If this were a healthy democracy, we would have a press corps that would put a spotlight on what is real and not “both sides” everything while focusing on the horse race instead of the consequences of the election.
Oh, I don’t know about that one. The job of the press corp is to report, not to speculate. This is one of the problems we have now, there’s far too much opinion and speculation in the “news” media. I have to use quotes for news because what most Americans choose to observe as the news today is a shell of what it once was. The call should be for less speculation and more unbiased reporting and interviews for both sides.
Incidentally, since I was a kid, I’ve always thought the news and government leaders have failed to educate the people about policy and intents. This seems to be where speculative and opinion based journalism have taken seat.
That the media are focused on Biden‘s age, while ignoring Trump’s infirmities is absolutely maddening.
Agreed. Because (again) “the news” doesn’t so much care about their responsibility as the fourth pillar of democracy but about their responsibility to advertisers and share holders. Trump and fear have always been the Big Stories that generate ad revenue.
As James Fallows pointed out, in the New York Times there were headlines on Super Tuesday’s outcomes that Trump romped and Biden has trouble while Biden got a significantly higher percentage of votes than did Trump, which tells us all too much about media bias.
I mean, he is the incumbent president. Does anyone even know who’s running against him in a primary? No. because the media isn’t reporting that (enough).
I’m honestly a little more distraught about what the press has become than four more years of Trump. It’s in large part because of the press and media outlets pretending to be news that we have Trump in the first place.
Although, I do blame The Public’s lack of interest and attention more so. People just don’t care to watch actual news. They only care about headlines and short video clips and thriving in their echo chambers. So, as much as I’d love more federal funding for non-profit journalism, that’s not going to overcome our disinterest in real unbiased reporting and interviewing.
I think the future of this country is very, very dismal. The polarization of politics can only get worse as we hand over all our Power of The People to social media and content makers and (eventually) AI – unless we adopt Ranked Choice Voting. RCV could very well reduce the polarization and extremism on both sides of the aisle while (eventually) cultivating a congress that works together to enact legislation making this country more representative of The People. As would public funding of all elections and regulating the power of special interest groups in DC.