Nikos Konstandaras
The US elections are highlighting the catastrophic consequences of the long-term devaluation of the country’s “traditional” news media. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are completely different people, with very different policies, and America will be very different after this election, depending on which of the two wins. If the voters (or, rather, the electors) pick Joe Biden’s deputy president, the country will continue very much as today; with its problems and inadequate solutions, it will still be the America we know.
If Donald Trump is elected, the United States and the world will face unpredictable turmoil, as the former president heads a movement that aims at the extreme limitation of rights and the overturning of the country’s political culture. The fact that half the voters are not shaken by what they have already seen of Trump (culminating in his instigating the January 6 storming of the Capitol by his supporters) indicates that they don’t believe what they see, or that this is exactly how they want him to be, “giving pain” to his (and their) enemies. The social networks and the news media that support Trump contribute towards shaping a belief that Trump is the innocent victim of his rivals and, at the same time, a superman who will crush them.
The lack of a credible press found its apogee (practically and symbolically) in the decision by the publisher of the legendary Washington Post not to endorse a candidate in this election. No one missed the detail that the paper of Watergate fame is owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder. So, it is not just an army of supporters and bots that fights for Trump. Billionaire media owners, like Rupert Murdoch (Fox), like Elon Musk, with his massive cash donations and the lies that he spreads on X (which he owns), like Bezos, with his cynical neutrality, are with him, too. (Bill Gates and other billionaires have donated to Harris’ campaign, but they have not spread lies the way that Musk and others have.) A few years ago (in 2019), when investment companies were buying, restructuring and shutting local newspapers across the US, Columbia Journalism Review media analyst Ken Doctor commented, “At a time when local news is needed more than ever, it is the bankers who are deciding what will be defined as news, and who will be employed to report it.” Now that news media are more important than ever, it is the candidates’ supporters, the bots and the billionaires who decide. But not only them.
A new, explosive parameter to this story is the intervention of foreign states. “Russia, China and Iran are better prepared than they were four years ago to flood the internet with disinformation after the polls close on Election Day, intelligence officials said in an assessment this week,” the news site Axios reported on Friday. Trump’s rejection of the election result in 2020, and the wave of doubt in the democratic process that he provoked, has encouraged America’s rivals to stoke greater doubts about democracy this year. Already, two-thirds of Republican voters believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump.
Already, the internet is flooded with rumors, lies and conspiracy theories about the voting that began a few days ago. It will be extraordinarily difficult to handle the situation after the elections. A credible news media would have been crucial in dealing with this problem. But, as a profession, it was eliminated early.
