The Morning Briefing: Shed No Tears As the Final Nail Gets Driven Into American Journalism's Coffin

RIP American Journalism

No tissues required for this one. I’m going to expand upon something from yesterday’s Briefing. Tyler had written about Bari Weiss leaving The New York Times and revealing just how leftist and toxic things have become at the Gray Lady. I referred to the accelerated purge of centrist and right-leaning voices at the Times as “journalism’s death rattle.”

It’s a day later and I think I’m ready to declare the patient dead.

I’m talking about the mainstream media outlets here: the major newspapers, the broadcast news networks, and the cable networks MSNBC and CNN. The people who still have by far the largest reach and could do the most good by doing real journalism.

It would be wonderful to be optimistic enough to believe that responsible journalism will one day make a comeback in the United States of America. A truly independent and curious press that speaks truth to power is important. Hardcore investigative journalism makes corrupt bureaucrats sweat and stay up at night. Sadly, we haven’t had much of that here for decades.

During our weekly VIP Gold Live chat, Stephen Green, Bryan Preston, and I were discussing the fact that some of the only places that real journalism has been found in recent years have been the big city weekly newspapers. The journalists working for them do some hard-hitting work at the municipal level. Unfortunately, the weeklies are drying up at an even faster rate than the major daily papers.

What we have endured at least since the Kennedy administration (I haven’t checked much beyond that) is a bunch of leftist, state-directed propagandists who insist that they are doing serious journalism. They can call themselves journalists all they want and it doesn’t make it so. I can refer to myself as an NBA power forward all day, every day and I still won’t be able to dunk.

As I have often written, the greatest thing about watching President Trump work since he got into office is the way he treats the the thoroughly corrupt faux journalism types. Until Trump arrived on the scene, most elected Republicans rolled over for the press no matter how badly they were being savaged in the name of “journalism.” The notable exceptions prior to Trump were Newt Gingrich and Ronald Reagan.

So that’s three in 60 years.

Trump’s masterful handling of the CNN hacks and their shamelessly awful colleagues at other outlets in the coastal media bubbles is political entertainment at its finest, but it isn’t going to make these statist cretins change. It would be nice to think that he could shame them into doing some real journalism again, but they’re all so far removed from the real thing that they’ll never find their way back.

Journalism schools aren’t turning out real journalists either, so there is no hope there. As we are all painfully aware, academia is a cesspool of socialist cranks who are just there to produce more of the same. Sure, the kids think they are learning journalism skills, but they’re merely being taught to professionally regurgitate liberal talking points for the DNC and their ilk, while being provided cover by the likes of the Washington Post.

There are many things that hang in the balance that will be decided by this upcoming election but the fate of journalism won’t be one. If Trump wins, they’ll continue being the opposition’s propaganda arm. If Crazy Joe the Wonder Veep does the unthinkable, they’ll relax a bit then find a new Republican to call a racist Nazi. We can at least take comfort in the fact that Trump exposed them in ways that no one else has been able to. They can pretend to be journalists inside their bubbles, but regular Americans have seen what they really are.

I’ll always tell you the truth, of course. But I’m not a journalist. I’m just a biased, bomb-throwing opinion writer.

For as long as you and the Constitution will let me do it.

Full Katie Pavlich Interview With President Trump

My Townhall Media colleague (and fellow University of Arizona Wildcat) Katie Pavlich interviewed President Trump on Tuesday. We had a couple of clips in yesterday’s Briefing. Here is the entire thing, dear readers.

The Morning Briefing: Shed No Tears As the Final Nail Gets Driven Into American Journalism's Coffin

RIP American Journalism

Full Katie Pavlich Interview With President Trump

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