The problem is that 49.9 percent of Americans are not reading the Times or the Post (as diminished as they are), nor Robert Reich or Margaret Sullivan. It's Fox News all day and night. There, it's not sanewashing; it's unblemished boosterism, propaganda, and lies. I am not sure there is any way to break Fox's hold on its audience.
You are correct that Americans are not reading legacy media but I think the percentage is more like 80% who are not. Even the legacy media's extended reach into other media outlets has diminished in effect.
Two things: 1) Read about a woman who lives in a red state & every time she goes into a public place where Fox Infotainment is on, she goes up and changes the channel. Another woman knew how to coyly ask for the remote & then proceeded to block Fox News on the TV. We should all follow suit. I was in NJ & I still demanded they change the station in my dentist's office. 2) It's a BIG deal that Rupert Murdoch lost his appeal to change the beneficiaries in the irrevocable trust into which he put his media holdings for his 4 eldest children. Rupert wanted to change trust to deliver ownership SOLELY to his son Lachland. That's because Lachland wants to continue the propaganda & lies. Murdoch's 3 other children, James, Elisabeth & Prudence supported Harris/Walz in this last election. The Court has ruled: Rupert NO CAN DO. Irrevocable, is irrevocable. Rupert is 93, let's hope for the worst. It was despicable - a grand demonstration of BIAS that Rupert went to Trump's inauguration. The MSM press hardly covered this - but it's HUGE. Margaret can lecture us on the imperative nature of objectivity in news journalism. And here's the owner of Fox News celebrating the election of Donald Trump.
Yes, it is mostly that and social media, but even those spreading truth on more popular platforms often get their info from these major MSM publications, so they are still very essential.
Donate to Associated Press and NPR, etc and do not abandon all in the MSM as they are still a major source for truth and investigative journalism.
I’m Canadian and I’m as shocked and horrified as Americans are. What really freaks me out is his threatening of other countries. Denmark is the most urgent example, where Trump is threatening economic warfare and possible armed conflict if they don’t “turn over” Greenland. I mean, the honest truth here is that the U.S. is now a global threat and an enemy of its nominally allied democracies. I grew up during the Cold War. I never had “America is the enemy” on my bingo card.
He’s threatening my home as well and we have right wing populism problems of our own. Many of us are terrified that the upcoming election is going to put someone unqualified to meet this historic moment in power here. Hopefully we’ll hold our own despite Trump’s determination to force us to become a state (this will never happen without armed conflict—Trump doesn’t understand Canada any better then he understands any other country).
Anyway…these are dark times. I hope decent people around the world will stand together to head off the worst of it. At least we can hope there is a semi-sane world to return to when Trump and his deranged billionaire co-president are gone.
I am an American. I stand with you and with all Canadians of good faith. Our forefathers stood shoulder to shoulder in the trenches. They had each other‘s backs as we will have ours. If it has to be now, bring it on.
What I most noticed and am most concerned about is the complete absence of the Democrats from any public space. Other than Hakeem Jeffries, one would think that there are no elected officials from what ought to be the very active and outspoken opposition party. Where is the People's Cabinet that Tim Snyder suggested? Where is the former VP and outstanding candidate from the election just ended? All I'm seeing is the unending begging for more money and that, as much as the capitulation of the legacy media to Trumpism is indicative of the challenge we face.
I disagree, Dave. Not sure what public space you are referring to where you state there is a complete absence of Democrats. There are many Democratic Congress people speaking out, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Sen. Chris Murphy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to name just a few. They are fighting hard to defend democracy in Congress, which is being reported, but also I've seen them being interviewed. Perhaps the places where you are not seeing them being interviewed is due to the fact that so much of mainstream media is controlled by the right-wing, and Democrats are not likely to be invited to speak on those platforms. We need to look at the larger picture rather than blaming the Democrats.
This is why the Dems urgently need to find alternative channels to get their message out and to use as a bully pulpit. The Dems need to replicate what the Republicans so successfully did - find podcasters and influencers like Joe Rogan et al but on the Democratic side - who can command attention in that non traditional space. Develop younger influencers eg who Millenials listen to. Mainstream media has faltered.
Yes, a People's Cabinet or the British equivalent of a Shadow Cabinet who are actively engaged in pushing back, and even more so, being proactive against these continued assaults on our democratic norms & values would be very useful.
Spot on, Margaret. As a foreign (and war) correspondent for over 50 years, I was shocked by CNN's coverage over the last week. And the Brit media were no better. They're treating Trump like a normal human being -- a major mistake. The media, too, appear to be afraid of Trump. Recent media coverage is probably the most cowardly I've ever seen. Where have all the hard-hitting journalists gone, long time passing. God help America.
I'm also happy to prejudge the people who voted for him. Yes, the news media are inadequate and ads flood the airwaves with junk, but WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get). Will Trump 2 be enough to wake us out of our racism, sexism, and general ignorance? Watch this space.
CNN’s demoting Jim Acosta to the midnight shift is an example of CNN’s corporate mandate to regulate journalism . Acosta’s excellence is in his insistence at having his questions answered and not allowing the interviewer to deflect and have a platform to lie.
Just awful how the majority of CNN’s anchors just can’t seem to do it. Thank you for your excellent newsletter, I read it always.
What disturbs me is that even news sources like NPR aren't calling out illegal moves as illegal moves in the headline but burying it in the story. For example, the firing of the Inspector Generals. It's illegal the way he's done it but no one in the media is pushing back and calling him out on it. Another example, his impromptu press conference on the plane in which he talked about forcing Palestinians to leave Gaza (but didn't offer for America to take them I noticed). I didn't hear one reporter speak up and say "isn't this against international law?" or "isn't this ethic cleansing?" What's the point of reporters if they don't ask hard questions.
He’s also cut the power line coming into the NIH (via HHS), affecting *every* aspect of science and healthcare research and programming. Basically, everything is on pause (including previously uninterrupted weekly mortality reporting.) You know the playbook. Next up we’ll see him bargain with Congress. His picks for leadership and priorities get elevated or the projects in your district/state get axed.None will be “safe”. I suspect many activities will be resumed…but not all.
The best thing folks can do is *flood* their elected officials with letters and emails, alert local news and, most important, make arranged or drop in visits to district offices to share their personal narratives.
I saw in the Post that grant reviews for the NSF have also been put on hold. Not yet clear how far this is going to go. They seem to be attempting to impede academic science.
What has disturbed me most so far? To my own surprise as a middle aged white male, it was them declaring transsexuals non-persons. It is a such a transparent tactic of their Nazi forebears: remove despised and vulnerable minorities from under the protection of the law, target them, measure consent, then proceed to attacking the political opposition in the general public. The other such minority, of course, far vaster, is immigrants, and their persecution is already more visible and violent (that Folha de São Paulo subscription has been useful).
We should all be appalled and incensed about how influential editors and supposed opposition politicians have made propitiatory sacrifices of both groups, to the danger of us all. Show some solidarity out of self preservation, if nothing else.
Sadly, I think there needs to be an equivalent voice to something like Fox News (which isn’t news but is opinion) - which is easy to find and not owned by billionaires who favour Trump. I don’t see why Bloomberg couldn’t be more active in voicing actual facts rather than outrage on a much wider scale, for instance. I don’t think we can build a news eco-system out of Substack (as much as I’d like to do that), that will reach into the 74+ million that voted for Trump. And probably a business-oriented place like Bloomberg isn’t going to do it either. But because there isn’t a “Democratic” (or in this case truthful) version of Fox News, we will lack any ability to get the full story out. If CNN, NYT, WaPo, LA Times and so forth report at least facts without context or opinion, that will help with what he is doing, but not the why nor the how it affects ordinary Americans. I know plenty of people that voted for Trump for reasons other than his “MAGA” cult - and they don’t watch MSNBC, or CNN. How can we manage creating that soundbox that we need?
I would love to see the Blue counter-programming, but I’m not sure that any mainstream media will gain legs ever again, in our fetishized, pocket-sized, social-media fed society. We only gather as a country to watch football. The 24-hour news cycle means nothing is must-see TV, and we don’t agree on anything regarding “news”. Substack is awash in factual, counter-FoxNews-narratives. And also independent sites such as Democracy Docket are also holding leaders to account. But until all of us the mass agitated can be heard speaking with one loud, alarmed and protesting voice, I’m afraid this feeling of silent suffering and losing sleep in a vacuum will continue to weigh more than half the country down.
Owning the public narrative is critical, and that's what libertarians have cunningly, successfully, and patiently worked at for 70+ years. The money and solidarity behind their movement are impossible to match, so perhaps people's lives must grow far worse before they will rise up. I would like to be hopeful for America and the world, but perhaps for now I can still have hope in courageous individuals. There are many.
I hope all of Margaret Sullivan’s readers will also sign up to read Carole Cadwalladr. You can find her here—that one post will teach you more than reading the NYT for the last 4 years.
Ms Cadwalladr is the one who pulled back the curtain on the Mercers and Cambridge Analytica in 2016, and she was promptly sued nearly into oblivion. You may have seen her TED talk on YouTube or elsewhere.
I agree with other comments here that Dem’s have become nearly invisible, and that’s disheartening, but in my little town we have a record number of folks who have just signed up to run for local and county positions, which take place in Nov this year. That’s amazing, and not at all what I expected.
Stay strong, everyone, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
It's hard to pick the most disturbing action, but let's go with unleashing ICE by doing away with the protected areas (schools, churches, hospitals) and creating additional fear and trauma among migrant communities. The good news is that Rapid Response groups all over the country, like ours in Syracuse, have mobilized and are ready to protect the vulnerable and get video of ICE's cruelty in action. We can't turtle up. The court of public opinion can be a powerful tool -- no, a weapon.
There is so much that disturbed me this week. Many items have already been mentioned. The attempts to erase history have been at the top of my list. The pardons are bad enough, especially when you hear stories of Capitol and Metropolitan Police Officers' accounts. But the "acceptance" of those convicted by a jury of our peers of seditious conspiracy at the Capitol and at rallies for the President is beyond Orwellian. The opening of an investigation of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is a blatant attempt to rewrite history.
Thank you so much. Sometimes when I read the NYTIMES I feel like I am looking through Alice in Wonderland’s looking glass. (I have quit the Bezos publication.) It’s nice to know that I am not crazy.
What disturbed me most is that The Post finally got around to mapping the executive orders to Project 2025 but STILL normalized it as if it's no big deal, using a headline that suggested "no biggie": only 5 ways Project 2025 in play. When actually it was more like almost half of the EOs could be mapped to Project 2025.
I was appalled as well by the Times profiles of Trump supporters. It's as if all the Trump opposition doesn't exist and have no aspirations for the country. Trump only got 49 percent of the popular vote, less than the not Trump votes tallied up. I am exhausted by the Post and Times giving an unchallenged platform to the uninformed as if only they are the "real" America.
At least Margaret Brennan has the spine to ask Vance which EO lowered prices. To which he gave a nonsensical answer.
I just quit the Post, sadly after decades of being a reader, and am now looking for alternative sources. Am considering renewing with the Times but am somewhat hesitant. And television reporting is even worse. Our local paper was gutted first by Zell and then by Alden but we still subscribe because local journalism does matter. The Guardian is now one source but am depressed at the state of US journalism.
The problem is that 49.9 percent of Americans are not reading the Times or the Post (as diminished as they are), nor Robert Reich or Margaret Sullivan. It's Fox News all day and night. There, it's not sanewashing; it's unblemished boosterism, propaganda, and lies. I am not sure there is any way to break Fox's hold on its audience.
You are correct that Americans are not reading legacy media but I think the percentage is more like 80% who are not. Even the legacy media's extended reach into other media outlets has diminished in effect.
We need to recapture the means of communication.
Two things: 1) Read about a woman who lives in a red state & every time she goes into a public place where Fox Infotainment is on, she goes up and changes the channel. Another woman knew how to coyly ask for the remote & then proceeded to block Fox News on the TV. We should all follow suit. I was in NJ & I still demanded they change the station in my dentist's office. 2) It's a BIG deal that Rupert Murdoch lost his appeal to change the beneficiaries in the irrevocable trust into which he put his media holdings for his 4 eldest children. Rupert wanted to change trust to deliver ownership SOLELY to his son Lachland. That's because Lachland wants to continue the propaganda & lies. Murdoch's 3 other children, James, Elisabeth & Prudence supported Harris/Walz in this last election. The Court has ruled: Rupert NO CAN DO. Irrevocable, is irrevocable. Rupert is 93, let's hope for the worst. It was despicable - a grand demonstration of BIAS that Rupert went to Trump's inauguration. The MSM press hardly covered this - but it's HUGE. Margaret can lecture us on the imperative nature of objectivity in news journalism. And here's the owner of Fox News celebrating the election of Donald Trump.
Yes, it is mostly that and social media, but even those spreading truth on more popular platforms often get their info from these major MSM publications, so they are still very essential.
Donate to Associated Press and NPR, etc and do not abandon all in the MSM as they are still a major source for truth and investigative journalism.
Actually, it's a good thing theyre not reading WaPo or NYT because both are trash.
I’m Canadian and I’m as shocked and horrified as Americans are. What really freaks me out is his threatening of other countries. Denmark is the most urgent example, where Trump is threatening economic warfare and possible armed conflict if they don’t “turn over” Greenland. I mean, the honest truth here is that the U.S. is now a global threat and an enemy of its nominally allied democracies. I grew up during the Cold War. I never had “America is the enemy” on my bingo card.
He’s threatening my home as well and we have right wing populism problems of our own. Many of us are terrified that the upcoming election is going to put someone unqualified to meet this historic moment in power here. Hopefully we’ll hold our own despite Trump’s determination to force us to become a state (this will never happen without armed conflict—Trump doesn’t understand Canada any better then he understands any other country).
Anyway…these are dark times. I hope decent people around the world will stand together to head off the worst of it. At least we can hope there is a semi-sane world to return to when Trump and his deranged billionaire co-president are gone.
I am an American. I stand with you and with all Canadians of good faith. Our forefathers stood shoulder to shoulder in the trenches. They had each other‘s backs as we will have ours. If it has to be now, bring it on.
What I most noticed and am most concerned about is the complete absence of the Democrats from any public space. Other than Hakeem Jeffries, one would think that there are no elected officials from what ought to be the very active and outspoken opposition party. Where is the People's Cabinet that Tim Snyder suggested? Where is the former VP and outstanding candidate from the election just ended? All I'm seeing is the unending begging for more money and that, as much as the capitulation of the legacy media to Trumpism is indicative of the challenge we face.
I disagree, Dave. Not sure what public space you are referring to where you state there is a complete absence of Democrats. There are many Democratic Congress people speaking out, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Sen. Chris Murphy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to name just a few. They are fighting hard to defend democracy in Congress, which is being reported, but also I've seen them being interviewed. Perhaps the places where you are not seeing them being interviewed is due to the fact that so much of mainstream media is controlled by the right-wing, and Democrats are not likely to be invited to speak on those platforms. We need to look at the larger picture rather than blaming the Democrats.
This is why the Dems urgently need to find alternative channels to get their message out and to use as a bully pulpit. The Dems need to replicate what the Republicans so successfully did - find podcasters and influencers like Joe Rogan et al but on the Democratic side - who can command attention in that non traditional space. Develop younger influencers eg who Millenials listen to. Mainstream media has faltered.
Yes, a People's Cabinet or the British equivalent of a Shadow Cabinet who are actively engaged in pushing back, and even more so, being proactive against these continued assaults on our democratic norms & values would be very useful.
They're all on holiday in the Land of Fuckitallstan.
Spot on, Margaret. As a foreign (and war) correspondent for over 50 years, I was shocked by CNN's coverage over the last week. And the Brit media were no better. They're treating Trump like a normal human being -- a major mistake. The media, too, appear to be afraid of Trump. Recent media coverage is probably the most cowardly I've ever seen. Where have all the hard-hitting journalists gone, long time passing. God help America.
“Don’t prejudge Trump”??
We have nearly 80yrs of observable behavior to come up with a conclusion. Plus Trump has been vowing vengeance for the last 4yrs.
I'm also happy to prejudge the people who voted for him. Yes, the news media are inadequate and ads flood the airwaves with junk, but WYSIWIG (what you see is what you get). Will Trump 2 be enough to wake us out of our racism, sexism, and general ignorance? Watch this space.
CNN’s demoting Jim Acosta to the midnight shift is an example of CNN’s corporate mandate to regulate journalism . Acosta’s excellence is in his insistence at having his questions answered and not allowing the interviewer to deflect and have a platform to lie.
Just awful how the majority of CNN’s anchors just can’t seem to do it. Thank you for your excellent newsletter, I read it always.
mmbonilla17@gmail.com
It’s very telling. (And thank you!)
What disturbs me is that even news sources like NPR aren't calling out illegal moves as illegal moves in the headline but burying it in the story. For example, the firing of the Inspector Generals. It's illegal the way he's done it but no one in the media is pushing back and calling him out on it. Another example, his impromptu press conference on the plane in which he talked about forcing Palestinians to leave Gaza (but didn't offer for America to take them I noticed). I didn't hear one reporter speak up and say "isn't this against international law?" or "isn't this ethic cleansing?" What's the point of reporters if they don't ask hard questions.
He’s also cut the power line coming into the NIH (via HHS), affecting *every* aspect of science and healthcare research and programming. Basically, everything is on pause (including previously uninterrupted weekly mortality reporting.) You know the playbook. Next up we’ll see him bargain with Congress. His picks for leadership and priorities get elevated or the projects in your district/state get axed.None will be “safe”. I suspect many activities will be resumed…but not all.
The best thing folks can do is *flood* their elected officials with letters and emails, alert local news and, most important, make arranged or drop in visits to district offices to share their personal narratives.
PS condolences on the Bills.
Thank you, Gene. Agreed, and as a Bills fan, I should be used to this by now…
Sat in Rich Stadium (back in the day) for many games.
Absolutely crushed.
But in a world that seems on fire, Bills Mafia showing people how to survive defeat and still maintain a crazy high level of kindness 🦬 ❤️
I saw in the Post that grant reviews for the NSF have also been put on hold. Not yet clear how far this is going to go. They seem to be attempting to impede academic science.
Thanks again, Margaret. Keep it coming.
As Maria Ressa said in her address at the Vatican this past weekend,
"Even at the worst of times, hope is not passive; it is active, relentless, and strategic."
Word.
What has disturbed me most so far? To my own surprise as a middle aged white male, it was them declaring transsexuals non-persons. It is a such a transparent tactic of their Nazi forebears: remove despised and vulnerable minorities from under the protection of the law, target them, measure consent, then proceed to attacking the political opposition in the general public. The other such minority, of course, far vaster, is immigrants, and their persecution is already more visible and violent (that Folha de São Paulo subscription has been useful).
We should all be appalled and incensed about how influential editors and supposed opposition politicians have made propitiatory sacrifices of both groups, to the danger of us all. Show some solidarity out of self preservation, if nothing else.
“The cruelty is the point,” as Adam Serwer wrote.
Sadly, I think there needs to be an equivalent voice to something like Fox News (which isn’t news but is opinion) - which is easy to find and not owned by billionaires who favour Trump. I don’t see why Bloomberg couldn’t be more active in voicing actual facts rather than outrage on a much wider scale, for instance. I don’t think we can build a news eco-system out of Substack (as much as I’d like to do that), that will reach into the 74+ million that voted for Trump. And probably a business-oriented place like Bloomberg isn’t going to do it either. But because there isn’t a “Democratic” (or in this case truthful) version of Fox News, we will lack any ability to get the full story out. If CNN, NYT, WaPo, LA Times and so forth report at least facts without context or opinion, that will help with what he is doing, but not the why nor the how it affects ordinary Americans. I know plenty of people that voted for Trump for reasons other than his “MAGA” cult - and they don’t watch MSNBC, or CNN. How can we manage creating that soundbox that we need?
I would love to see the Blue counter-programming, but I’m not sure that any mainstream media will gain legs ever again, in our fetishized, pocket-sized, social-media fed society. We only gather as a country to watch football. The 24-hour news cycle means nothing is must-see TV, and we don’t agree on anything regarding “news”. Substack is awash in factual, counter-FoxNews-narratives. And also independent sites such as Democracy Docket are also holding leaders to account. But until all of us the mass agitated can be heard speaking with one loud, alarmed and protesting voice, I’m afraid this feeling of silent suffering and losing sleep in a vacuum will continue to weigh more than half the country down.
Owning the public narrative is critical, and that's what libertarians have cunningly, successfully, and patiently worked at for 70+ years. The money and solidarity behind their movement are impossible to match, so perhaps people's lives must grow far worse before they will rise up. I would like to be hopeful for America and the world, but perhaps for now I can still have hope in courageous individuals. There are many.
I hope all of Margaret Sullivan’s readers will also sign up to read Carole Cadwalladr. You can find her here—that one post will teach you more than reading the NYT for the last 4 years.
https://open.substack.com/pub/broligarchy/p/seig-heil-tesla?
Ms Cadwalladr is the one who pulled back the curtain on the Mercers and Cambridge Analytica in 2016, and she was promptly sued nearly into oblivion. You may have seen her TED talk on YouTube or elsewhere.
I agree with other comments here that Dem’s have become nearly invisible, and that’s disheartening, but in my little town we have a record number of folks who have just signed up to run for local and county positions, which take place in Nov this year. That’s amazing, and not at all what I expected.
Stay strong, everyone, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
It's hard to pick the most disturbing action, but let's go with unleashing ICE by doing away with the protected areas (schools, churches, hospitals) and creating additional fear and trauma among migrant communities. The good news is that Rapid Response groups all over the country, like ours in Syracuse, have mobilized and are ready to protect the vulnerable and get video of ICE's cruelty in action. We can't turtle up. The court of public opinion can be a powerful tool -- no, a weapon.
There is so much that disturbed me this week. Many items have already been mentioned. The attempts to erase history have been at the top of my list. The pardons are bad enough, especially when you hear stories of Capitol and Metropolitan Police Officers' accounts. But the "acceptance" of those convicted by a jury of our peers of seditious conspiracy at the Capitol and at rallies for the President is beyond Orwellian. The opening of an investigation of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is a blatant attempt to rewrite history.
Thank you so much. Sometimes when I read the NYTIMES I feel like I am looking through Alice in Wonderland’s looking glass. (I have quit the Bezos publication.) It’s nice to know that I am not crazy.
You’re not!
What disturbed me most is that The Post finally got around to mapping the executive orders to Project 2025 but STILL normalized it as if it's no big deal, using a headline that suggested "no biggie": only 5 ways Project 2025 in play. When actually it was more like almost half of the EOs could be mapped to Project 2025.
I was appalled as well by the Times profiles of Trump supporters. It's as if all the Trump opposition doesn't exist and have no aspirations for the country. Trump only got 49 percent of the popular vote, less than the not Trump votes tallied up. I am exhausted by the Post and Times giving an unchallenged platform to the uninformed as if only they are the "real" America.
At least Margaret Brennan has the spine to ask Vance which EO lowered prices. To which he gave a nonsensical answer.
I just quit the Post, sadly after decades of being a reader, and am now looking for alternative sources. Am considering renewing with the Times but am somewhat hesitant. And television reporting is even worse. Our local paper was gutted first by Zell and then by Alden but we still subscribe because local journalism does matter. The Guardian is now one source but am depressed at the state of US journalism.