Thom Hartmann - America’s largest newspapers are actively working against our democracy. The Columbia Journalism Review, arguably the premiere watchdog of American news reporting, is out with a scathing indictment of political coverage in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Because these newspapers are so widely read and respected, they tend to set the agenda and tone for most other reporting in the United States, and what the Review found was shocking:
“Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. … By the numbers, of four
hundred and eight articles on the front page of the Times during the
period we analyzed, about half—two hundred nineteen—were about domestic
politics. A generous interpretation found that just ten of those stories
explained domestic public policy in any detail; only one front-page
article in the lead-up to the midterms really leaned into discussion
about a policy matter in Congress: Republican efforts to shrink Social
Security. Of three hundred and ninety-three front-page articles in the
Post, two hundred fifteen were about domestic politics; our research
found only four stories that discussed any form of policy. The Post had
no front-page stories in the months ahead of the midterms on policies
that candidates aimed to bring to the fore or legislation they intended
to pursue. Instead, articles speculated about candidates and discussed
where voter bases were leaning.”
1 comment:
I always complain about the horse race versus policy orientation of everything in the USA. Especially for me, my work is making policy intelligible for my community and critiquing the economic narrative of the rich and powerful from an ecological and justice perspective. Even my colleagues do not have enough depth of issues beyond their specialities to critique policy so we are always a step behind the developers. But any medium dependent upon real estate businesses advertising in it is really hesitant to go deep on economic policy and the community. But while i complain, I continue to put my analysis into the community discussion at every opportunity and into practice in the neighborhood.
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