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Media and Democracy Project awarded Elon Musk the 2023 Disinformer of the Year. Prior to owning Twitter, Musk had a penchant for magical thinking, and outright lies, but Musk’s purchase of Twitter has elevated his danger to democracy. Please read our Substack to learn why his is our award choice.
Luminary journalist Margaret Sullivan shared her experiences and wisdom about the decline of journalism and democracy with Media and Democracy Project on January 24, 2024. Here are a couple of highlights, from the many:
“There are a number of things that worry me the most. One is the Big Media, like CNN, The New York Times, and the Washington Post, when they’re covering politics they get hung up on the horse race coverage, much more than the consequences of the race…Jay Rosen uttered a very memorable and elegant way to think about this, ‘The media should focus, not on the odds, but the stakes’…But, it’s a question of framing and emphasis.”
“I think it’s really important not to tune out. Not to tune out. I hear so many people say, ‘I’m tired of the news, it’s so depressing, I just can’t take it anymore.’”
“Jeff Shartlet said, and I’ve heard Ruth Ben-Ghiat say it too, that this sense of being overwhelmed is actually part of the plan. It’s part of the plan of people who sow chaos and Donald Trump is the master of this. I think it was Steve Bannon, who early in the Trump administration said that the key to all of this is to flood the zone with shxt. In other words, to put so much garbage out there that people get sort of overwhelmed. And they say, ‘I don’t want to hear it anymore.’ So I think it’s really important to stay tuned in. And, to realize that when you are getting exhausted, that that’s a symptom of acquiescence and it’s a symptom of the thing happening that we really can’t allow to happen. So that’s sort of a nexus of media and democracy, I think, and a really important one right now because I really do think that people are kind of tuning out.”
To keep abreast of Margaret Sullivan’s latest observations on journalism, please subscribe to her Substack.
Here are the slides from the event.
Disappointed or outraged that disinformation, misinformation, and media malpractice are crippling democracy? Want to become a media activist? Join us at our next meeting, Monday, February 5 at 7 pm ET. Sign up here.
Help us fight for more pro-democracy media and a better-informed America.
ACTION #1 Please subscribe and pay for one (1) local news source:
https://www.mediaanddemocracyproject.org/journalism-directory
ACTION #2 Be a critical and supportive consumer of your news. Engage in media activism and outreach with your “Heroes” and “Zeros” and Letters to the Editor.
Heroes: Thank a journalist!
Zeros: Send a diplomatic email to a Journalist / Editor / News organization. Include a link to provide examples of calls for pro-democracy coverage from a hero journalist such as Margaret Sullivan, Mark Jacob, Dan Froomkin, Will Bunch, or another hero journalist.
Action #3- Invest 5 minutes per day to help “Fix Media Now” on Social Media by amplifying pro-democracy journalist heroes. We are at @FixMediaNow.
