Trump and a misleading media.

 

John Flint, a highly creditable journalist, was right on the money writing in The West Australian newspaper(02/10/2024)  when he wrote that Donald  Trump is not a normal candidate and that his normalisation as a Presidential candidate is largely the fault of the media because it has  “failed in its fundamental watchdog role.” How sadly true.

I have just read “The Men who Killed the News” written by a respected journalist and a former Murdoch Editor, Eric Beecher. The book outlines how media moguls over a two centuries have abused their power, manipulated the truth and distorted democracy.

Many years ago a journalist sought out Dame Elizabeth Murdoch after her son Rupert had added yet  another media agency to his already mammoth media empire. He asked her how she felt about her son’s highly successful career as a journalist. Quick as a flash Dame Elizabeth replied, “My son Rupert  is not a journalist. He is a businessman.”

This was epitomised when Murdoch’s Fox TV News started dramatically losing its ratings in 2020 when it reported that Joe Biden had won the Presidential election. As Fox  continued to report  about Biden’s lawful win, rusted on Trump followers stopped watching Fox News in droves.

Rupert Murdoch does not like losing money or power.  To recover his ratings and his advertising revenue he started giving the Trump followers the doctored “News” that they wanted to hear.                   The fact that it was not true did not worry Murdoch. He was making money once again.

Today, traditional forms of reporting the news are under threat from social media platforms, such as Facebook and X owned respectively by Mark Zuckerburg and Elon Musk. Much of the information on their internet platforms is not only untrue but sometimes highly toxic.  These two men have shown they do not care  for the truth. They only care about the mountains of money they are making.

In a democracy it is essential that there is a free media that presents the facts to the people. However, as John Flint has shown, a lazy or dishonest media can make even the sub normal seem normal to a lot of people. In an era of fake news, misinformation, unregulated social media and artificial Intelligence, a free and functioning democracy  requires more than ever, a free press that provides honest and professional journalism to its citizens.                                                                                                           Otherwise, we may all begin to believe the sub normal is normal.