The Relentless Degradation of the Information Environment Advances on Schedule

the more mainstream journalism you read, the less you know

Nothing is harming us more than the degradation of the information environment. It becomes a little harder every day to just know what happened, in very basic ways. Leading the parade, the New York Times gets a little dumber and a little sleazier with every news cycle.

Remember that I wrote recently about the way the newspaper took up the story of a vote in which a few Republicans joined all Democrats, and described it as a far-right maneuver. Now, look carefully at the Google results — I’m using Google here on purpose — on the antisemitism bill that just passed the House:

Compare the top-left headline to the bottom-left headline. The far-right produced a backlash against the antisemitism bill; for example, Jerrold Nadler. By the way, that Jacobin headline? More far-right backlash, you see.

Compare the New York Times story — explaining the debate over the bill — to the Politico story. Neither appears to be paywalled, so you can read them directly for yourself. Here’s the opening paragraph in the Times:

A bipartisan push in Congress to enact a law cracking down on antisemitic speech on college campuses has prompted a backlash from far-right lawmakers and activists, who argue it could outlaw Christian biblical teachings.

So, again, the far-right opposed the bill. That’s what allegedly happened, the right-wing backlash. Also, the bill might not pass in the Senate because Tucker Carlson is putting mind-virus inside the helpless soul of the tortured prisoner Rand Paul:

But it is now facing headwinds in the Senate. Ginned up by Mr. Carlson and other right-wing figures, a handful of Republicans, including Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah, have voiced objections to the bill, according to two people familiar with the internal party discussion who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Tucker Carlson — the Mighty Oz, the stringpuller, the puppetmaster — cannot have sincere objections to anything; he can only gin up fake controversy. Then Rand Paul and Mike Lee dance on the end of his leash, and Tucker feeds them candied peanuts as a reward. “He put his disease in me,” they explain. What sophisticated explanations you can get from the newspaper of record: opposition to this bill is ginned up from the right. Look through the story in the Times for a description of Jerrold Nadler’s role, by the way, because I’m somehow missing it.

Now, here’s Politico’s explanation of what happened, from an interview with the missing-at-the-Times Jerrold Nadler:

He added that the GOP has tried to weaponize antisemitism against Democrats amid the controversy over pro-Palestinian campus protests, even as former President Donald Trump has had dinner with a Holocaust denier. “The Republicans are being total hypocrites,” he said.

So if you read Politico and the New York Times, the two leading voices of mainstream American political journalism, you understand that the political right is cruelly opposed to the antisemitism bill and irresponsibly trying to stop it, and you understand that the political right is cruelly in favor of the antisemitism bill and irresponsibly trying to advance it. The political right is forgainst it, and that’s very bad.

The more you read the news, the less you understand what’s happening.