Mainstream media is not exactly covering itself in glory these days, as the only group of people who have a net positive amount of trust in mass media are Democrats over the age of 50. Every other group Gallup polled has little confidence in media, and while there is undoubtedly a very big difference in the kind of doubt that Republicans over the age of 65 and Democrats from ages 18 to 29 express, both trend towards the same direction for the capitalist-driven mainstream media: irrelevance.
“Raising questions” is a preferred crutch for the feckless media in this and so many other instances, and while this dynamic is undoubtedly driven by the bothsides brain damage the Beltway media has sustained like the New York Times’ Eric Lipton so helpfully demonstrated above, there is a much more straightforward and less conspiratorial motive for media refusing to call a spade a spade, as Sara Luterman, reporter at The 19th wrote: “media almost always does this because the legal department makes us. President Trump is also particularly litigious.”
The standards for writing something on the front page of the newspaper are different from what will hold up in a courtroom, and there is always going to be a natural tension that arises when both circumstances intersect. As Luterman notes, “journalists are trying to balance telling the truth and not getting our outlets Gawkered into oblivion.” Simply having to defend your work in court can ruin a news outlet operating on thin margins, and Google’s monopoly has made this a very precarious dynamic for a lot of different kinds of outlets, but mainstream ones have the least amount of room to complain about it given the immense resources they operate with.
I have heard this excuse too in my many years as a mainstream media critic. Never on the record of course, but there have been multiple instances where I have reached out to a major news outlet for comment about whatever stupid bullshit they published that day that was causing a stir, and it has not been uncommon to hear something to the effect of ‘legal says we can’t talk about this.’
Lawyers are a convenient excuse to hide behind in any industry, and while there is real truth to this notion, lawyers wouldn’t be striking down so many accurate headlines if they did not have orders from up above to keep them out of the courtroom. Lawyers are just a reflection of the capitalists’ priorities who run these outlets.
Just look at Fox News’ repeated lies over Dominion Voting Systems and their false allegation that they rigged the 2020 election for example. They continued to lie about non-existent 2024 election fraud after their nine-figure settlement was paid and more lawsuits over their 2020 coverage loomed. Fox News is instructive because the “avoid litigation at all costs” attitude expressed in mainstream media clearly doesn’t apply to them. They cagily pushed ahead with this narrative after the 2020 election in defiance of all legal logic even as they were fighting the case.
Why? Because the capitalists who own Fox News saw that lawsuit as just the cost of doing their business of spreading baseless right-wing propaganda.
And mainstream media’s capitalists clearly like capitalism more than journalism. Paramount is practically advertising this fact right now in their attempt to silence 60 Minutes‘ journalists so they can get their merger approved by Trump. Fox News’ capitalists have proven they like lying for right-wing political gain just as much or more than making money, and the juxtaposition of each side’s coverage is illuminating. Fox News is willing to go to court to stand up for the falsehoods they believe in, but mainstream media wants to avoid defending the facts of their reporting in court at all costs, including to their journalistic reputation. It’s much easier for them to say, “the president receiving a big sack of money that says, ‘this is a bribe’ on the outside of it raises legal and ethical questions” instead of “the president received a bribe so obvious that even Ben Shapiro can see it.”
Mainstream media exists to make money, then to report the news, in that order. Paramount interjecting themselves in 60 Minutes’ coverage to a degree that forced the resignation of their longtime beloved producer Bill Owens is proof. Lawyers may write copy that helps insulate the papers from a lawsuit, but only because avoiding lawsuits at all costs is clearly a directive to them from down on high. Fox News is much more willing to defend lies in court than mainstream media is willing to defend the truth in court, that much is clear.
Lawyers are very important to media, and there is a key role for them to play. None of us want to get Gawkered into oblivion in a world where every depraved crank with seven figures in their bank account is looking for a fight, but at a certain point, if you’re not doing your job as a journalist, what job are you exactly doing? Capitalism is incompatible with journalism, and every day of the Trump era has served as proof.
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