We have often discussed the increasing bias and advocacy in major media in the United States. While cable networks have long catered to political audiences on the left or right, mainstream newspapers and networks now openly frame news to fit a political narrative. With the exception of Fox and a couple of other smaller news outlets, that slant is heavily to the left. What is most striking about this universal shift toward advocacy journalism (including at journalism schools) is that there is no evidence that it is a sustainable approach for the media as an industry. While outfits like NPR allow reporters to actually participate in protests and the New York Times sheds conservative opinions, the new poll shows a sharp and worrisome division in trust in the media. Not surprisingly given the heavy slant of American media, Democrats are largely happy with and trusting of the media. Conversely, Republicans and independents are not. The question is whether the mainstream media can survive and flourish by writing off over half of the country.
The new study from the non-partisan Pew Research Center shows a massive decline in trust among Republicans. Five years ago, 70 percent of Republicans said they had at least some trust in national news organizations. In 2021, that trust is down to just 35 percent.
Conversely, and not surprisingly, 78 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying they have “a lot” or “some” trust in the media. When you just ask liberal Democrats, it jumps to 83 percent.
For those looking for echo-journalism that reaffirms their assumptions, liberals are more likely to realize such confirmation bias on networks and cable programs. For conservatives and others (see below), they are largely limited to looking to Fox News and a couple other sites to get the other side of stories. This has worked incredibly well for Fox which has rivaled the national networks in some time slots. However, it is not good in the long run for American media, which is jettisoning much of the country in its coverage. We need healthy and multiple news outlets to give citizens a reliable and trusted body of journalism.
The question is whether news programs can sustain themselves by effectively writing off half of the country. It will require a higher percentage of liberals and Democrats reading and watching these siloed programs.
That does not appear to be the case. Fox News remains the most dominant cable network. (For full disclosure, I appear as a legal analyst on Fox). The recent numbers are staggering.
Fox News Channel (FNC) was rated as holding 94 of the top 100 live telecasts on all of cable TV in August. Fox’s average prime-time audience (2.5 million) is now routinely double MSNBC’s (1.229 million) and triple CNN’s (819,000). In “the demo” of viewers under 55, Fox is also beating the other networks. Thirteen of the top 14 cable-news shows were on FNC.
CNN has dropped in “trust” while Fox has risen. Moreover, CNN has lost 68 percent of its viewership. While all news outfits are down from the heady days of the impeachments and elections, this is a nose-bleed of a drop for any new organization. I still have friends working at CNN and I worked with the network for decades. We need a strong array of news outlets, including different views of stories on opinion programs. This is an industry wide crisis of trust. This poll is bad news for the industry which is based first and foremost on trust.
Moreover, the Pew Research Center released a journalism project entitled How Americans Navigated the News in 2020: A Tumultuous Year in Review that surprised many in showing that more Democrats were watching Fox than assumed by most commentators. As Forbes reported, “the Fox News viewership actually consists of more than just Trump devotees — that, in fact, there are more Democrats on a regular basis watching Fox than you might expect.”
I have been a columnist for three decades and I have worked for NBC, MSNBC, CBS, BBC, and Fox as a legal analyst. I have watched with increasing alarm as the media has openly embraced advocacy journalism even in mainstream news reporting. At the same time, we have witnessed the drop in viewership and readership in media outlets overall. Clearly, part of this trend is due to the rise of digital sources and the impact of the Internet. However, fewer people trust the media and the effect of the bias on many programs is to reduce the population of news consumers to roughly half. While national media has always had a liberal slant, the bias is now extreme, obvious, and consistent across platforms. The result is like operating in a country with half of our population by design.
The embrace of advocacy journalism has worked on an individual level for journalists and editors to protect their own positions. However, it could be killing the profession, particularly among non-cable outlets. The fact is that people have become used to echo journalism and it is not likely to change in cable programming (which has always been heavily opinion based in the evenings). Yet, newspapers and outlets like NPR are now openly and consistently biased in coverage from avoiding coverage of some stories to soft-peddling other stories. While NPR remains a massive news organization, it has also experienced declining numbers.
Cable networks will continue to feature more opinion-based news. However, it is the extent of the bias that has led to a stampede of viewers. Viewers now face virtual blackouts of news like the Hunter Biden laptop story on both cable and network shows. At the same time, social media companies are actively banning opposing views on major news stories. That leaves conservative, independent, and just inquisitive viewers with few options for news. Yet, the alienation from much of the country leaves most media outlets dividing up a smaller and smaller pie of news consumers. The new poll suggests that this is not enough to sustain many of our media platforms which may have to return to the center or face starvation on the edges.
As a law professor, I am particularly concerned that the drop in trust will impact our political system. People simply no longer believe what is being reported on sites like NPR or NYT. The result is that it is more difficult to identify what is false or unsupported.
I have worked in the media for almost three decades and, for the first time, I am uncertain of the future for American media for the next decade if these trends continue. At some point, the media will have to recognize that journalism means little if fewer and fewer people want to read it or watch it.
Jonathan: You are back to the worn out narrative that “echo journalism” from the mass media is “effectively writing off half the country.” Your column is more of a promo for Fox news rather than an objective analysis of journalism. I suppose your own bias is justified since you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you. So let’s discuss a couple of important issues that might shed light on who is actually practicing “echo journalism”. One is the 2020 elections. You say conservatives look to Fox “to get the other side of stories”. Most Republicans still think the election was “stolen” from Trump and they watch Fox because the talking heads at Fox continue to reinforce this false narrative. Covid and vaccines are another issue. Fox continues to spew out misinformation on this subject. It is a bit ironic that almost 60% of Fox viewers are the high-risk over-65 age group. You would think Fox would want to give this group accurate information regarding Covid vaccines. But you would be wrong. From June 20 through July 11 Fox aired 129 segments about the vaccines. 57% included unsubstantiated claims downplaying immunization efforts–or promoting unscientific therapies. Laura Ingram touted “natural immunities” over vaccination. Tucker Carlson did the same thing by promoting anti-vac theories. Fox’s business model is pro-Trump and pro-GOP. It wants to hurt Biden–especially over the handling of the Covid pandemic. So if a lot of people die because they refuse to get vaccinated and Biden suffers in the polls Fox thinks that is worth the price. Cynical? Yep, but Fox is about keeping the GOP in power–whatever it takes.
Yes, MSNBC, et al, have a POV. But Rupert Murdock is the one at war with journalism. He no longer promises to be “fair and balanced”. Every morning his executives issue memos–talking points for presenters on what news can be covered and which can’t. You decry “advocacy journalism” but isn’t that what Fox does in spades? Why the double standard?
Fox has a straight news division and an editorial division – these are distinct, and Fox is relatively good at precluding advocacy from their news.
You cited Carlson and Ingram. They are not straight news. They are not even Journalists. They exist explicitly to express oppinions regarding the news. Everyone knows that they are engaged in advocacy. Just as everyone knows that Rachel Maddow is engaged in advocacy.
Outside of the editorial pages NYT and WaPo and much of NPR are supposed to be straight news. They used to be – atleast mostly. Today they are not.
We judge straight news differently – we do not expect or want advocacy in straight news – We want the facts and only the facts, and we draw our own conclusions. The news is sometimes wrong about the facts – and we judge them for that, but often the news is reporting things as they occur – and we expect confusion and even changing stories – as more is learned.
We expect the news to be unbiased and to eventually get the FACTS right.
When we listen to Maddow or Carlson we are expecting analysis – and we know going in the biases of those we are listening to.
We do judge them – but primarily based on the quality and accuracy of their analysis.
Contra your assertions – We do NOT judge Carlson or Maddow based on their conformance to so called “experts”.
Those “experts” are merely another form of advocacy.
Put simply there is a difference between those – in the media, in government who are informing you of facts, and those who are trying to persuade you.
We judge those who engage in persuasion based on whether over the long run their claims prove correct.
Most of us – thought probably not you, are familiar with a long list of stories that both the left leaning straight news and the advocacy journalists have gotten wrong.
Turley noted that democrats are moving to Fox in significant numbers.
It does not appear that republicans are moving to CNN, MSNBC, …
Democrats are LESS satisified with the left leaning media than Republicans with the right.
This is unsurprising as nut jobs like Alex Jones have been more likely to be correct over the past 5 years, than Chris Coumo, or Jake Tapper or ….
You are free to draw your own conclusions – but an awful lot of democrats appear to have decided that the quality of reporting they are getting – either in straight news or from news commentators from left leaning journalists is poor.
John say,
“ Fox has a straight news division and an editorial division – these are distinct, and Fox is relatively good at precluding advocacy from their news.”
This is only partially true. Fox News does indeed have a straight news division and admittedly it has some good news reporting. However, Fox News is not dominated by straight news. The majority of its programming is punditry and opinion shows that are strategically slotted in prime time where the majority of their viewers will tune in. It’s those shows, the opinion segments that are the sources of most information for those who seek the facts. It’s shows where clearly they are doing the kind of advocacy journalism Turley mentions.
Fox straight news may not be exercising advocacy news and puts out only the facts, but they are almost immediately undermined by the opinion shows which are the biggest source of “news” to the majority of Fox viewers. Recently conservative Fox viewers have been sour on the straight news division because the facts were not lining up with the opinion shows claims. Fox News successfully blurred the line between opinion and fact.
We can thank Fox News for creating the path towards advocacy journalism. Mainstream media sought to copy Fox News with the same formats because it was successful in gaining viewership.
Democrats are not flocking fo Fox News because mainstream media is lacking in the reporting of facts. It’s simply viewing entertainment shows that are the opinion segments. Often to leann about the disinformation or outright falsehoods that will eventually trickle down to the blogs and the uninformed.
Svelaz – the straight news sections are not “undermined” by the op ed sections on Fox. If you want straight news without commentary or opinion, you can access it. You just set your DVR and record whatever shows you want. You can’t even find straight news on most mainstream media sources anymore, especially with regards to public policy or politics. For instance, you’d be hard pressed to find accurate, straight news critical of Joe Biden in most print and tv news stations other than Fox until the Afghanistan debacle. All of a sudden, reports became interested in something other than the flavor of ice cream old Joe was eating.
It wasn’t Fox that started advocacy journalism. If you looked into it, Fox was created to counter the media which exclusively leaned Left. Fox made an effort to present both sides of issues, and straight news, in addition to the right leaning oped pieces.
Fox is a conservative news channel, and its editorial and panel discussions are very popular. It arose at a time when there was nothing available that wasn’t Left viewpoints. You couldn’t hear a conservative viewpoint on any channel, at the time. Similarly, Rush Limbaugh pioneered conservative radio broadcasts.
You’re saying that mainstream media went Left to counter Fox News, but that’s not the reality of Fox’s formation, nor does it accurately reflect the trend in mainstream news, which has gone hard Left regardless of what Fox says or does.
I used to listen to NPR on long drives, and especially enjoyed interviews with authors and artists. But it wasn’t long before the program went so hard Left that it was like listening to Pravda or <The Beijing News. We now have taxpayer funded Democrat propaganda in public radio, public television, the public education system, and almost all universities. For a long time, there was no opposing viewpoint available to stem this deluge.
Karen S,
Spot on about NPR.
They, after the 2016 presidential election, they went so far hard Left, the mental gymnastics to link anything and everything bad with Trump was sickening. They became the CNN of the radio, and that is not in a good way.
I had to quit listening to them as a way to save my sanity.
They have gone full Left to promote their propaganda/advocacy journalism.
NPR has more in common with 1930s Germany or Mao’s Culture Revolution propaganda.
Exactly.
Svelaz continues with his Turley is a shill for Fox News canard. And I will continue to make the readers aware of the Professors affiliation with media on both the right and the left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Turley. Need I remind Svelaz that Professor Turley voted for Hillary Clinton. C’mon Svelaz is our expectation for more creativity on your part only a misspent hope?
Why nit cut to the chase and rename the ‘cable news channels’ as what they really are, which is The Cabal News Network. They’ll do just fine without half the viewership available, as the cabal will see that they are rewarded for toeing the party line.
Dennis:
“But you would be wrong. From June 20 through July 11 Fox aired 129 segments about the vaccines. 57% included unsubstantiated claims downplaying immunization efforts–or promoting unscientific therapies. Laura Ingram touted “natural immunities” over vaccination. Tucker Carlson did the same thing by promoting anti-vac theories. Fox’s business model is pro-Trump and pro-GOP.”
********************************
Per the flip-flopping CDC, about 650,000 people have died from Covid over two years. There are 330,000,000 or so million people in the country that means the total death rate is .21% or .11% per year. Your chances of annual survival are about 99.89% IF you believe the numbers weren’t inflated which they were. So if you wanna go around explaining that the sky is falling, be my guest. The rest of us just chuckle at the lame brains and do our own thing knowing we’ll be just fine. As for Fox, why not downplay the fear? They’re not Dimocrats.
I’m old enough to remember news and then editorials and opinions were clearly described as such. First the lines got blurred, not blatantly abandoning journalism.
Jefferson’s quote can now apply to cable “news”
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
Thomas Jefferson
Charles H. Smith was the first to bring it to my attention the actual numbers that 90% of the media is controlled by 6 corporations. 5 lean left and then there is Fox.
I do not trust any of them. They all have their slant and bias. Pre-2016 NPR, one could at least ignore the bias and slant and still get decent reporting. Since then, they went all woke/CNN like.
I definitely do not trust or read any news outlet that promotes advocacy journalism.
Alt-media like Glenn Greenwald, Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Sharyl Attkisson, Charles H. Smith, and legal blog/commentary Professor Turley are more important than ever.
Upstate, I agree with you completely. They are not even trying to be accurate. But I carry it further and decline most entertainment on television. I cut the cable. Too many shows push left wing messages and too many are foul mouthed and puerile. I haven’t watched an ‘awards’ show in over a decade, probably longer. I am not boycotting, nothing so political; I just can’t stomach what they are serving.
As for alt-media, it is more important than ever–that and books.
Young,
The comments section of this blog functions like an aggregator of the various news outlets. After awhile you know which to completely dismiss, those that are opinion only and those that are informative w/supporting links to facts and evidence. I use Feedly as a news aggregator. It’s a great tool for getting alt-media reporting.
Olly, thanks!
Olly,
Hear! Hear!
-Young,
Right you are.
I cut the cable back in 08′ before it was common lexicon.
Entertainment on TV is nothing more than who can be more virtual signaling.
There are a few out there that are more realistic, gritty (Amazons Wayne comes to mind) than MSM entertainment.
BSG was far ahead of its time.
Same could be said about Downton Abby, for a period show.
Your last line says it all.
And books. Currently reading Arthur C. Clarke’s collection of short stories.
Upstate, you’re confusing news and opinion. Those you list all sit in their living room spouting opinions, they aren’t in Afghanistan – were by the way, the supposed bias MSM skewered Biden – or at the flooding in Tennessee. They regurgitate what they read in the NYTs and WaPo and spin it how they want. That is the very essence of advocacy journailsm. You just like what they are advocating.
Quarantined,
You could not be more wrong.
Glenn Greenwald exposed the NYT for their false reporting on the CPD officer Brian Sicknick death. He went further and debunked a few other false claims about Jan6th that MSM continued to promote.
Bari Weiss did a report on parents who were alarmed about CRT and radical teachings in their private schools. One of the first reports about radical teaching in education.
Matt Taibbi, Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti did a great piece about the revolving door of military and DoD contractors going to be analysts at MSM, or sit on MIC boards, like former Army general, current SecDef Lloyd Austin was sitting as a board member of DoD contracting firm Raytheon.
Sharyl Attkisson, has done a number of excellent pieces, and she always states, “Think for yourself.
Not what the NYT is telling you to think.
bring it to my attention the actual numbers that 90% of the media is controlled by 6 corporations. 5 lean left and then there is Fox.
Unfortunately those 5 corporations make their money in entertainment. Not media. Where is the largest entertainment market, after the US? CCP China. Lots of “news” currating and editing is meant to appease China. That makes a lot of their decision come into focus
The Twilight Zone. You are obsolete. Walk into this room at your own risk.
There is one rule. Logic is an enemy & truth is a menace.
Today in Journalism
CNN’s @jimsciutto lands interview w/ Dr Fauci & doesn’t ask about @theintercept’s bombshell reporting he lied under oath re funding China’s gain-of-function research that likely led to creation of Covid19. (Instead he asks him tee off against @GovRonDeSantis)
~Tom Elliott
@tomselliott
Can they survive? Sure with ever declining viewers and hence revenue. The media is moving from a hierarchical model to a network model with diffuse information being provided in various outlets. See the rise of Breitbart and the Washington Free Beacon on the Right; and Vox and CNN on the Left. No one can control it. It’s just out there and everywhere. You can pick your news and then watch it slam up against the truth so you can decide if you like your pick.
https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/new-network-effect-model-influence-0
Politicians will keep bailing them out using our money. They have a spending problem they can’t get over.
Sure Mespo, but the “truth” isn’t what most are looking for, they are looking for their own set of facts, something less available in Moynihan’s time. Turley is too dense to get it and imagines we didn’t have a golden age of journalistic ethics – not perfect, but pretty good – and still do, though it is dying. We are reverting to the model during our countries founding and later into it’s history when newspapers were primarily the organs of political parties, machines, movements, and personalities, not muckrakers and corruption foes.
Since a democracy requires an informed citizenry, the only hope is that we mostly all wise up and become less gullible about the hucksters selling you conspiracies on Facebook and You Tube and we again buy the product of those who are selling accurate news reporting. They exist, but they are dying. Among them are the major papers incl the NYTs, WSJ, WaPo, etc, many smaller – though fewer – local papers, the AP, Reuters, BBC, NPR, etc and even network news, which is only leftist if you are to the right of Reagan.
The hell with Turley and his campaign to undermine our still excellence press – compare it to any time or place in history – and which will keep you very informed. If you don’t like the editorials – I don’t like those in the WSJ, but I recognize their excellent reporting – don’t read them or look for the guest editorial from the right. You need the news and they are the best.
Agree and for that to happen , an informed citizen needs to go to the original source of whatever is being spinned – the state law, in writing, the Supreme Court decision in writing etc and to realize that the cable “news” networks rehash , on the hour , the same story line the management wants them to project – most should come with a disclaimer that these are option pieces, not news .
Agreed maplady7. Our 24/7 “news” networks are primarily opinion networks.
The hell with Turley and his campaign to undermine our still excellence press
Classic narcissistic attitude. Your entire comment reveals just how insecure you are about what you think you know. Whether it’s insulting our host, or those not in lockstep with your opinion, you’re comments reflect Bezmenov’s demoralized. It would take a miracle for you to reach gullible status.
Olly, you’re exhibit A for our increasingly uninformed citizenry. At least earlier those like you didn’t think they were.
Oh snap! 🙄
“The hell with Turley…”
then why are you here?
“Free Press”. What did that mean in days of old? The press was a machine that printed paper copies. Free referred to not being controlled by the government or lord’s.
Some news is still printed on paper. Most news is on tv. Some on radio. Less on radio than 20 years ago.
The tv media’s biggest problem is they hired dorks like Tucker.
I think MSNBC is the best. CBS is good.
Lately both the right and the left have been throwing stones at Biden.
To those who want to stay at half ass wars I say:. Pull out now look your father should have.
Bahahahhahahhahahhaha…hahahahhahahhhahahah….MSDNC the BEST??? REALLY??? Bahahhahahhahahhahahha!!! Bahahahhahahhahhahhaha….Go back to sleep now.
“Its task is not to make an objective study of the truth, in so far as it favors the enemy, and then set it before the masses with academic fairness; its task is to serve our own right, always and unflinchingly.”
If we substitute the word “conservative” for “enemy” this quote aptly describes the role MSM and the social media giants have adopted. Their task clearly is to serve the progressive and democrat agenda, “always and unflinchingly.” The quote, of course, is from Mein Kampf, Vol. 1, Chap. 6, “War Propaganda.”
Are college kids finally waking up??
This weekend college kids filled stadiums for their beloved football games (not kneeling) and sent a message to the Biden administration of “puck u Joe Biden”. There’s a YouTube link, not sure if I could apply it here because of the salty language? One kid opens with his mistake of voting for Dums based on media coverage of President Trump.
PBS has Yamiche Alcindor as a ‘reporter” so how can they be take seriously? MSNBC has Joy Reid and CNN has Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, I mean really!
PBS promoted Yamiche to host their Washington Week roundtable. She thinks she’s another Gwen Ifill — which she is not and will never be. Yamiche is an activist with an agenda and she is beyond awful. PBS is now unwatchable.
We are developing new news sources; just look at the paying subscribers for Glenn Greenwald and Bari Weiss.
They are both Lefties, but honest, so conservatives respect their points of view.
Interesting pathology on the Left when viewers enjoy being lied to. It is similar to those people who like to watch their spouses having sex with other people.
I understand what they are doing, but I have contempt for them.
There are going to be shrill screams from the Lefties about this article. Watch them attack Turley to deflect.
All part of the Lefty intellectual dishonesty.
So, I read the Pew report on NPR. The report included this: “On the television side, [PBS] NewsHour derives its revenue from a variety of sources, including PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and a mix of “nonpublic” streams such as corporations, individual giving and foundations. While the details about public sources of revenue were unavailable for this analysis, NewsHour did provide information about its breakdown of nonpublic funding.”
PBS refused to provide to Pew the sources of public funding. THAT’S TAXPAYER MONEY. So, PBS promotes liberal views and is openly biased; the liberal politicians give taxpayer money to PBS. Rinse, repeat. Question for Turley: Is that corruption or cronyism?
Same scheme goes on with Teachers unions, Planned Parenthood, foreign “aid” ….etc…..the federal government is one big money laundering kick-back operation.
Ask sleezy career politician Joe Biden how it all works, He and his son Hunter have run the Biden Family money laundering-bribery operation for decades. (which the media dutifully ignore and cover up, of course).
Joe Biden’s family did not get filthy rich from Joe writing a book about Beau.
Dallas, it is the same scam the Democrats play with PUBLIC unions. The Dems give money and the receivers donate it back to the Dems.
“Question for Turley: Is that corruption or cronyism?” Both.
Local news TV and radio stations are more important than ever and probably the least watched, listened to…
Cable news like CNN is now pitiful, laughable info-tainment, it is not “news.”
75% of all the advertising in mainstream media and Cable news shows is paid for by Big Pharmaceutical companies.
We get MORE real, factual, helpful-to-know, relaible information from broadcasts like Alex Jones and Steve Bannon’s War Room than anything on cable.
Turley’s warped view helps him work his attempts to undermine Fox competitors, as is his job.
In his confusion – deliberate or beyond his capabilities to remedy – he thinks that the center is left and Trumpian cultism is conservative and he is also incapable of distinguishing between news and opinion.
Those of us who regularly read major news sources from the NYTs to the AP and Reuters have a pretty good idea as to current events and what is going on in the world, while people like him are mesmerized by the shiny baubles of the culture war beads thrown from the cult floats. All he has to do is lift his shirt, and he gets more.
LOL. That’s pretty funny. You were trying to be funny, right?
Q, ( am name that fits because your are conspiratorial) seems to hate Fox and the good Professor but yet he/she will watch Joy Reid!?!??!?!?
I don’t watch Joy Reid.
Just admitting that you regularly read the NYT is enough to disqualify any of your comments. You have exposed yourself.
Alma, it’s why I know more than you, including the fact that the suppression of the Hunter Biden stories followed the same pattern as the hiding of the Steele Dossier before the 2016 election. That’s a fact Turley either doesn’t know or is covering up, eother one damnable for a pontificator.
In Sept 2016 Fusion GPS invited various major news sources to view the Dossier at their offices and many took them up on it. None published anything about it until Jan 2017, the reason being – as with the Hunter Biden story – an attempt at being responsible about throwing October surprises in the mix before the election with salacious, uncorroborated stories. Turley prefers to claim it was partisan with Hunter – hey, he’s a GOP operative on Fox – while ignoring the protection of Trump from the media in 2016.
As I stated, you have exposed yourself. Any further postings will always be met with skepticism. You need not waste anyone’s time. Read history, that should cure your mind of the clutter that fills the main stream media. There is nothing new under the sun, corruption is germane to humans, it is just difficult to admit you have been duped.
Alma, for your enjoyment. PS Why don’t you already know this?
“The founders of Fusion GPS have described how they did not hide the fact that they were researching Trump and Russia: “Fusion and Steele tried to alert U.S. law enforcement and the news media to the material they’d uncovered …” and their office became “something of a public reading room” for journalists seeking information. In September they arranged a private meeting between Steele and reporters from The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, ABC News, and other outlets. The results were disappointing, as none published any stories before the election.[58]
Jane Mayer has described how, in “late summer, Fusion set up a series of meetings, at the Tabard Inn, in Washington, between Steele and a handful of national-security reporters. … Despite Steele’s generally cool manner, he seemed distraught about the Russians’ role in the election.” Mayer attended one of the meetings. None of these news organizations ran any stories about the allegations at that time.[20]
Only two sources mentioned allegations, which we now know came from dossier reports, before the election. Steele had been in contact with both authors. These were a September 23, 2016, Yahoo! News article by Michael Isikoff which focused on Carter Page,[101] and an article by David Corn on October 31, 2016, a week before the election, in Mother Jones magazine.[80]”
Check footnotes for sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steele_dossier#Hints_of_existence
The corruption and brainwashing of current newspeople, who, for the most part, were processed through our leftist-controlled academic industry, is the bigger picture. Your obsession with the fake attempt to scuttle Trump with trashy corruption by the dems is a pitiful attempt at leftist deflection. The topic is a corrupt and biased media involving all propaganda that is broadcast/printed and sold as “news”.
Bahahahhahah. Is that what they told you?? What a joke they are and the anybody who thinks they are believable are.
So you’re more comfortable with Toobin than Turley? Hmm, no kidding
Re: the Hunter cover up. Interesting that the reason for the “black out” was that it was Russian disinformation, etc. That has been proven to be a sham but the MSM has never apologized.
The LEFT 1/2 is dwindling.
Here is a real problem. CNN is viewed in most foreign countries so they only get one point of view and therefore, we are judged by that lens. If it were FOX that was broadcasted instead, it would be a different world vision. If FOX is biased, why is CNN not?
“The question is whether the mainstream media can survive and flourish by writing off over half of the country.”
It appears the powers-that-be and all those who call themselves journalists within the MSM seem to think they can. With the passing of local ownership of small newspapers, those voices have disappeared as well. My hometown is conservative and yet the paper is owned by one of the mega news corps. I look at it today and don’t really recognize it as a paper that represents the community. The fact that people won’t pay even $1 for a six-month online subscription speaks volumes. And as our Founders knew, a free press is crucial for a free society. We no longer have that since the vast majority of the media speak only for one viewpoint and have become outsourcers for government propaganda and censorship.
NPR can always rebrand itself as a religious cult — they don’t present news; they preach liberal morality. Their funding drives always had an air of moral pressure, but now they are full-bore CRT. That’s one “news” outlet I’ll be happy to see bite the dust.
covering up crimes like those committed by Biden and his family…should be charged with CONSPIRACY!
Guy, or at least charge them with an unclaimed political donation.