There seems to be no solidarity amongst newsrooms and no moral backbone or journalistic integrity from corporate ownership
They called it the Fourth Estate, a term derived from an old English understanding of the three primary estates of British society, the Nobles, the Clergy, the Commoners. In America, it was essentially viewed as a companion to the three branches of government, namely the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, representing the independence of the media and its importance in keeping the other branches in check. The press was viewed as a powerful tool to ensure that someone was always keeping watch over those who had been tasked with running the country, making them accountable to the People.
Unfortunately, this required that public shame was still a force of nature in civil society, and that elected officials still cared what the people thought. Once the partisan hacks on the Supreme Court defiled the Constitution by allowing corporations and other wealthy entities to corrupt democracy by essentially buying the levers of government, those in power no longer felt the need to be accountable to voters, and turned their attention instead, to the corporate hand that was feeding them.
Those same corrupt lawmakers decided to allow a few oligarchs to own and consolidate all the public media outlets into a few private organizations, and strangle the ability for news outlets to provide independent oversight over corporations and government. Now we are seeing the end result of this vile piece of business. Multinational corporations who maintain near monopoly control over the information we receive, capitulating to an authoritarian government, either out of cowardice or complicity, and it’s we, the public, who suffer.
Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he was banning three mainstream media outlets from access to the White House for the purposes of reporting the news. CNN, Politico, and MS Now. Last I read, reporters from those organizations were continuing to operate within the White House, so it wasn’t immediately clear if there would be any official administrative action beyond the president shitting out petty rants on his phone.
There was a time in American history when newspaper publishers and media outlets stood up to the government, held them accountable, and even providing a check against the more egregious forms of governmental overreach. I suppose that era died some time ago, as there seems to be no honor among thieves, and no solidarity between newsrooms. If they had an integrity whatsoever, they would all walk out and refuse to participate in the farcical presentation of transparency put forth by this administration.
There is no longer any point in reporting live from the White House press briefing room, as the official actors are not operating in anything resembling good faith. At best, they’re facilitating a version of state media, complete with misinformation and partisan propaganda, without comment or criticism. As the people these institutions purport to represent and serve, we are left with no other choice but to abandon and boycott them until which time that they can summon the strength to find their balls and a conscience.
