Professional journalism as critical democratic infrastructure

By now it is clear that professional journalism (PJ) and the MSM (mainstream media) generally are failing and collapsing. Under MAGA authoritarianism and corruption, PJ is inherently and unavoidably inimical to and incompatible with unregulated capitalism. Even NPR and PBS have capitulated to threats by Trump and elite MAGA authoritarians. Nearly all current MSM reporting about Trump and MAGA authoritarianism and corruption is shallow and timid. MSM reporting focuses mostly on procedural trivia. That avoids even mentioning the ghastly adverse impacts on democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and profound corruption that now runs rampant in the federal government and commerce. 

The MSM makes itself look like its doing serious reporting by deflecting to trivia. But to a large extent, the MSM is not what it tries to make itself look like. American PJ is now a lot more mirage than reality.

The main culprit driving the collapse of the MSM is corporate and investor ownership spurred on by the routinely ruthless, cruel and immoral profit motive. Money and power talks while everything else walks, including pluralistic morality and honesty. 

Capitalism has its own set of moral vales. They are called the profit motive.

What about democracy and the rule of law?

It is definitely time to see PJ for what it can be, and arguably what it is supposed to be but isn't. It is critical democracy infrastructure.[1] It cannot fulfil its function if it is trapped and subdued by the profit motive. Many times here, I've asserted that facts, true truth and sound reasoning are almost always inherently and intractably incompatible with unregulated capitalism. The moral logic is simple.

When a society is deceived or kept ignorant of the information and reasoning they need to be aware of for self-governance, their power to decide their own fate on the basis of facts, true truths and sound reasoning has been taken from them by those to deceive and hide information that is inconvenient to themselves. That is the epitome of authoritarianism. It is anti-democratic behavior, pure and simple.

That is why tyrants, demagogues, theocrats, oligarchs, dictators, and kleptocrats all hate PJ. They hate it. They all want to neuter PJ and make it shut up. That is historical and current fact, not opinion.  

If one accepts that analysis as basically true, then it it easy to see the argument that PJ is critical infrastructure democracy needs to fend off authoritarianism. This is not remotely close to rocket science. It is simple, rational thinking based on a few key facts. Middle school-level stuff, unless one is deceived and manipulated. For the deceived and manipulated, it is rocket science.

What, if anything, can be done?

Right now with MAGA authoritarianism and demagoguery in power and control, nothing can be done to protect PJ. Complicit and/or supportive corporate ownership will made damned sure that the MSM will continue to weaken and fade as a pro-democracy institution. In time MAGA and authoritarianism will convert what is left of PJ and the MSM into pro-authoritarian, pro-corruption demagoguery sources just like Fox News has been for years.

In a hypothetical better world, most Americans could come to see that PJ and themselves being less deceived and manipulated are critically necessary for defense of democracy. People acting on their own cannot gather the information they need to self-govern. They must rely on trustworthy PJ. Right now, that is politically impossible for too many people. MAGA demagoguery and irrational emotional manipulation had captured and hold the minds of tens of millions of Americans. Those minds have empowered the rise of deeply corrupt American authoritarianism.

As long as the price of groceries and rent stay low enough, Americans probably will choose to keep deeply corrupt American authoritarianism in power. In politics, people vote what they perceives as their interests, even if what they perceive is a demagogic mirage. Many simply don't vote on the basis of abstractions like democracy, the rule of law or civil liberties.

In the hypothetical better world, our government would support and protect PJ and its defense of facts, true truths and sound reasoning, which amounts to a defense of democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties. Sadly, in our actual real world our government is now a bitter enemy of PJ. A hypothetical moral government would treat PJ as critical infrastructure for democracy. At the moment, our government is an opposite immoral beast.

A hypothetical better world where government treats journalism as infrastructure does exist. Sweden and other Nordic countries fund public media through dedicated taxes handled separately from annual budgets. There are arms-length buffers protecting editorial PJ independence from political pressure, unlike what has happened in the US. Research shows publicly funded journalism sometimes is more aggressive (and this) in covering government than commercial counterparts. It is also more accountable to communities than to shareholders.

 

Footnote:

1. Research solidly supports the assertion (and this) that professional journalism is critical democratic infrastructure. The relationship between journalism and democratic health is now one of the most empirically robust findings in media studies: local newspaper closures correlate with lower voter turnout, reduced civic engagement, higher municipal borrowing costs (indicating less accountability), and increased political polarization. Scholars explicitly frame PJ as essential democratic infrastructure that cannot function properly under pure market logic, i.e., the profit motive.

Claims that tyrants, oligarchs, theocrats, and authoritarians generally target PJ is historical and current fact (and this). The authoritarian playbook across Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Philippines, and the US follows a consistent pattern. They buy up independent media through allies, redirect state advertising to compliant outlets, and use libel laws and licensing threats to silence critics, imprison journalists, and create legal frameworks that criminalize dissent.