Media owners will protect the powerful

We find ourselves in a moment that can be best described as a negative moment. We are returning to the sunken place, overcome with terror at what might be, still burdened by the scars from last time. We saw respectable news organizations make a political choice of “neutrality” in the face of what many saw as an end to the last vestiges of normative approaches to governance. Even the most minuscule progress made in recent years is about to be undone. Organizations claiming to be defenders of democracy watched all this unfold and chose to be bystanders. This may be a prelude to what is to come over the next few years.

We saw a foreshadowing of this future when a newly elected politician “joked” about perhaps ignoring the Constitution to ensure he stayed for an extra term. We have seen it in the sane-washing of some nominees, with their potential rise being framed as “magical” or as merely bringing “bravado and baggage” to their potential jobs. There seems to be an agreement to pretend that what is unfolding is not unfolding and that it will be fine. The press acts like a frog in a boiling pot, while having the memory of goldfish. We are in a negative moment, and as Achille Mbembe reminds us, the result is anything but uncertain.

So what does the next year look like? Honestly, it’s difficult to imagine the chaos about to appear. Between trying to redefine their role in a world of toxic podcasts and the owners of problematic social media sites, journalists may have to reimagine how they cover issues around misogyny and the dehumanization of segments of American society. They’ll have to take seriously their role as nurturers of this thing we call society.

Instead of their infatuation with the latest climate-killing technology, perhaps they’ll focus on explaining and parsing the water hose of chaos about to rain on us. I don’t think they will, though, considering how the media has covered crises abroad or how they have contrived to brew tempests in teacups at home. When promising to pardon hundreds who attempting to overthrow a legitimately elected government is treated as functionally similar to a president pardoning their son of charges we all know do not pass the sniff test, we have a problem. When student protests are so poorly contextualized, and police action on campuses around the country is treated as necessary, there is little hope. When even the association of Black journalists decides to platform a candidate who had shown nothing but disdain to Black people, Black female journalists especially, there is little hope.

Perhaps even more importantly, those who own newspapers in this country are becoming more likely to meddle with editorial stances as they seek to curry favor with the powers that be. As newspaper owners and television executives seek to fence off their privileges, we’ll be left with husks of organizations that not long ago enjoyed audiences’ loyalty. It will become clear that owners and executives have grown less concerned with “all the news that’s fit to print,” or with democracy dying in darkness, or the need “to inform, engage, and empower.” So next year, media owners and CEOs will hamper any attempts by their organizations to hold power accountable. To be clear, many within these organizations have already shown a willingness to hold back in favor of access to political elites — so these actions by owners and CEOs will be more of an alignment of goals than a top-down push. We seem to be on the precipice of trouble, and there’s no one to help us.