Media Criticism
Matt Welch | 10.31.2024 1:53 PM
It sure has been a banner week for the triple haters.
Just when you thought that Donald Trump had cornered the market on cringe by making groundwork-laying false claims about fraudulent Pennsylvania ballots, along comes a pro-Kamala Harris ad narrated by Julia Roberts telling fearful MAGA wives that they can sneakily vote Democrat, and then what's this? Joe Biden is still out there barking malarkey, this time about Trump's "garbage supporters"?
As if rising to the defense of its newly minted status as the most distrusted institution in America, the news media over the past few days has responded to the one-upsmanship of awful with a hearty "Hold my beer."
In an October surprise for the newspaper industry, first the L.A. Times, then USA Today, and most spectacularly The Washington Post all announced in these final days of the 2024 campaign that they were breaking with their tradition (very recent, in the case of USA Today) of endorsing a candidate for president. The fallout has been impressive: "At least 250,000" cancelled subscriptions at the Post (a 10 percent drop), a reported 18,000 more at the Times (5 percent range); staff resignations at both.
But what really ignited the triple haters—those with disdain for Democrats, Republicans, and the media—were the haughty, whither-democracy expressions of journalistic umbrage.
This "terrible mistake" is "an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love," 21 Washington Post columnists wrote in a joint letter. "This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them." Wrote L.A. Times Editorial Page Editor Mariel Garza in her resignation letter: "It makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist….In these dangerous times, staying silent isn't just indifference, it is complicity." (The San Francisco Press Club on Tuesday bestowed to Garza its first-ever Integrity in Journalism Award.)
Similar noises could be heard everywhere from former Post editor Marty Baron ("this is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty"), to former Baltimore Sun reporter-turned-TV writer David Simon ("this kind of abuse of a public trust by a publisher is unacceptable"), to the new trending Twitter hashtag #AnticipatoryObedience. (Sample, from Protect Democracy founder Ian Bassin: "Trump hasn't even won and media outlets from........