The Mainstream Press Is Hostile to the Concept of Protest
Photo by U.S. Northern Command
“Democrats enter risky political terrain as protests grip California” is the kind of headline you would expect to see in a pro-Trump newspaper pretending to do journalism, which is why it appeared in the New York Times. This article is virtually indistinguishable from Trump’s talking points, where its entire premise is situated on the notion that protest is unpopular and Trump is primarily targeting criminals in these ICE raids (which even Republicans like Reps. David Valado and Tony Gonzalez admit is not happening). That it has to use John Fetterman, perhaps the least popular Democrat in America and someone whose power in the Democratic caucus is incredibly marginalized, to represent Democratic positions, gives you a window into how craven and cynical this piece is and how it is anything but journalism. It cites old generic polling to support its bankrupt thesis when all new polling on this specific instance of Trump invading American cities reveals it to be broadly unpopular, with sending Marines into Los Angeles polling underwater by double digits.
But it’s far from the only mainstream article that is inventing fake news in an attempt to be overtly hostile to the protests taking place right now. In fact, you can find another headline in the New York Times that downplays the actions of the police who were caught on camera deliberately shooting at journalists. Whoever wrote the headline “L.A. protests prompt calls for police restraint after journalist injuries” is no friend to journalism, as it is yet another headline about police violence that deliberately separates the police from their own actions. Even this Associated Press headline that is much more direct and honest about what actually happened still fails to name who “shot and roughed up” reporters. We have decades of data at this point strongly suggesting that many “journalists” view their core role as being a PR arm for the police, and when a cop fires their gun, it’s the “journalists” job to make sure their readers aren’t sure who pulled the trigger or why folks might come out and protest afterwards.
CNN’s Jake Tapper, no stranger to propagating fake news on behalf of those in power, just reposted a Thomas Chatterton Williams tweet comparing the January 6th insurrection to immigration protesters. This is a terrific window into the mind of mainstream media’s braindead elite, as anything they can call chaos is all put under the same banner that offends their Very Serious sensibilities. People like Tapper and his litany of allies in media are nothing more than hackish actors pretending to be journalists for the cameras. They have no real principles other than inflating their own egos and TV ratings.
This is all by design, as the incentive structure around covering protests has been firmly established by the owners of major media. As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes astutely noted, “if you pull off protests that are polite and civil, even if large, they will struggle to get coverage.” This is because the mainstream media’s animating principle is not journalism, but sensationalism. The media is not shy about manufacturing sensationalism to produce literal fake news, as this photo from 2017 proves.
But if a few people in masks start lighting stuff on fire? Then you have news. This creates an *enormous* attentional advantage towards the most violent and chaotic kind of protest.