Jonathan Turley wrote an Opinion piece for The Hill, warning that the American press is in precarious times.
“Despite falling revenues and ratings, most of the media seem entirely clueless or, at least, unyielding. Even as media outlets plummet in revenue, editors and reporters continue to saw at the branch upon which they are sitting.”
He wrote, “The damage done to the press in the last decade would have been unimaginable when I started. The most chilling fact is that it is almost entirely self-inflicted.”
As an example, he noted that the President of the White House Correspondents Association, Eugene Daniels, an MSNBC correspondent, declared “We are not the opposition. “Given that they booked a vehement anti-Trump comedian for the dinner,” it seemed more like a punchline than a plausible claim.
The next day, the New York Times published a collection of essays titled “A roadmap to Trump‘s Lawless presidency.” The essays showed that media coverage of the Trump administration had been 92% negative.
Turley said that the undoing of American journalism began in the Journalism schools. They deemphasized neutrality and objectivity. They were told to leave neutrality behind, and to become overt advocates for social justice.
Editors picked up the change and said objectivity has got to go.
The result is that American journalism has been transformed into an echo chamber that amplifies liberal [leftist] and partisan Democrat talking points.
He gave another example: rioting as “fiery, but mostly peaceful.” It was insulting and alienating.
The Battle Cry
The battle cry became, Let’s go Brandon. Turley, it was the Yankee doodling of the political and media establishment.
When the Washington Post owner tried to restore profitability and leadership, he was met with a virtual mutiny. Many objected to the government subsidizing a radio outlet like NPR, and the fact that it was overwhelmingly Democrat made matters worse. Uri Berliner went public, pointing out all the problems. For instance, it has 87 registered Democrats among its editors and no Republicans.
The NPR CEO, Katherine Maher, was dismissive and extremely arrogant. Uri Berliner resigned in disgust.
Even more disastrous was Maher’s appearance before Congress. NPR is state-sponsored Democrat media, and it was undermined by its own arrogance, Turley says.
The media will have to expand its audience now, which means eliminating its bias.
Americans are turning to new media, and polls show the press at record lows. Trust in the media can change, but it can also continue heading for insolvency and irrelevance without self-awareness or effort to change.
Turley didn’t mention it, but organizations like the Poynter Institute, which uses the Southern Poverty Law Center writers and has received funds from George Soros, have had a significant impact on turning the news into propaganda mills. Poynter signed up with RevContent to keep outlets they didn’t like from making money off advertising. They only seem to dislike conservative outlets like The Free Beacon, the Washington Examiner, Independent Sentinel, and Daily Signal.
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