For all of its foibles, the American media of the past several decades has been arguably one of the best, collectively, in the world.
I've done a lot of traveling. And most countries have newspapers that follow the Fox News model - i.e., in bed with one political party (or union, in some places) and the news follows accordingly. And for all the excuses that Fox apologists make about the difference between Fox's "news" and "commentary," spare us. Fox lives to support the GOP, period.
While biased media is the norm in much of Europe, it's not in America (it was, once upon a time, but not for a long while now). Other than Fox, our media had its foibles, but it was pretty good. But now, per the NYT, the robber barons are back and the Republicans are spreading the Fox plague across the land, starting in San Diego.
Republicans learned long ago that they win more easily when they lie. And the biggest impediment to a GOP lie is a fair and balanced media. And rather than play the refs, like folks on the left do, the GOP figured they'd simply make their own media to replace the real one. Get rid of the fact checkers and you can get rid of the facts.
But even by GOP standards, it's pretty sleazy what's happening in San Diego. The local paper, bought by a conservative activist, now investigates government entities that don't do what the paper management wants. It's the kind of thing you hear about in Europe, and particularly Russia (or the Third World), but now we have it in America too (like we used to a long time ago).
Well, the Republicans have been saying for a while that they wanted to go back to the traditional ways of doing things. Apparently, they included corruption in that mix.
While biased media is the norm in much of Europe, it's not in America (it was, once upon a time, but not for a long while now). Other than Fox, our media had its foibles, but it was pretty good. But now, per the NYT, the robber barons are back and the Republicans are spreading the Fox plague across the land, starting in San Diego.
Republicans learned long ago that they win more easily when they lie. And the biggest impediment to a GOP lie is a fair and balanced media. And rather than play the refs, like folks on the left do, the GOP figured they'd simply make their own media to replace the real one. Get rid of the fact checkers and you can get rid of the facts.
But even by GOP standards, it's pretty sleazy what's happening in San Diego. The local paper, bought by a conservative activist, now investigates government entities that don't do what the paper management wants. It's the kind of thing you hear about in Europe, and particularly Russia (or the Third World), but now we have it in America too (like we used to a long time ago).
Well, the Republicans have been saying for a while that they wanted to go back to the traditional ways of doing things. Apparently, they included corruption in that mix.
