Journalists need to acknowledge this reality. Trumpism is not a passing fad in an otherwise responsible GOP electorate. It’s all that’s left of a Republican Party that long since gave up any pretense at serious governance and instead became the unapologetic, Koch-owned plutocratic political arm of the resentment-fueled outrage machine created by talk radio, Fox News, and Breitbart. [snip]
Good journalism shouldn’t continue to pretend that both partisan sides of American politics are equally extreme, and that the best public policy lies in middle-of-the-road compromise between the two. Good journalism should analyze and expose the fact that we now have a unilateral problem centered in the Republican Party, and try to figure out how to keep Americans adequately informed of that so that we can right the ship before it’s too late.Unfortunately, in our humble opinion, "good journalism" in America hasn't existed for years, nor will it reappear. It's been superseded by a scramble for the sensational, for eyeballs on screens and page hits, and a necessity not to be seen as "favoring" one side of a political argument over another. If journalism "is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information," what passes for a news media in this country has long since largely abandoned the "assessing... information" element in favor of regurgitating "he said, she said" talking points.
There will always be charlatans and demagogues in political life; it's just a sad, and potentially tragic, commentary that the one institution that can help "right the ship" has been helping to steer the ship into the rocks.
BONUS: Here's a sample of the treacherous filth these demagogues are putting out, with no pushback.
