I’ve been known to express doubts about the state of what’s known as journalism and those who profess to practice it. Oh hell let’s be straight – I’ve got mostly contempt for most of them. Even for the relative handful that sometimes try to do their jobs and inform the public they’ve got bosses in management suites and boardrooms issuing orders. And for several decades now the prime directive is MAKE MONEY. I’m old enough to have grown up when at major outlets, especially TV the bosses didn’t care how much it cost to produce quality journalism. Now? It’s all about ratings and the revenue that come with it. Conflict sells. So does ‘horse race’ coverage of elections, especially Presidential ones and that’s long become the model for how things are done.
Every four years as primary season begins journalists and their bosses engage in the same fantasy – a ‘Brokered Convention’ by at least one of the major Political Parties. Knowing what was coming, and ballot after ballot and the chaos would be ratings gold. When President Biden stepped aside I’ll guarantee you champagne corks were popping in the executive suites of every major news outlet. And on many a news set. The swiftness with which Kamala Harris marshalled support to become the presumptive nominee was stunning. The hangovers had barely worn off and here she was in control! The butt-hurt was massive.
So, they bided their time. Remember back in August as the outlook for Harris kept improving and there were regular reminders of her ‘Honeymoon’, all that enthusiasm and donor support easing off? Well, that kind of talk was enough to dampen a post-convention ‘bounce in polling’ and even Harris wiping the floor with Trump during the debate didn’t get her much polling bounce. Still, polling both nationally and in those critical swing states was slowly trending Harris’ way. And money was still pouring in. More than enough for all the ads they’d need and to fund the massive field operation set up to get out the vote.
By early this month it was looking solid for Harris. To the horror of those in the news business. Something HAD to be done and by god they started doing it. All of a sudden reporting on polling was all over the place. The GOP was flooding the zone with their own polls that skewed the outcomes both of the individual polls but more importantly the models of outlets like 538 that report ‘aggregate” numbers. It was for those of us who are political junkies a case of ‘garbage in – garbage out’ and not much cause for worry. Here on Politizoom our very own Murfster keeps us well apprised of goings on.
Still, the average voter out there is NOT a political junkie and it all had an effect. Harris’ momentum was blunted to a degree. Then, in what I truly believe was a planned, orchestrated strike major outlets moved in for the kill. An increasing number of stories questioning Harris (and Walz) began showing up and by the end of the week while I wouldn’t call it a blitz a rash of outright negative stories began showing up in my news feed.
We are a little over three weeks from election day and I saw an NBC headline showing the race it tied. JUST what the news business wants. The talking heads, most of whom are effing LAZY and will do damned near anything to get out of actually digging into issues and uncovering news stories get to blather on about polls and make their predictions. And of course offer their ‘expertise’ on what the respective campaigns are doing right or wrong. Like Trump they will just make up shit as they go. Oh, if somehow any of them were to get word of what I’ve been writing they’d be mightily offended. I have no f**ks to give if their egos are bruised. If you don’t like being called out as a whore trying to “service” those in management that pay your fat salaries then don’t be whores.
The fact is journalists are afraid of Trump but institutional fear isn’t new for them. They were browbeaten into being cheerleaders for Bush 43’s war of choice in Iraq despite knowing Bush 41 did the right thing by leaving Saddam in power. Look what that’s cost in not just money but blood, suffering and lives. They failed to do their jobs in 2015 and 2016 and Trump became President. Look at what THAT has cost. But ‘Hillary’s emails’ were a way to keep the election close and it turned out that it worked too well.
Or maybe the intent all along was to give Trump an actual shot at winning. Remember those executives and pundits make a TON of money and like other well-off people they wanted their goddamned tax cuts. And less regulation meant it would be easier for MORE media consolidation. Who knows? Maybe the news bosses are hoping for the same if Trump sleazes and slimes his way back in.
In the meantime they’ve got the horse race they desperately wanted. And the ratings & revenue that will go with it. I keep saying then CBS head Les Moonves blurted out what they ALL were thinking back in 2016 when he said of the Trump phenomenon “It might not be good for the country but it’s sure good for CBS.” And if the worst happens and they help Trump sneak in again? What do THEY care. THEY will be able to do family planning, and if someone or their loved one is pregnant keep them out of certain states so there aren’t issues if there’s a miscarriage. THEY will make a ton of money fluffing Trump. And have a ready means to get the hell out of the country if it looks like he sends the goon squad after any of them.
THEY DON’T CARE! Collectively the news business is as selfish as Trump. So vote. Convince others to vote. Make calls. If you can volunteer to canvass and drive people to the polls. The news BUSINESS is only interested in their bottom line. If not properly informing the public and sometimes outright misleading them is what it takes to have a close race and higher revenue then that’s all that matters to them. They deserve to rot in hell in whatever section Trump is eventually relegated to.
Your “… the news business is as selfish as Trump … only interested in their bottom line …” and possibly get away with it by classing their product as ‘entertainment’. Sadly, this thing ‘entertainment’ and it’s ‘income generating behaviour’ has, and comes with, consequences. Consequences that are lived today.
I really wonder if the major outlets want Trump to win. I didn’t even scroll all the way through the stories in the news feed on my home page and found seven that were critical if not downright negative towards Harris and Walz. It’s in keeping with what I said about since late last week. The news biz is on the attack. And it’s not just RWNJ outlets.
… possibly because when Trump was in the too seat (POTUS) the news media business saw the cash cow he was, flattered him and concurrently milked their consumers par excellence. The news media want those cash cow days back in their shed, for another milking. Their current position and attitude is possibly a reaction to the beginnings of being rumbled, after they threw their toys back into their corporate perambulators post dummy spit, following Ts ousting, last election. Conjecture, but plausiable.