The Media’s BuzzFeed and Covington Disasters

“These Catholic boys rode a bus 500 miles from Kentucky to participate in the March for Life, a pro-life event that liberal journalists usually pretend never happened. ABC, CBS and NBC gave Friday’s march just 58 seconds, but by Monday morning, they’d devoted over 19 minutes to the allegedly racist aftermath. Everyone knows that if these teens hadn’t worn MAGA hats, this viral video cesspool (complete with hate speech and death threats) would have never been created.” 

(Brent Bozell & Tim Graham – CNSNews)  The last few days have been absolutely terrible for the reputation of the badly named “mainstream media.”

The myth that they tried to build for themselves after the 2016 election — that the American people were too prone to misinformation from malignant (and often foreign) actors in social media and needed a sober, factually meticulous “news” media to put the Facts First — utterly collapsed under the weight of the BuzzFeed fiasco and the smear-athon of Covington High School kids.

The reality is this: In the Trump era, no one in the “old media” feels the need to wait for the facts. And whatever goes viral on left-wing social media channels is quickly defined as “news.” The media do not mediate as much as they magnify. So a pack of lies can quickly take flight and dominate the national conversation.

The reality is this: In the Trump era, no one in the “old media” feels the need to wait for the facts. And whatever goes viral on left-wing social media channels is quickly defined as “news.” The media do not mediate as much as they magnify. So a pack of lies can quickly take flight and dominate the national conversation.  View article →