Sunday, March 07, 2021

Blogging is killing the mainstream media? Good.

Here's former conservative Jonah Goldberg mouthing off about blogging (safe link):
Conservatives were complaining about liberal media bias decades before Spiro Agnew was decrying “pusillanimous pussyfooters” and “nattering nabobs of negativism.” But in the blogging age, the complaints metastasized into cancerous obsessions. Yes, part of the story is the way in which the mainstream media often strived to earn much of the contempt conservatives have for it (a development that also has a lot to do with the influence of blogging). But part of it was simply structural. Blogging encouraged writers to focus less on the news than on the way it was presented and those who presented it. Commenting intelligently and quickly on actual news is pretty hard. Finding fault in others is much easier—and more fun.
Goldberg is now a favorite on NPR since every appearance is him bemoaning the state of the Republican party.  But there's two reasons why bashing the media has become so much easier: 1) the bias is real and 2) the Internet allows for quick cross-referencing on how stories are covered.  To take a very recent example, here's "WaPo Puts Out Full-On Biden Propaganda Tweet That Just Might Blow Your Mind."  Compare and contrast how the Washington Post headlined covid relief packages:

When Trump was President, the border "crisis" was a 24/7 affair with kids in cages and false claims of migrants drinking water out of toilets.   This past weekend, it was announced that due to a huge influx of new migrants, the Biden administration was suspending their covid protocols and filling up facilities to 100% capacity.  This morning I did a search on CNN and any mention of this story was buried as the last highlighted story in the "Politics" section.

Don't even get me started on the hagiography of Andrew Cuomo, prolific killer of grandmas.

After Trump's surprise election in 2016, there was about a week where the mainstream media was questioning their own bias as they wondered how they could have missed the revolt so badly.  But they soon fell back on their own ways culminating in the full-on coverup of any stories that might reflect badly on Candidate Not Trump.

Media criticism is easy, Jonah?  It sure is...it sure is.  

Nick Sandmann says "hi". 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Americans don't trust their media... yet their sucker minds are constantly swayed by it!"

"Andrew Cuomo's death count is appalling, and hagiography is bad... while Donald Trump is being cheated of his credit for COVID!"

"What Trump did with cages was perfectly fine... and Biden's just as cruel and inept as Trump!"

"Nick Sandmann says 'hi'".
Was he the one who murdered Seth Rich to cover up Hillary's emails, or is he the one who can't read illegal Dr. Seuss books anymore?"



Note that the Washington Post's first tweet correctly described the upcoming "more economic pain" that was expected to come, and did in fact come.