The myth of “liberal” news: How the media does the work of fascists
DL has been making this point for nearly 20 years. Salon just now gets it.
There is no such thing as the so-called liberal news media. In reality, there is a corporate news media that polices the limits of approved public discourse and privileges the voices and agenda of the powerful over those of everyday Americans. And in a time of ascendant neofascism, that is a great betrayal of the American people and the sacred responsibility that the Fourth Estate has in a democracy.
“The liberal media” (and its conjoined twin “liberal media bias”) is language that was invented by the American right-wing in the 1980s and 1990s as a way of training and bullying the American news media into serving its agenda – or at a minimum a much more friendly and uncritical space through which to distribute right-wing talking points, dogma, and misinformation.
Steven Harper at Common Dreams yesterday posted a good example of this.
A few weeks back we experienced a troll outbreak here at DL when the New York Times published a column by one of its conservative propagandists, Bret Stephens, that grossly misrepresented a study on the effectiveness of mask-wearing during the pandemic.
Harper explains why that was bad, and points out that the “liberal” New York Times refuses to take responsibility for publishing it.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/bret-stephens-masks-new-york-times
As noted assorted fools who should have known better, it’s a good example of just how powerful propaganda can be. It’s also a reminder that none are truly free when under corporate control.