In light of the latest spectacle of media/ Donald "Rump" Trump interactions (see post below), there's an interesting open letter to U.S. journalists by Russian journalist Alexey Kovalev in Medium.com (h/t Raw Story). Kovalev makes the following main points, where he draws parallels from his experience with Russian autocrat Vladimir "Vlad the Invader" Putin to the emerging American autocrat Rump, and offers his condolences for what the American press is going to experience. Here are excerpts:
"Welcome to the era of bullshit.
Facts don’t matter. You can’t hurt this man with facts or reason. He’ll always outmaneuver you. He’ll always wriggle out of whatever carefully crafted verbal trap you lay for him. Whatever he says, you won’t be able to challenge him...Don’t expect any camaraderie.
These people are not your partners or brothers in arms. They are your rivals in a fiercely competitive, crashing market and right now the only currency in this market is whatever that man on the stage says. Whoever is lucky to ask a question and be the first to transmit the answer to the outside world wins. Don’t expect any solidarity or support from them...Expect a lot of sycophancy and softballs from your “colleagues”
...There will be people from publications that exist for no other reason than heaping fawning praise on him and attacking his enemies. But there will also be one token critic who will be allowed to ask a “sharp” question, only to be drowned in a copious amount of bullshit, and the man on the stage will always be the winner (“See? I respect the media and free speech”)...You’re always losing.
This man owns you. He understands perfectly well that he is the news. You can’t ignore him. You’re always playing by his rules — which he can change at any time without any notice..."There's much more to the letter, so please check it out at the link.
Looking to the corporate media for consistent, effective push- back against this looming "era of bullshit" is a fool's errand. (See above.) There may be a few dogged souls with a conscience and the courage to speak the truth, but for the vast majority it will be normalize, normalize, normalize. We've already started to see it, and the shitgibbon isn't even sworn in yet.
