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Role of the Media

Waiting for evidence of authoritarian instincts seems like a good way to get ruled by an authoritarian.
 
Judge Laurence Silberman accused the New York Times and Washington Post of being “Democratic Party broadsheets” in a dissenting opinion on Friday.

Washington, DC, federal appellate judge Laurence Silberman accused the New York Times and Washington Post, and to some extent the Wall Street Journal, of being mouthpieces for “rather shocking” bias against the Republican Party in a written opinion on Friday.

“The orientation of these three papers is followed by The Associated Press and most large papers across the country (such as the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Boston Globe),” he said in the opinion. “Nearly all television—network and cable—is a Democratic Party trumpet. Even the government-supported National Public Radio follows along.”

Further, Judge Silberman wrote that Silicon Valley “also has an enormous influence over the distribution of news,” which “similarly filters news delivery in ways favorable to the Democratic Party.” He called Fox News, The New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal‘s editorial page “notable exceptions to Democratic Party ideological control,” though he admitted “a number of Fox’s commentators lean as far to the right as the commentators and reporters of the mainstream outlets lean to the left.”

“It is well-accepted that viewpoint discrimination ‘raises the specter that the Government may effectively drive certain ideas or viewpoints from the marketplace,'” Silberman said. “But ideological homogeneity in the media—or in the channels of information distribution—risks repressing certain ideas from the public consciousness just as surely as if access were restricted by the government.”

“It should be borne in mind that the first step taken by any potential authoritarian or dictatorial regime is to gain control of communications, particularly the delivery of news,” Silberman added, saying “it is fair to conclude, therefore, that one-party control of the press and media is a threat to a viable democracy. It may even give rise to countervailing extremism.”

The judge said the Supreme Court should overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, the 1964 case holding that when the media discusses public figures, the outlet should be liable under state defamation laws only if the plaintiffs can prove “actual malice,” which the Court defined as the speaker either knowing the statement was false or making it in “reckless disregard for the truth.”

“The First Amendment guarantees a free press to foster a vibrant trade in ideas. But a biased press can distort the marketplace,” Silberman concluded. “And when the media has proven its willingness—if not eagerness—to so distort, it is a profound mistake to stand by unjustified legal rules that serve only to enhance the press’ power.”

The case is Tah v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc., No. 19-7132 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
 
The evolution of the Republican Party has rendered it a necessity to be biased against it.


For informed and decent people and media organizations.


The only shame involved is that Republicans have made this so.
 

If this leads to Fox News, OANN, Newsmax and others being held liable for spouting lies and conspiracy theories, then I’m all for it.
 

I love this. Fox News was literally founded as a GOP propaganda network, not a legitimate news source. The founder of the network wasn't a journalist, it was Nixon's top PR director, Roger Ailes. Besides Fox News, conservatives have OAN, Sinclair Media, and a wide array of conservative websites like American Greatness, Townhall, The Hill, and on and on. Silberman's analysis at the end - “And when the media has proven its willingness—if not eagerness—to so distort, it is a profound mistake to stand by unjustified legal rules that serve only to enhance the press’ power” - is far more easily applied to right-wing than mainstream media. Too bad the judge is apparently blind to that. Hell, he probably watches Fox and Fox Business and believes every word he hears there.
 
I love this. Fox News was literally founded as a GOP propaganda network, not a legitimate news source. The founder of the network wasn't a journalist, it was Nixon's top PR director, Roger Ailes. Besides Fox News, conservatives have OAN, Sinclair Media, and a wide array of conservative websites like American Greatness, Townhall, The Hill, and on and on. Silberman's analysis at the end - “And when the media has proven its willingness—if not eagerness—to so distort, it is a profound mistake to stand by unjustified legal rules that serve only to enhance the press’ power” - is far more easily applied to right-wing than mainstream media. Too bad the judge is apparently blind to that. Hell, he probably watches Fox and Fox Business and believes every word he hears there.

Wait the Hill is conservative news site.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-hill/
 
Wait the Hill is conservative news site.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-hill/

It's not as conservative as some, but under owner Jimmy Finkelstein, a friend of Trump, there were accusations that he interfered with the website's editors and reporters to ensure that stories were not too "anti-Trump."

A 2019 CNN Business story on Finkelstein said that he "resides at the nexus of President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and John Solomon, the now-former executive at The Hill and current Fox News contributor who pushed conspiracy theories about Ukraine into the public conversation...Beyond his relationship with Solomon, Trump, and Giuliani, Finkelstein was Solomon's direct supervisor at The Hill and created the conditions which permitted Solomon to publish his conspiratorial stories without the traditional oversight implemented at news outlets. And he has kept a watchful eye on the newspaper's coverage to ensure it is not too critical of the President...Those people described a staff still in "revolt" over Solomon's columns and the way they were handled, including a lack of communication to employees about them even after the articles were thrown into serious question by witnesses in the impeachment inquiry."

"Finkelstein has been friends with Trump for decades. In fact, according to a former employee at The Hill, he "boasts that he's a close friend" of the President. "Getting a phone call from Trump would fill him with joy," the former employee told CNN Business." Finkelstein was also a close friend of Rudy Giuliani, and "when Giuliani attempted to dig up political dirt on Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, a natural place for him to disseminate the information was The Hill. And the natural person at The Hill to go to was Solomon, who had been personally hired by Finkelstein..."I remember almost immediately thinking, 'Why is he writing?'" the former veteran employee told CNN, noting that Solomon already had earned a reputation for conspiratorial work when he reported on things like the "deep state" for Circa, a now-defunct conservative news website."

"Eventually, when his stories started getting more attention, employees inside The Hill's news division protested to newsroom leaders. But Solomon reported directly to Finkelstein, allowing him to bypass the outlet's normal editorial process. "It made for an awkward power dynamic in the newsroom," one employee explained to CNN. "You had staff on the news side objecting to Solomon's coverage, but [the newsroom leaders] were a bit powerless." Solomon's work was eventually moved to the opinion section. Finkelstein, however, remained a steadfast supporter of Solomon's. Current and former employees at The Hill told CNN that Finkelstein keeps close tabs on the outlet's coverage, and reaches out to editors if he thinks it portrays Trump in too harsh a light."

Solomon left The Hill in the fall of 2019 and Finkelstein is trying to sell The Hill, and Trump of course is now out of office, so perhaps their coverage has become more balanced. So yeah, there's been some controversy over their coverage of Trump.

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/18/media/jimmy-finkelstein-the-hill-ukraine/index.html

Link: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/03/the-hill-sale-ukraine-finkelstein-093576
 
Gerard Baker, WSJ Opinion, June 14, 2021:

Even as journalists produce more of these politically tendentious falsehoods [downplaying the violence associated with the BLM marches, making up stories about the Russian government paying bounties for American soldiers in Afghanistan, and doubting the motivations of anyone who suggested COVID-19 may have escaped from a Wuhan lab], they insist that Mr. Trump is spreading a “big lie” about a stolen election. As it happens, they’re right about that. The tragedy is that they don’t understand the main reason he is able to propagate his own fictions is because no one outside their own circle believes theirs.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeffre...d-the-journalistic-reign-of-error-11623689253
 
But at least CNN hired Jeffrey Toobin back. What a stroke of good luck !
 
But Democrats did it first!

What a terrible excuse.

The list of Republican lies is more prolific and egregious. Pizzagate, Stolen election, wmd, war on _____, caravans, transgender athletes, CRT, Hillary's emails, Hunter Biden, and on and on...
 
But Democrats did it first!

What a terrible excuse.

The list of Republican lies is more prolific and egregious. Pizzagate, Stolen election, wmd, war on _____, caravans, transgender athletes, CRT, Hillary's emails, Hunter Biden, and on and on...

Wow, you missed the point entirely.

The point is that the mainstream media is carrying water for the Dems, so Pubs don't trust the mainstream media anymore. When the mainstream media reports that there was no election fraud, Pubs don't believe it because they don't trust the mainstream media, even when the mainstream media is right. Fox started it, to be sure, but now even CNN has rejected objectivity for clicks. We are getting to the point where we have 2 Americas, each with its own set of facts.
 
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