Paul Farhi, writing in the
Last week, I spoke with seven reporters for a story about the formation of a press pool — effectively, an information-sharing cooperative — to cover Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. Two of the seven reporters were initially reluctant to speak at all and had to be coaxed into doing so with the usual promises of anonymity. Five of the seven eventually spoke only “on background,” meaning their names would not be used in the story. In this, they were no more accommodating than a representative from the campaign, who also would only agree to speak on background.That the news media has an overblown sense of its own importance and ethical purity should come as no news to anyone who has watched or read media in the last, oh, 40 years. We've cataloged a tiny sample of the corporate media's unwarranted egoism, sensationalism and self-serving hypocrisy in our short time in the blogosphere: the focus on the trivial, the "both- sides- do- it" lack of integrity, the feeding frenzies (recall the 24/ 7 Ebola coverage? Malaysian Flight mh370? Benghazi!!!?, etc.) and, most egregious of all, ignoring the biggest American political story of the last half-century - the radicalization of the Republican Party.
Well, at least one traditional media outlet is finally getting around to noticing the disturbing trend that its brethren are blissfully ignoring. Nina Burleigh in Newsweek.com writes in "How Timothy McVeigh's Ideals Entered the Mainstream":
Tarso Ramos, executive director of Political Research Associates, which tracks right-wing extremism, says these and other formerly fringe ideas mainstreamed after McVeigh’s assault—just not right away. “The Oklahoma City bombing had a sobering effect for a while,” he says. “Then, with the election of Obama, you get a whole new wave of Patriot activity and a new variant of conspiracy-ism, including the birther stuff and the idea that Obama is an agent of powerful elites.”
She goes through all the manifestations of the current right-wing Republican lunacy, from Agenda 21 conspiracy theories, to nullification, to gun proliferation, and more. This is the swamp that the Republican base lives in and that Republican politicians live in and/ or pander to. If that swamp's ever to be drained, we need a media that is willing to face up to hard realities and, more often than not, bite the corporate hand that's feeding it. Obsessing and whining about how they're not being treated as "players" or lapping up Reince "Prepuce" Priebus' talking points on the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's e-mails isn't ever going to get that job done.The surge in fringe activism was so dramatic after Obama’s election that the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning in 2009 predicting that right-wing extremists would multiply and “the consequences of their violence [could be] more severe.” The report was withdrawn after a conservative outcry.
