As we watch the Congressional hearings, one thing is missing: how the failure of the press made this tragedy of Trump possible.
For years, reporters at every local TV station should have been questioning their members of Congress and asking basic questions:
1. Why don't you object to Donald Trump making racist comments?
2. Why don 't you object to Donald Trump making sexist comments?
3. And once the big lie about the stolen election came along, reporters should have been asking a basic, simple question: what is your evidence?
Silence in the face of racism is not an option. Silence in the face of sexism is not an option. Failing to ask members of Congress for the evidence they have to support the big lie is NOT acceptable for any responsible news organization.
It's not the fault of local TV reporters. It's the fault of management. The corporate owners of local TV stations don't care about journalism or democracy or the problems of racism and sexism. All they care about is profit. If they cared about journalism, all those those questions would have been asked. Public officials would have been held accountable. They weren't because local TV journalism failed.
We're facing the mess we face because of the failure of local TV news. Their corporate owners only care about profit. Corporate greed is killing journalism.
And you can't have a functional democracy with a dysfunctional press. Greed is killing journalism; it is killing democracy. Will we change? If so, we have a chance. If we don't, the country is doomed.
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