merits exist for making them liable for harmful content? The first of these (along with FCC gutting fair time) was Reagan era? The second was Obama? Awareness of these might help to carve a path forward. Again, thank you for being a strong critic of corporate media. I cancelled my NYT subscription then deleted my account. My life is much better ignoring them (as I have done w FoxNews for years) but it doesn’t reduce the harm.
Sulzberger likely doesn’t think he has crossed any ethical lines. (See his WaPo piece.) My point is that those FCC ownership rules mattered. They were meant as a guardrail against the dangers of consolidated/corporate ownership (particularly in local markets), both in limiting competition and in creating a dominant narrative. MBAs (and Larry Summers) will tell you that corporations have a moral responsibility to maximize shareholder value, therefore they are serving a just cause. This is yet-another casualty of Reagan’s focus on deregulation. Bringing back some of those guardrails on media(and consequences) is key for Milton’s “marketplace of ideas” to thrive.
Hear hear! I feel your rage and wholeheartedly agree with everything you wrote. The good news is, TRump is his own worst enemy and we're watching his demise in real time. I know I say it every time I post on here, but, I'm phone banking and from everything I'm hearing from people I speak with from all political parties, age groups and demographics, TRump is going to lose and lose "bigly". We all know that he's going to cause mayhem after the election, but this time we're ready for it! 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
I simply cannot watch the news and since I gave up my cable, I do stream some shows, like Lawrence O'Donnell and Rachel Maddow on Peacock. They're the only ones sounding the alarm bells and telling the truth. Mainstream media is doing an egregious disservice to We the People. I have found that the Fox Live News stream carries all of Kamala Harris's rallies in entirety without any talking heads interrupting the speakers!
I am as angry as you, Earl, and as disgusted. What would it take for the cowards to write as many articles about Trump as they did for months, crucifying Biden?! 😡😡😡
And we all know they will also do everything they can to protect him from bad press about HIS AFFAIR WITH LAURA THE WHITE NATIONALIST DANGEROUSLY CRAZY!! When she's even too crazy for Marjorie TG, it says it all!!
How about a PAC of two running some full page ads to tell the mainstream media to wake up before they need to submit their "news" to the White House before publication.
Consider: Project 2025 endorses firing all, ALL non-"loyal" civil service employees.
What would stop Dumpty's Reich from nationalizing all media (as a core function of the Presidency, of course, to "protect the nation's security") and putting people like Steve Bannon in charge of the NYT?
Hate to say it but I don't think enough people are extrapolating far enough when imagining what a final Drumph 4th Reich would be like a few years past the last election.
I mean last as in no more elections. As Dumpty already stated.
The only thing we've learned so far is no matter how bad we think it is, or will be, it's worse.
As a writer who used to proudly call myself a journalist I echo your shock, disbelief, and disgust. I am wondering how you would suggest those of us who share your concern make our opinions known. Experience has taught me that writing to editors (which used to provoke real discussion) does nothing. It is like standing in an empty field during a storm and shouting into the wind. Very frustrating.
It's a damn good question. I believe the only way to cleanse this once proud profession is from the inside.
They must own their dangerous, shoddy work and course-correct. No, I am not holding out hope, but I will continue to pound away at them until (and if) they do.
I'm sorry, but after watching the greed and avarice develop in the absence of regulations for fifty years, it's not going to happen. The love of money and power is too strong for most people to ignore.
We need regulations, just like the oil companies do, just like the tobacco industry, and the power companies and the phone companies... they can't be trusted not to give in to their own greed, and as humans, we should know this.
Any idea if they are listening? Any way we can get links to your posts in front of them?
Johnny Appleseed spread a few seeds here and there, and all of a sudden there was an orchard. Share where you can, Jena. Let's see where it goes. -Cheers
Consider it done :-)
Could this whole issue be because the media is owned by corporations and billionaires who would rather have Trump elected because he is going to give them tax cuts and absolute freedom to pollute the planet and price gouge the public?
That would make the most sense to me.
It’s not actually the journalists but the people who pay their wages that are to blame!
That's a large part of it, for sure, but those who think that way are short-sighted. The economy always does much better under Democrats, & corporations & the very rich do as well as under Republican presidents even with higher taxes. It's just the rest of us do much better under Democrats, so relatively speaking, corporations & the superwealthy seem to do much better under Republicans because they have a larger slice of the pie, which has reached record labels.
All the most esteemed economic experts I have seen predict a much better economy under the plans set forward by Harris & the Democrats than those proposed by Trump & Project 2025. In fact, 50 million of the last net 51 million jobs were under Democrats, & 10 of the last 11 recessions were under Republican presidents, including the Great Depression & Great Recession. Deficits always rise under Republicans, & generally decline under Democrats.
Our debt problem began when Reagan tripled the debt, mainly due to his tax slashing for corporations & the very rich, & continued under the elder Bush, until it got under control under Clinton for the only surpluses we've had for nearly a century. The younger Bush nearly doubled the debt with his tax slashing on behalf of corporations & the very rich & 2 recessions, including the Great Recession that burdened his successor Obama, who finally overcame it, giving us the longest economic recovery in recent history, especially his last 3 years for a robust economy that Trump rode, until the fallout from his tax slashing for corporations & the very rich, trade war against the world, & his government shutdowns (which only happen when Republicans control the House), gave us another Republican recession, which began just before the pandemic hit us, & was greatly exacerbated by Trump's reckless handling of it. Stimulus spending by Congress helped us recover. Biden has brought us 1 of the best economies in recent history, with record job growth, & superior management of global inflation than most of his international peers.
I hope you'll keep in mind these facts when talking to anyone about the economy.
I seem unable to edit my comment, but that last word of the first paragraph should be "levels", not "labels".
I’m not sure if it works on a phone, but on my iPad I can touch the 3 dots at the lower right of my comment and select edit. I don’t think there is a time limit.
Edit: I don’t use the app because it insists on sizing the view for a phone, which refuses to fill the screen on my iPad. So visit your comment on a browser instead of the app.
thank you for these facts💙💙💙
Simon, I wrote about this in my comment..SPOT ON!
Spot on ! It’s a dereliction of duty by the corporate media to treat Trump as a normal person when a democracy is at stake. Trump is clinically insane.
I would suggest CRIMINALLY insane may be a more appropriate description.
Jaime Ramirez—Your historical economic analysis is spot on, and it’s just so DAMN frustrating that the misperception is that somehow Republicans are better for the economy! Balderdash! That’s just because they lie all the time and say they’re better. Republican propaganda is very effective. Democrats need MUCH better messaging!! (A la Pete Buttigieg (sp?) hailed by one strategist as “the best Democratic athlete in the party,” an apt description I think.)
Try to get on the talkshows, especially the late night ones.
Thank you.
Thank you Earl, that was all truth. Good Job!
Mr. Stephens, if you're looking for what John Lewis called good trouble, I've come to the right place by subscribing to your newsletter.
There are two kinds of people. There are perpetrators, and there are victims. Everyone is a victim. Not everyone is a perpetrator. Your 2024/09/14 newsletter is the testimony of a victim. I read it and subscribed because I’m looking to connect with non-perpetrators. So, if you are one, then I made a good investment.
Every victim recognizes the pattern. You have something important to say that a perpetrator needs to hear, and two options. The first option is to talk to the perpetrator, the second option is to talk to the wall, and the effect of either option is the same.
There’s only one way for a non-perpetrator to know if another person is a non-perpetrator, and that is in a conversation. So, my intent here is to initiate a conversation.
What happens if you tell someone suffering from substance abuse that they’re suffering from substance abuse? They don’t believe you. The only way they get to Step 1 of the 12-step program is on their own. You are telling people in the field of journalism that they’re suffering from a delusion, they don’t believe you, and the only way they get to Step 1 is on their own, but then they’re often willing to accept help with the other 11 steps.
The advantage in dealing with a person suffering from a substance abuse is you know what they’re addicted to. So, in the “journalism” collective, what is the addictive delusion? I can explain the delusion. There is a price, unless you’re a non-perpetrator, and then the explanation is free.
If you’re interested in who I am, check out my www.wisdomtheo.com website and go to the Resources page.
One of your best essays, Earl...especially in light of the abominably racist attacks launched against the Haitian community in Springfield, OH. I mean, here is an opportunity for the corporate media to go full-on condemnatory mode against tRump, Hillbilly, and all their shithead racist followers peddling the "eating pets" bullshit...but all we are getting so far is some lame "fact-checking", while tRump is now pledging to "mass-deport" the Springfield Haitians as soon as he takes office. As we so often have asked, "Where's the outrage?"
It's called "stochastic terrorism", & it's been repeatedly used by Trump & Republicans for years without consequence to incite violence against target groups.
What if the plan was to wait for DT to win, then suddenly declare him incompetent so JD becomes the president nobody would have elected? That's a very scary thought!!
That's why Musk, and Vance's sugar-daddy Thiel, bribed the tangerine scream machine to have Vance as VP.
😳 yikes!
Could be. The fascist, theocratic right knows that only Trump has enough popularity to win an election, so he is the vehicle by which they can regain full power, but he won't last forever (we can see him fading & becoming decrepit in front of our eyes), so they have to figure out how to maintain power with less widely appealing figures like Vance. Then they sustain their power by suspending elections or making them meaningless through various manipulations so, like Trump said, we "won't have to worry about voting anymore".
My reply that apparently went to Mary ("yikes!") was meant for you.
Thanks Jena
I was going to ask the same question. I have also sent feedback to WPO, CNN, NYT. No response.
IDK like, Mr. Stephens could we create a petition from all members of your followers here?
Sad, isn’t it? The corporate media will not report truth. I don’t think they have the courage to report what needs to be reported. Time to move away from them. This is why I trust people like you and I support you. republicans do not and cannot win this election! Please keep reporting and telling the truth! Thank you Earl for reporting what needs to be said!
Greed is the reason for not reporting the truth.
I think there is more to it than just that simple fact. I believe racism also plays a part. They seem to want to coddle up to the trump campaign and the white supremacy narrative. Maybe the owners want to do this? Complete and epic fails.
U are 💯correct
Simply stated!
Billowing sails, deranged carnival, 98-word sentence ... That was powerful. I could practically see flames shooting out of your head, and I feel the same way. I know many of your subscribers do.
This may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things, but I just read a Facebook post about Penzey's Spices in Pittsburgh, now being targeted by TFG and Fox News for welcoming Kamala. Bastards. Bullies. (I was already in love with Penzey's for the sign they displayed during the RNC, "WELCOME, FUTURE FAKE ELECTORS.")
I go in and out, absolute certainty we'll win and terror that the Electoral College, gerrymandering, and voter suppression will enable this vile creature to scuttle back into the White House. But today I think it is going to be a blue blowout.
Has any major outlet done a piece about how wrong polls have been in the past and why this is so? I don't read them now so I don't know.
Anyway, thanks, Earl! Let's all stay fired up and do our part.
I was going edit out that sentence 15 different times, but it was just too damn honest, Lorraine.
As for the polls ... they are dangerous. Republicans will use the loaded ones as their excuse for the election being "stolen."
I love Penzey's Spices since the first time I read their commentary and then bought delicious spices! Justice is a great spice in a lot of different dishes,!!!
Polls aren't usually wildly wrong. The head of the 538 polling agency -- I think his name is something like Nate Silverman -- gives 64% odds of Trump winning, & he has a reputation of usually being right, including predicting Trump's victory over Hillary.
The right-wing disinformational propaganda machine, aided by Russia's own ubiquitous (but surreptitious) sophisticated propaganda machine, troll farms & cyber warfare, with their brainwashing techniques, is so dominant that many people hear almost nothing else. So that accounts for, in large part, how so many people can support someone as obviously (to the rest of us) unfit as Trump for President.
One wildcard is the youth vote. What percentage of them favor Harris, how many of them will vote, & are polls getting a sufficient & accurate accounting of their opinions? Polling assessments of their views have varied greatly over the course of this election.
Nate Silverman was fired from his own blog 538, and now is working for evil billionaire Peter Thiel, he needs to make daddy happy, so he will tell Thiel exactly what he wants to hear.
Nope. Nate Silverman is a kook.
Money hungry kook
Better hope there are a lot of them in the swing states...
It’s just insane ! I am going crazy trying to call out all lies and misinformation on social media. Trump supporters don’t care and believe everything he says . It’s unbelievable! Even when presented with hard cold facts . What else can we do besides volunteering?
Finally, someone is saying what we all know or suspect. Trump is a blithering fool! Why has the media treated him like a newborn Jesus? My father was a newspaper columnist for 40 years. He passed away before the orange monster was on the scene or he would have written a column much like the one above.
I am literally at the breaking point with them.
You're not alone. I finally unsubscribed from my Washington Post emails and have stopped reading them all together. I subscribed for a year up front in March, but I'm no longer able to read the WaPo or New York Times without fear of blowing a gasket... 😳
I am in the same place you are Megan. I pre-paid for a subscription that will end in June 2025. I paid less than $30 for it, so I’m just keeping it going to keep an eye on what they are doing, but my disgust knows no bounds.
Cancel it and tell them why, they will not refund you, and you get to read it until you your sub runs out anyway. I cancelled them in a Feb, and my sub wasn't up until July. I got the satisfaction of cancelling but could still read them anyway until July.
I wrote them a nasty old email about why I quit reading them! They didn't give me an option of asking me why I canceled my subscription on the cancellation page
Convicted Felon Donald Trump's promise to cut taxes yet again for corporations, plus his vow to "go after" journalists who speak badly of him, is a toxic and dangerous combination.
Follow the money, ugh.
Stop pretending we have a mainstream media, for starters. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, on and on ARE OWNED by the FAR RIGHT. SINCLAIR bros own 294 tv stations. The right wing has a monopoly on the media. Your screaming, writing, commenting will do nothing because they are doing their jobs! That is, they work for trump & Putin. That is who they will continue to lie about, to normalize. The only way out of this is a Deep Blue Congress for Harris/Walz, then a break up of the monopoly.
Excellent point
👏👏👏👏🇺🇸
My dad, who covered the Nuremberg Trials as a journalist, is, I am sure, turning over in his grave.
The corporate media is catastrophically failing the country. Why?
They are mostly owned by Republican millionaires like Rupert.
🎯
Over 30,000 documented lies during his administration, & at least as many since! One wonders how many hundreds of thousands or millions of lies this obvious conman has told in his disgraceful life & how so many gullible fools have fallen for his lies. One of the most repulsive, depraved figures to ever disgrace the political scene.
Jaime, More astonishing is that we apparently have no one to arrest this violence inciting terrorist! The 2nd man to take a shot at him will no doubt be hauled off to prison! But trump and his co-terrorists are rewarded for endangering the public. They get more publicity from their Corporate- Putin alliance media propaganda.
Vote, vote vote the boat!
He’s touting his “no need to vote ever again” like it’s a good thing. And people completely ignore it! Why in Gods name are people even allowing this felon to speak?!?!?!?!
Trump should've been imprisoned long ago as a national security threat. Then maybe his trials would've moved along. Our legal & judicial systems have failed us almost as much as the news media.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!!!
Yes, but update for the current technology, as it never covered cable, let alone the tech we have now.
Which it seems could be done. Also change the whole economic model of news delivery for profit. It clearly is a failure.
You are exactly on point. Is anyone in the national press paying any attention to you or anyone else sounding the alarm? They must be paid off
THIS is what I am starting to come around to, except it still doesn't explain individual journalists, who simply have to know better.
If they value their jobs more than the truth, I curse them.
No doubt in my mind they're complicit. It really isn't possible for them to be that stupid.
Until proven otherwise, I am coming around to this.
They're both complicit and stupid. They don't see that their careers will soon be over when TRump is defeated in this election, tried in (several) courts of law and convicted of the many egregious crimes he's committed against We the People.
Exactly. But they have nothing to lose by kissing his a$$
Sure they do. What they seem to ignore is that the press is always suppressed, repressed & oppressed under fascism, which will surely make them depressed.
Scary
In her letter yesterday, Heather Cox Richardson discusses that the lies about Springfield were started by neo-Nazis who have been terrorizing the town since August. JD Vance knows exactly how it started and is all in on it- he told his people to keep pushing the story because he thinks it’s a way to defeat Ohio’s Democratic Senator. Absolutely disgusting and where is the MSM coverage? All of us who care about this country and the people of this country have to be sure we take these things seriously- the situation in Springfield goes way beyond Trump being weird and crazy.
Great article that everyone should read.
Mic drop essay. Holy shit, I wish every newsroom and press outlet would read this and repent. C.S. Lewis gives the media some guidance: “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
Perfect quote, Eileen. Thanks for sharing.
Earl, I appreciate your posts and perspective, clearly informed by your professional history and understanding of journalistic ideals. As a naive, idealistic j-school grad 30 years ago, I was shocked when an older friend laughed at my statement that newspapers (then a thing) cared about more than the bottom line. It saddens me that his cynicism was accurate. Rather than ranting about corporate media, could you discuss how Congress might rebuild the separations that once were mandated among media outlets? And in the age of social media, what merits exist for making them liable for harmful content? The first of these (along with FCC gutting fair time) was Reagan era? The second was Obama? Awareness of these might help to carve a path forward. Again, thank you for being a strong critic of corporate media. I cancelled my NYT subscription then deleted my account. My life is much better ignoring them (as I have done w FoxNews for years) but it doesn’t reduce the harm.
I never worked at a newspaper that cared for the bottom line more than the news. Were there times when the line was almost crossed? Yes.
Had it been crossed completely, I would have quit on the spot.
Sulzberger likely doesn’t think he has crossed any ethical lines. (See his WaPo piece.) My point is that those FCC ownership rules mattered. They were meant as a guardrail against the dangers of consolidated/corporate ownership (particularly in local markets), both in limiting competition and in creating a dominant narrative. MBAs (and Larry Summers) will tell you that corporations have a moral responsibility to maximize shareholder value, therefore they are serving a just cause. This is yet-another casualty of Reagan’s focus on deregulation. Bringing back some of those guardrails on media(and consequences) is key for Milton’s “marketplace of ideas” to thrive.
Yes please!
Trump is the master of incoherence
We can’t forget what he did to Mike Pence
He rambles at his rallies
and whines about his plight
And this nominee can’t discern wrong from right
He calls immigrants vermin and plans to deport them all
With Miller as his henchman a pair that does appall
He knows nothing of their plight or
the perils of the journey they partake
Cause this poor little rich boy has been handed everything on a plate
And his children go to Africa and kill willd animals just for fun
And he thinks that in America everyone should have a gun
Out of touch with what makes an authentic life
Trump has been untrue to each and every wife
So if I had a choice who would live right next door to me
I’d choose the migrant without a doubt instead of the Trump family
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Hear hear! I feel your rage and wholeheartedly agree with everything you wrote. The good news is, TRump is his own worst enemy and we're watching his demise in real time. I know I say it every time I post on here, but, I'm phone banking and from everything I'm hearing from people I speak with from all political parties, age groups and demographics, TRump is going to lose and lose "bigly". We all know that he's going to cause mayhem after the election, but this time we're ready for it! 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
You simply have to be right about this, Meg, but it still doesn't explain how and why the press is comporting themselves in this reprehensible manner.
I simply cannot watch the news and since I gave up my cable, I do stream some shows, like Lawrence O'Donnell and Rachel Maddow on Peacock. They're the only ones sounding the alarm bells and telling the truth. Mainstream media is doing an egregious disservice to We the People. I have found that the Fox Live News stream carries all of Kamala Harris's rallies in entirety without any talking heads interrupting the speakers!
Thanks for your insider view regarding feedback from your phone bank calls.
For our education on how the phone banks work ….are you encouraging people to get out to vote or encouraging them to vote Harris/ Walz ?
Thanks
🎯❤️
I am as angry as you, Earl, and as disgusted. What would it take for the cowards to write as many articles about Trump as they did for months, crucifying Biden?! 😡😡😡
And we all know they will also do everything they can to protect him from bad press about HIS AFFAIR WITH LAURA THE WHITE NATIONALIST DANGEROUSLY CRAZY!! When she's even too crazy for Marjorie TG, it says it all!!
How about a PAC of two running some full page ads to tell the mainstream media to wake up before they need to submit their "news" to the White House before publication.
Consider: Project 2025 endorses firing all, ALL non-"loyal" civil service employees.
What would stop Dumpty's Reich from nationalizing all media (as a core function of the Presidency, of course, to "protect the nation's security") and putting people like Steve Bannon in charge of the NYT?
Hate to say it but I don't think enough people are extrapolating far enough when imagining what a final Drumph 4th Reich would be like a few years past the last election.
I mean last as in no more elections. As Dumpty already stated.
The only thing we've learned so far is no matter how bad we think it is, or will be, it's worse.
Good idea !
This shows exactly what our officials want; the same dumbass that’s a convicted felon.
Unfortunately, I’m almost willing to bet Trump wins so he can be their puppet.
Especially now that he’s losing what tiny mind he has left…