The Media Fails Again

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(Tom Toles, Washington Post)

Here's an excerpt from Variety's Sonia Saraiya's article on media organizations' (notably cable news) eagerness to turn the c.y.a. Comey letter into the "game changer" of this election, and how it reflects on them:

That has not stopped media organizations, in the full flush of pre-election coverage, to make this some kind of “October surprise” for the Clinton campaign, seizing on it as a turning point in the narrative of election 2016. And due to the confluence of Comey’s inept attempt at transparency and the media’s appetite for inflated controversy, Comey’s letter has had the effect of lighter fluid on the finally cooling embers of a house fire.  [snip] 

In lieu of actual reportage, cable news — which always needs material to fill its 24-hour mandate — has had to fall back on hours on end of pure speculation. Comey said, in his internal memo, that he was trying to be careful in how he disseminated this information on the eve of an acrimonious election. But he does not seem to have understood that in this era of constant news he created a perfect storm for confusion, misinformation, and — in some sectors — unhinged conspiracy. There is an appalling disconnect on cable news between what has actually been said and what is being implied or perceived, and it is doubling back on itself and expanding. As CNN airs an entire Trump rally in which he conflates Clinton’s corruption, Weiner’s sexting, and aide Huma Abedin’s religion as part of the same web of purported lies — adding, wildly, that he hopes Abedin was not promised immunity — MSNBC features panicked comments from DNC chair Donna Brazile and handwringing speculation over how the campaign is coping. It’s difficult to even isolate individual instances from the major networks that are indicative of how distorted cable news’ perspective is, because it is as much about tone and coverage time as it is about content. How many multi-head panels can the major networks field, most of whom are circling the same two or three questions of trustworthiness and judgment, before it begins to feel like freaking out has become the primary pastime of the news media? [snip] 

... But 10 days away from the resolution of this election, one way or another, the news media is demonstrating serious weakness with reporting uncertainty and ambiguity. At the risk of sounding too naïve about the role of truth in journalism, it would be appreciated if clarity were prized over controversy. But then again, this election has been defined by the breakdown of our best intentions in the Byzantine political-media complex, where time must be filled, takes must be filed, and we as a nation have struggled to wholly apprehend what we have become.

We've noted many, many times how our amoral corporate news media operates.  It traffics in gossip. It peddles lies and disinformation in the guise of "balance" and "impartiality." It creates narratives and then finds whatever nonsense it can to feed those narratives.  It places profit and audience share over its responsibilities to not do further damage to an increasingly fragile democracy.  Seven days to go to an election with existential implications for our country, and the corporate media is once again choosing "inflated controversy" over truth and clarity. We won't forget.

BONUS:  Even the "liberal" New York Effing Times is engaging in this distortion.

BONUS II:  Charles Pierce on our elite media twisting history into a pretzel.