It’s the Media, Stupid

Sure, it's the economy, but assessing it relies on true information, and that is hard to find, particularly if you're not looking.

Happy Holidays! I hope your and season are filled with love and the warm embrace of family and friends.

Weird as it may sound, I think the prospect for Peace on Earth is greater this year than any in recent memory. Israel has decapitated Iran’s Mideast proxies, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, diminishing the Ayatollahs’ ability to project power across the region and manage to keep their own hands relatively clean. Assad has fled Syria for Russia with his tail between his legs, a move that cripples Russia’s projection of power in the region by robbing it of its air and naval bases on the Mediterranean. Moreover, and I recognize this as gooey, seasonally-induced wishful thinking, but perhaps all the death and destruction has finally worn enough people out that they hunger for peace over power. Okay, as I wrote that I realized it’s a longer shot than the Jets making the playoffs.

Domestically, James Carville taught us that “It’s the economy, stupid.” It was the mantra he made all the Clintonistas memorize, lest they became confused by red herrings, political opponents, Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. He wanted his mantra on the tip of all their tongues. Don’t be distracted, he cautioned: the economy is the only thing that matters. He was right.

That was then, this is now.

Before we can talk economy, we have to talk information, misinformation, and disinformation. When and if we can cut through the unsubstantiated speculation of social media, talk radio, cable news, podcasts and websites, we can talk about the economy. If we don’t cut through to factual information—not opinion masquerading as news, delivered to you by your hair-stylist whose ex has a brother-in-law whose friend read some alarming piece of “news”—we’ll just wind up chasing our tails.

But mis- and dis-information is having its day. Parents are not vaccinating children against deadly illness because they heard an anecdote that scared them, and they were too lazy, too dumb, or too gullible, to learn actual facts.

Of course part of the problem is the way the conspiracists like Alex Jones and Bobby Kennedy have worked tirelessly to invalidate the epidemiologists, immunologists, public health officials, infectious disease experts, et. al.

CNN’s Reliable Sources feed brings us this good news:

“Courts are protecting free press: Donald Trump's legal campaign against the media gained lots of attention this week, but it's also worth recognizing how the courts can and do uphold free press rights.

“In Oklahoma, right-wing leaders of the state's department of education tried to ice-out Nexstar's KFOR, one of the state's leading TV stations. Journalists were ‘refused access’ to public board meetings and excluded from press conferences.

“The station filed suit, alleging First Amendment violations, and earlier this month a federal court issued a permanent injunction that ensures KFOR equal access. The department of education is literally mandated to let KFOR into events and include the station on all press lists, etcetera. The Institute for Free Speech called it a ‘major victory for press freedom." Sometimes the system works – and sends a message to others who might try the same tactics.

“But there is good news about the news...‘There's a ton of energy around building nonprofit local news organizations. That train is accelerating,’ former L.A. Times editor Kevin Merida said, calling it ‘one of the most promising developments in journalism.’

“’We're seeing a new generation of nonprofit news organizations redefine how we sustain and deliver high-quality journalism in very different communities, ranging from VTDigger in Vermont to El Paso Matters in Texas," said Sarabeth Berman, CEO of the American Journalism Project. "In many cases, such as Mississippi Today, nonprofits now have the largest newsrooms in their markets.’

"’Just in the last couple of months, we're seeing local philanthropies and prominent journalists team up in dramatic fashion,’ she said, ‘including a $15 million initiative underway in Los Angeles, and a project of similar scale in Tulsa.’

“The American Journalism Project supports 50 nonprofits in 36 states. ‘Last year, our portfolio recorded 58% median revenue growth,’ Berman said, ‘which means that these nonprofits are on a path to being financially sustainable while producing outstanding journalism.’"

In about 2007 some friends and I started a hyper-local, online, nonprofit news service in Atlanta called GONSO (Georgia Online News Service). We saw the coming decline of legacy media and jumped in. We were lucky to attract many of Atlanta’s journalistic refugees from the big paper and TV newsrooms. Unfortunately, GONSO was way too early, and thus unsustainable, but it is gratifying to see the current trend, peopled by journalists who waited long enough for the market to catch up.

The authoritarian playbook says strangle or co-opt independent media. We cannot allow that to happen.

©2024 Jon Sinton