CNN and MSNBC are failing us today
Today is not exactly a banner day for the media. MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and CNN’s Jake Tapper have spent the day inaccurately trying to put all the blame on President Biden for the Afghanistan debacle, while essentially pretending that Bush, Cheney, and Trump didn’t set up this outcome long ago. Meanwhile NPR is giving airtime to John Bolton, the last guy who should be given a voice when it comes to Middle East war fallout.
Today is a sad reminder that while Fox News and other right wing propaganda outlets are by far the most egregious about it, mainstream media outlets like CNN and MSNBC are also TV ratings factories that are at times willing to push dishonest or even false narratives in the hope of hitting their ratings marks for the day.
We urge the media to do better. Of course better journalism often doesn’t translate to better ratings, so it makes for a conundrum. Keep in mind that you, the audience, have the final vote: your remote control. If you simply turn off any coverage that you know is dishonest, it’ll hit the media in the ratings department, and they’ll be forced to adjust accordingly.
