It’s difficult to dismiss the term “state-affiliated media” as a smear when journalists are being paid directly by the government. The ongoing evolution of credentialed news outlets into quasi-official agencies of the progressive ruling establishment has grown so bold that lines of professional ethics aren’t just blurred; they’re being obliterated.
“New York state is poised to hand out millions in taxpayer dollars to local media outlets to help pay for journalists’ salaries,” The Daily Caller reported on April 23. “The state will dole out $30 million over a three-year period to local media outlets in the form of tax credits, giving publishers the ability to offset up to 50% of the first $50,000 in journalists’ salaries, according to a release issued [April 22] by New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Heastie emphasized that the funds will go toward protecting local news outlets for ‘many years to come.’”
The conflict of interest here is so glaring that one shouldn’t have to point it out. Local “news” reporters who claim impartiality will become dependent on government funding as they inform the general public about the policies of that same government.
Here’s one example of how that could work in real-time. Reporters will be covering candidates for office who may support or oppose increases in, or cuts to, government spending – an issue that will directly impact their financial standing. It is no coincidence that Heastie mentioned electoral coverage first in his defense of the new policy. “Local journalism plays an essential role in our communities,” Heastie asserted. “Not only does it provide critical coverage of local elections, but it also joins communities together through a shared knowledge of high school sports teams, new businesses coming to the area and issues impacting readers’ everyday lives.”
‘Government’s Role in Policing Lies’
Alas, this is not the only current move by progressives to control information in a manner fundamentally antithetical to traditional American norms. Joe Biden’s Disinformation Czar of 2022 is back, and the lead sentence of The New York Times’ account of Nina Jankowicz’s return speaks volumes about big-brand media desires to restrict Americans’ access to information.
Nina Jankowicz (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“Two years ago, Nina Jankowicz briefly led an agency at the Department of Homeland Security created to fight disinformation – the establishment of which provoked a political and legal battle over the government’s role in policing lies and other harmful content online that continues to reverberate,” the paper wrote.
How’s that for loaded phrasing? The judgment on the content has already been made by your credentialed overseers. You don’t get to decide for yourself what constitutes “lies” or “harmful content.” They make that ruling. This appears to be the default mindset in prominent media circles today.
Jankowicz’s new organization is called The American Sunlight Project. But don’t expect any of those beams to shine upon her. ASP is refusing to publicly reveal its donors.
Democrat Message to Media Chums
The annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was held on April 27. The event has long served as an insufferable stroke of DC reporter egos. In recent years, it has transformed into something no less unbecoming but at least more honest: a Democrat lovefest.
All pretense of objectivity has been so discarded that the party openly considers it to be just another Donald Trump-bashing affair.
“We hope everyone has a good time this weekend, because if Donald Trump wins in November, this Saturday could also be known as the last White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd declared in a message to his media friends. “Fun and jokes aside this weekend, Saturday is also a reminder of what’s at stake with an angry, vengeful Trump on the ballot. He may be a punchline, but he is also a sad, vindictive wannabe authoritarian who shows no respect for the First Amendment – or the Fourth Estate,” Floyd continued.
Why wouldn’t Democrats feel perfectly at ease addressing the media this way? As Liberty Nation noted last year, the big-box reporters who supposedly provide tough coverage of administration officials spent the run-up to the 2023 Correspondents’ Dinner furiously clamoring to be seated with or alongside Biden bigwigs.
“Landing a table at the front of the room – near where President Joe Biden, [White House Correspondents’ Association President Tamara] Keith and other WHCA board members will sit – has become a symbol of importance among the DC media world,” Politico reported at the time. “Many people are going to be sitting at tables that they don’t think correctly acknowledge their importance and stature,” Keith added, “and that’s really tough.”
This is the state of brand media in Washington, DC, today: teenagers jockeying for position at the high school dance. Given such an abject lack of concern for professionalism, is it any wonder the ruling progressive apparatus is ready to take the next step and put them on the government payroll?
