No to internalizing right-wing attacks and trying to court those who attack you. Yes to standing up for truth, freedom of the press, and exposing authoritarian corruption and conspiracy theories.
The answer to the question is no. Our mainstream political media played a very large part in bringing us to this point, so expecting them to rescue democracy is a fantasy. Ms. Sullivan is a terrific critical voice but she's in a miniscule minority within the journalistic community. I think part of the problem we on the left have is our inability to let go of our acceptance of the self-mythology of the MSM. Personally, I believe in 50 or 100 years, political journalism going back 4 or 5 decades is more likely to be studied in social psychology classes than it will in whatever journalism school evolves into.
I’m afraid that media has fallen into the trap of putting right wing zealots on tv, radio & in newspapers every day intending it to provide the news of the day. In actuality, free air time is given to them giving time to spew their propaganda!
The propaganda cat is out of the bag, now it will be very difficult to put him back in. Fascism, being right wing in nature, appeals to our conservatives. The problem lies in the conservative mind and their inability to change their mind, once they have accepted so called fascist facts. Even after being given corrective information showing that they are wrong, they refuse to change their stance. This is known as the Backfire Effect. I know a few of these people and they are so stuck in their mindset that they would risk their lives for their belief. I saw this during COVID 19. A relative was so sure the vaccinations were a plot, that he refused them. He got COVID and then long COVID. His mind was so fogged that he couldn't think..... all the result of propaganda. Our GOP has become far right and found their new home-- fascism. It will take at least a decade to reverse this. The media at this point will only make a minor difference.
The propaganda has been out of the bag since the late 1990s and early 2000s. That was when I recognized we were a country in trouble. We saw whites slipping into a minority and knew they'd be scared but didn't have the knowledge about what was going to happen but historians and others saw the coming of the fascists.
Speaker Pelosi saw it when mcturtle (sorry, folks, but he looks like a snapping turtle) stomped on everything that came out of the House. He wasn't called out for what he was really doing and that was a problem. Same thing happened when mcturtle held up Garland's scotus nomination.
Media failed (I think Joe and Mika were the first to realize to shut down rump who kept calling into their show). I failed by not voting in all the midterms.
President Obama said it best at John Lewis' funeral after learning about what dejoy was up to in destroying sorting machines to slow down delivery (or worse) of ballots. He literally took a cellphone call just before he gave the eulogy... decades or 200 years ... and what will be left of the world after "cruelty is the point" has controlled it for so long.
"And some day, when we do finish that long journey towards freedom, when we do form a more perfect union – whether it's years from now or decades or even
if it takes another two centuries – John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America."
Yeah, we've been on this path for many years. From the John Birch Society to Charles Koch Libetarianism, fascism has been sought as our ruling politics by those who hated democracy.
This is a repeat of everything bad (add Murdoch in there he’s “fox" and he bought out the WSJ and has the NYPost). I still remember late at night, hearing the admin late at work, sort of yell when he learned everything would be traceable to one’s computer on the internet. That was a circa 1997 and boy, do I remember that. I was afraid where the internet (I worked on the intranet) was going to take us. Mainframes were safer :) .
Now all this super stuff on the internet is speeding up the progression of all things xxx . And Ruth Ben-Ghiat and “Strongmen” are there to explain it.
What do you think, Steve? A few million of us paying a few $100$ each month to independent journalist using platforms like Substack, YouTube, Patreon, Post.news, etc, possibly an effective counter to the propaganda?
Those siding with fascism are very gullible. It's what authoritarians depend on to gain power. These same people seem to be suffering from fantasy prone personality and the Backfire Effect. Once a person can be convinced that the most ridiculous things are true, then that same person can be convinced that the truth is ridiculous. We can't change them; they have to change from within.
I think "they" are being changed, or altered. There is technology that aides in the creation of cultish thinking. It is similar to the tech involved with Havana Syndrome. [I'm slipping this into the conversation here because the discussion seems lively and you mentioned the "very gullible" My comment is not directed at you in any way sir. =]
I believe that the tech involved with the creation of cultish thinking is the internet mostly. Facebook allows fascist speech/propaganda to thrive. It has totally polarized voters into 2 waring clans who hate each other. It has allowed politicians to spread their toxic trash and create trench warfare. If we allow fascist speech, we are giving the green light for its acceptance. When Hitler was on the rise, there was the same discussion about allowing fascist speech. We need to stop it, now.
A sis saw a Lincoln Project ad @2019 and she asked my other sibling
about the commercial. My sibling helped and it worked. One vote for Joe.
Except ... I saw her a year ago and wanted me to visit her in FL :) . I gently explained why that will never happen. I got nicely ganged up on by an intelligent friend and my sibling. That sibling would never subscribe but ... I’ll use another sibling to get to her. Tnx! :)
Thank you Ruth for highlighting we must be " offensive e to protect democracy." Non-violent offensive. Every daily interaction we have should be viewed as an opportunity to educate and allow others to self-correct.
More on the importance of journalism as I wrote in my Substack Notes recently on the Climate Crisis.....
May is generally the start of wildfire season in Canada each year and the “Union of Concerned Scientists” (ucsusd.org) just made a straightforward and quantifiable association between increases in wildfires and carbon emissions fossil fuel use. They established the Carbon Major Report and it exposed that there are 88 companies that are responsible for the carbon emissions that are caught in the atmosphere today and are literally suffocating and choking the earth to death! This smothering is causing dramatic increases and consequences in wildfires, heat domes, and floods within countries.
The “Carbon Majors” is often the overall grouping name for the producers of Big Oil, Coal, and Gas investor-owned companies such as Shell, BP, Exxon, Chevron and BHP. The recently established Carbon Majors Report has found that 88 Oil, Coal, and Gas producers were responsible for 63 percent of all carbon emissions worldwide. This 2013 report was jointly commissioned by the Climate Justice Program and Greenpeace, and the findings were published in a journal article written by Richard Heede in “Climatic Change.” Most of world at that time -- 2013 -- discovered who is historically responsible for climate change, and the published research indicated that ChevronTexaco Corporation was the leading producer of 3.5 percent of all carbon emissions. Exxon was slightly behind at 3.2 percent, then BP at 2.5 percent. Then in 2017, the “Climate Accountability Institute” (CAI) updated the Carbon Majors Report and found that 3 years later, 100 Oil, Coal, and Gas producers were responsible for 71 percent of carbon emissions!
Since the release of the 2013 Carbon Majors Report, climate change litigation has been pursued with attempts to connect carbon emissions effects within the climate crisis within the court system throughout the world and in the US. These companies knew what fossil fuels were ultimately doing to our environment and what their continued use would increasingly do to our future, and they knowingly:
1. denied the effects of carbon emissions.
2. delayed the formulation of climate change policies.
3. spent half a billion dollars per year working against climate change policy.
4. slowed the switch to cleaner, safer electricity systems.
5. slowed the progress of substitute home heating systems.
While climate change disasters are increasing at harrowing rates and negatively affecting the most fundamental of human rights – such as the right to life, health, food security, water, and sanitation – real action to limit these devastating effects has been extremely slow in coming. Instead of addressing the main cause of climate change by curbing carbon emissions from the production and consumption of fossil fuels, the Carbon Majors continue to be largely unregulated in their activities and their human rights responsibilities under international law.
Another reason for regulation capture and ditto with SCOTUS.
It is like a death wish with these people.
"We won't change and you can't make us"
They would rather ruin the earth than be challenged to help save it!
Meanwhile back at FOX good old fair & balanced, dropped that slogan as the GOP went right off the cliff with no more reality Reps -full speed ahead to greater climate damage!
The same people that back fascism are the same ones that deny climate change. It's a case of gullibility, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, post-truth and postmoderism all rolled into one.
The five points you listed are the documented efforts they have made in order to stymie corrective actions. Listening to Brent Allpress, among others, has me convinced they have a black budget for their more unsavory programs =/
Mainstream journalism has become all about sensationalism in service of ad revenue and the addictive high that some journalists get seeing their articles go viral. We need journalism to return to stories that remind us about the things we really value, like honesty and compassion and helping those who need help. We need these stories to outnumber the propaganda of lies and hate.
I'm happy to see that Margaret Sullivan is now on substack - that podcast teaser with you is good.
Yes, it appears Margaret’s AMERICAN CRISIS Substack will be mandatory listening ... quite a group of journalists interviewed and linked to in just her first 5 episodes!!
If you’re being fired upon it is not only journalism responsibility to fire back but every one, especially those in marketing, must show exactly how Fascism will evidence its’ ugly head in America.
I listened to part of Nicole Hannah-Jones summit on Democracy at Howard University. It appears to be 7 hours long, BUT, It's excellent and worth listening to, at least in part. I will continue to listen in small segments.
This is related ... I think. CNN is on now talking about heat waves all over the world. Sat., Tel Aviv shows the continuing mass protest (in the heat) due to netanyahu's continuing destruction of the judicial system.. Signs: "Crime Minister" huge "SOS" and SOS USA SAVE US BB DANGEROUS! PSYCHOPATH Sounds familiar. My first wakeup call when I thought we were over the brink at 3 am were mass protests among looming government buildings in Belarus (some years back and I thought it was happening in this country.. Oy.
Interview one of the thousands of journalists who was tossed out of American journalism for being too competent.
I mean, look at how many times Margaret Sullivan, for all her bonafides, has been fired herself! For being too competent!
All these working journalists are dependent on propping up this failed system because they're still in it. That's the only reason they want it to still work.
Talk to the tens of thousands of us who are out...
Shout out to the university journalists at Northwestern last week who played a significant role in Northwestern University's hazing scandal. Their detailed reporting the following day, after the standardized reporting and statements, appears to have led to exposure that quickly accerlerated public outcry and hence caused positive change for the university and its students re: alleged hazing and systemic racism. Journalism is key to democracy and equity. A shining example by our youngest journalists!
Ruth, I'm concerned about the quality about today's young journalists. They don't seem to have any historical awareness. Splash seems to outweigh conveying objective knowledge; too many Maureen Dowds and not many upcoming Walter Cronkites or William Shires. There is also the issue of support mechanisms. A few years ago I was talking to former Newsday/Washington Post political writer Marie Cocco. She lamented that first thing too many news media organizations have done is cut back on their fact checking and research resources. That is not good. Plus there is also the issue of news organizations having their ownership centralized into fewer hands. This does not forebode well for the future.
Awsome! Thanks for the link to the interview =] I think there's something wrong with, primarily, the editorial decisions being made in corporate media. The dissolution of NYT public editor position was very disheartening =/ I think there are a lot of trustworthy Journalist and give careful thought to how I spend my info gathering time and money. Lucid has proven to be a great move on my part, (lols) when I ran out of podcasts and YT videos with profesor RBG, I did not panic! I subscribed to Lucid =]
The answer to the question is no. Our mainstream political media played a very large part in bringing us to this point, so expecting them to rescue democracy is a fantasy. Ms. Sullivan is a terrific critical voice but she's in a miniscule minority within the journalistic community. I think part of the problem we on the left have is our inability to let go of our acceptance of the self-mythology of the MSM. Personally, I believe in 50 or 100 years, political journalism going back 4 or 5 decades is more likely to be studied in social psychology classes than it will in whatever journalism school evolves into.
I’m afraid that media has fallen into the trap of putting right wing zealots on tv, radio & in newspapers every day intending it to provide the news of the day. In actuality, free air time is given to them giving time to spew their propaganda!
Oh, I agree with you, John Wilkins!
The propaganda cat is out of the bag, now it will be very difficult to put him back in. Fascism, being right wing in nature, appeals to our conservatives. The problem lies in the conservative mind and their inability to change their mind, once they have accepted so called fascist facts. Even after being given corrective information showing that they are wrong, they refuse to change their stance. This is known as the Backfire Effect. I know a few of these people and they are so stuck in their mindset that they would risk their lives for their belief. I saw this during COVID 19. A relative was so sure the vaccinations were a plot, that he refused them. He got COVID and then long COVID. His mind was so fogged that he couldn't think..... all the result of propaganda. Our GOP has become far right and found their new home-- fascism. It will take at least a decade to reverse this. The media at this point will only make a minor difference.
The propaganda has been out of the bag since the late 1990s and early 2000s. That was when I recognized we were a country in trouble. We saw whites slipping into a minority and knew they'd be scared but didn't have the knowledge about what was going to happen but historians and others saw the coming of the fascists.
Speaker Pelosi saw it when mcturtle (sorry, folks, but he looks like a snapping turtle) stomped on everything that came out of the House. He wasn't called out for what he was really doing and that was a problem. Same thing happened when mcturtle held up Garland's scotus nomination.
Media failed (I think Joe and Mika were the first to realize to shut down rump who kept calling into their show). I failed by not voting in all the midterms.
President Obama said it best at John Lewis' funeral after learning about what dejoy was up to in destroying sorting machines to slow down delivery (or worse) of ballots. He literally took a cellphone call just before he gave the eulogy... decades or 200 years ... and what will be left of the world after "cruelty is the point" has controlled it for so long.
"And some day, when we do finish that long journey towards freedom, when we do form a more perfect union – whether it's years from now or decades or even
if it takes another two centuries – John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America."
Yeah, we've been on this path for many years. From the John Birch Society to Charles Koch Libetarianism, fascism has been sought as our ruling politics by those who hated democracy.
This is a repeat of everything bad (add Murdoch in there he’s “fox" and he bought out the WSJ and has the NYPost). I still remember late at night, hearing the admin late at work, sort of yell when he learned everything would be traceable to one’s computer on the internet. That was a circa 1997 and boy, do I remember that. I was afraid where the internet (I worked on the intranet) was going to take us. Mainframes were safer :) .
Now all this super stuff on the internet is speeding up the progression of all things xxx . And Ruth Ben-Ghiat and “Strongmen” are there to explain it.
What do you think, Steve? A few million of us paying a few $100$ each month to independent journalist using platforms like Substack, YouTube, Patreon, Post.news, etc, possibly an effective counter to the propaganda?
Good idea, but most of those who need to read it simply don’t!
Those siding with fascism are very gullible. It's what authoritarians depend on to gain power. These same people seem to be suffering from fantasy prone personality and the Backfire Effect. Once a person can be convinced that the most ridiculous things are true, then that same person can be convinced that the truth is ridiculous. We can't change them; they have to change from within.
I think "they" are being changed, or altered. There is technology that aides in the creation of cultish thinking. It is similar to the tech involved with Havana Syndrome. [I'm slipping this into the conversation here because the discussion seems lively and you mentioned the "very gullible" My comment is not directed at you in any way sir. =]
I believe that the tech involved with the creation of cultish thinking is the internet mostly. Facebook allows fascist speech/propaganda to thrive. It has totally polarized voters into 2 waring clans who hate each other. It has allowed politicians to spread their toxic trash and create trench warfare. If we allow fascist speech, we are giving the green light for its acceptance. When Hitler was on the rise, there was the same discussion about allowing fascist speech. We need to stop it, now.
A sis saw a Lincoln Project ad @2019 and she asked my other sibling
about the commercial. My sibling helped and it worked. One vote for Joe.
Except ... I saw her a year ago and wanted me to visit her in FL :) . I gently explained why that will never happen. I got nicely ganged up on by an intelligent friend and my sibling. That sibling would never subscribe but ... I’ll use another sibling to get to her. Tnx! :)
=]
Healthy systems of education and journalism = democracy.
Thank you Ruth for highlighting we must be " offensive e to protect democracy." Non-violent offensive. Every daily interaction we have should be viewed as an opportunity to educate and allow others to self-correct.
Hoping you can report on some of your successful “daily interactions” in your Messaging Methods substack, Jan!!
Yes, it's good to share any success stories to bridge and forge new relationships. Ty Randolph for that idea !!
More on the importance of journalism as I wrote in my Substack Notes recently on the Climate Crisis.....
May is generally the start of wildfire season in Canada each year and the “Union of Concerned Scientists” (ucsusd.org) just made a straightforward and quantifiable association between increases in wildfires and carbon emissions fossil fuel use. They established the Carbon Major Report and it exposed that there are 88 companies that are responsible for the carbon emissions that are caught in the atmosphere today and are literally suffocating and choking the earth to death! This smothering is causing dramatic increases and consequences in wildfires, heat domes, and floods within countries.
The “Carbon Majors” is often the overall grouping name for the producers of Big Oil, Coal, and Gas investor-owned companies such as Shell, BP, Exxon, Chevron and BHP. The recently established Carbon Majors Report has found that 88 Oil, Coal, and Gas producers were responsible for 63 percent of all carbon emissions worldwide. This 2013 report was jointly commissioned by the Climate Justice Program and Greenpeace, and the findings were published in a journal article written by Richard Heede in “Climatic Change.” Most of world at that time -- 2013 -- discovered who is historically responsible for climate change, and the published research indicated that ChevronTexaco Corporation was the leading producer of 3.5 percent of all carbon emissions. Exxon was slightly behind at 3.2 percent, then BP at 2.5 percent. Then in 2017, the “Climate Accountability Institute” (CAI) updated the Carbon Majors Report and found that 3 years later, 100 Oil, Coal, and Gas producers were responsible for 71 percent of carbon emissions!
Since the release of the 2013 Carbon Majors Report, climate change litigation has been pursued with attempts to connect carbon emissions effects within the climate crisis within the court system throughout the world and in the US. These companies knew what fossil fuels were ultimately doing to our environment and what their continued use would increasingly do to our future, and they knowingly:
1. denied the effects of carbon emissions.
2. delayed the formulation of climate change policies.
3. spent half a billion dollars per year working against climate change policy.
4. slowed the switch to cleaner, safer electricity systems.
5. slowed the progress of substitute home heating systems.
While climate change disasters are increasing at harrowing rates and negatively affecting the most fundamental of human rights – such as the right to life, health, food security, water, and sanitation – real action to limit these devastating effects has been extremely slow in coming. Instead of addressing the main cause of climate change by curbing carbon emissions from the production and consumption of fossil fuels, the Carbon Majors continue to be largely unregulated in their activities and their human rights responsibilities under international law.
Meanwhile, the Orkney Islands of Scottland have a viable hydrogen energy system in place.
Whoh!
Another reason for regulation capture and ditto with SCOTUS.
It is like a death wish with these people.
"We won't change and you can't make us"
They would rather ruin the earth than be challenged to help save it!
Meanwhile back at FOX good old fair & balanced, dropped that slogan as the GOP went right off the cliff with no more reality Reps -full speed ahead to greater climate damage!
The same people that back fascism are the same ones that deny climate change. It's a case of gullibility, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, post-truth and postmoderism all rolled into one.
The five points you listed are the documented efforts they have made in order to stymie corrective actions. Listening to Brent Allpress, among others, has me convinced they have a black budget for their more unsavory programs =/
Mainstream journalism has become all about sensationalism in service of ad revenue and the addictive high that some journalists get seeing their articles go viral. We need journalism to return to stories that remind us about the things we really value, like honesty and compassion and helping those who need help. We need these stories to outnumber the propaganda of lies and hate.
I'm happy to see that Margaret Sullivan is now on substack - that podcast teaser with you is good.
Yes, it appears Margaret’s AMERICAN CRISIS Substack will be mandatory listening ... quite a group of journalists interviewed and linked to in just her first 5 episodes!!
If you’re being fired upon it is not only journalism responsibility to fire back but every one, especially those in marketing, must show exactly how Fascism will evidence its’ ugly head in America.
I listened to part of Nicole Hannah-Jones summit on Democracy at Howard University. It appears to be 7 hours long, BUT, It's excellent and worth listening to, at least in part. I will continue to listen in small segments.
Yes, Joanna, all 7 hrs worth it ... Ruth’s duet with Jason Stanley was holy-moly!... why aren’t these two barnstorming around the country!!
I would imagine it has to do with time constraints and that Ruth teaches in New York.
This is related ... I think. CNN is on now talking about heat waves all over the world. Sat., Tel Aviv shows the continuing mass protest (in the heat) due to netanyahu's continuing destruction of the judicial system.. Signs: "Crime Minister" huge "SOS" and SOS USA SAVE US BB DANGEROUS! PSYCHOPATH Sounds familiar. My first wakeup call when I thought we were over the brink at 3 am were mass protests among looming government buildings in Belarus (some years back and I thought it was happening in this country.. Oy.
Interview one of the thousands of journalists who was tossed out of American journalism for being too competent.
I mean, look at how many times Margaret Sullivan, for all her bonafides, has been fired herself! For being too competent!
All these working journalists are dependent on propping up this failed system because they're still in it. That's the only reason they want it to still work.
Talk to the tens of thousands of us who are out...
Shout out to the university journalists at Northwestern last week who played a significant role in Northwestern University's hazing scandal. Their detailed reporting the following day, after the standardized reporting and statements, appears to have led to exposure that quickly accerlerated public outcry and hence caused positive change for the university and its students re: alleged hazing and systemic racism. Journalism is key to democracy and equity. A shining example by our youngest journalists!
Ruth, I'm concerned about the quality about today's young journalists. They don't seem to have any historical awareness. Splash seems to outweigh conveying objective knowledge; too many Maureen Dowds and not many upcoming Walter Cronkites or William Shires. There is also the issue of support mechanisms. A few years ago I was talking to former Newsday/Washington Post political writer Marie Cocco. She lamented that first thing too many news media organizations have done is cut back on their fact checking and research resources. That is not good. Plus there is also the issue of news organizations having their ownership centralized into fewer hands. This does not forebode well for the future.
Awsome! Thanks for the link to the interview =] I think there's something wrong with, primarily, the editorial decisions being made in corporate media. The dissolution of NYT public editor position was very disheartening =/ I think there are a lot of trustworthy Journalist and give careful thought to how I spend my info gathering time and money. Lucid has proven to be a great move on my part, (lols) when I ran out of podcasts and YT videos with profesor RBG, I did not panic! I subscribed to Lucid =]