Editorial staff at major newspapers are quitting after their voices have been silenced by the organizations ownership.
The mainstream media has long had problems bringing in audience. This has been repeatedly reflected in various polls where trust in the mainstream media continues to sink among the general public. The cause of the situation may be multi-faceted, but I’ve long pointed to the fact that it boils down to the content that ends up being produced and the decision making that has led to such low quality garbage being produced. Whether it is expressing blatant hypocrisy, pushing conspiracy theories, or even fuelling hate in debates where non is warranted.
The ironic part in all of this is the fact that many of the accusations that the mainstream media have lobbed against social media (i.e. promoting hate and spreading misinformation) are all things that the mainstream media has basically been busted for in recent months. Unfortunately, one of the long standing problems in all of this is the mainstream media refusing to acknowledge that they are doing anything wrong these days. Instead, there is this long-standing attitude that they are the defenders of democracy and they are perfect in every way. The failures and struggling they are experiencing these days, for them, is just an indication that the rest of the world is wrong and it’s up to the rest of the world to accept that they are right in every way.
Of course, no one in their right mind should believe that the mainstream media is perfect in every way because that is weapons grade delusional. While there is little doubt that the role of journalism in general is highly important in democracy, mainstream media has been dropping the ball for years now in carrying that torch. Some might honestly believe that is just the commentary of someone who has not been a fan of mainstream media and little else, but the reality is that I’m far from alone in seeing the rotten nature of mainstream media these days. In fact, these days, you can look no further than the very staff manning the media’s news rooms for indications of this. This came in the form of some high profile resignations at the LA Times. From CNN:
Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board resigned Thursday after the newspaper’s owner blocked an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, a contentious decision that has engulfed the publication in turmoil.
Robert Greene, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, resigned from his position over billionaire Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision to veto the planned endorsement, he confirmed to CNN. In 2021, Greene won journalism’s most prestigious award for his editorials “on policing, bail reform, prisons and mental health that clearly and holistically examined the Los Angeles criminal justice system.”
In a resignation letter, Greene wrote that he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision to not endorse Harris.
“I recognize that it is the owner’s decision to make,” he wrote. “But it hurt particularly because one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has demonstrated such hostility to principles that are central to journalism-respect for the truth and reverence for democracy.”
Karin Klein, another member of the editorial board, also resigned Thursday in protest. Klein announced her decision in a Facebook post, writing: “I respect the owner’s right to interfere with editorials; that is one place where he ethically can do so.”
This speaks to what I wrote earlier where I mention how providing political cover for convicted felon, Donald Trump, could very easily backfire on the mainstream media. By trying to make Trump look good constantly, voters are being presented a distorted image of who Trump really is. As a result, there might be a greater inclination to vote for Trump as a result. That, in turn, could help enable Trump to win the presidency and unleash is plan of revenge on the mainstream media in the form of stripping broadcasters of their licenses and jailing journalists. The above comments show that there are those working within the mainstream media who basically agree with my sentiment. Thank goodness I’m not alone in having these thoughts.
Of course, when it comes to the blocking of editorial staff from expressing their opinions, the LA times is far from alone. TechDirt is noting that a similar thing is happening with the Washington Post:
If people were legitimately worried about the “weaponization of government” and the idea that companies might silence speech over threats from the White House, what has happened over the past few days should raise alarm bells. But somehow I doubt we’ll be seeing the folks who were screaming bloody murder over the nothingburger that was the Murthy lawsuit saying a word of concern about billionaire media owners stifling the speech of their editorial boards to curry favor with Donald Trump.
In 2017, the Washington Post changed its official slogan to “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
The phrase was apparently a favorite of Bob Woodward, who was one of the main reporters who broke the Watergate story decades ago. Lots of people criticized the slogan at the time (and have continued to do so since then), but no more so than today, as Jeff Bezos apparently stepped in to block the newspaper from endorsing Kamala Harris for President.
An endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers but had yet to be published, according to two people who were briefed on the sequence of events and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The decision to no longer publish presidential endorsements was made by The Post’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to the same two people.
In both cases, though, this sure looks like Trump’s past retaliations and direct promises of future retaliation against all who have challenged him are having a very clear censorial impact. In the last few months Trump has been pretty explicit that, should he win, he intends to punish media properties that reported on him in ways he dislikes. These are all reasons why anyone who believes in free speech should be speaking out about the dangers of Donald Trump towards our most cherished First Amendment rights.
Especially those in the media.
Bezos and Soon-Shiong are acting like cowards. Rather than standing up and doing what’s right, they’re pre-caving, before the election has even happened. It’s weak and pathetic, and Trump will see it (accurately) to mean that he can continue to walk all over them, and continue to get the media to pull punches by threatening retaliation.
If democracy dies in darkness, it’s because Bezos and Soon-Shiong helped turn off the light they were carrying.
This is far from the only time I’ve seen people being silenced in the mainstream media. In 2022, I’ve seen editorials on then called Bill C-18 getting spiked. The crime that the editorial was committing was that those editorials were either critical of the link tax bill at the time or that they acknowledge that the legislation won’t cure all that ails the industry even if they are generally supportive of the idea. Reality, of course, didn’t care and the link tax ended in complete and utter failure anyway, but what happened to anyone expressing concerns about this debate really showed just how much control mainstream media has on the voices that grace their pages. If they see something they don’t personally like, it gets the axe because contrarian opinions aren’t welcome in many of those establishments.
The resignations going on in the US really took what we saw in 2022 to a whole new level of corruption. People who work in the industry see the threat Trump poses to their very livelihoods. The fact that the organizations, or at the very least, their owners, are silencing those voices ahead of the election further speaks to the state mainstream media finds themselves today.
It’s also worth pointing out that resigning a high profile position in the establishment media at a time when the industry is experiencing massive bankruptcies and consolidation is, in and of itself, an act of bravery – especially given the manner in which those resignations happened. As I’ve learned the hard way, trying to build a news site is not easy. Even with high quality writing that easily trounces most media outlets today, there’s nothing to assure you that good quality content is enough to allow you to make a living off of your work. After all, a lot has changed on the internet since the early 2000’s when high quality writing was more than enough to get attention online. The phrase “content is king” has largely died since those good times. Still, those journalists will likely have celebrity status aiding them, so maybe that will be enough if they choose to go it on their own in the future.
Either way, this is just the latest sign that things have really deteriorated within the mainstream media. Nothing short of a complete and thorough overhaul is going to right that ship. Given how the business works these days, though, that is unlikely to happen with the largest players today.
