Shameful. Embarrassing. A train wreck. A sh*tshow.
Whatever words you use to describe last night’s so-called “debate,” they’re probably not harsh enough.
But let’s be clear: This was not just a Donald Trump fiasco — it also represented a complete and utter failure by the corporate news media, decades in the making.
The conglomerates who own major outlets have sacrificed quality journalism for ratings and profits. They’ve gutted newsrooms, in many cases stopped doing investigative journalism entirely, and replaced hard reporting with “infotainment.”
And last night’s debacle was the logical end point: a substanceless personality spectacle masquerading as a presidential debate.
To rebuild democracy, we must first rebuild journalism. The Intercept’s hard-hitting reporting breaks through the noise, uncovering the creeping authoritarianism and corporate greed that lies at the heart of our broken political system.
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Watching last night’s train wreck, many people wondered, “How did we get here? How did things get so bad?”
It’s easy to blame the corruption and incompetence of mainstream Democrats and Republicans who created an opening for Trump to exploit. But the corporate news media has poured gasoline on the fire.
Just turn on cable news or skim the front-page headlines. Instead of digging for the truth and holding the powerful accountable without fear or favor, news outlets too often take the lazy path of false equivalence, blaming “both sides” and calling it “objectivity.”
The deadly crises of our time require journalists to go beyond narrating who said what. The Intercept was founded on a commitment to tackling difficult stories that expose the corrupt inner workings of political and corporate power.
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Last night, American democracy reached a new low. We all saw it. But if we join together, it could be a turning point.
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