TV News and Its Long Dark Night of the Soul

[babylonsister]

TV News and Its Long Dark Night of the Soul

Tunnel vision and faulty polls blinded television to what was happening during the election. But that's not all.

By Todd Gitlin | November 21, 2016

snip//

But there are so many more crevices of the network soul that are long, long overdue for a thorough search. What about the incessant noise about Benghazi, where Clinton did not deserve any blame (but for which Republicans should have been tagged for cutting funds for embassy security)? What about Clinton’s damn emails? Or the Clinton Foundation, from which no one ever found any slush fund for Hillary, or any pay-for-play reward to contributors.

When we’ve counted up the networks’ scanty mention of Trump’s demonstrable lies about the operations of the Trump Foundation and compare them to the streaming mentions of the Clinton Foundation, where there were no lies — I’m working on getting the numbers — I’m pretty sure we’ll see the glaring discrepancy.

While newspapers, especially The Washington Post, devoted hundreds of person-hours to investigating Trump’s massively checkered past, the networks went easy on Trump throughout the primary season; they donated free time to his spectacular self simply because he was Donald Trump, a TV celebrity, and therefore newsworthy whenever he appeared or might be about to appear. Once he had won the nomination, maybe they were embarrassed; surely they came under fire for letting Trump get away with his preening. And then they did – intermittently — try to play catch-up.

But they never got down to a close look at Trump’s business arrangements abroad, arrangements still underway, arrangements which will expose him to more conflicts of interest than all the Clintons have been nailed for in all their decades in public life. Television never scrutinized Trump’s relationship to the mob; or the New Jersey corner-cutting that permitted him to line up a casino license in Atlantic City; or his hiring illegal workers to build Trump Tower; or…or…or…. They gave short shrift to his nasty treatment of contractors and his repeated stiffing of bankers, which led them to cut him off from further loans. Instead, they subscribed to the principle that the more sleazy you are, the less exposure you have to fear. To say, in extenuation, that there were too many Trump scandals to handle is to say that the networks were undone by the false equivalency imperative. The myriad undeniable Trump scandals, the vast expanse of lies and bulls**t, deserved the networks’ attention, however many there were.

Let souls be searched, then. But let the search not stop at the low-hanging fruit. Search the whole Trump show from start to finish. See how again and again the networks let themselves be tickled, dazed, bullied and bedazzled by a dangerous fool.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Link:

http://billmoyers.com/story/tv-news-long-dark-night-soul/

[babylonsister]

3. Oops! Thanks!

[sarcasmo]

2. TV commentary is dead to me.

[2naSalit]

4. K&R

[guillaumeb]

5. The networks are part of the apparatus owned by the 1%.

They focus almost exclusively on celebrity and sensationalism.

I remember when the media actually used to investigate the massive fraud and waste in the Pentagon, and I cannot remember when I last saw any investigative journalism from the corporate media that was directed at the 60% of the discretionary budget that is devoted to war spending.

[JonLP24]

6. The news channels live in the now

They could do a thorough investigation into the background of everybody running for President as well investigate claims and inform the public. 75% of Trumps statements were Half truths or lies but you wouldn't know that watching the election coverage.

[malaise]

7. Very good read

Rec

[elmac]

8. it was the Trump show from start to finish

Bad was good, the worse he got, the more attention he got. Something he learned from being a spoiled rich brat.

Even though HRC won the PV by about 2 million votes it should have been better, should have been a clear victory for her. Too many who voted for Hill during the primary didn't bother voting in the GE, they need to take some blame also.

[jalan48]

9. I don't think the way the networks treated Trump was accidental.

Executives made conscious decisions to elevate Trump and to ignore his checkered past. It really points out how easy it is for the masses to be manipulated by the media. We have problems.

[Xipe Totec]

10. Harlan Ellison called TV "The Glass Teat". That makes cable news "The Hind Teat" nt

[heaven05]

11. MSM

has no soul to search for. Ad Money is its reason for being. We have no real functioning media that will look out for the 'little man and woman" out here struggling from paucheck to paycheck and on fixed incomes that most seniors have to deal with. This fucking 'celebrity' will have a new job, how to diminish poor peoples dollars while enriching the greedy rich. These fools that think voting for him will put more dollars in their pocket, return high paying manufacturing jobs to america are in for a rude awakening.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. I turned it all off 8 years ago. Just watching election night made me gag....

that will lasts me for another 8 years, if not 80.

[kebob]

13. The Winter of Its Discontent

In what, as of two weeks ago, is now Westoros.

[world wide wally]

14. They were also very subtle in their support of Trump:

So many times they would show a clip of Trump blatantly attacking and reaccusing Hillary with lies and NEVER correct or dispute them. These were nothing more than negative Trump ads. You cannot tell me the news shows didn't know what was owing on when they did this.
I have talked th 3 Trump supporters who claimed that the Clinton Foundation skimmed 90% off the top of their charity money.
Where did they all get this same information? Trump himself and his surrogates, of course. Over and over on cable news.
We they ever challenged to prove it?
Never.

[lovemydog]

15. Talking heads yammering on and on

24/7 on huge corporate owned networks isn't news. It's insipid gossip that riles people up against each other. Of course there are some good intelligent thoughtful people on these shows, like Van Jones & many others.

But even when they have great people on these shows, like authors who wrote books, it's way more pundits arguing than genuine journalism. Investigative journalism is in print and documentaries.