Bari Weiss and the post-liberal media order
I, in large part, criticize liberal media for a living. Not the “liberal media” of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News paranoid imagination, but liberal with a small “l,” liberal media that largely leans Democratic in its preferences but first and foremost sees its role as policing populist and radical elements. A liberal media that is, in the aggregate, racist and reactionary but still reserves 10% of its resources for the occasional genuine piece of journalism covering workers, or the poor, or the plight of Palestinians, or corporate and government abuses. A media that still feigns interest in liberal credibility, with institutional validation, scientific accuracy, and a baseline––to use a popular buzzword from eight years ago––shared reality. This liberal order is a deeply flawed framework, pernicious precisely because it uses the veneer of objectivity and universalism. As I’ve spent the better part of 10 years documenting, this framework uses selective empathy, excludes dissenting or marginalized voices, and employs loaded rhetorical frameworks like fake concern for “human rights” and a host of other sophisticated modes of propaganda to protect the status quo and promote US imperial and capital dictates. But it did, at least, pretend to care about shared reality and institutional credibility. It at least sought approval from academia, international rights groups, and other liberal validators. It at least pretended to care about universal ideals.
This pretense, this last 10%, seems to be on its way out. Without commenting on whether shedding this pretense will be good or bad in the long run for the world’s poor and dispossessed, it’s essential to document its demise, and the grim media landscape it portends.