Mainstream Media Admits It May "Never Recover" From 2016 Election
In a revealing statement that flew largely under the radar earlier this month, the
mainstream media admitted it would never recover from its irresponsible and negligent coverage of the 2016 presidential election. A recent column published in the
New York Post referred to the media’s reporting as
“the complete collapse of American journalism as we know it.”
In his article for the
Post, Fox News contributor Michael Goodwin discussed the media’s pro-Clinton bias – one recognized by supporters of virtually every other presidential candidate, from Bernie Sanders to Jill Stein to Gary Johnson and, of course, Donald Trump. Even Americans who don’t necessarily have a horse in the 2016 race notice the slant.
“By torching its remaining credibility in service of Clinton,” Goodwin wrote, “the mainstream media’s reputations will likely never recover, nor will the standards. No future producer, editor, reporter or anchor can be expected to meet a test of fairness when that standard has been trashed in such willful and blatant fashion.”
Indeed, he is correct in this regard.
The Clinton machine has effectively infiltrated corporate media. Last year, the Intercept reported MSNBC failed to disclose that multiple pundits who spoke favorably about Clinton were actually employees of a consulting firm hired by her campaign.
[...]
As Politifact documented, Clinton has lied on multiple occasions, and the media’s lack of outrage and refusal to focus on her dishonesty lends credence to Goodwin’s assertions.
Goodwin is openly right-wing. He appears regularly on
Fox News and has previously asserted President Obama is not doing enough to combat Islamic extremism. And though he is correct in pointing out the pro-Clinton bias, his employment at the
New York Post and ongoing appearances on
Fox — two icons of mainstream media — obliterate any chance of his media criticisms being taken seriously.
The
New York Post has been owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. since 1976. In that time, the
Post has developed a reputation for sensationalism and inaccurate reporting. While they deserve mild credit for covering controversial issues like police brutality and the secrecy and corruption surrounding the infamous 28-pages of the 9/11 commission report, a long line of ethical controversies mars their credibility — so much so that even a
Fox News anchor has questioned the paper’s legitimacy.
Little needs to be said about
Fox News’ out of touch, delusional take on the world, though it is worth noting that according to an analysis by Politifact, 58 percent of
Fox News’ content is mostly false, false, or “pants on fire.”
The reputations of the
New York Post and
Fox News precede Goodwin’s argument, no matter how true it may be that the media is in Hillary Clinton’s pocket. What his assertion
should have contended is that American journalism was a lost cause long before the 2016 election — something Americans have increasingly and rightfully begun to recognize.
From the corporate media’s flagrantly irresponsible coverage of the Iraq War during the Bush years to the media’s ongoing blackouts of relevant news in favor of more superficial, inconsequential stories, Goodwin’s assertion that 2016 is the year American journalism died is as factual as the content churned out by Fox News.
2016 has merely been its funeral procession.
_http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-31/mainstream-media-admits-it-may-never-recover-2016-election
