It is the marriage between the mainstream media and the Democratic Party establishment that is the real problem. Time and time again the mainstream media fail to hold the Democratic Party establishment to account.
It is a systemic failure that threatens democracy.
By comparison, if de Blasio was an outsider and getting up to these shenanigans, the mainstream media would have no problems calling him out.
If it was a Republican, the mainstream media would be partying all night long on this story - night after night after night.
We desperately need the media to hold all politicians and all parties to account.
Thank you for sharing this story with us.
Very true, and thank you! Although I would argue that Murdoch's cable network is no less married to the establishment, etc. But the failure of the press to be legitimate establishment critics is absolutely a massive threat to whatever shred of "democratic process" we have left. Even Princeton admits that money buys influence.
I disagree that this is only a problem of the left, it is a problem of plutocracy, and the veneer of political division is a road block for some in understanding that their enemy is on both sides. It's a false dichotomy.
Regardless though I think the failure of the press overall is a MASSIVE problem, and I am glad that other indie journalists are still fighting this fight.
I think you could delete "cable network' from:
' Murdoch's cable network is no less married to the establishment'
While Fox News/Business leans right in the USA, you would know from Murdoch's history in Australia and the UK that he is just as prone to support Labor governments (Hawk/Keating in Australia & Blair/Brown in the UK come to mind).
So I do not necessarily think it is left versus right with him - I think it is business and he is firmly married to the establishment.
I think you are right, it is more about ordinary folk versus the elite/establishment then left versus right (especially the libertarian right). I really liked these paragraphs from your article.
'The vote ripped the mask from the pretense of differentiation between the Democratic party and Republicans, and highlighted instead the troubling bipartisan support among lawmakers for increasing the power of the American deep state. That so many Democrats would vote to give Trump additional spying authority illustrates the sham of media and political theatrics which thrum up a fiction where foamy-mouthed Democrats ‘resist’ the Putin-controlled President. Instead, an allegiance to the intelligence community and its enmeshed corporate interests is shown to transcend political stripe.'
'Every single person who buys into the false difference between left and right wing politicians is the political equivalent of a “mark” who has been duped into believing that wrestling storylines are real.'
'Such controversies create the appearance of substantive division between supposedly opposed political stripes, where in fact there is no difference between the establishment left and establishment right. Such placebos disguise the plutocratic reality undergirding the entire production'
Keep up the good work.
Thank you! Agreed. I see all billionaires and multi-billionaires, no matter their country of origin - whether it's the Kochs, Soros, Murdoch, Bezos, Thiel or Omidyar - as part of the same problem, regardless of their different political flavors.