Journalists Need to Sound the Alarm

It’s high time for news media to confront the rise of fascism and panic responsibly

I’m pleased to share this piece from Mark Jacob, the former metro editor of the Chicago Tribune, co-author of eight books, and an incisive observer of the media and journalistic practices. I hope you find as much value as I do in his insights about journalists clinging to old rules and old behaviors that fail to recognize these are not normal times.

— Steven Beschloss

Photo via Getty Images

Why do the journalists covering the biggest story of their career—the attempted overthrow of democracy—want to treat it like routine politics?

The ongoing rise of fascism in America is quite a story to tell. There’s been an attempted coup. The U.S. Capitol was overrun by a mob. Members of Congress pushed slates of fake electors to try to steal an election. Politicians plotted to call out the military to seize voting machines.

The stakes could not be higher. This is a story that affects the future of every American.

So why do so many journalists want to normalize the fascist threat? Why do they treat it as if it’s just the same old politics? It’s as if they're covering the flood of the century and want to save it for the regularly scheduled weather report.

I don’t blame a vast media conspiracy. When I was an editor at the Chicago Tribune, we laughed about such conspiracy theories, knowing we weren’t organized enough to conspire even if we’d wanted to. (And we didn’t, of course.) It was all we could do to get stories written and edited by deadline. It was a sloppy process and not nearly as intentional as people gave us credit for.

While much of major media is dominated by owners who lean right, most of the journalists on the front lines are not right-leaning. I don’t think the news media, in general, is purposely trying to help the fascists.

There are other factors at work. I break it down four ways.

1. Fighting the last war

Good journalism identifies emerging trends and adjusts its coverage accordingly. Inflexible journalism clings to outdated tactics. In the military, this mindset is known as “fighting the last war.” That’s when you assume that what worked in the last war will work in the next one. A stark example came before World War II when the French built huge static fortifications based on the previous war’s trench warfare. Adolf Hitler’s German army used speed and maneuver to go right around them.

Right-wing propagandists take full advantage of journalists who are fighting the last war. When you give liars their say even though you know they’re lying, you’re playing into their hands. When you don’t call their lies “lies” because it might come across as biased, you’re playing into their hands. When you write about their fact-free accusations because you’ll be accused of a cover-up if you don’t, you’re playing into their hands. When you make secret concessions to politicians in exchange for access, you’re playing into their hands.

Every weakness in journalism’s old rules of engagement is being exploited by the fascists.

2. Sharks-vs.-Jets syndrome

When I was a Tribune editor, I used to say that my version of objectivity was distrusting both Republicans and Democrats. And indeed, skepticism is a good thing. But while Democrats have continued to act like Democrats in recent decades, Republicans have moved sharply into a radical place filled with racism and criminality. The parties aren’t the same anymore. And pretending they are helps the Republicans.

A lot of reporters cover the political parties as if they’re just two street gangs fighting over turf. I call it Sharks-vs.-Jets syndrome. News outlets feel comfortable covering them that way because that makes the story about competition, which involves drama, and not issues, which involve complicated facts. Plus, they get fewer complaints from political operatives if they make the story “Sharks vs. Jets” instead of trying to sort out who’s telling the truth and who isn’t.

News media also relies too heavily on polling, which feeds into this approach by providing a scoreboard. But polling has been particularly flawed in recent years. The media got the 2022 midterms wrong by relying on polls and on past voter behavior that favored the party out of power. These times aren’t normal, so why rely on historical trends? (See “last war.”) 

Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, calls for a reframing of political coverage: “not the odds, but the stakes.” The stakes are incredibly high right now, yet news outlets focus on the horse race.

3. Media self-importance

The pre-fascism days of Washington politics were good for many journalists, especially those who reigned as members of the capital elite. The greatest example of D.C. reporters making themselves part of the power structure is the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an embarrassing spectacle in which journalists party with the people they’re supposed to cover.

The dinner has suffered in recent years. Right-wingers generally stay away. With some validity, they view it as the annual convention of what they call the “swamp.”

Some journalists long for the old days when Republicans and Democrats and the news media ruled Washington in smug harmony. Rather than accept that those days are gone, these journalists keep pretending the situation is normal in hopes that normality will soon return. They see the alarming fascist turn of the Republican Party as a temporary error in judgment, like a basically good dad staying out drinking with his pals all night. Except it’s been eight years and dad hasn’t come home yet. He may never come home.

4. Excessive restraint

An admirable quality of news professionals is that they stay calm when disaster strikes. But when our democracy is under assault and reporters act as if they’re covering the White House Easter Egg Roll, the public can be forgiven for thinking it’s not a big deal.

Sometimes when media personalities tell unvarnished truths, it makes a major impact. In 1968, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite told the American people they were not winning the Vietnam War. The public was forced to face reality.

When is a major media figure going to tell the ugly truth about the Republican assault on our democracy and stop pretending that MAGA fascism is normal?

It’s time for the news media to show the proper alarm. It’s time for journalists to panic responsibly.

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