Taibbi: The News Media Is Destroying Itself

This is right on target, and my biggest beef with all these critiques of "the media," Alma's kvetching in particular. The problem isn't really, truly on the left, or the mainstream (again there *are* problems there, they're just a drop in the bucket compared to a fire hose), but that's the way to get attention, that's the way to seem *interesting* and get people to engage with you on some level of good faith, so that's what critiques focus on. We have a fucking crime syndicate inside our government that's propped up by an Australian billionaire's whims and Taibbi is here wagging his finger at Twitter randos from the Intercept, pretending they're the serious problem.

Every critique of left-center media doesn't need to include a disclaimer — Of course the right is horrible, but that's boring! — but it would be nice if people would engage in some intellectual honesty instead of treating it like an academic exercise. Candace Owens' lies get and Ben Shapiro's dishonesty get megablasted around the universe in the time it takes James Bennett to put his pants on. An arsonist is burning down your house but sure let's spend a lot of time and energy talking about people on the left are the real hypocrites for smoking cigarettes.

 

Comparing the power of Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro to that of the world's greatest news-gathering organization, The New York Times, is extremely and unfairly flattering to Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro.

The Intercept is an underdog and, yes, kind of a scrappy outfit that moves with the winds of social media. Maybe the Twitter mob would have gotten all over that site if Fang hadn't fallen on his sword. The NYT is not in the least. The NYT can tell 1,000 wounded unsubscribers to kiss their ass, since they'll be back next week or next month. What happened at the NYT - just like transcript leaks of staff meetings - is something between a purge and a coup, and it's a massive chilling effect on an extraordinary group of journalists who may very well have to ask themselves: If I pursue a story that hurts the Left's cause, will some of my colleagues try to get me fired?

If Taibbi made an error in the piece, it was leading with Fang. I'd have tucked Fang in last, as a personal story as a kicker. Lead with the monolith. But Taibbi sees himself as a scrappy underdog, and led with, essentially, himself.

 

Now do Fox News. Think that's somewhat powerful? How about Medal of Freedom winner/draft dodger Rush Limbaugh and the rest of talk radio?
The ideological imbalance in The Media as a whole has undergone a considerable correction. It explains not only how Trump got elected but how he has managed to remain in office. Nixon never had Fox News, and his crimes aren't anywhere near what Trump has managed to pull off.
If we're going to talk about the ills of The Media and the power it enjoys, it's hard to come up with any greater indictment than the installation and continued presence of the current POTUS. "The Media doesn't hold the left accountable for protests that spread the virus" doesn't stand up as a threat to democracy when compared to the damage that Fox News et al have done to this country.

 

Fox News is pernicious.

 

Yes, blame Fox. Goddamn Fox.

 

#RIPTacoBell lol

 

Not sure what this is meant to be an example of.

 

I think it's from the leftist media Twitterati movement that Taibbi had no right to insult because daggumit, he didn't insult the Foxian right.

 

but it's not a journalism thing

 

You're not paying attention. None of what it said here is represented by anything I've said about Taibbi, who I've said twice now wrote a piece I largely agree with.

 

I'm not?

You fucking wrote this:

We have a fucking crime syndicate inside our government that's propped up by an Australian billionaire's whims and Taibbi is here wagging his finger at Twitter randos from the Intercept, pretending they're the serious problem.​

But yeah, not paying attention.

 

I know you're very sensitive about anything you perceive as criticism directed at Taibbi, so I can see why this is difficult to process nuance. Taibbi can be both correct in this instance, and completely missing the bigger, more important point, because he knows that won't get him traction with people like you and Alma if he focuses on the thing that's truly damaging our country. Not a lot of "likes" in that line of work.