Why The Mainstream Media Is Freaking Out
By Tyler Durden
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
In a democracy, trust must be earned. It cannot be imposed.
In its panicky rush to demonize the independent media via baseless accusations of “fake news,” the mainstream press has sunk to spewing “fake news” of its own.
Here's The Washington Post's criminally false “fake news” article in case you missed it: Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.
So-called “fake news” was perfectly acceptable to the mainstream media when it was the exclusive purview of the central state. The infamous Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August 1964 that was used to justify a massive escalation of the heretofore limited war in Vietnam was heavily promoted by the mainstream media of the day.
Within hours of the incident, Navy commanders had notified the Pentagon that the entire incident was very likely illusory, a “fog of war” error.
Decades later, the mainstream media swallowed the Executive Branch's “weapons of mass destruction” justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq as well. Even more egregiously, the mainstream media parroted the central bank/state's narrative about the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008, missing the systemic fraud and embezzlement at the heart of America's financial system.
Why is the mainstream media freaking out right now? The MSM had bet all its diminishing chips of credibility on Hillary Clinton winning the Presidency. Leading newspapers such as The New York Times ceaselessly undermined Bernie Sander's campaign in favor of Hillary Clinton, a bias visible throughout the mainstream media. (When Bernie won a primary by a substantial margin, the smallish NYT headline would read something like “Sanders edges Clinton.” When Clinton won a primary by a slim margin, the NYT would declare in large typeface “Clinton regains momentum.” Do you see the not-so-subtle bias?)
The same was true regarding Donald Trump. Of the 100 largest newspapers in the nation, not one came out in favor of him — a one-sided media bias that is unprecedented in recent U.S. history.
The MSM has awakened to the reality that the monopoly they once held on a captive audience has eroded to the point of ineffectiveness.
— In 1964, the media could easily convince the American people that the Vietnam misadventure was “necessary.”
— The media could still sell the American people that the Iraq misadventure was also “necessary” in 2002.
— In 2016, the media went “all-out” to sell the inevitability and rightness of a Hillary Clinton presidency. What should have been a slam dunk ended up in defeat.
The fundamental dynamic here is the transition from a captive audience in thrall to a handful of media corporations to a radically democratized media. In 1964, Americans had essential zero alternatives to the three TV networks and the mainstream magazines and newspapers.
A few hardy souls subscribed to newsletters from muckrakers such as I.F. Stone, but independent journals and journalists were marginalized.
Any journal that published investigative journalism that called the dominant narratives into question (for example, Ramparts magazine in the late 1960s and early 1970s) attracted the ire of the …read more
Source: Why The Mainstream Media Is Freaking Out
