The week American journalism died

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to pay our respects to the dearly departed: journalism.

Journalism was dearly, and it has departed. I’ve been here for a while and I haven’t seen it move a muscle.

Journalism in America died a short time after its twin, democracy, passed. Both succumbed to self-inflicted injuries brought about by hubris, greed and a government ostensibly of, by and for the people.

Turns out that while all animals are equal, some are more equal than the rest of us.

I’d invite a few important and critically thinking people to eulogize both, but it remains questionable whether any such people exist in today’s government or media — and what few do are struggling desperately to keep above the rising tide of, autocracy, oligarchy, AI, social media, stupidity, intolerance, ignorance and all of those stupid stories about drones.

Donald Trump delivered the final death blow to journalism and democracy, but he only put both out of their misery. Some may even view it as a mercy killing. For the last 50 years, beginning with the cancer-stain of Richard Nixon, government has faltered. It began when we threatened to impeach a president over serious crimes — like bugging the DNC and lying about it, during a re-election. Our democracy held then and Nixon resigned rather than face the wrath of Democrats and even Republicans who vowed to do the right thing. But beginning with Ronald Reagan and his successful appeal to the vulgar, the ignorant and the vain, it quickly became apparent Nixon was not an anomaly among our leaders. His prosecution was. 

Since then, our government has tolerated a variety of low-browed, ridiculous and seditious men ranging from Colonel Oliver North to Michael Flynn. And while Reagan successfully convinced us he alone had ended the Cold War, the rats like Mitch McConnell snuck into the ship of state and began eating at its foundation like so many rabid termites with a head full of bad hallucinogens and a stomach full of tapeworms.

The cancer spread. Reagan kicked out the underpinnings of the free press by getting rid of the Fairness Doctrine while simultaneously allowing consolidation of the media. Large companies bought out smaller ones and closed bureaus, laid off editors and experienced reporters. They saved money by hiring neophytes and then letting them go once they got enough experience to demand a larger salary. The wealth of institutional knowledge in the veteran White House press corps began to evaporate.

And all the while, the government and media continued to divide us. Cultural schizophrenia ensued. Coupled with the cancerous greed, by the time Newt Gingrich became speaker, it was apparent that American democracy and journalism were terminal patients. Fox News, MSNBC and the rise of extreme media hastened the demise. By the time we elected a man convicted of 34 felonies to office and television anchors began preaching that you shouldn’t speak to MAGA relatives, the patients were dead. 

The evidence is everywhere. On the left, members of Congress preach to us about what “political parties” are. Instead of asking the electorate “what do you need?” the left tells us why they’re better and what they will do to and for us. If you don’t agree with them then you’re an ignorant, misogynistic and probably racist atavism.

On the right, it’s about God and native-born, Bible-thumping, gun-toting men and women who voted against their own self-interest because they thought Donald Trump was “one of us.” They all would rather shoot their neighbor than talk with them.

Trump has shown how dead democracy is by nominating nearly a dozen billionaires to high posts in his incoming government who are worth more than an overwhelming majority of Americans will ever earn in a lifetime. His other nominees are former Fox News employees, friends and family members – icing on the cake for the grifter-in-chief. He’s showing us in real time the death of American journalism, because as reported in Politico, “No modern president — including Trump in his first term — has made a habit of personally suing the media while in the Oval Office.”

Technically he isn’t back in the Oval Office yet, but speaking for the first time in a news conference after his election victory to reporters on Monday, Trump promised more lawsuits against journalists and pundits he doesn’t like.

That came after ABC News settled a lawsuit Trump had filed against the news organization for defamation. The lawsuit stemmed from a March 10, 2024, ABC news piece in which George Stephanopoulos repeatedly said that Trump had been “found liable for rape” in the E. Jean Carroll civil case. Though Trump still denies any wrongdoing, last year a jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll, sufficient to hold him liable for battery, though it did not find that Carroll proved he raped her.

Trump, being a public figure claimed ABC was guilty of “malice” toward Trump for saying “rape”, the judge allowed the case to proceed on that basis, which opened the network up to pre-trial discovery including emails and private correspondence — so the network settled.

Former ABC White House Correspondent Sam Donaldson said the settlement is an obvious victory for Donald Trump. “First instinct is to find the settlement abhorrent and wrong but then it is not ABC News that is doing it, it is Disney – the News Department had no choice; the Corporation like all the others are afraid to challenge DJT. So, was Iger (Bob Iger, CEO of Disney) wrong not to stand up? The Great Speaker, Sam Rayburn used an expression often to explain to recalcitrant members what they must do to have a successful time in the House ‘You’ve got to go along to get along’ and in the end Iger decided in this case to “go along.” Let’s see whether it turns out okay for him and Disney even though the news department takes it on the chin!

Trump wasted no time in showing where his thoughts are on the matter. Later that day, he followed through on his pledge: He sued the Des Moines Register and its veteran pollster, Ann Selzer, over a pre-election poll that showed Trump trailing Kamala Harris in Iowa shortly before last month’s election. Pure revenge against a pollster.

“You might as well sue the weatherman because you don’t like the weather,” a veteran First Amendment attorney told me. “These are predictions. I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer said the onslaught of lawsuits filed against the press is just beginning. On CNN’s “NewsNight” Tuesday, Cohen said that Trump does not have to win such lawsuits because the costs associated with them can have a chilling effect. He predicted that the Register will eventually settle.

“Not only does Donald Trump have money, he has money with the RNC,” Cohen said. “He has money with his super PACS and his money has money. Look at all of the tech billionaires that are around him now. There is an indefinite amount of money. And I believe wholeheartedly that The Des Moines Register, very much like ABC Disney, is going to capitulate. And I believe that Donald Trump has actually figured out a way how to change the way that media deals with issues.”

Trump’s moves are classic examples of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). Currently, 34 states and the District of Columbia have a variety of anti-SLAPP laws to prevent these costly and time-consuming lawsuits that can intimidate and silence critics. They not only benefit the media but, more importantly, every day individuals who wish to speak out against the government.

Trump, and his minions like Elon Musk who claim they support Free Speech have actually, finally killed it, and with it – democracy.

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There is other evidence. A new survey of hundreds of journalists who received safety training from the International Women’s Media Foundation finds 36% say they have faced or been threatened with physical violence on the job — and they have felt especially threatened at Trump campaign rallies.

“Journalists reported feeling at high risk while covering Trump rallies and ‘Stop the Steal’ protests, especially when some Trump supporters and protestors openly carry weapons,” the report states.

But wait there’s more. Joe Biden and the Democrats are no free speech heroes either. Biden failed to take any action as president to break up the media monopolies. During the annual Christmas party for supporters this week, Biden, who has shown up in the White House Brady Briefing Room once to talk to reporters, met in the Roosevelt Room with his favorite social media influencers. Trump at least met with his fan base publicly in the Rose Garden. Sure, it was a raucous meeting where I commented that his influencers looked like a group of people eager to be demonically possessed, but Trump did it in the open.

Biden met with his influencers privately. According to a few in the room, Biden and his communication staff told them they “are the new leaders” of the media. They pumped them with thoughts of “patriotism” and said the influencers need to make sure that they let people know that Donald Trump is going to take credit for the successes of the Biden administration. “Great they want us to deliver on the message they couldn’t” one explained. Another said, “We wouldn’t have to do it if the administration had done it successfully.”

Exactly. For four years Biden couldn’t communicate. Millions of people think his historic infrastructure bill is about six EV stations in California. For four years, traditional reporters couldn’t get across the facts. We couldn’t communicate. It’s officially time for an autopsy because journalism has no pulse.

Democracy is dead and the large number of Americans who are watching from the gravesite as the bodies are buried are too busy spitting on the corpses to understand it is they who are being tossed in the grave too. Those rending their hair and gnashing their teeth on the right are screaming that their friends and neighbors who disagree with them are communists, “Karens” and anti-American roustabouts who’d rather get a free meal off the government than do an honest day’s work – while their healthcare, education and social security evaporate in a puff of smoke.

And on the left, the extremists scream “authoritarian” and “oligarchy” as they fret over their friends, relatives and neighbors turning them into the government – without once wondering why the Democrats lost the race and support in rural America.

Unless you cave to the almighty leader, your goose is cooked.

So, as we end our eulogy, let us pray with the time-honored saying left to us by Pogo “We have met the enemy and he is us. Amen brothers and sisters.”

And we will end our services with a pipe-organ rendition of “You can’t always get what you want” by the Rolling Stones.

Let it Bleed.