On Tuesday, an ABC senior reporter, Terry Moran, was fired by the network for making comments that were personally critical of deputy White House chief of staff (and guy who probably pulls the wings off butterflies) Stephen Miller.
Miller is the guy most credit with implementing the Trump administration’s immigration plan, and he’s long proven himself a vile, unabashed, unashamed racist. Moran, in a tweet, accurately said Miller is “well endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world class hater.”
Now, we won’t get into the truthfulness of this comment, even though it is most obviously true. And in fact, neither Miller nor the Trump administration itself has done much to hide their disdain for various people of color.
But what I would like to point out here is the ridiculous pearl clutching from the White House and various Republicans that followed Moran’s tweets. And the absurd overreaction from ABC News to suspend and then fire Moran – all of which serves as a microcosm of the very problem that has cost Democrats elections and currently has America on the brink of facism.
First off, and so I can dispense with it quickly, the guy in the White House built an entire campaign on castigating any media outlet or any reporter who dared write truthful facts that were unflattering about Donald Trump or which contradicted his various idiotic lies. The White House currently employs a spokesperson who spends half of every briefing complaining and whining and lying about media outlets and their coverage, even when it is apparent to everyone with a working brain that the coverage in question is accurate and fair.
So, really, shut up.
That brings us to the real problem here, and it is two-fold.
The first is the continued behavior of traditional media outlets who refuse to acknowledge that Trump and MAGA and the Fox-ification of media represent a situation in American politics and journalism for which long standing rules and norms no longer work. Yes, yes, yes, it would be wonderful if the American public hung in there and gave deference to the by-the-book, only-the-facts reporter, but they don’t.
In the old days – like pre-2016 – when traditional journalism told people that the president was covering up an affair or breaking into a hotel to steal evidence, the majority of people listened and valued the facts. Now, the White House attacks the messengers as “radical leftists,” says it’s not true over and over, and Fox, Newsmax and an onslaught of websites and radio shows circle the wagons, put together some alternative facts and attack those leftists in the lamestream media.
And tah-dah, Jan. 6 becomes a tourist visit that was overblown. A virus that killed a million people becomes a snowflake overreaction that should result in the hanging of a guy who tried to save you by recommending wearing a mask.
And traditional media outlets fire journalists for calling it insanity.
This is not the same America anymore. And if you’re a media company still clinging to this idiotic notion of fairness that exists without providing context and commentary, you’re part of the problem.
Because let me tell you, allowing the people on the right to spew absolute garbage without fact checking and proper framing is not fairness. It’s not journalistic integrity. It’s a disservice to the public you should be serving.
For God’s sake, the top anchors at Fox News were literally advising the Trump White House on how to handle crises. A rightwing reporter who was welcomed into the White House press pool recently verbally attacked another country’s president in order to defend Trump.
And you’re suspending Moran for a tweet that everyone knows is true?
It’s an unsustainable double standard that has contributed to the dismantling of the country.
It’s also why Democrats, who continue to rely on these outlets to spread their messages and be a barrier to the lies, are losing. Bigly.
You can’t rely on people still stuck in the past, still too afraid of being painted as biased by those who are quite obviously biased themselves, to disseminate the truth, to push back on bad policy or outright lies, and to adequately point out the real life difference between the two sides.
If you could rely on them, you wouldn’t right now have a majority of working folks believing that the seven transgender athletes who exist are bigger stories than the roll back of numerous consumer protections. They wouldn’t believe that “da border” is a bigger problem than handing reams of government data to an unelected crazy person.
There’s an entire apparatus on the right that is working overtime every single day to churn out the conservative/MAGA talking points. To defend the administration no matter what happens. To assist with damage control and promote initiatives.
That apparatus does not care about lies. It doesn’t care about bias. It isn’t interested in the slightest in fairness or truth.
It wins because it is relentless and shameless.
Until Democrats match that energy and move away from the tired practices of the past, it won’t matter that they have more popular policies and people. It won’t matter that they have the truth. They’ll continue to be buried by the better spread lies.
And the country might never recover.
