The week American journalism died

The week American journalism died
It was a slow death — and it took down democracy with it

By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published December 19, 2024 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to pay our respects to the dearly departed: journalism.

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I’d invite a few important and critically thinking people to eulogize both, but it remains questionable whether any such people exist in today’s government or media — and what few do are struggling desperately to keep above the rising tide of, autocracy, oligarchy, AI, social media, stupidity, intolerance, ignorance and all of those stupid stories about drones.

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Donald Trump delivered the final death blow to journalism and democracy, but he only put both out of their misery. Some may even view it as a mercy killing. For the last 50 years, beginning with the cancer-stain of Richard Nixon, government has faltered. It began when we threatened to impeach a president over serious crimes — like bugging the DNC and lying about it, during a re-election. Our democracy held then and Nixon resigned rather than face the wrath of Democrats and even Republicans who vowed to do the right thing. But beginning with Ronald Reagan and his successful appeal to the vulgar, the ignorant and the vain, it quickly became apparent Nixon was not an anomaly among our leaders. His prosecution was.

Since then, our government has tolerated a variety of low-browed, ridiculous and seditious men ranging from Colonel Oliver North to Michael Flynn. And while Reagan successfully convinced us he alone had ended the Cold War, the rats like Mitch McConnell snuck into the ship of state and began eating at its foundation like so many rabid termites with a head full of bad hallucinogens and a stomach full of tapeworms.

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Trump has shown how dead democracy is by nominating nearly a dozen billionaires to high posts in his incoming government who are worth more than an overwhelming majority of Americans will ever earn in a lifetime. His other nominees are former Fox News employees, friends and family members – icing on the cake for the grifter-in-chief. He’s showing us in real time the death of American journalism, because as reported in Politico, “No modern president — including Trump in his first term — has made a habit of personally suing the media while in the Oval Office.” ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/12/19/the-week-american-journalism/