MSM says it isn’t important enough to affect the election.

Oh, fuck off already. You were jerking him off 24/7.

“The path of traditional media’s institutional collapse is really two intertwining stories: a breakdown of its business model exacerbated by a breakdown of influence, the extent of which became clear this campaign cycle. Behind it all lies a growing sense among Americans that the media cannot be trusted to tell them the news they believe is fair.”

1/2

https://www.newsweek.com/mainstream-media-public-trust-donald-trump-election-results-1980025

Their argument?

We were predicting Harris would win and we are sorry we made a mistake.

“Kamala Harris is the first presidential candidate in modern history to snub Time magazine, to the chagrin of its billionaire publisher.”

Why? Because the news media supported Trump. Notice there is no “why did she snub Time?

This is lying by omission.

This is just crap.

@feloneouscat there is something to be said about the idea that the right wing (and adjacent dis/misinfo profiteers) owns the largest share of the audio/video podcast and mass social mediasphere (like X). Bryan Tyler Cohen has been talking about this for a while. If shitty speech and ideas can only be countered by overwhelming truth and positivity, then Democrats need to go into the lions' dens as often as possible so as to have a chance at shaping the narrative.

@hallmarc

This is what I think of every time I hear about truth:

A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on

Truth is not as profitable as a lie. We saw they with Fox News. The New York Times Times followed suit by sane-washing Trump.

You cannot counter a complicit press.

Trump was the worst candidate in history.

When people argue that Harris was a terrible candidate, my response is, “I’m sorry you don’t like Harris, but Jesus Christ wasn’t available”

@feloneouscat they're complicit because they're profiting from the loudest, most outrageous right-wing narrators. we don't have to counter a complicit press. We have to engage with right wing narrators. They're going to constantly harass us on their turf and try to drown us out. So we put people like Mayor Pete on there to tell the truth loudly, convincingly, and outrageously. Then MSM will be all "ooh, the fight between Rogan and Buttigieg is pure gold." The truth will enter the narrative.

@hallmarc

Yeah, a breath of fresh air. I will miss Buttigieg.

I fear you are far more optimistic than myself. When papers go full Nazi there is no truth.

Truth is whatever they print. The Spanish-American war started because Hearst wanted to sell more papers. We invaded Iraq the first time because the NYT carried water for the Bush Admin.

Don’t underestimate the power of the press to subvert the truth.

@feloneouscat the article was making the point that there is very little free press or MSM anymore that influences people. Not like 20 years ago and certainly not like in Hearst's time. It's a completely different landscape.

@hallmarc

Yes, which is oddly self-serving and stinks of “don’t blame us, no one listens to us and BTW we don’t affect anything.”

This is patently false. MSM is patently responsible for Biden stepping down. It is patently responsible for ignoring Harris for four years.

It’s silly to pretend they have no influence. They have far more influence than podcasts.

We have been fed a diet for the last eight years that Democrats were weak and ineffectual by MSM.

That was MSM, not podcasters.

@feloneouscat but it remains to be seen how much that affected the majority of the Democratic electorate. The enthusiasm and electricity for Kamala was palpable. Democrats became joyous like I hadn't seen since 2008 with Obama. We were sure we would win because Trump seemed completely done. We also assumed (much to our continual detriment) that other non-MAGAs would find a last straw. But in combination with individual economic struggles, we lost a lot of those people, especially young black men

@feloneouscat here's another good article IMO.

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/11/11/the-psycho-social-techno-politics-of-maga-trumps-democracy-and-the-liberal-left-has-no-answer/

@hallmarc

The “it’s the economy stupid” doesn’t really work: when Bush was prez, unemployment rose to 7%.

Biden inherited an economy that was reeling from Trump’s mismanagement. But Biden managed to get it near to pre-COVID as well as unemployment to less than 3.5%.

The reporter discusses the effect but conveniently ignores the cause of WHY people think their economic situation is worse than it actually is—because for eight years they have been told it was great under Trump (it wasn’t)…

@hallmarc

The US shed over TWO MILLION jobs.

Then told it was WORSE under Biden (Biden has had the best employment gains in almost 50 years). Facts don’t color perceptions, but a complicit press does a damn fine job of filling in the gaps. I might be doing well, but what about all those people the press says are doing badly under Biden? And why is Biden lying about jobs?

This is the problem. The press had a field day with inflation and when it came down, kept acting as if it was high.

@hallmarc

Republicans ran the worst candidate in history. I cannot think of a worst candidate.

This should have been a gimme.

But if you examine the headlines and text, MSM conveniently forgot he was a criminal. Forgot his admin shed jobs. Forgot he was a rapist. They kept touting how jobs were better and pays was better and everything Trump COULD. NOT. CONTROL. They literally did advert FOR him.

Did Harris get equal time? Hell no.

MSM is in denial. Or doesn’t care.

@feloneouscat MSM is in full profit mode. I'm not saying they didn't drop the ball (and give Trump a free ride since 2016). But these guys are still pointing out that MSM no longer sets the agenda. I agree completely with every fact you just stated. But apparently you and I and many Dems in general are in our own bubble where the wisdom of old still applies. These articles are saying that an alternate unshakeable reality was forged in the crucible of the Internet and pushed into the real world.

@hallmarc

I am quite aware that what I am saying sounds like a bubble. Let me point out why MSM is lying and they know they are lying.

One: it is quite easy to blame the internet for all social ills. ADHD? Internet. Violence? Internet (and gaming). Drug abuse? Internet. Violence against women? Internet.

It’s the easy-blame bogey man. But here is the thing: thr Presidential and VP debates didnt happen on Joe Rogan. Biden didn’t drop out because of internet randos.

@hallmarc

My point is that MSM is doing the “Hey, this is a disaster for democracy but fuck it, WE aren’t responsible despite is lying for eight years, diminishing the damage by Trump and giving him free ad space and rarely challenging his lies. That’s on the internet. Because we don’t influence”

If MSM didn't influence no one would be buying ad space.

This is the NYT ad revenue has been increasing. That doesn’t happen when it becomes irrelevant.

@feloneouscat OK, I won't continue to belabor this. If MSM is still setting the agenda (NYT has 10.8M subscribers, 10.2M of whom are purely digital), how do we hold their feet to the fire? There are multiple campaigns to reduce subscriptions but they don't seem to have made much headway.