"Why the media has been unintentionally complicit in the rise of fascism that threatens the U.S."

[Nevilledog]

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Mark Jacob
@MarkJacob16
I used to edit Page 1 stories for the Chicago Tribune, including many from Washington. In this thread, I explain why the media (including me) have been unintentionally complicit in the rise of fascism that threatens our democracy. 1/9
1:32 PM · Sep 27, 2021

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1442587928174153728.html


I used to edit Page 1 stories for the Chicago Tribune, including many from Washington. In this thread, I explain why the media (including me) have been unintentionally complicit in the rise of fascism that threatens our democracy. 1/9

Mainstream media have long tried to treat Republicans and Democrats equally. Some, like me, thought that was the way to be fair. In fact, it was the way to be lazy and not have to sort out the facts. Just quote a Democrat and quote a Republican and you’re done. 2/9

When I edited political stories, I went so far as to count the quotes from Republicans and Democrats, thinking an equal number would make us fairer. I didn’t think I was helping either party. I thought I was helping the readers. I was wrong. 3/9

If you look back 3 or 4 decades, you see many corrupt pols in both parties. Scandals like Abscam and Keating 5 were mostly Democratic. But in recent decades it’s obvious the GOP is more unethical and anti-democratic. Which means treating the parties equally helps Republicans. 4/9

Hillary Clinton mishandled emails. George W. Bush lied to get us into a war. Both were bad. But one was way worse. The media’s self-assigned job to treat Republicans and Democrats equally has compelled them to pump up coverage of Democratic scandals. It’s fairness-signaling. 5/9

The Republicans have overwhelmed the media with corruption. They’ve created scandal fatigue, prompting journalists to do something I call ethics norming. That’s when something that would have been a huge scandal in the recent past is considered normal now. 6/9

The Republicans have pulled off quite a trick. If news is defined as something unusual happening, GOP corruption is not news because the party is so widely corrupt. Some media have turned off their outrage impulse and decided that corruption is normal. 7/9

What’s needed is new framing. Not party-oriented but democracy-oriented. Truth-oriented. The media shouldn't elevate liars in the interest of “fairness.” Yes, media should be fair – to the readers, to the facts. But not to the 2-party system. To our democracy. 8/9

We are now in the midst of an assault on democracy unlike any our country has ever seen. Any journalist who doesn’t frame their reports in that context is doing a grievous disservice to our country. 9/9
• • •

[NQAS]

1. Not quite unintentional

Any media outlet that continued both side disk from 2004 onward has intentionally contributed to the rise of fascism. And they’re still doing it. And they’ll do it when fascists are in power and be shocked when they are shut down by the fascist regime.

But, sure, tell yourselves it was unintentional if it makes you feel better.

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. Employee may have been unintentionally complicit,

but management and ownership are totally on board.

[unblock]

3. "Fool. Only now, at the end, do you understand"

Even this, in which he's supposedly woken up to the bias, is pathetic.

He still puts Hillary's emails in the same level as shrub lying into a war. Both are "bad", one was worse. Wtf.

Imagine two students are to write an English essay. Young Hillary forgets to cross her t's. Young George kills the teacher's dog. Both were bad, one was worse.

Seriously wtf. They were just more or less bad by degrees. Completely different ballpark this guy still doesn't come close to getting it.

The entire Hillary email "scandal" was a Republican propaganda story about something that had very very close to zero actual news value.

I'll give him that his eyes are slowly opening. Hopefully they open further and he can say that he's only touched on a small portion of a massive bias problem.

[Doodley]

9. That's the point he is making.

[unblock]

14. i'm glad he's finally sorta starting to get it.

and maybe he's got the right tone in practice.

but the truth is that the media has been pushing a massively biased, fascist frame for decades now and the media abandoned journalistic principles decades ago to become fascist scribes, gleefully pushing right-wing narrative after right-wing narrative with right-wing frames in a right-wing paradigm.

he says we need a new frame to understand what's going on, as if it's a new thing.

we needed the "democracy vs. fascism" frame over three decades ago when republicans abandoned any pretense of governing by trying to convince your platform to the public started to govern by obstruction and manufactured scandal and outrage.

like i said, i'm glad he's finally getting a hint of the problem, but he's seriously late to the party and massive damage has been done, in part due to him.


the infuriating thing is he acts like it was all a trick, that the media was unwittingly helping republicans. horsehockey. *especially* for people trained in journalism, it was always obvious that they were very biased for the republicans, even while they kept pretending there was some mysterious "liberal bias" in the media.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Yep, just like we'd have many more "flat Earthers"...

... if the media gave them equal coverage with REALITY believers.

We'd eventually see polls of Americans, with flat-Earth believers accounting for a third or more of the people sampled.

[raging moderate]

5. Could we take any cues from General Smedley Butler?

Did I get that right? That general who foiled a right-wing plot during the Franklin Roosevelt presidency? I thought his writings were pretty intelligent and insightful.

[babylonsister]

6. Calculated, not unintentional. nt

[ck4829]

7. Yep.

[betsuni]

8. Emails vs lying for war: "Both were bad. But one was way worse." Still doing "lesser of two evils."

Nope. No excuse for being unintentionally stupid. A small child can tell the difference between parties and understands fairness.

[peggysue2]

10. Better late than never!

That being said, it's mighty late in the game.

Personally, I think Jacob's nails it by confessing that the bothsiderism shtick has been a lazy way of approaching news reporting when clearly one party has been openly sabotaging our democratic Republic, first slowly and now in a gush of authoritarian actions and propaganda. Trump was a daily cartoon of what presidential leadership looks and sounds like. Chaos du jour. The stories wrote themselves.

What has always appalled me is that some journalists act as if they're above the fray, as if the precipice we're all standing on doesn't include them. If strident Republicans--the Trump enablers--were/are successful? Journalism, the real kind that involves research and analyses and thoughtfulness, would be an early casualty. Journalists would either write glowing pieces of the regime or find themselves in the wilderness. Perhaps worse. No First Amendment rights for you or anyone else.

And it's not as if the warnings weren't there. Enemies of the People? The bell doesn't ring much clearer.

This involves all Americans. You either support our democratic Republic. Or you don't. Every single politician running for any and all offices should be asked the same questions: Do you believe that Joe Biden is the legitimate President of United States? Did Mike Pence do the right thing on January 6th by refusing to invalidate the November 2020 election, as in throwing out the duly certified Electoral Votes for Joe Biden?

Any hesitation, any equivocation should be grounds for immediate disqualification. Short of that, the seditionists will reveal themselves by their own words. No more hiding in the shadows. No more bending the knee to Donald Trump's corrupt ambition unless you're willing to do it in the glare of daylight.

Think of it as a version of an AA meeting: 'My name is (blank). I'm un-American.

The Republican Party has given up on the quaint notion of self-rule. They want an autocrat, a permanent ruler, someone who can ensure they stay in power despite the country's changing demographics. They'll cut every corner, spew every lie, burn down every institution.

Time to expose them for what they are: Bringers of Darkness. Democracy Slayers. Fascists.

History tells us where this goes. We stop it now or we all go down.

[burrowowl]

13. Yes, it has to stop, but we may be too far down the fascist hole.

I hope not but it is really scary now.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

11. This one frustrates me no end.

The Republicans have overwhelmed the media with corruption. They’ve created scandal fatigue, prompting journalists to do something I call ethics norming. That’s when something that would have been a huge scandal in the recent past is considered normal now. 6/9

[unblock]

16. they couldn't do this without the media playing along.

republicans are *never* punished for inventing fake scandals. they lie relentlessly, and the media just keeps coming back for more.

if they had an ounce of journalistic integrity, they'd ignore sources that lied to them. at a bare minimum, if they they'd constantly remind the public that this latest scandal is only an unproven allegation by the right-wing scandal mill, which has a long history of complete and utter b.s.

they'd point out that the *real* scandal is how the right-wing lies and makes false accusations and is guilty of everything they accuse other of and worse, and how can they govern when no one can believe a word they say.

seriously, the only real scandal involving hillary's emails is the right-wing abuse of power for a witch hunt directed at a particular political opponent. that's a massive scandal and it essentially still is completely ignored.


we have "scandal fatigue" because inventing fake scandals is a win-win-win for republicans. it never costs them at all so why not just keep generating lie after lie?

really, who's fault is that if not the media's?

[Doodley]

17. Agreed 100%, and saying it was "unintentional" - no it wasn't. Media folks knew what they were doing

[SleeplessinSoCal]

21. on the flip side,

Since the 2000 election and the overturn by SCOTUS of the Florida recount, it's become clear that cheaters prosper. Our nature seems to have been altered by a blatant political decision. FOX News was there to rally the cheaters and gamers by sullying the news, and we were off on the road to Fascism.

[JHB]

12. Good, but late, since it's been at least 30 years in the making

There's nothing in this thread that wasn't in ample evidence by 2000.

Suggestion for "Phase 2" of explanation: Why did it take you so f***ing long to figure it out, and can you offer any apologies to "shrill voices" that have been shouting warnings for those decades but have been ignored or actively silenced?

[Jon King]

15. What do media executives and corporate CEOs think will happen if Repugs succeed?

Its one thing to lie and say and election was rigged. In the end most sane people know it was not and the election officials at every level keep saying it was a fair election.

But lets say Repugs succeed in the future and actually steal an election. All the election officials say the wrong outcome has happened. The majority of the country literally knows the Reoug legislatures overturned the election.

What on earth do these media executives and corporate CEOs who are supporting the right wingers think will happen? There would be mass strikes, the entire country destabilized. The economy collapses. Mass riots in every city.

How is that a good long term plan? These corporate guys make tons of money under Democrats too. But they need a stable country to operate in. They need a stable economy so their grand kids can come out of Yale and get great jobs.

I am truly baffled as to why large corporations who make lots of money under Repug or Democratic government would risk destroying the country, which would happen if this Repug plot succeeds. Do they really think the 85 million people who vote Democrat in 2024 who have their votes stolen would actually just go back to work like everything is fine?

[certainot]

18. the incredible stupidity of ignoring rw radio, which pumps up what the cons want pumped and

minimizes and ignores what dems want

how much?

if the lying sacks of shit GOP/Putin/trump paid $1000/hr, 1200 radio stations x 15 hrs/day are worth 90M/week and almost $5B/year

"truth oriented"?

framing doesn't do shit against that. americans have to stop ignoring rw radio and every advertiser, ad co, university and pro sports team that supports rw radio shares responsibility

[GoodRaisin]

19. Maybe start calling it what it is?

Call Republicans fascists when they are behaving like fascists which is pretty much all the time now. Media’s had no problem with calling us “socialists” all the damn time. Where was the “fairness” with that? Associating us with distorted views of socialism while ignoring blatant right wing fascism taking place in broad daylight. It’s fascism. Use the fucking word.

[DallasNE]

20. Leaves Out One Important Detail

Corporate media wants the pot stirred to create viewers and viewers drive revenue. You have left out the money angle when all good journalism abides by follow the money. You failed to follow and report on the money.

There was no "bad" in the email story. There was no money and thus no story. Hillary Clinton did no different than Condi Rice or Gen. Powell when it came to using private email for convenience. They didn't want to deal with always carrying around 2 cell phones - one private and one for official business. For security purposes all should have used 2 cell phones. And what about Trump and his use of a private cell phone. He compromised security a number of times and it was never more than a 1 day story.

Bottom line, there is a lot more broken with the media than what you admit to, though I will give you credit for fessing up to more than anybody else. And I didn't see the word "sorry" anywhere in the story.