BY JON ALEXANDER
A new trend has emerged in the wake of Donald Trump’s “surprising and impossible” victory in the US 2016 Presidential Elections. You’d have to be an ostrich not to have been confronted by the term “Fake News” of late.
From what I can gather, the term appears to have been brought into existence by individuals and news networks upset that their credibility has been called into question yet again after their disastrous coverage of Trump’s election.
Mainstream Media (MSM) is currently facing a crisis. It’s too slow, it can’t keep up with demand and, most importantly, it must ensure the stories it is reporting don’t mess up the established narrative. And this is costing them their reputation.
If a shooting is announced, by the time MSM has gone through its extensive checklist of things to avoid and announced that the shooter is “an as yet unconfirmed lone wolf, model citizen of no terrorist affiliations” it is too late. Twitter has already announced their full name alongside history and photos of them as a baby. They are left three hours later still skirting around what has already been established by the Twitterati.
You would think that after the incorrect predictions of the UK General Election (2015), the EU Referendum and the U.S Elections that the MSM would have begun an in-depth analysis of where they went wrong?
Nope.
They continued to do what they did before – talk down the country (both in this case), belittle the opinions of those who think differently and in some cases caste large swathes of people as bigots and racists.
Eventually this mindset will fade and they will realise they need to engage but by then it will be too late (an ongoing trend). They can’t even claim to be gracious in defeat: Trump went for dinner with his family to celebrate his win rather than address a press conference and MSM was incensed, “How can we trust the President of the United State when he disappears without telling people where he is going?” screamed one. This basically translated into “How dare he ignore us” and generated yet more abuse and vitriol.
The fact that any politician, celebrity, public figure needs to court the media is a notion I find laughable, there is a whole World Wide Web out there. Anybody can set up a website, why on Earth would you need to flirt with the very people that hope to destroy you? Donald Trump’s disregard for the media isn’t a breach in protocol or more evidence that he is literally Hitler, it’s more likely to be a PR exercise, directly speaking to the public via social media and firing a shot at the media to let them know they are not required any more.
I know MSM must think about their target audience and their shareholders but realistically what do we need them for?
Gone are the days when you could tune in to the BBC and get a balanced, unbiased opinion. Now we get a one-sided debate and a lecture on how we should be thinking or feeling. The media has dumbed down, they’re terrified people might form the wrong opinion from the information presented so it’s much easier to dumb it down and feed them the points MSM wants to get across.
The recent actions of MSM have been to point to “right wing” sites and declare them to be Fake News sites, which I must confess to finding hilarious. I’m expected to believe that sites that correctly predicted Trump’s win are fake yet sites that did their best to sway the election and spent months telling us his win was impossible are somehow more credible?
The real reason for this branding of Fake News may be more sinister but rather more simple to grasp…MSM are scared, they’ve proved they can’t be trusted, they’ve proved that no matter how much money or effort you put into controlling the narrative, people will discover the truth.
This episode will come full circle, as MSM struggles to control the popular narrative. More outrageous stories will be exclusively revealed. Then when the stories are disproved MSM will claim that it was because of the influence of Fake News that said events did not happen. Which is ironic really as MSM will become the Fake News they so desperately want to brand others as.
Truth always prevails.
No, next question…
are you a troll?
So a previous comment on twitter, and my relief at having deactivated my account and getting my life back obviously not “on point!”…My “take” is that twitter is fine if you want facts eg the score in local soccer derby, or you are seeking advice about, for example, a recommended Italian restaurant in Basingstoke, but as a medium for exchanging political, economic or social opinions or expressing them, not my choice, particularly when X who does not know you from Adam makes all sorts of assumptions about you, or cant stomach some low key banter and winding up…Having typed this doubt if it will be published, whereas MSM so called would publish.
A most understandable & valid reaction, Elizabeth, which I share, but I remember at the same time there are plenty of wise voters who don’t use social media, for whom the bias & unprofessionalism of the mass media, to whom they are easy prey, is a great & ongoing problem. Social media is cutting in to the dominance of MSM, more all the time, but depriving users of conventional media of the quality& immediacy of information we get on Twitter & the like, is negligent, unfair & anti-democratic. It’s one of the reasons I pay attention to the sins of the BBC, because even while many of in their audience take their drivel with a pinch of salt, they are owed better for the years their licence fees built the corporation, & as the way they would prefer to stay fully, expansively, entertainingly, promptly, & intelligently informed. So yes, SM is changing the game & making fools of MSM, but it’s doing so in a way which leaves some people whose wisdom we need, out of the conversation.
Perhaps the time is coming when the MSM is made totally obsolete & closed down by the social networking system.As you say it just cant keep up & ends up being irrelevant!
Interesting times. Meanwhile little cutters like Country squire can steal the limelight as the MSM tankers try and adjust their positions. This is an interesting article.
Agree that truth always prevails. I can’t see MSM just waving a white flag though. They will continue to bring in large audiences. They will simply have to reform and set up tighter ships.