As I have written elsewhere, media personalities are not our friends. They are mostly risk-averse cowards, largely afraid to buck the slanted talking points that are sure to get their bosses’ chosen candidate elected.
Noam Chomsky (putting aside where you stand on his politics) wrote ( along with Edward S Herman) about the complicity of the media in promoting the interests of power in a crucial book from 1988 called “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.” That book more or less suggests what we sort of take for granted now, which is, the media sets the parameters of discussion— certain topics are Verboten and are to be downplayed. Self-censorship-- an innate reflex to please the boss-- is the order of the day for journalists. Yes-men and lackeys generally prevail in this environment. It is only different in degree from stations like Fox-News, RT, and whatever the current state run whack-job media is in Russia right now.
But, with the current Biden story, the almost lurid glee with which the media ghouls are piling on, should tell you something about the degree to which media mouthpieces care ( or even understand) about the looming threat to democracy.
We have a convicted rapist and fraudster, spouting violent rhetoric and paranoid gibberish that would probably make Hitler raise an eyebrow; a SCOTUS decision ( of many consequential decisions) that is a direct assault on the foundations of our very Republic, and a fascist power point ( Project 2025) on how to start the 4TH Reich, and we are still discussing, ad nauseam, whether Biden can do the job he has been already doing for the last 3/1half years, while pining for a slick younger candidate?
The more we feed into the narrative that Biden can’t do the job, the quicker we will immolate ourselves. I know there are well-meaning people who believe he needs to be replaced, but we are at Defcon 4, and pretending we can re-litigate the primary season in time is pure lunacy. Though I am sure it would make for an excellent TV spectacle of an imploding political party.
One thing we can do to keep the media and our elected officials honest, is to contact them directly, and tell them their will be monetary and electoral consequences to this continued complicity in fascism….
