Gerald SUSSMAN
Despite all the smoke and mirrors, most
Americans seem to see where the stenographers of corporate capitalism
are taking us. A recent Gallup poll found that while 84% of Americans
see media as “critical” or “very important” to democracy, only 28% see
the corporatist mainstream news media (MSM) as actually supporting
democracy. They’re right on both counts of course. The quality of a
democracy is only as good as the information people have to make
informed judgements about public policy and politicians.
Even as the mainstream news media
continue to lose street cred, they persist in a rumor-saturated full
court press against the “Trump-Putin presidency,” which only further
exposes their lack of professionalism and increasing vulgarity. MSM
management and their boardroom bosses have long understood that as long
as they spice up their “nothing burger” news, ratings and advertising
rates will keep them in business and please their commercial and
government clients. Tabloid journalism, which can describe most American
mainstream media these days, even when wrapped up as “all the news
that’s fit to print,” is in constant search of sensation, scandal,
gossip, and profit – and only occasionally in public-oriented
investigative integrity.
