Way to go Joe. Just turn your show over to a presidential candidate who doesn't believe in science and treats women like sex toys.
Just open up the airwaves.
Don't question. Don't ask for facts. Don't hold him accountable for anything. Whenever he calls, just put him on the air. Great idea.
Just join the Fox News crowd, the "who do we hate today" network.
There's no reason to do journalism when the only thing you care about is ratings. There's no reason to be concerned about the country. There's certainly no reason to be concerned about climate change or healthcare or war. Just be a free national promotional vehicle.
Way to go Joe. Nice work. You should be proud. I bet your work is what put him over the top. Without your splendid effort, he probably wouldn't have made it. Way to go Joe!
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We had a war in Iraq for one basic reason: journalism failed. Bill Moyers documented that in superb fashion. Every citizen who wishes to be informed should watch Buying the War.
Now we have President elect Trump for the same reason. American journalism failed.
When journalism fails, bad things happen.
When will America's television networks start paying attention to something other than profit margin and stock price and executive compensation? When will they demonstrate some integrity and do the journalism that needs to be done?
With the war, we paid and continue to pay a high price.
With Trump, the price will be far higher.
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Donald Trump is the ultimate result of Fox News.
Granted, this year other networks certainly share some blame, particularly MSNBC for simply turning over the airwaves to him early in the campaign.
But Fox News is responsible.
Remember one thing about journalism and one thing about Fox News. Journalism requires verification. Journalists don't just believe what they're told, professional journalists always seek to verify. Fox News has never had anything to do with journalism. It's not a news organization. It's the most highly profitable and successful political propaganda organization in the history of human communication.
In her New York Times op-ed, Senator Elizabeth Warren makes a wonderfully accurate assessment of the "rigged election." She writes:
Cratering the polls, besieged by sexual assault allegations and drowning in his own disgusting rhetoric, Donald Trump has been reduced to hollering that November's election is "rigged" against him. His proof? It looks like he's going to lose.
Senior Republican leaders are scrambling to distance themselves from this dangerous claim. But Trumps argument didn't spring from nowhere. It's just one more symptom of a long-running effort by Republicans to delegitimize Democratic voters, appointees and leaders. For years, this disease has infected our politics.
The 24-hour mosquito that carries the infection across the nation is Fox News.
The enemy of democracy is not terrorism. As Justice David Souter eloquently explains, the enemy of democracy is civic ignorance.
Climate change? Science? Not to worry. With Fox News, you have the perpetuator of civic ignorance. It takes an actor on the National Geographic channel to attempt to inform a public suffering from the infliction of the "who do we hate today" network. If you're a citizen with a rational brain, watch Before the Flood. Then ask yourself as a citizen of the United States two questions: why didn't the moderators of the presidential debates ask specific questions about climate change, and why would any thoughtful person waste one second listening to Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly?
When journalism fails, bad things happen. For the sake of the country, let's hope we don't pay the ultimate price for civic ignorance.
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