If you haven’t heard the story by now, the news broke over the weekend from Axios that Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, donated one million dollars of his own money to the inauguration fund of the incoming President on January 20th. I’m not going to weigh in on whether that was right or wrong, because it’s not my business what someone else does with their money. Would I have done it? No. But I also would never give any money to any politicians, because supporting any politician to me is like thinking the stripper is into you. So I’d feel the same ambivalence if he had given it to Harris or anyone else about to assume the office.
What that story did do for me though was help me collect my thoughts for this blog post on why I think the American news media is awful and needs to be torn down and rebuilt. This isn’t coming from any political bias, mind you. I’m not a Democrat or Republican, because they are virtually identical to me. When I say the American news media is awful, it’s purely because the biggest players are beholden to millionaires and billionaires who don’t care as much about the truth as they do about having access. They will sell their soul to whoever wants to pay the best price.
Since this post leads with an Axios story, I’ll start with them. In my view, Axios is led by some of the most gutless and spineless people in the news media. If they wish to take any solace, they can do so in the fact that they are hardly alone in that fact. I can’t throw a proverbial rock without finding several more just like them.
Another story that broke this weekend helped buttress my point when a Washington Post cartoonist quit her job because she dared to illustrate that her paper refused to print her cartoon. Why? Well that’s because they want access and also because the man in charge of that paper, in my opinion, is a deeply biased man by the name of Will Lewis. He has been accused of one scandal after another, and to the shock of no one, it’s usually about protecting his character (or lack thereof). The owner of the Post is no better, and he also contributed to the President-elect’s funding, by the way.
But what about the LA Times? Jesus, where do I even begin? They already came under fire for not endorsing the Democratic candidate for President for the first time in several years. But that paper has long been run by people who have, again in my opinion, very flawed characters. For proof of that, I would refer you to read Paul Pringle’s Bad City book. It focuses on a major attempt at covering up sexual abuse at USC and how the people in charge of the Times contributed to hiding it for as long as they could.
How about the paper of record, the New York Times? Where to begin? We can start with the strike from last November with their tech guild. Or you can go with their petty feud with the outgoing president because he didn’t want to grant them an interview during his term. They’d like to paint that as something other than having a tantrum because he wouldn’t talk to them in particular.
TV news isn’t much better, and perhaps the most brazen example of this comes from what is supposedly the left-leaning MSNBC. After years of demonizing and castigating the incoming President, it was interesting how quickly that tone changed as soon as he won re-election. Then the hosts of Morning Joe went to kiss the ring because they wanted access. Those two couldn’t get to Mar-a-lago fast enough. They also got very heated when people called them out on it. For Joe and Mika, I’ll tell them that they didn’t disappoint me in the slightest. I lost no respect for them, had no fury over the situation at all. I’d have had to like and respect them to lose it.
Hopefully these few examples illustrate my general disdain for the American news media. So now you may be asking yourself if you agree with me at all about what to do with this. I can’t tell you what to do. That’s for you to decide. I can tell you what I do. I make a point to deep dive into every article I read or see from the press, often fact-checking them. I ask myself what the motivation is for this or that story, because it’s rarely in the interest of journalism if it in any way could offend a billionaire or advertiser.
I also make a point to read news from outside of the country or from outlets that aren’t run by what are essentially oligarchs. Those outlets don’t typically find themselves beholden to anyone but their readership, which I respect. I particularly like The Lever, ProPublica, The Guardian, and the BBC. Now I know no one is perfect, but the sad fact is that most of the major news outlets in this country are not run by people who can be trusted, because they will always serve their own interests before anyone else.
My advice is to fact check everything you read in the media that’s of importance to you. Ask yourself what, if anything, this outlet has to gain by running this story. See how consistent they have been. And then, by all means, make your own decision.
The American news media may be awful, but that’s only because not enough of us hold them accountable. When that changes, I look forward to writing a post about the revival of the noble fourth estate.
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