Aug 14, 2024 8 min read

Is American Media Fit for a Democracy?

I’m Umair Haque, and this is The Issue: an independent, nonpartisan, subscriber-supported publication. Our job is to give you the freshest, deepest, no-holds-barred insight about the issues that matter most.

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We’re not just seeing Donald Trump break down, suffering obvious cognitive decline. We’re also seeing America’s media break, unable—unwilling—to function. And all of that raises the question: is it fit for a modern democracy anymore?

Consider the following:

At least three news outlets were leaked confidential material from inside the Donald Trump campaign, including its report vetting JD Vance as a vice presidential candidate. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what they received.

Instead, Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post have written about a potential hack of the campaign and described what they had in broad terms.

Their decisions stand in marked contrast to the 2016 presidential campaign, when a Russian hack exposed emails to and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. The website Wikileaks published a trove of these embarrassing missives, and mainstream news organizations covered them avidly.

So. To put it more simply, media didn’t cover a hack to help Donald Trump in 2024. But they did cover a hack to help Donald Trump in 2016. That’d be Hillary’s emails, if you forget. The double standard—and the obvious bias, and I don’t like to use that word—should be clear.

And it is, to many elder statesmen and women in journalism. That’s a tweet from Jeff Jarvis above, a long-time journalist who’s now a professor. Weighing in with similar sentiments, James Fallows—an eminent writer and journalist—sounded the alarm as well. Even journalism’s brightest minds are concerned about the state of American media. I’m not a media critic. But they are.

And all that’s before we get to the media’s treatment of Biden, not so long ago, and how it’s treating Kamala now. Demanding interviews from her, as if she should speak with them, after the way they treated Biden—which was, to put it bluntly, character assassination and smears, not thoughtful discussions of the facts.

So let me ask again: is American media worthy of democracy anymore? And again, it’s not just me asking that question, but figures like Jeff, who’s on the other side of the political aisle, and James, who’s a long-time moderate. This concern is now going viral for a very good reason: we can all see media visibly failing us in this moment, and yet this moment couldn’t be more crucial to and for democracy.

How, then, are we to think about this question?

What American Media Thinks Its Job Is, Versus What Its Job Really Is

The problem that’s afflicting American media can be put simply. Punditry has come to replace journalism, too much, and instead of a focus on facts, there’s now a desperate search for “narratives,” around which to spin facts. All of this allows American media to go on in a desperate quest for profit, by way of clicks.

But what does all this to do a society? You can see that the consequences aren’t good, but I want you to really understand why.

When punditry replaces journalism, then a media’s role changes. Its raison d’etre becomes the power to confer and grant legitimacy.

Upon what? Issues. Ideas. Topics. And even people.

So, for example, until very recently, American media didn’t think much of climate change, and didn’t really cover it much, dedicating almost no resources, people, effort towards it. That changed when the Washington Post took the lead, and established a whole “climate” section. And that conferred legitimacy on climate change as a topic or subject or idea.

Of course, not perfect and total legitimacy—there are still plenty of climate deniers, and that’s why I chose this example. Because in the quest to please "both sides,” American media replaced journalism with punditry, and came to see itself as the arbiter of legitimacy.

Which issues matter in a society? Which topics should it discuss? Which people are to be heard, serious and sober and knowledgeable and real—and which deserve to remain unheard?

These are the questions of conferring legitimacy. And in a good media, a better media, these questions are taken very, very seriously. A good media understands that it has the power to grant legitimacy to certain voices and topics and issues—and it acts responsibly, wisely, putting the ideals of truth and justice at the heart of that judgment. Because the job of a media is above all to present us with the truth.

But America’s media…it’s not doing that at the moment. When it character assassinated Biden, relentlessly, it didn’t. When it literally covers up for Trump, it’s not aiding in any search for truth. When it bellows at Kamala—that’s not about truth, that’s about power.

And when a media seeks power over the very democratic institutions it’s supposed to be protecting, then something is going very wrong.

When Media Abuses Its Power

Media has a power. An awesome power, in a society. The power to confer legitimacy. On people, issues, topics, and voices. It can choose to pick someone or something out of the noise, chaos, ether—snap, just like that—and make them heard.

But this power can be abused, too.

We understand many forms of the abuse of power almost intuitively. A politician abuses their power through corruption. A police officer acts brutally towards an innocent person. A President gives away national secrets.

But the abuse of the media’s power is less well understood, because it’s more subtle, and at the same time, more complicated. When the media abuses its power, what happens is that the illegitimate becomes legitimate.

Let’s think about a few examples of that, and now that I’ve said it out loud, I’m sure your mind raced away ahead, and got the point already. What happened in 2016? We were told—warned—that we couldn’t call Trump a fascist. That’d make us the extremists, crackpots, and dangerous lunatics. But meanwhile, Trump was checking off every box on the fascism checklist.

And so the illegitimate became legitimate. Trumpism flourished, the media granting it authority and voice, and society didn’t question nearly enough the obvious: was this fascism? Wasn’t it? Was it really alright for a political movement to centre hate, violence, rage, and spite? What about an authoritarian impulse to overthrow democracy? It took Jan 6th for the media to recoil in horror, and come back to its senses—but by then, America’d had a shocking, explosive example of the illegitimate trying to force itself as legitimate: an attempted coup.

You see what I mean, perhaps, a little bit.

When the media abuses its power, the illegitimate becomes—is made out to be, portrayed as, allowed to paint itself as—legitimate. Fascism’s allowed to become just another in a sea of perfectly reasonable political forms. Violence and hate and spite are just another choice, as good as peace and consent and coexistence. Demagogues spewing spite are just as worthy as candidates upholding democracy.

This is “both-sidesism,” and I don’t use that word often, because I want you to see the real danger it leads to: it makes the illegitimate legitimate, presents it as legitimate, paints it as normal, worthy, OK, fair enough, just, deserving of contemplation and respect, “newsworthy.” It’s a form of abuse of power, and of seeking power over democracy, not empowering democracy, with conferring legitimacy responsibly, on things, issues, and people that align with democratic values.

Yes, America’s Media is Failing Its Democracy

So what does that do to a democracy? I think you already know by now. There are certain things which are not legitimate in a democracy. Never. They are outside its boundaries, just as you can’t walk across the tennis court, and smash your racquet over your opponent’s head. Those things are hate, violence, spite, rage, and the Big Lies they’re based on.

Those lines must—must—be defended. If a democracy’s to endure and prevail. And for better or worse, the defender of those lines is the media. If the media can’t or won’t do that job, then it’s left to the people, to recognize: this is a media that’s not worthy of democracy. And to make that judgment, the people must begin to observe: our media appears to making the illegitimate legitimate, over and over again, and in that way, our democracy is at risk, perversely enough, from it.

Reading American media, you get the sense of glee from journalists and pundits, who are almost drunk with power. Ha ha! I’m going to get them today. Biden, Kamala, Tim Walz. I’m not going to use my power responsibly. We’re going to drive clicks, with bait, through rage. I’m going to both-sides this and that, and forget about conferring legitimacy responsibly. And increasingly, that’s turning people off, big time, leaving them sort of disgusted and shocked by the way media is covering this critical moment in history.

That’s what’s beginning to happen in America now. The media’s surprised from all this—the shockwave of seeing people revolt against it, cancelling subscriptions, speaking out in disgust, its own elder statesmen grimacing in despair. It still doesn’t understand the mistakes it’s making, which are the ones above.

Kamala’s right not to speak much to this media. Not just for political reasons, but for institutional ones. Sure, it’s a smart media strategy not to talk to those who won’t give you a fair shake. But in institutional terms? Media needs to be reminded what its job is. And to do that, it needs a comeuppance, in the form of being reminded: it’s not the ultimate arbiter of legitimacy.

The people grant it that power. But they can also revoke that power. And that’s what’s happening with Kamala’s campaign. When she wins, and at this point, it’s a when, not an if, the media’s power to confer legitimacy will be greatly diminished, because she will have gone around them, not having sought it in the first place. And that will be a humbling moment for the media, realizing that it’s power to confer legitimacy was always a privilege.

In the end? American media needs less (way less) punditry. More real journalism. More hard-hitting investigations. Better columnists, by a long, long way. A focus on facts, again. Coverage of genuine Big Issues, from climate change to inequality to capitalism’s manifold failures to downward mobility to falling living standards and beyond. It needs a purpose again, American media, beyond just seeking power over the very democratic institutions it’s there to protect.

That’ll take a lot, and it won’t happen overnight. But it’s happening, and the truth is that once people begin to take back the power to confer legitimacy, a media is in for a rude, unhappy awakening.

It’s not just the GOP abusing its power, or the Supreme Court. Today, in America, the media is, too. That’s a perilous place for a democracy to be. And yet at this very moment, the people themselves are waking up to all this, and demanding better. In all that, there’s a deep, and profound, sense of hope.

What American Media Thinks Its Job Is, Versus What Its Job Really Is

When Media Abuses Its Power

Yes, America’s Media is Failing Its Democracy

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