D. Earl Stephens
September 9, 2024
Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash
These are nervous, precarious times and I have turned around a lot of copy lately, but I felt it imperative that one of the most grievous, haughty, tone-deaf editorials I have ever come across was answered with the disdain it deserves.
Most of you are aware of my passion for journalism, and concern that we are being abandoned by our working press at this absolutely critical juncture in American history.
Time and again, our media has left the strong impression that they are simply more interested in their bottom lines than arming us with the information and first-rate coverage needed to protect us from Donald Trump and his Republicans’ ongoing attack on democracy.
Many of you have let me know you prefer I call the working press “the corporate media” and today I have reached the point where I am grudgingly inclined to concede to this reference.
Money is the impetus that drives too much of what we are being forced to consume in today’s polluted media landscape, and the American public is suffering mightily because of that.
I have written relentlessly on our corporate media’s failures since 2016. For eight years, our corporate media have proven unable to properly cover the felon, sexual-abuser, tax cheat, and America-attacking Donald Trump. My God, they still haven’t even done the bare minimum of calling him the damn liar he has proved himself to be literally every waking hour or so.
Nothing he says should get anywhere near print unless it has been strenuously fact-checked.
It has pained me to the point of tears to call these media entities into account, because I KNOW they shouldn’t comport themselves this way, and by doing so are insulting the thousands and thousands of people like myself who got into the business to make the world a better place by keeping our readers accurately and credibly informed.
Instead of the serious introspection needed to improve their work, and fulfill their mission to their readers — every paper should employ an independent ombudsman/woman — these dangerous, incompetent boobs have actually dug in, and somehow gotten worse.
You’ll find no better example of this than the most insulting editorial I have ever come across.
Get this, my friends:
In today’s editions of The Washington Post, you will find an opinion piece being given prominent weight written by none other than the The New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger.
Here is the unbelievable headline:
substackcdn.com
Sorry, COULD????
To be fair, as a longtime journalist, I would normally take heart in a piece like this one, but NOT when it is written by a man whose newspaper has aided and abetted the most serious attack on America since the Civil War, and has “ruthlessly curtailed journalism” in its own damn newsroom by refusing to practice it.
My blood boiled while I read this man’s endless piece highlighting what WE should be doing to protect press freedoms, when HIS own failing newspaper has abandoned the fight by very intentionally refusing to properly cover, and give proper editorial weight to Trump and his revolting party's ongoing attack on the truth, our vote, and our democracy.
Their despicable lack of reporting and absurd, both-sides bullshit on these critical issues has been absolutely breathtaking. They have literally surrendered wide swaths of their news hole each day in this “quiet war” to include authoritarian talking points, and right-wing conjecture that simply have no place in fact, and serve nobody but the fascist scoundrels who mean our democracy harm.
They have treated us to relentless horse-race political coverage, and done everything they can to leave their punch-drunk readers with the impression that both sides are somehow the same, and/or draw on false equivalencies THAT SIMPLY DO NOT EXIST.
As I was reading this editorial through rage, I thought to myself there is NO WAY this fool could turn around this bilge if he actually read his own damn newspaper each day. Then I wondered if perhaps this was simply projection of the highest order: Sulzberger was warning us of a plague that had already afflicted his staff of lightweight journalists.
Perhaps it is more simple. Sulzberger is a pompous hypocrite who doesn’t even listen to himself anymore. This was a quote that oozed out of his big, fat mouth just three months ago:
“It’s our job to cover the full range of issues that people have. At the moment, democracy is one of them. But it’s not the top one — immigration happens to be the top [of polls], and the economy and inflation is the second. Should we stop covering those things because they’re favorable to Trump and minimize them?”
Incredible, eh?
Nobody can be entirely sure what was behind this dangerous assault on the senses, and why The Washington Post, which is owned by the multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos, and helmed by the ethically challenged, Will Lewis, decided it was a good idea to print it, but I am certain there is more to it than meets the eye.
These newspapers are provably delivering exactly what Sulzberger is warning against — when he’s not defending it.
The “quiet war” they are pretending to be so upset about is already over, and this we do know for sure: They have played a significant and disgraceful part in the attack.
To hell with them both.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.
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