The Media Will Not Save Us from What’ s Coming
During the dark years of the Trump presidency, I kept hoping that the mainstream media would learn its lesson. Surely, I thought, once they understood that they were actively participating in the rise of an authoritarian madman they would adjust accordingly. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong time and time again, as major news outlets proved far too willing to play right into his hands both as a candidate and as a president. Now, we’re seeing the same dynamic play out, both in terms of how the media covers Trump and in terms of how they are covering all of the other moving pieces of the right’s gradual takeover of American life.
Take, for example, the recent story in The Washington Post regarding Jennifer Petersen, one of those most responsible for seeking out book bans across the country. Though the headline for the pieces makes it clear that the drive to ban books from school and public libraries is being driven by a surprisingly (one might even say distressingly) small number of people, it then proceeds to take most of her claims at face value. Rather than holding her feet to the fire and asking some tough questions about why she thinks that she — someone who has an avowed dislike of books that has deep roots in her childhood — should be the one leading this crusade, the piece largely avoids such scrutiny. In doing so, it makes it seem as if her approach, and her authority, are perfectly normal.
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