The Media is Playing into the Alt-Right’s Hands

It’s time to talk about the media problem in the United States today.

Writing this hurts a part of my soul because I believe the Fourth Estate and an educated population are pillars of democracy.

But American media companies have become so obsessed with clicks and watches and scoops that they have forgotten to ask what is in the best interest of the country and democracy.

In this particular instance, the issue is big media companies asking the judge to unseal the affidavit that led to the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and the alleged seizure of classified documents from former President Donald Trump.

They are arguing that this is big news and the pubic has a right to know. The Department of Justice is arguing that it is an on-going investigation and that revealing the source of information could jeopardize the investigation.

The reporter in my soul with newsprint in her veins, understands the desire to know everything about a case. The logical person who loves democracy thinks the media is jeopardizing the future of the country.

When the former guy was running and in office, and now, he has tried to make the media the enemy of the people. As such I have been loathe to criticize the media, even when they deserve it, because it feeds the notion that “fake news” is a thing and that the alt-right isn’t just lying about events, history, and the things they did and said on camera.

But the truth of the matter is that the media as a whole has become a problem in the United States.

During the last 3 decades, the media has moved from a competition to get the best information to readers and viewers first to an effort to have the most sensationalized headline to attract those readers and viewers. Where the media once used logic and common sense,the desire for “clicks” led to a type of “he said, she said” journalism that ignored both.

Instead of saying that 99% of scientist agreed that human activity is a leading cause of global climate change, the media flocked to the few dissenters making it appear that there were far more people who questioned the science.