Is the 4th estate dead? It certainly seems that way. I am not talking about the excellent investigative journalists of which a few still exist.
This is directed at the corporate masters that just created a furor within the Democratic Party over an entirely false narrative that the Democratic candidate and president of the United States is going to step aside as a candidate or should do so.
Only one paper that I know of, the Philadelphia Enquirer, called for the felonious Mr. Trump to drop out. Only one called out the appropriate party for its profoundly cynical nomination of a sociopathic criminal with dreams of dictatorship running through his addled brain.
The rest chose to attack a man who is a sitting president and has done an excellent job running this country. Who is clearly sharp, despite age and one bad night in a parody of an actual debate.
All of this media generated furor was designed to cause a rift in the party at a critical juncture.It was dangerous and irresponsible yellow journalism at its worst.
And, sadly, it was not just the crazy outliers such as Fox on the right or the Young Turks on the left. It has been every major outlet including the Atlantic Magazine. With the formerly great New York Times leading the charge.
We can no longer trust the media as it presently exists. I am not at all sure how to combat this or what to do in regards to getting the important news of the day.
It might be easy to dismiss this with a shrug and a “don’t watch, don’t read”. But it is not that simple. The founders gave a special place and special protections to the press because a free and responsible press is imperative to the life of a democracy.
They are supposed to present facts and the truth of matters of importance to the extent that such truths can be known. They should be reporting on creeping fascism, now at a gallop. They should be reporting on the effects of the chilling Supreme Court decisions of the last week. They should be breaking down Project 2025 so that all Americans can understand what one of the two parties is planning.
Instead they have chosen to interfere in a national election by spreading lies and innuendo about the only legitimate candidate. The only one who is not a fascist. And in doing so have harmed us all.
I think we are watching the end of the American democracy indeed, and I think, besides having a cold or a flu, that was why Biden stood with his mouth open sometimes in that obscenity of a "debate". I think this lifelong patriot could not believe that he was witnessing Trump being allowed to be there at all, besides the lack of any truth or reason spewing from his mouth. Remember, this is the man who tried to interfere with the election (and was openly caught at it), claimed the post office was a fraud, and tried to start an insurrection (in which several people were killed and the lives of our elected officials were threatened). And he was just convicted by a jury of other criminal acts. And there he is, proving that there is no justice or reason in an America in which money buys all. That, I think, is why the President stood almost speechless before that very sad realization. As I do.
You are so right! The billionaires who own the media ... and SCOTUS... WANT Trump so they will have him and his nazi agenda. Unfortunately Biden is playing into their hands by continuing to pretend he is mentally competent. When anyone with eyes can see that as much as he has boundless good for America ... he is NOT GOOD for another 4 years. And it's obvious to voters. Me? I'll vote for a corpse over Trump. But America?
This is the plan Annabel.