09 November 2024 | It’s the Repetition, Stupid

Right-wing channels set the news agenda. In the summer of 2008, thoroughly disgusted by the treatment of Hillary by the Democratic Party in favor of Obama, I drifted into listening right-wing radio. Then a couple months later, I snapped: it was the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. Every day. I thought: “How can anyone listen to this day and day out for hours? It’s the same thing!”

How do you get people to believe the Big Lie? Repeat it endlessly. How do you get people to believe inflation is killing you? Repeat it endlessly. Repetition works.

And this is what people do and continue to do so. And it’s only gotten more pervasive but the core of the operation remains the same. The legacy outlets, like the New York Times and the Washington Post, simply followed that lead, under the veneer of their (perceived) glory days to make the rest of us think they were careful and responsible and could be trusted. We have seen that is not the case, and it’s not going to change.