A quote from the play Inherit the Wind has always stuck with me. "It is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted... And afflict the comfortable."
That comes from the motto of the old Scripps Howard News. I worked as a political cartoonist and outdoor/environmental writer at one of their newspapers, The Albuquerque Tribune. It would have been wonderful if they truly believed in that, but they didn't. My editor loved going to lunch at a place called the Petroleum Club every week which was perched atop a downtown bank and where he got to rub elbows and chow down sirloin steak with oil company executives, insurance industry bigwigs and real estate developers. While the paper did do some good work, there were lines you didn't cross. One of them ended my editorial page cartooning gig: https://demockracy.ink/the-power-of-the-political-cartoon/
I had an uncle who was an executive who helped with the sale and acquisition of newspapers. He was instrumental in getting Rupert Murdoch established in the US. When I got my job at the Tribune I was all excited and beyond naive and talking to my Uncle about freedom of the press and holding power to account, yada, yada.
He looked at me and said, "Never forget it is a business."
"Um, yeah, well, I guess so, BUT it's a different kind of business!" I replied.
There are many blatant falsehoods and conveniently one-side conventional wisdoms being laid bare as the absolute status quo preserving bollocks it has always been.
Institutions and laws are proven to be arbitrary, capricious and often illusory. Something black, brown, indigenous and poor people have been telling affluent white people for time immemorial.
Where once being able to repeat NYT headlines or WaPo talking points meant you were a liberal in good standing now paints you as the out of touch sycophant for oligarchs you unwittingly always were.
We are in the realm of monsters, ruled by pedophiles and their enablers. There is, however, freedom and opportunity in the ability to leave comforting or at least static fictions behind and deal with the world as it actually exists.
Reality skews left. That's why the right is so interested in capturing media. The Breitbart Doctrine doesn't go far enough. It's not "politics is downstream from culture; if you change someone's culture, you change their politics." That silences the crucial part. Instead, it's "politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from reality; change someone's perception of reality, you change their culture, and you change their politics." You change someone's perception of reality by grabbing their news media. Here we are. They're cancelling reality.
And let us always remember the ongoing slaughter of journalists in the US/Israel genocide in Gaza. As of late August 2025, some 270 had been targeted and killed by US/Israel intel and military. Another three were murdered two weeks ago. More journalists have been killed than in all the wars from WW I combined. We will begin seeing the same thing here. As we see every day, the weapons and tactics of colonization are always brought home and turned inward on the exploited citizens as corrupt, rotted-out, rickety empires collapse. Just this morning the Trump regime SS Gestapo ICE has targeted Meidas Touch News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqi-9kCvFuk
Every citizen needs to be a reporter: "ALERT! Preserve Evidence Of ICE Crimes At Demonstrations To Help Future Prosecutions" ... Information & evidence protection is the first step on the road to justice. ... https://mark192.substack.com/p/alert-preserve-evidence-of-ice-crimes
Most common "journalism" model in practice today: PR firm or fully biased internal hack from corporation or governmental department dispatches press release containing precisely what those in power want you to think and believe > "journalist" receives press release > "journalist" copies and pastes contents of press release and attaches their byline.
Do you genuinely feel that the current incarnation of “The Press”… an entity privately owned and operated for profit, offers a solution rather than a force complicit in creating and maintaining our current dilemma?
Sure, there are outliers than can claim to be independent and ethical servants of the public, but by and large… the silencing and complicity of the major US press institutions has been happening since the Reagan administration.
Pointing at the Constitution and finger wagging at encroaching authoritarianism has long been a favorite of the center left. So long as the Dems had their own dysfunctional version of Fox, they thought everything would work out.
Good luck finding any political will to legislate on behalf of a “Free” Press. Shrugmaster Hakeem and Limp Chuck are declaring funneling a boatload of money to a GOP operative to purchase Body Cams for Brownshirt style thugs a major Dem victory. You think we’re going to get an independent press from this crowd?
I think a lot of media outlets will go belly up because of this. When people realize they're being lied to by these publications, I think many will cancel their subscriptions.
Hi Diana. In 2016, approximately 40% of the American public watched Fox. Since then, Sinclair has become entrenched in local news. and there are more extreme outlets. I haven't looked at the current statistics-- it could be close to 50% of us, but these people the moon-rakers (husband's term) do not know they are being fed propaganda.
A quote from the play Inherit the Wind has always stuck with me. "It is the duty of a newspaper to comfort the afflicted... And afflict the comfortable."
That comes from the motto of the old Scripps Howard News. I worked as a political cartoonist and outdoor/environmental writer at one of their newspapers, The Albuquerque Tribune. It would have been wonderful if they truly believed in that, but they didn't. My editor loved going to lunch at a place called the Petroleum Club every week which was perched atop a downtown bank and where he got to rub elbows and chow down sirloin steak with oil company executives, insurance industry bigwigs and real estate developers. While the paper did do some good work, there were lines you didn't cross. One of them ended my editorial page cartooning gig: https://demockracy.ink/the-power-of-the-political-cartoon/
I did not know that—thanks!
I had an uncle who was an executive who helped with the sale and acquisition of newspapers. He was instrumental in getting Rupert Murdoch established in the US. When I got my job at the Tribune I was all excited and beyond naive and talking to my Uncle about freedom of the press and holding power to account, yada, yada.
He looked at me and said, "Never forget it is a business."
"Um, yeah, well, I guess so, BUT it's a different kind of business!" I replied.
He was right.
I was wrong.
There are many blatant falsehoods and conveniently one-side conventional wisdoms being laid bare as the absolute status quo preserving bollocks it has always been.
Institutions and laws are proven to be arbitrary, capricious and often illusory. Something black, brown, indigenous and poor people have been telling affluent white people for time immemorial.
Where once being able to repeat NYT headlines or WaPo talking points meant you were a liberal in good standing now paints you as the out of touch sycophant for oligarchs you unwittingly always were.
We are in the realm of monsters, ruled by pedophiles and their enablers. There is, however, freedom and opportunity in the ability to leave comforting or at least static fictions behind and deal with the world as it actually exists.
We shall see if humanity is up to the task.
“The executive branch…has declared all of its opponents to be domestic terrorists”.
And to think, just a couple of months ago, its opponents were merely “radical left wing lunatics”.
Yep. Been screaming this shit for a decade - https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/45-facts-that-have-become-debatable-in-2017-thanks-to-politics
Reality skews left. That's why the right is so interested in capturing media. The Breitbart Doctrine doesn't go far enough. It's not "politics is downstream from culture; if you change someone's culture, you change their politics." That silences the crucial part. Instead, it's "politics is downstream from culture, and culture is downstream from reality; change someone's perception of reality, you change their culture, and you change their politics." You change someone's perception of reality by grabbing their news media. Here we are. They're cancelling reality.
And let us always remember the ongoing slaughter of journalists in the US/Israel genocide in Gaza. As of late August 2025, some 270 had been targeted and killed by US/Israel intel and military. Another three were murdered two weeks ago. More journalists have been killed than in all the wars from WW I combined. We will begin seeing the same thing here. As we see every day, the weapons and tactics of colonization are always brought home and turned inward on the exploited citizens as corrupt, rotted-out, rickety empires collapse. Just this morning the Trump regime SS Gestapo ICE has targeted Meidas Touch News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqi-9kCvFuk
Every citizen needs to be a reporter: "ALERT! Preserve Evidence Of ICE Crimes At Demonstrations To Help Future Prosecutions" ... Information & evidence protection is the first step on the road to justice. ... https://mark192.substack.com/p/alert-preserve-evidence-of-ice-crimes
✅️💯✅️💯✅️💯✅️
Thanks, Hamilton!
Most common "journalism" model in practice today: PR firm or fully biased internal hack from corporation or governmental department dispatches press release containing precisely what those in power want you to think and believe > "journalist" receives press release > "journalist" copies and pastes contents of press release and attaches their byline.
Do you genuinely feel that the current incarnation of “The Press”… an entity privately owned and operated for profit, offers a solution rather than a force complicit in creating and maintaining our current dilemma?
Sure, there are outliers than can claim to be independent and ethical servants of the public, but by and large… the silencing and complicity of the major US press institutions has been happening since the Reagan administration.
Pointing at the Constitution and finger wagging at encroaching authoritarianism has long been a favorite of the center left. So long as the Dems had their own dysfunctional version of Fox, they thought everything would work out.
Good luck finding any political will to legislate on behalf of a “Free” Press. Shrugmaster Hakeem and Limp Chuck are declaring funneling a boatload of money to a GOP operative to purchase Body Cams for Brownshirt style thugs a major Dem victory. You think we’re going to get an independent press from this crowd?
great article. everyone donate to the reporting fund. here is hoping its not needed in springfield!
What is the "reporting Fund?"
I think a lot of media outlets will go belly up because of this. When people realize they're being lied to by these publications, I think many will cancel their subscriptions.
Hi Diana. In 2016, approximately 40% of the American public watched Fox. Since then, Sinclair has become entrenched in local news. and there are more extreme outlets. I haven't looked at the current statistics-- it could be close to 50% of us, but these people the moon-rakers (husband's term) do not know they are being fed propaganda.
I like your husband's term, Mona. And, I agree, some people will stick to their news outlets no matter how outrageous the lies.
The ones like me have cancelled their subscriptions........please Diana do NOT be naive.
I don't subscribe to any of them either, Jenny. Do you mean naive about others unsubscribing?
Actually, they could unsubscribe as well because of the way the economy's going. Food and shelter take precedence over news.
I like your husband's term. And, I agree, some people will stick to their news outlets no matter how outrageous the lies.
Fantastic.