6 Comments
Mar 17, 2020Liked by Greg Olear

Well done.

Expand full comment
Mar 17, 2020Liked by Greg Olear

The fara agents in media are like covid 19. Theres a whole lot that are not accounted for and i hope some forensics of 2016 identifies them publically. Egregious mishandling everywhere.

Expand full comment
author

I think it would surprise a lot of people if it became known. I know it surprised me.

Expand full comment

The worst of the current news reports is that a reporter gives weight to both sides, it confuses many people, otherwise busy working, living their lives and not paying attention to any background info that might have been previously printed in newspapers, but not reported on newscasts.People often don’t know what to do with a side that doesn’t agree with their current way of thinking about a person, place or thing, to make a sound judgement, which depends on previous knowledge or a background of information not always present in news articles, digital or otherwise. Therefore many folks, including those in the business of reporting news, can make erroneous assumptions about any given topic. Reporters bent on milking a certain opinion,or conspiracy theory thrive on one side reporting, there are reams of media that preys on people, not necessarily paying close attention to what is reality in any given situation.

”Whataboutism”was a huge failure of journalists in the last election, it got us Trump. As for NY Times running puff pieces about Trump. it’s irresponsible, especially after the FBI report that Trump campaign was under investigation. By not sharing the side of Trump that everyone should have known about prior to voting day in 2016 that got us Trump the most inadequate corrupt president we have ever had. Where was the vetting? Why didn’t the journalists tell folks about Trump’s background?

Despite this, it’s been a news heyday, with masses of cash inflow for every news organization in the world, and they are taking advantage of this by writing all sorts of info true or false, just to grab your attention. Click bait, as you said often disappointing but many folks thrive on this info to make important decisions.

Going forward, the current crisis is being handled by journalists far differently than the biggest decision a country can make-the decision to choose a good leader, one who will guide the country through a crisis such as the one we are dealing with now. Trump has shown just how inadequate he is during the past 3 years, but even more so during the past 3 weeks.

Therefore, MSM should be concentrating its efforts on reporting everything about the election candidates it has, background, congressional record and peccadilloes of each candidate. It’s exactly the sort of information folks need to make an informed decision-one of the most important we need to make, especially now, when pressure to work for America’s safety shows whether a candidate can handle being president. In this respect, Sanders comes to mind as the most acute example of this. Woefully inadequate as a working senator, his relationships with his fellow senators is fraught with problems, mostly the fault of Sanders. Yesterday, he showed exactly how he deals with the pressure of this pandemic, again he’s shown that he’s unfit to handle this pressure. These are the things that should be reported, in print, digital or otherwise.

Expand full comment

My low-key favorite part of this article: “To be clear, I think AP is awesome, and the people who work there brilliant, notwithstanding their curious contempt for the Oxford comma.”

#TeamOxfordComma

Expand full comment

(by Greg Olear, article)

I started working on this piece—which is really two pieces in one plus-sized dispatch—months ago, but have hesitated to share it, I think because critique of the media seems so Trumpy. The last thing I want to do here is pile on. So let me begin with an important caveat: “Mainstream media” is a term that does not mean every journalist at every media outlet, but rather the editors, publishers, producers, and pundits who collectively shape the media narrative. Further, many if not most working journalists are very good.

Expand full comment