Well said. TV & newspaper editors, producers and CEOs have to do more than produce balanced impartial news. I believe their primary aim today should be to protect our Democracy from the “ termites “ of the far right and their insidious march towards a dictatorship with a Fascist bent.
Fortunate coincidence. Our Truth Observatory is now live on the Internet for doing exactly what the media needs. Anybody can sign in to truthcourt.net and start putting in cases,, try them, and provide feedback to the media immediately with a single click The Truth Observatory is open to all English speakers on every platform and is completely free. Try it.
Great essay. I can’t understand how Devolder/Santos/Mr X is able to hold a seat in Congress. It offends me. Fact checking is *so* important, especially after TFG emboldened his followers with all his lies, and continues to do so.
It is galling to see a mainstream journalist let a MAGA Republican refer to "post-birth abortions" unchecked. Kind of unforgivable really. I well understand the pressures of interviewing and covering so much and monitoring so many lies. But that "post-birth abortion" lie is beyond the pale. Every time these things are repeated without correction, it is damaging. I do think there IS a case for taping interviews and interjecting sane and corrective context before airing such nonsense. Good idea.
Replying to myself! Of course, pre-recording and adding context isn't failsafe. We need only look to Lesley Stahl's abysmal Marjorie Toilet Greene (as many are now calling her!) interview. Plenty of editing there and production time. Still a disaster.
I like the buzzer idea; but since the columnist said that isn't practical, then we should go with Plan B: Have all interviews pre-recorded and fact check them before airing them. Of course, those so accustomed to, and accepting of, lies won't care. However, for those Americans still willing to try to make our country ethical and truthful again, this might work.
You are spot on! I've been reading the mis- and disinformation for years, and yet the liars have absolutely NO SHAME and keep cranking the stuff out 24/7.
One idea to help counter this…..USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE to quickly analyze false statements and immediately call them out. It would be very embarrassing for these charlatans to be hit back with actual facts, INSTANTLY.
On another, but related topic - Political Debates. It has always irritated me that blowhards like Trump attempt to dominate the debates by running over the time allotted to them, or by interrupting the other speakers.
My solution? The moderator should have control over ALL the microphones on the stage and disable them except the one for the person who is allotted time. No more running overtime and no more interrupting…..just silent lip-flapping!
TTruth to fact has been at peril for some time. My dad from time to time would say, "Liars figure, but figures don't lie." A simple truth. I fault the media in large part for the morphing of lies and fakery. That often occurs because of ratings seeking. The falsehood is broadcast. Discovery finds the falsehood. Yet, the retraction of same appears buried somewhere deep within the next edition of the medium in which the falsehood initially appeared.
FOX and Newsmax are the great purveyors of lies, big lies and disinformation. One must inquire about their motives; but on most occasions, they will respond with yet another lie. When the Murdochs of the world go unchecked, absent any or all reprisal for their willful deceptions, society suffers from the resultant toxicity. I am reminded with amusement of the "Dragnet" TV series, where Detective Joe Friday says, "Just the facts ma'am. Just the facts." (Thank you, Jack Webb!) So long as certain media continue to seduce a subset of our citizenry with lies and deception, the challenge to fact, to truth, and to authenticity will persist. One might be persuaded to believe the disregard for fact is a problem solely with the less educated. IF only that were true! We have just as many falsifiers and fact-slayers among the well-educated. Congress and the Supreme Court come quickly to mind. When one lacks moral integrity and worships the self as the ultimate authority, society will crumble from within.
It makes me so angry and frustrated when someone, nearly always a Republican, is allowed to lie during an interview without any comeback from the interviewer. I had to stop watching PBS's Newshour months ago because of this. Too many journalists are still treating the two parties as equivalent. They aren't! It's also a problem when a headline in a newspaper, like the NY Times, for example, doesn't summarize the content of the article correctly. Too often people read the headline and don't dig down to the end of the article to get the real story.
First of all, thank you for the invaluable work that you are doing on a daily basis (your Twitter posts, for example) in holding the mainstream media accountable for their abject failure in defending the truth at every turn. They are still mired in their time-worn habit of playing it safe (for the sake of their advertisers?) by giving both sides equal play. They do this, not so much by commission, as by omission: a prime example being the way that Trump is referred to as "the former President," rather than be defining who he truly is - a criminal thug - every time they refer to him. Yes, I know, every man is innocent, etc., but the media are playing into the hands of the fascists by pretending to maintain some sort of "objectivity." The limp-wristed reporting of the NYT is a prime example. Have their editors learnt nothing from their entirely misguided support of the Bush-stoked lies that led us into the Iraq war?
An aside: how could the media be otherwise when they - with a very few exceptions - are dependent on advertising? But that's a theme for another time.
It is absolutely imperative, as you say, that the flood of fascist lies are called out in real time. The media simply has to change its time-worn habits in a hurry. How can they continue to report on Trump as a viable candidate for the presidency? It's almost as if they are choosing to remain deliberately blind to the enormous stakes for democracy. By continuing as they are doing, the media are proving to be complicit in its destruction.
Well said. TV & newspaper editors, producers and CEOs have to do more than produce balanced impartial news. I believe their primary aim today should be to protect our Democracy from the “ termites “ of the far right and their insidious march towards a dictatorship with a Fascist bent.
Fortunate coincidence. Our Truth Observatory is now live on the Internet for doing exactly what the media needs. Anybody can sign in to truthcourt.net and start putting in cases,, try them, and provide feedback to the media immediately with a single click The Truth Observatory is open to all English speakers on every platform and is completely free. Try it.
Great essay. I can’t understand how Devolder/Santos/Mr X is able to hold a seat in Congress. It offends me. Fact checking is *so* important, especially after TFG emboldened his followers with all his lies, and continues to do so.
Great article. So important to call out the 'firehose of lies'.
It is galling to see a mainstream journalist let a MAGA Republican refer to "post-birth abortions" unchecked. Kind of unforgivable really. I well understand the pressures of interviewing and covering so much and monitoring so many lies. But that "post-birth abortion" lie is beyond the pale. Every time these things are repeated without correction, it is damaging. I do think there IS a case for taping interviews and interjecting sane and corrective context before airing such nonsense. Good idea.
Replying to myself! Of course, pre-recording and adding context isn't failsafe. We need only look to Lesley Stahl's abysmal Marjorie Toilet Greene (as many are now calling her!) interview. Plenty of editing there and production time. Still a disaster.
Yes, but it's better than letting a lie go unchallenged completely. If I had had any respect for Jake Tapper, it's gone.
I like the buzzer idea; but since the columnist said that isn't practical, then we should go with Plan B: Have all interviews pre-recorded and fact check them before airing them. Of course, those so accustomed to, and accepting of, lies won't care. However, for those Americans still willing to try to make our country ethical and truthful again, this might work.
You are spot on! I've been reading the mis- and disinformation for years, and yet the liars have absolutely NO SHAME and keep cranking the stuff out 24/7.
One idea to help counter this…..USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE to quickly analyze false statements and immediately call them out. It would be very embarrassing for these charlatans to be hit back with actual facts, INSTANTLY.
On another, but related topic - Political Debates. It has always irritated me that blowhards like Trump attempt to dominate the debates by running over the time allotted to them, or by interrupting the other speakers.
My solution? The moderator should have control over ALL the microphones on the stage and disable them except the one for the person who is allotted time. No more running overtime and no more interrupting…..just silent lip-flapping!
I can't wait to see this employed.
TTruth to fact has been at peril for some time. My dad from time to time would say, "Liars figure, but figures don't lie." A simple truth. I fault the media in large part for the morphing of lies and fakery. That often occurs because of ratings seeking. The falsehood is broadcast. Discovery finds the falsehood. Yet, the retraction of same appears buried somewhere deep within the next edition of the medium in which the falsehood initially appeared.
FOX and Newsmax are the great purveyors of lies, big lies and disinformation. One must inquire about their motives; but on most occasions, they will respond with yet another lie. When the Murdochs of the world go unchecked, absent any or all reprisal for their willful deceptions, society suffers from the resultant toxicity. I am reminded with amusement of the "Dragnet" TV series, where Detective Joe Friday says, "Just the facts ma'am. Just the facts." (Thank you, Jack Webb!) So long as certain media continue to seduce a subset of our citizenry with lies and deception, the challenge to fact, to truth, and to authenticity will persist. One might be persuaded to believe the disregard for fact is a problem solely with the less educated. IF only that were true! We have just as many falsifiers and fact-slayers among the well-educated. Congress and the Supreme Court come quickly to mind. When one lacks moral integrity and worships the self as the ultimate authority, society will crumble from within.
It makes me so angry and frustrated when someone, nearly always a Republican, is allowed to lie during an interview without any comeback from the interviewer. I had to stop watching PBS's Newshour months ago because of this. Too many journalists are still treating the two parties as equivalent. They aren't! It's also a problem when a headline in a newspaper, like the NY Times, for example, doesn't summarize the content of the article correctly. Too often people read the headline and don't dig down to the end of the article to get the real story.
Dear Mark Jacob,
First of all, thank you for the invaluable work that you are doing on a daily basis (your Twitter posts, for example) in holding the mainstream media accountable for their abject failure in defending the truth at every turn. They are still mired in their time-worn habit of playing it safe (for the sake of their advertisers?) by giving both sides equal play. They do this, not so much by commission, as by omission: a prime example being the way that Trump is referred to as "the former President," rather than be defining who he truly is - a criminal thug - every time they refer to him. Yes, I know, every man is innocent, etc., but the media are playing into the hands of the fascists by pretending to maintain some sort of "objectivity." The limp-wristed reporting of the NYT is a prime example. Have their editors learnt nothing from their entirely misguided support of the Bush-stoked lies that led us into the Iraq war?
An aside: how could the media be otherwise when they - with a very few exceptions - are dependent on advertising? But that's a theme for another time.
It is absolutely imperative, as you say, that the flood of fascist lies are called out in real time. The media simply has to change its time-worn habits in a hurry. How can they continue to report on Trump as a viable candidate for the presidency? It's almost as if they are choosing to remain deliberately blind to the enormous stakes for democracy. By continuing as they are doing, the media are proving to be complicit in its destruction.
Very well said, Homi.
Thank you, Mim.
Bring back Tar & Feathers.