Regarding the mainstream media, and its failures and constraints

Context

Accumulating evidence points to a MSM (mainstream media) that is increasingly weak, subverted and incompetent in keeping the public reasonably informed. The post here yesterday focused on that reality. As used here, the MSM means reasonably professional news and analysis outlets like the NYT, WaPo, Reuters, AP, BBC, and the like. Reasonably professional, not perfect or even stellar. Just reasonable.

As conceptualized here, the MSM does not refer to sources like Fox News, The Federalist, Town Hall or other MAGA demagoguery outlets. Years ago, those place were subverted into partisan demagoguery and propaganda outlets for American authoritarianism (dictatorship, Christian nationalist theocracy and oligarchy).

Public opinion is deeply divided over those definitions and assertions. For the most part, the MAGAland rank and file firmly believes that the sources I call the MSM are corrupt, authoritarian radical left demagoguery and lies sources. They also firmly believe that MAGA demagoguery news and commentary sources are the truth tellers. In those MAGA minds, my definitions make me a radical left demagogue and liar. Such is the inescapable nature of humans doing politics.

Obviously, the vast differences between the two perceptions of reality are bitterly contested, vast and not reconcilable. They're not reconcilable mostly because authoritarianism does not compromise when circumstances do not force it to at least some degree of compromise. Reasonable compromise is a trait of democracy, not an authoritarian trait.

The frightening current anti-democracy reality

Under current political conditions, one can reasonably treat MSM outlets as at most as sources of raw material (documents, quotes, on‑the‑record claims, empirical facts), but not as trustworthy framers of facts, reasoning, implications or explanations. In recent years, the basis for trust in the MSM has been mostly destroyed. But to be honest and transparent, one must acknowledge historical facts. There has never been a time in colonial or American history when the press was completely trustworthy, at least from the perspective of the public interest. Special interest points of view present a different analysis.

In recent years what pushed the status of the MSM from reasonably trustworthy to not? The main sources of anti-truth, anti-rationality, and anti-democracy framing that push against reporting and commentary about truth, rationality and democracy are probably obvious to most people who pay reasonable attention.

First and foremost is the profit motive. Investors and owners of corporations that own MSM sources are under constant, relentless pressure for more profit. The profit motive never goes away. It does not care about democracy, authoritarianism, truth, lies, good, evil or anything else. It cares about itself and only itself. Pro-profit ideologues and propagandists tell us that they are on our side. They strenuously argue that the profit motive is moral and good. And, we are told that very forcefully, very often. But, that propaganda is simply not true.

So, the MSM is forced to report, analyze, and comment through a lens that protects profit. That's just a matter of fact in a capitalist system. News, analysis and commentary are all influenced to soften adverse impacts on revenues and profits. MSM outlets that offend big advertisers, lose ad revenue and ad profit. That is common sense, not rocket science or even high school biology. Newsroom cuts and audience‑chasing algorithms prioritize conflict and novelty over structural analysis. Investigative capacity has shrunk because slow‑burn accountability stories don’t drive enough ad revenue.

The second big factor is direct threats and attacks by MAGA authoritarianism and MAGA elites including Trump. Trump filed a $15 billion lawsuit against the NYT for alleged defamation. The lawsuit was frivolous but nonetheless profoundly threatening to the NYT. For years, MAGA elites have been asking our authoritarian MAGA USSC chooses to lower the evidence standards that public officials have to meet to prove defamation in court. If this USSC finally does choose to lower the evidence standard, what is left of the MSM will either be completely destroyed, or more likely neutered to the point of being akin to the non-MAGA news and commentary sources mentioned above.

Other minor factors are in play to weaken the MSM, but the bottom line is this: Anger and frustration with the MSM and its failures are rational. The best that pro-democracy citizens can do is to use that emotion as a guide. One must understand that the MSM has serious structural conflicts that mitigate against telling the whole truth. A person has to extract what the MSM still provides, namely the raw material. People of good will have to either interpret the raw material for themselves or trust sources to interpret it for them.

Points for consideration

Gathering and interpreting news is complicated and time consuming. Most people cannot or will not do that. Most people generally rely on news sources, not their own analyses, on occasions when they do pay attention. Poll data supports the claim that trust has been “mostly destroyed” among large segments of the population, with Republican trust in MSM outlets falling to single digits. However, human susceptibility to deceit, and emotional manipulation (demagoguery) is a deep, species‑level vulnerability, not something unique to this moment or MAGA and its demagoguery. We have been here before.

One question is to what extent, if any, has the failure of the MSM this time worse than at times in the past? Another is what are the odds of democracy, the rule of law and our civil liberties surviving the current kleptocratic authoritarian MAGA threat, and to what extent does (1) the current state of collapse of the MSM, and (2) the non-MSM such as Fox News, contribute to the threat?