John Oliver just happened to cover this issue on his latest episode, focusing on Sinclair Broadcasting, which through a pending acquisition is about to become the largest broadcaster in the country. Turns out Sinclair is the opposite of non-ideological, and forces its local affiliate newscasts to contain genuinely fake news with a breathtaking rightwing bias (obsession may be the more accurate term), plus insane ranting that passes for “editorial opinion”. All so far to the right that it might make you wonder, for just a second, if Fox News really is “fair and balanced”.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc)

To these businesspeople, all politics is about nothing except the taxes they pay and the regulations that affect them. Those things are in the political realm, and the corporatists rationalize their depredations as self-defensive, protecting themselves against “government overreach”. Which is to say, the proper workings of a democracy responding to the will of the people. Horrors!

I think, too, that sensationalism in the portrayal of the news is a separate issue from dishonest propaganda masquerading as journalism. Lies can be presented soberly by a distinguished white-haired gentlemen in a suit (or doctor’s coat), while teachers will tell you that a little showmanship in the presentation of the truth goes a long way toward encouraging people to pay attention.

I assert that even the present “standard” of slick and entertaining news doesn’t obligate its purveyors to lie. The lies come from another place, a darker place, one that I can’t easily trivialize as just “money-grubbing”.

It’s encouraging to see that my view of the history of the Conservative Movement is gaining some traction. Back when well-intentioned psychologists studied Germany to figure out what where the German people went wrong, others, like Leo Strauss, set out to figure out where Hitler went wrong. Judging by the next half-century, I’d say they concluded that Hitler was just too impatient to destroy democracy, even in a place like Weimar where it had a shaky foothold. They must have realized that destroying democracy in America would be a multi-generational project, pursued patiently and painstakingly, one nail in the coffin of democracy at a time.

Destroying trust in journalism is the most important pillar of their campaign.