The Mainstream Media’s Credibility Problem
If the American traditional media had even a shred of credibility left, it just sold that off too with its coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Talking heads, cable news pundits, and all the usual right-wing crooks in the media have mocked, dismissed and proliferated outright deceptions in their newscasts, and the movement is still growing and spreading to cities around the country. Despite big-media’s best attempt to laugh us off, to portray the movement as un-serious, and publicly defame the occupiers, an Time poll was published today that 54% of Americans have a favorable view of the movement (with a 23% unfavorable rating). For weeks the media just ignored demonstrators. When the demonstrators didn’t just slink back home, big media did it’s best to discredit the demonstrators as “hippies”, “whiners”, “slackers” or worse.
Now, big media is, largely uncritically, pushing the story of Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian immigrant alleged to have been part of a plot to assassinate a Saudi Ambassador. The story was reported Tuesday, and Congressman Eric Holder called a press conference to condemn Iran as behind the plot. A couple news cycles later, the story is already starting to unravel. Why would Iran use Arbabsiar, described as likable, but having suffered a traumatic brain injury, and a Mexican drug cartel in a plot against Adel al-Jubeir? The story already looks shaky at best. This looks to be another splashy terror plot story that will likely fall apart–perhaps even before it goes to trial. Don’t tell that to big media though, they’re already talking about what needs to happen to the big, bad Iran bogeyman.
Not that media’s credibility problem is anything new. They have been slavishly reporting the government’s talking points for years. Remember under Bush when large swaths of the public believed that Iraq was building nuclear weapons, had bought uranium from Niger, and was cozy with al-Qeda? All of those assertions were proved to be demonstratively false, and in some cases were known to be false when they were reported. Big media skipped merrily along reporting what it was told to report without every bothering with the facts about what it was reporting.
Cheering on war based on false pretenses, reporting sensationalized terror plots that turn out to be fabricated–the media looks to be about as professional as my high-school newspaper.
So, it continues with the Occupy movement. There’s long been a concern by civil libertarians that media in the US has been consolidated under the ownership of just a few large companies. There’s also the media’s sycophantic relationship with Washington. The press is supposed to be a check on government that keeps the public informed about relevant issues and alerts the public to government misdeeds. I can’t say when exactly that ceased to happen, but it’s obvious they no longer fill that role. The final stroke in big media’s hastening of their own obsolescence will be its treatment of the Occupy movement. Cable news pundits have egg on their face because they crossed the line and began to mock you and me–their viewers that they are supposed to be informing. Fifty-four percent of the country saw the mocking portrayal of America’s very real economic and social problems, voiced by a diverse group of disaffected Americans, and turned their backs on big media’s assessment. The smear campaign directed at the demonstrators, didn’t resonate with Americans that understood the anger at America’s power-brokers and Wall Street.
Also, the depth, and stark contrast of new media–internet news, blogs, etc., to corporate media is become obvious. The variety of information available online, even aggregated and shared through social media, is winning adherents from those who want serious, critical media.
Good-bye, traditional media. You won’t be missed.