The US requires a radically different kind of journalism, one that defends democracy
As members of the Congress were gathered to ratify Joe Biden’s election, pro Trump mob assaulted the US Capitol causing riots and interrupting the democratic process on January 6, 2021, one of those moments in american history we will never forget.
The problem with the fall of a democracy is that it doesn’t simply happen, like a thunderstorm. It unfolds, like the slow and steady lowering of the climate during the fall season.
A democracy doesn’t stumble and fall; it rather slides into decline.
The US lacked many elements of democracy long before yesterday afternoon, long before Donald J. Trump was elected president. It would be a major misconception to assume that the downfall of US democracy started in recent times. In fact, it’s the other way around: built on slavery, held together by a facade of freedom, the United States have grown to become a country rooted on a mythical self-image which matches to its own national identity.
A country that has more guns in circulation than people living within its borders.
What kind of journalism needs to cover the US?
The problem with daily media is that it obsesses over breaking news.
Breaking news show the world as a place where a non-stop series of unrelated events takes place. It’s like a person without memory or the notion of future.
This kind of news erase journalism’s noblest of functions: the ability to act as a mediator for the public, to unfold the meaning behind each event.
There is a popular theory that divides the American news landscape into two sides: the left-wing liberal and the right-wing conservative. And indeed, when you switch back and forth between Fox News and CNN it’s like landing on two different planets.
Beneath those superficial differences lies one fundamental commonality: left-wing and right-wing media are talking differently about the same things.
Even during the presidential campaign, some broadcast outlets were broadcasting Trump’s campaign rallies live, although they knew well they would contain incitements to violence, and would showcase conspiracy theories (When Trump suggested injecting bleach as a possible response to the coronavirus is just an example on all).
When everyone was glued to the tv screen yesterday, following what was happening during yet another dark page of American history, what came to the mind of many was “you had to expect it”. But did you really? Are we at a point where -people assaulting the US Capitol, causing riots, interrupting a democratic, process, and Facebook or twitter locking the President’s account for his tweets - should be predictable event ? If so, we have exceeded every limit and media should definitely stop covering the US as if it’s a democracy.
From that perspective, the ascendance of Donald J Trump to the seat of US power isn’t a deviation from the natural order of things, but rather the completely logical outcome of a development that has been progressing for decades.
In short, we need a journalism in which news media are united not in their shared obsession with breaking news, but in their joint defence of democracy.
