Ralph Nader is an 89 year old dinosaur who still thinks legacy news media can be saved. They may have had good intentions once, but the Times and Post are both squarely on the side of keeping the circus going with all of us at each other’s throats while they line their pockets.
In the words of Sinclair Media “this is extremely dangerous to our democracy”.
No argument from me there. It’s also unfortunate that the large social media sites have opted to give legacy media outlets preferential treatment with their algorithms.
He’s right about how the media acts now. He’s right that—through some mechanism (probably more like direct participation and action than media engagement)—we need to focus our own attention on more meaningful shit.
I do think he has kind of an over-optimistic characterization of the history of mainstream media. A rosy, nostalgic lens through which he paints them with too much credit. I have no doubt it used to be…better, by some meaning of the word “better”. But, I mean, Manufacturing Consent was written in the 1980s, so the media’s corruption and capture by the state and use as a tool of propaganda was pretty fucking well known even then.
So IDK if he has some weird idea that it can be restored to what it was then (I read this more as analysis than that kind of prescription), but either way it’s kind of funny to even imagine such a pathetic and insufficient goal.
I feel like he definitely does. Most of the old heads in government seem to pine for an era that may or may not have even existed. Seems like most media types have the same notion of legacy media as a fourth estate that bravely stands up for all of us in the halls of power. The real work isn’t being done on CNN though, it’s independent journalists that don’t have a press pass. Legacy media can be trusted to get the facts at least, but they’re hopeless on analysis.
