WaPo posted this op ed this morning,
Journalists also have an obligation to fix democracy:
Journalism professor and media critic
Jay Rosen observes that “the incremental coverage, the focus on the inside game, the notion of tactics and strategy, and the joining up of the political class with the information junkies” does little to inform voters about major pieces of legislation. We get nonstop coverage of the “sausage making” but little about the content of bills that cost trillions. We hear incessant chatter about the filibuster but little examination of Senate Democrats’ compromise voting-rights plan, while Republicans are rarely grilled as to the basis for their objections to common-sense measures (e.g. enhancing penalties for threats to election officials, requiring a paper audit trail, limiting wait times to 30 minutes).
This style of political coverage reduces critical issues of the day to sporting events and celebrity gossip. “
Is the president angry with senators?” The answer is irrelevant, and the question is designed to create a nonsensical sound bite (
the White House denies he is angry) rather than analysis of the substance of disputes. In the current political environment,
the media’s process obsession obscures the lunacy of an increasingly unhinged right and its lack of policy answers on much of anything.
The media avoid pressing Republicans on matters of substance, so the expectation that they take legislating seriously dwindles. Instead, coverage of Republicans focuses almost exclusively on their latest cultural meme. The media wind up spreading concocted issues designed to anger, distract and, frankly, mislead the public about the condition of the country. We get far more coverage of Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s inane attack on Big Bird and Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s riff on masculinity (as if either topic had to do with their jobs as U.S. senators) than we do on the benefits their constituents would derive from Biden’s agenda, which they oppose. Do these senators ever get queried about their own policy ideas for reducing inflation, reducing inequality or enhancing competition?
In place of clear and accurate descriptions of GOP gambits (“voting suppression”) we get mealy-mouthed phrases (“voting changes” or “strict rules of voting”) that obscure what they are up to. Instead of emphatic debunkings we get praise for the cleverness of the GOP in forcing the Democrats to talk about a nonexistent problems (e.g. critical race theory in K-12). At times the media’s assistance in spreading GOP insults is downright cringeworthy, as when
Peter Alexander quizzed the White House press secretary about a MAGA chant and asked if Biden had failed to lower the political temperature.
I'd be incredibly surprised if even the smartest of the current GOP could come up with a cogent platform (in other words, if they say "to defeat communism," also providing a cogent, *correct* explanation - instead of just dropping a spooky soundbite to emotionally charge the base into loyal agreement). It seems to be primarily "PwN tHe LeFt."
On the other hand, more reputable sources of media need to focus on the signal/block out the noise more. And start getting input from the sane conservatives about how they are not answering questions for actual conservative points of view.
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