About the failing MSM: Why it accords Trump too much deference

It's probably no mystery to many people as to why the MSM continues to accord Trump far more deference than warranted by his track record of moral rot, lying and secrecy. The MSM is scared. Owners need to protect their investments and revenue streams. Truth is secondary to profits. 

That reflects a core point of antagonism between capitalism and democracy. With capitalism, profit trumps politics, including democracy. Capitalist sacrifices to defend democracy are, as Milty Friedman might have remarked, subversive and not to be encouraged. Capitalism and high quality professional reporting are often not compatible with each other. Money talks, inconvenient news walks.

MSM headlines tend to say it all. For example, The Hill: Trump’s MRI scan raises specter of secrecy in presidential health. Raises the specter of secrecy? That horse got out of the barn years ago. That headline should read: Trump withholds his MRI scan from the public. That gets right to the point.

Given his track record of secrecy, including lying about and hiding his health condition, untainted professional news reporting would to call out the secrecy and let Trump prove otherwise, e.g., by showing his genuine, verified, unaltered MRI scan. 

Or he can easily show his still secret tax returns. Remember the tax returns he promised to show us? They're still "being audited". Also, pigs can fly. Pigs with lipstick are sexy. Etc.

Yabbut, pigs really can fly!

But defaulting to truth just ain't how the MSM works any more, at least when the truth is inconvenient for Trump or MAGA elites. MSM owners are scared. They don't want to irritate Trump or alienate rank, file MAGA people or advertisers with messy, cognitive dissonance-generating inconvenient truth. Inconvenient truth just ain't good for business.

So, professional reporting and commentary standards have been adjusted to serve the profit motive. The MSM loves its euphemisms (“falsehoods,” “misstatements”) to avoid truth such as “lies”, “racist”, “authoritarian” or “corrupt,” even in cases where evidence is overwhelming. 

The money before truth reality is a democracy killer. One expert, Yale historian Timothy Snyder, characterized the MSM's both-sidesism (false balancing) as "suicide for democracy". He asserts that when journalists insist** on finding middle ground between truth and lies, "you are always going to give the people who want to overthrow the system an advantage".

** Actually it isn't only journalists who insist. It's also corporate owners and advertisers who demand. 

Pigs in blankets