Considering how reluctant the news media are to credit President Trump for anything, it’s fascinating that they give him full ownership of their own decline, when it’s actually the one important thing that he has nothing to do with.
The New York Times “Daily” podcast this week ran an episode bestowing Trump with the honor of “breaking the media.” Examples of such include the president going on popular podcasts, the rise of alternative news platforms, and Trump excluding the Associated Press from the White House press pool. But the most striking part of the episode’s conversation between Times correspondents Michael Barbaro and Jim Rutenberg was when Rutenberg, who covers media, tried distinguishing between more traditional news figures like the late Walter Cronkite of CBS and podcaster Joe Rogan.
“[T]heir networks, the Walter Cronkite, they’re rooted in news,” said Rutenberg, as if “news” is a concrete concept like addition or subtraction. (“News” is whatever any given person didn’t know and that he finds compelling.) “You could like them or hate them but they try to traffic in verifiable fact, following the rules of journalism. Rogan doesn’t. He’s free to say and go wherever he wants and his guests can go on and on about things, no matter how far they may be veering from the verifiable facts.”
That Trump and, more importantly mass audiences, prefer mediums like Rogan’s, where “guests can go on and on about things, no matter how far they may be veering from verifiable facts,” is not something the president invented. It’s the consequence of a thoroughly rotten media, including the Times, assuming it had control over our government and our elections.
In fairness, they kind of did. But now everyone’s in on the scam and they’re aware that they have choices outside of the Times and CBS. […]
— Read More: thefederalist.com
