We are the ones in denial if we think there is still such a thing as a free press.

suck

The Telecommunications Act into law?

Same as the new boss.

republican president ever.

That damn fascist.

Most of the media in this country.

they are a platform for this Administration.

NBC, ABC & CBS are all just "loss-leaders" for massive corporations, which are owned by the richest of the rich. Corporations, BY LAW, have to prioritize the pocketbooks of their shareholders. There is ZERO incentive to "speak truth to power."
Journalism, as understood by the founders cannot be practiced in that environment.

than the editors and higher ups, though most reporters haven't exactly covered themselves in glory either. They need to maintain their almighty access, is the usual explanation.

Still it's the big picture that most media outlets are falling down on.

Reporters don't need access to report on the reality we see every day in plain sight.

many people here were screaming an alarm that we were on the verge of a dictatorship, and many of us were called "doom and gloomers.

Congressional Democrats are the minority, I get it, but they can sway pubic opinion, including swaying Magat public opinion.

Hold an event and invite the victims of Maxwell/Epstein who want to participate, invite the families of victims, invite the lawyers for the victims, invite the prosecutors of Epstein/Maxwell. (c'mon Comey you can come too)

Don't tell me the MSM won't cover that event, the victims deserve and demand an event like this happen or Epstein Gate will fade away.

The monster Maxwell is living in a country club for crying out loud. Did the head of the federal bureau of prisons ever give the reasons for moving her?

Do something besides sending stern letters, the letters were necessary but let's follow up on them.

It will take a public event like this to take back the narrative and show the victims, show the country, that the Democratic party is fighting to expose the Epstein/Maxwell sex trafficking while the Republican has become the party that protects pedophiles.

This is what I call Democrats fighting. I will donate money to an event like this if you need it.

I fear the old guard who live in a Washington bubble, are either shell shocked, or just too stuck in their ways to even move. Or approve any out-of-the-box ideas. They are crouched down in a state of paralysis until the 2026 mid-terms where they think a blue wave will make them relevant again. And they can continue to pretend its all just simple politics. Schumer can get back to his bicycle gym routine next to his Republican buddies and work his magic.

There are even reports that that old guard wants Democrats to stop talking about Epstein. Focus on the issues. They just don't get it. In today's social media hyped world, that is the door you can open to destabilize the opposition so that THEN you open the window to enlighten folks about the issues that are important to everyone

Make a sensationalist production. What Newsom is doing is great. But why not even more Democrats mocking Trump like that? Trump makes a new headline every day. We should be as well. Cowering in the corner hoping that the election process even is running fairly in 2026 is a fools quest

The media contributed to the return of the fascist Trump to power – by treating him as a legitimate candidate and failing to denounce him as unfit to hold any public office.

THEY ARE ENABLERS

The same ones that Trump is giving tax breaks to?

And whose side are they on?

He's still writing stern and concerned oped pieces.

Some of the responses are disheartening with their nitpicking of one or two words, sometimes very rudely, and often without offering anything constructive beyond howling at the wind.

Which violates the T O S of this site.

But we can't depend on the media alone.

The lies told by the traitors at Fox, OSN and the rest are what's hurting America. And despite the social media rants, there are people in the media working very hard to show what Trump is doing. It's there if you take the time to look for it.

I'll take MSNBC, CNN and AP over any of those right-wing dirtbags.

And a word to the wise: Opinion pieces are one person's opinion. They don't represent the whole media, just themselves. That's why for the most part I ignore the pundits. So many of them are in it for themselves and the money. The ones that ask you to subscribe in every other sentence aren't there for you, that's for sure.

Anything legal (and a few things that aren't) are fair game in a free market. Carrying water for the Gestapo may not bring a person pride or a sense of accomplishment, but it does get a ton of views in first hour and puts the newest Smart Gegaw 3.1 in our pockets. Priorities, man. Priorities.

Accuracy and objectivity do not require sponsor or commercial breaks, for-profits do.

Dan Rather is one. Rachel Maddow is another. So are Chris Hayes and Laurence O'Donnell.

But the real fault here is not the media but the Congress. The fact we don't have majority rule in both houses -- and I go along with others who say Trump messed with the election -- really ties our hands. I'm very glad to see Gavin Newsome throttling Trump -- I hope he runs for president -- but other Democrats are speaking out too.

If you want to blame the media, blame the young, inexperienced members. Their writing and reporting style leaves a lot to be desired. It was much better in the days when I was working at a daily paper (for over 30 years, if you must ask.) The senior members of the media have been through this before with Nixon. What few that are left are speaking out. (Again, Dan Rather.)

And when the election comes around next year, we need everyone to vote against Trump and the Republicans. Don't let them separate us like they did in 2024. And every one of you who stupidly stayed away from the booth in 2024 better get your asses out to vote this time. Especially you younger voters.

The voters are the ones who lost the election, not the media.

Rachel Maddow is a commentator on a cable news channel ("top"? Not really. Or it wouldn't be rebranding as the awful "MS NOW" ), not a reporter (the article does note her saying the right thing - "MSNBC host", as it calls her - and says she's worth watching); so are Hayes and O'Donnell. The article is complaining about "newsrooms" and "news organizations".

They have given him free advertising for many years. They have badgered about President Biden's mental and physical health while ignoring tRump's. The media hasn't stood up to tRump at all.

I was concerned recently to see that one of the few media figures I trust and respect: Yasha Levine seems to be having an existential crisis.

And is even talking about going to med school. That alarmed me. We already have honest doctors and scientists. It’s honest journalists -that too ones specifically dissecting this media environment-who are missing.

If it is not directly like being Reporters without Borders-it’s no less important. What should be absurdities seem to having a disproportionate real world impact. Just logging off alone won’t stop that without someone (like Yasha or Evgenia) addressing it.

I wouldn’t bother with fawning on a media figure if I didn’t consider their work important. (well it’s hard to not like Yasha-he is a good man. But in our shallow social media fueled heart and love and like saturated culture I have become reflexively wary of having anything serious denigrated by superficiality. I remember when i had to write a rec for my postdoc mentor I deliberately tried to sound as dispassionate as possible though he was one of the rare people who roused me to something almost enthusiasm adjacent).

I don’t post Yasha’s stuff here because it could violate TOS. Not because Yasha is a Trumper or anything. But he is pretty independent and a journalist. He really doesn’t spare anyone and is not very bullshit friendly.

I respect DU’s TOS and in a one party state like the US understand where the admins are coming from.
But after the election EarlG wrote that its gaming of algorithms that’s shifting society steadily rightward and it’s tied to the stuff Yasha works on related to these technologies.

It’s never going to be a pleasant job. But it’s nothing like being whatever the hell an influencer is. It’s just that he won’t be hired by what passes for the media.

Yasha is never going to not be independent. But he gets so much and I have a lot of faith in him and I was alarmed to see him start to have self-doubt.

He is one of the few honest and disinterested voices out there and he needn’t worry that he will become a “sell-out”. I don’t think he can.

I have seen self-doubt in scientists and doctors too and feel impatient and exasperated a bit.
The last thing you want is have the few remaining people who are sources of trust give up.

I have self doubt all the time because it’s entirely valid and not some sort of out of control imposter syndrome. I really barely pass many tests beyond basic self awareness as a professional. It’s why I sneer at authenticity and stuff that is all about people’s opinions and disconnected from any objective reality.

People’s opinions don’t count for shit (well okay I didn’t mean to put it quite like that). Objective realities count and the things that are making them spuriously harder to find consensus around are worth inspecting..

You can’t “game” objective realities..still it is true that this is rough world..

But it is not a good sign when the remaining adults and honest and functional people start falling prey to ridiculous notions like they are part of the system.

I respect that and all. It’s part of what makes people sources of trust. But if everyone gives up then the rest of us are stuck with only with these creeps. And the creeps are good at manipulating anxieties people have over being human.

I am worried that as society becomes more unequal it will be the best people who continue to be picked off-due to their own internal quandaries and conscience etc while the truly shameless or brainless will be fine. That’s not helpful.

I don’t know where that line is but it definitely is very far from Yasha or most scientists and doctors etc.

I keep hoping everyone decent who is still managing continues to do so.

It isn’t the time for: The Best Lack All Conviction While the Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity

One problem with seeing everything from Trump to ChatGPT be confidently wrong all the time is that it makes people who at least think about stuff like that more dubious about their own bs.
If you are human you will have some bs about you and in this hyper surveilled reality, it will disproportionately affect the least shameless and least overconfident people.

And as much as I wish the internet was less of a presence in our lives, when it is, at its best it has people like Yasha and Evgenia. So I hope they continue their work.

In my experience, science, education and medicine are some of the few honest professions out there and in science and medicine at least it’s not very political. All said and done the training that makes you uncomfortable with lies has an effect.
But journalism isn’t like that apparently and it is showing..

They are complicit