Heather Cox Richardson earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University and is now a professor of history at Boston College. Dr. Richardson is the author of one of the most widely read newsletters on Substack. In a 2022 post, she quoted the Brookings Institute:
[Trump] tried to delegitimize the election results by disseminating a series of far-fetched and evidence-free claims of fraud. Meanwhile, with a ring of close confidants, Trump conceived and implemented unprecedented schemes to—in his own words—“overturn” the election outcome.
Richardson complained that news commentators were minimizing Trump’s war on democracy as a partisan squabble between Republicans and Democrats rather than “showing it as an existential fight for rule of law.” She noted that independent journalist Dan Froomkin blames U.S. news organizations for failing to communicate that the American democracy is threatened by authoritarianism.
Two and one-half years later, Froomkin continues to criticize legacy media:
You simply cannot cover Trump’s second term accurately and responsibly if you are not willing to situate his acts as part of a terrifying descent into authoritarianism, racism, and cruelty.
And the mainstream political media – for a variety of reasons — is not willing to do anything of the kind.
Instead of explaining what’s really going on, therefore, they are just telling you what happened – and with Trump, that’s really only a small part of the picture.
Rather than speaking truth to power, they have become stenographers with amnesia, hiding the truth through the use of anodyne adjectives, convoluted phrasing and buried leads.
In some cases they have been explicitly muzzled [by media owners]…
Simon Fraser University Professor Enda Brophy says neoliberal media institutions like the Globe and Mail and the New York Times seem to be profoundly confused as to how they should proceed.
In early coverage of Musk’s Nazi salute, multiple news organizations seemed to go out of their way to ignore the story completely. As the outrage grew, liberal media outlets increasingly presented the event as one that was open to interpretation rather than accepting what we all saw with our own eyes.
…And so the Nazi salute disappears within an “exuberant speech” in the Washington Post, or the moment is written off as a “hand gesture” in the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, Reuters and many others. A controversial moment that is open to interpretation….
How each legacy media organization responds to events like this will tell us how accommodating they will be to the rise of fascism in the United States. It is a litmus test of adaptation to authoritarianism on the part of institutions we were always told were the bastions of democratic rule.
Professor Brophy made an important point about the changed media landscape. Modern communication systems enable people to affiliate and organize with little difficulty. Often using the dark web, scoundrels have been quick to take advantage.
On the one hand, right-wing audiences turned their backs on legacy media companies long ago, mastering platforms like 4Chan, Discord and other alternatives developed in the early 21st century. The idea of the liberal-democratic media serving as a public sphere/marketplace of ideas is a quaint liberal-democratic fiction at this point, since Trump’s election victories have largely been built in right-wing echo chambers.
Traditional media has done excellent work but has experienced growing distrust, which causes people to disengage or turn to alternative sources of information. Credible reporters and commentators can be found on reader-supported websites, but these platforms usually struggle to gather the financial resources needed for in-depth journalism.
British Columbia is fortunate to have The Tyee and The Narwhal, sites that do remarkable journalism. If not already doing so, readers should provide financial support for these and other independent news sites.
Categories: Democracy, Journalism, USA
in-sights.ca 
It started many years ago when people were fooled into believing that socialism was communism.
The majority of the press perpetuate this view to this day.
Having a social conscience is becoming a black mark !
TB
LikeLike
We are in terrifying times and anyone who values democracy cannot remain on the sidelines. The democratic institution is under full attack and will be dismantled by the oligarchs unless a strong resistance rises up. If you are reading this then it is likely you are as scared as I am.
How can we build mass resistance? Mainstream media is owned by the elite. We need answers and a game plan as quickly as possible. No couch surfing allowed. If you have some ideas, please post.
LikeLike