Reliable Sources
Democracy dies in Darkness
Brian Stelter and his CNN Sunday morning show “Reliable Sources” have been canceled despite being successful. Former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, has a good explainer here.
Reich says, in part, “The show was canceled by Chris Licht, CNN’s new chairman, and CEO, who has said he wants less criticism of Trump and the Republican right. Licht has told staff they should stop referring to Trump’s “Big Lie” because the phrase sounds like a Democratic Party talking point.
CNN is owned by CNN Global, part of Warner Brothers Discovery. Reich says to understand why Stelter was fired, follow the money.
“The leading shareholder in Warner Bros. Discovery is John Malone, a multi-billionaire cable magnate. (Malone was a chief architect in the merger of Discovery and CNN.) Malone describes himself as a “libertarian” although he travels in rightwing Republican circles. In 2005, he held 32 percent of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. He is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute. In 2017, he donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration.”
Licht responded to Reich, and according to Reich:
“He denied canceling Brian Stelter’s Sunday show “Reliable Sources” because of political pressure from John Malone, Warner Brothers Discovery’s major shareholder. He said he “loved” Brian Stelter but that the show, which featured an hour of media coverage, “didn’t make sense on Sundays.”
Whatever.
It’s not just CNN. Traditional media outlets have been cutting opinion/commentary sections or running fewer columns in many parts of our country. Our beloved Des Moines Register is one of these organizations.
On March 13, 2022, the Register announced changes to the opinion section. I read it without emotion at first, trying to understand their reasoning. They were keeping opinions on Sunday, and during the week were only going to have an opinion section on Thursdays. While I was saddened, it helped that they had added my friend Rachelle Chase to their pool of talented reporters and columnists.
But the first day after the announcement, I opened the paper and turned to the opinion section, and nothing was there; it was like a punch to the gut. I flipped the pages back and forth, hoping I had just missed it, but no. Without opinion, it was almost as if the paper had no soul. I still buy the Register every day I come to town--there is no delivery where I live in the country, and something is missing every day except Thursday and Sunday (no paper Saturday). Commentary and opinions.
I grew up reading the Des Moines Register. Columnists, reporters, and feature writers Gordon Gammack, Clark Mollenhoff, Donald Kaul, John Karras, and other members of the Register editorial and reporting team helped teach me not only to read and write but how to do research and how to think critically. They also taught me to be civic-minded.
Donald Trump has undermined our great news institutions and continues to do so. Trump does so because he doesn’t want to be held accountable and wants people not to believe the media when it is critical of him.
Republicans in general have followed Trump’s lead on this and have exerted incredible pressure on the media that aren’t his propaganda machines like Fox News or conservative talk radio.
I don’t know if Republican pressure had anything to do with the Register’s decisions. I do know, however, that I was in the crowd at Central College in Pella at a Trump rally on January 23, 2016, the same day the Register announced they were endorsing his opponent Marco Rubio. I don’t remember if the Register announcement was public before or after the Trump rally, but I do know that Trump pointed out the media section with hatred, and the crowd booed us.
I suppose the big-time media get used to it, but when this small town radio guy looked up into the snarling faces of people punching their fists in the air and booing us, some of them being my friends and acquaintances, I was shocked and knew our country would never be the same.
I also know that Trump led the crowd as they booed, again and again, by name, the Des Moines Register.
When Trump left the stage as an Italian aria reached a crescendo, I imagined what it must have felt like to have been in the crowd at a Mussolini rally in 1939.
Nothing that any media outlet does that wants to tell the truth, will make Republicans happy.
Republicans will dance on the grave of CNN even as it seeks to appease them. They will dance on the grave of the Des Moines Register too, and any media that dares to stand up to them and tell Americans the truth.
In an unprecedented time, much of the media is engaged in a ridiculous dance of “bothsidesism,” and it’s about much more than Trump, his criminality, and rolling coup. Republicans across the nation continue their attacks on voting rights, our public schools, a woman’s right to choose, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and much, much more.
Even as many traditional media outlets acquiesce to conservative demands, on rightwing media, there is no compromise, no thoughts about what the great American middle or the left wants, or what is good for America.
While there are great news teams at our Iowa conservative radio stations, opinion hosts spew lies, hate, misinformation, disinformation, cruelty, and endless red-herrings into the atmosphere like a t-shirt cannon at a Hawkeye game into our homes and car radios at 50,000 watts. Where is the accountability, the consequences?
There are none.
Last Sunday, in his final show, Stelter said:
Today is Sunday. If you don’t subscribe to the Register, go out and buy a copy. I know there will be important news in it and great opinion pieces. There always is both, even if the opinion section is only two days a week. And if you don’t subscribe, please consider doing so.
Wherever you live, support great local journalism like the Iowa Capital Dispatch, The Gazette, The Storm Lake Times Pilot, the Carroll Times Herald, Black Iowa News, the Oskaloosa Herald, Oskaloosa News, the Iowa Starting Line, La Prensa, Axios Des Moines, Iowa Public Television, Iowa Public Radio, and too many more to mention. And be sure to watch the brilliant work of Iowa’s television journalists and our news radio guys and gals who aren’t toxic.
Our democracy depends on it. As the great newspaper the Washington Post puts it, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
I’m honored to be a part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative and thrilled that the Iowa Capital Dispatch is featuring some of our work. The Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nationwide effort to bring thoughtful and honest reporting to everyone.
Here are the members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative in alphabetical order.
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt
Dana James: New Black Iowa
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi
Iowa Writers Collaborative: Iowa Writers Collaborative
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I worry about this in my coverage of higher education. It’s easier to believe that nothing is new under the sun and that hard truths are just sour grapes. I suppose we evolved to tune out whenever the alarms are too shrill for too long. It take discipline to keep listening and weighing evidence, especially when the evidence suggests a crisis.
Thank you, Dr. Leonard! America and Iowa need you desperately!