09 January 2024 | Bonfire of the Media Vanities

They really are this vapid

The Media Whores have never changed and they **never** will change. Biden’s predecessor was very, very good for our Media Glitterati because they could use that victimhood of being depicted as “enemies” to boost their subscriber count in a martyrdom routine with its own kicky slogans (“Democracy dies in darkness” to name an especially vapid one). Democrats and Democratic supporters are susceptible to emotional manipulation by the MW because they reflexively buy into the entire romance of a free press. Wash, rinse, repeat.

We have been ill served by just about all the major media outlets but we are unwilling to punish them by canceling subscriptions in enough numbers (because money is the only arbiter of power here that matters) since that might mean letting “Them” win. It’s the same mentality with Twitter: a garbage platform that deserves to die but as long as people find a self-serving justification to stay there, it’s not going anywhere. By keeping your subscription, you fantasize that you are a plucky member of the Rebel Alliance fighting the Empire as you ignore the implications of your own compliance with a media landscape that is raising bothersiderism to an art form.

To wit: the New York Times runs this headline, “Clashing Over Jan. 6, Trump and Biden Show Reality Is at Stake in 2024.” (The Associated Press posted something similarly limp.) These examples completely water down the domestic terrorism of Jan 6 into something that can be *interpreted* different ways, all equally valid. On another media front, Congressional member Elsie Stefanik refers to January 6 rioters who have been tried, sentenced and jailed as “hostages” without any pushback from her Meet the Press interlocutor, Kristen Welker. See the pattern? The **media** is the problem here because they help create the narratives that undermine facts, whether it’s their repeated insistence of a shaky economy (numbers keep proving otherwise), perpetuating the notion that inflation is high, or helping to whitewash Jan 6 without even the pretense of fact-checking. As the media loves (and needs) a horserace, just expect this to get even worse with Biden depicted as “an embattled incumbent” and P01135809 as some kind of an upstart who is his inevitable opponent.

As Larry David once described “Seinfeld,” America is all about “no learning.” Media watchers need to stop asking “when will they learn?” and accept that fact that they just don’t want to.