That journalism is dead has been a punchline for so long that we’ve forgotten how that fact has real world consequences. We’re now paying the price for the failure of that profession to hold itself to any semblance of standards. As worry and straight-up panic sweep large swaths of the country, causing irrational toilet paper hoarding and runs on canned goods, there is no outlet and no journalist worthy of trust when it comes to conveying truthful information to the public or to hold anyone in power accountable.
Coronavirus is a serious threat, but only to a very small segment of the population. Hyping or downplaying it is profoundly unhelpful when honesty is needed. But there isn’t anyone trusted across the board in media to convey truthful information.
So you get manufactured panic and runs on toilet paper; supermarkets have empty shelves and fights break out over a lack of basics.
Media Democrats hype death totals without providing important perspective, perpetuating panic because it’s good for ratings and their party. More people are in danger from the panic being incited by pundits, politicians, and journalists than they are from coronavirus. You’d never know that if you turned on your TV.
The current talking point is to call noting the place of origin of coronavirus (something common when it comes to naming viruses) racist. Yet these very same people did it countless times themselves, only deciding it’s problematic AFTER Republicans joined them. “Trump’s coronavirus speech was laced with xenophobia,” declared Vox because Trump noted it was a “foreign virus.”
These are unserious people in a time of serious challenges. The world’s greatest minds in the field of infectious diseases are working to save the lives of older, vulnerable people and they see opportunity. Senators fret, “Right now in America, it is easier to get an AR-15 than a test kit for COVID-19,” while noted liberals complain, “Note that Trump’s coronavirus team is all male, all old, and all white,” while there are women, one a woman of color, speaking at that very moment.
The left is portraying coronavirus as an existential threat to life on Earth while not missing a beat when it comes to their political agenda and electoral strategy, even trying to cram federal money for abortions into the “emergency” coronavirus funding bill
Meanwhile, Fox has stupid, counterproductive shouting matches and hasn’t disrupted their streak of having the same 12 contributors on all the time talking about every subject. Let me tell you a little secret – if you see a pundit on TV talking about every subject under the Sun, from trade wars and Iran to the election and a pandemic, you are not getting useful information, you are getting opinion. From the 9 person CNN panel, to the MSNBC roundtable, to the “faceoff” on Fox, you are being entertained, not informed. If that’s what you want, fine; but if that’s not what you need, you’re out of luck.
People are going into debt to stock up on food, businesses are suffering and many will not survive. Life is being upended, panic is being induced, and a large percentage of the political world is giddy at the prospect.
The death of journalism has left Americans with nowhere to turn to for reliable, honest reporting. All of these outlets could and should have only experts on to talk about coronavirus. What someone on the payroll with zero background in medicine thinks about this situation might be good for ratings, but it’s not journalism. And people tune in to news networks expecting to get news, especially in times like this.
Unfortunately, you can’t find news anymore because journalism is dead. It didn’t die of coronavirus, it didn’t even die of Trump Derangement Syndrome (though that helped push it over the edge), it was a slow suicide. And now we’re paying the price.
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