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Originally Posted by nik-
I'm not saying the media is fantastic, but New Era is basically complaining that the media didn't harp on things until it worked and Trump wasn't elected. Sorry, that's not their job.
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Nope, that is not what I was saying at all. And that actually was their job. I was very clear in saying they failed their duties as the people's oversight to power. Prior to changes in regulation in late 80's and 90's the function of mass media was to perform an important function in our democracy. They were to be our voice to the powerful and ask the questions the general population could not. They were to access the information that we could not. They were to educate the electorate so we went to the ballot box with the knowledge that our candidates had been vetted and we knew what they stood for. They were to do so in a fair and balanced way as dictated by law. Deregulation and actions by the court eliminated the requirements on media to perform these duties and media consolidation turned the newsrooms into profit centers.
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Trump supporters complained all election about the media being out to get Trump by reporting his deficiencies ... now here we are with people saying they didn't do enough. There was more than enough information out there to decide who you should vote there, I mean come on.
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There was plenty of coverage, but little reporting. If the media did their job they would have dug deeper into Trump and shown the public he was indeed the serial liar that he was accused of being. David Fahrenthold was one of the few reporters who stuck to a story and chased it down to exhaust the facts. Sadly, no one else from the mass media was interested in facts and was more interested in promotion of the cult of personality that had become the primary focus of the election. If the mass media had bothered to follow Fahrenthold's lead and looked into Trump's taxes, Trump's admission of sexual assault, Trump's housing racial discrimination, Trump's mafia ties, Trump's ties to Russia, the Trump University scandal, Trump's use of illegal immigrant workers, Trump's abuse and refusal to pay contractors, the Trump Foundation, and on-and-on, they may have educated enough people to realize what a complete threat this guy was to our system of government and our society in general. They failed and instead allowed the guy that should have been vetted to set the agenda, frame his opponent, and own the media cycle.
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People stopped caring. The electorate is broken.
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People didn't have the information. The electorate deserve a large percentage of the blame for the outcome - critical thinking skills were laid to waste this cycle - but the mass media failed the electorate by not investigating and reporting on the many issues that should have ended Trump's presidential campaign.