Donald Trump understands power. And he understands that his administration will gain if he co-opts–if not outrightly corrupts–the media, academia and the legal profession.
The details in each industry are different but the goal is the same. Comprising a sector is a way to preemptively mute resistance that sector is likely to provide. It’s simple: A media company, university or law firm that makes a deal with the devil will be on the defensive and far less likely to cause problems.
Samizdat copy of “The Trial of the Four” by Pavel Litvinov, Moscow, 1968. (License: Creative Commons, Nkrita)
This post will look a bit at media, which seems to be the most interesting case. There always has been a tension in the fact that a corporate-owned media because it has to serve two masters: The organizations’ product is information and truth. Ownership, however, has a responsibility to make decisions that are financially sound. The two will come into conflict if that truth and information pose problems for the folks who sign the checks. It’s a very low margin business.
In the past, the media companies have more or less resisted efforts to reign in reporters and editors. There have been plenty of dramas – The Washington Post and Watergate and The New York Times and the Pentagon Papers come to mind – but the imperfect but seemingly unavoidable system has limped along well enough.
It can be a delicate dance, and the Trump administration doesn’t do nuance. Among those it has sued are The Washington Post (settled), ABC/Disney (settled); The Des Moines Register and CBS/Paramount (settled). It’s important to note that legal experts gave the suits almost no chance of succeeding. Trump will get a lot of money and services. More importantly, he will get power.
This is where things get interesting. I am not an expert, but it seems that the legal professional and academia were not changing radically during the past decade. Lawyers went to court and argued in front of judges and juries, kids went to college and had a great time.
The media business is not stable, even besides any Trump administration initiatives. Amazing advances in technology is gradually transforming both entertainment and news delivery. On the news side, the bottom line is fragmentation has created a whole new ball game. Icons such as The New York Times and The Washington Post downsize are adjusting to the new reality. But as they do, talented and well-known commentators (Jennifer Rubin and Paul Krugman are two examples) can set up shop at Medium, Substack, YouTube and elsewhere.
Continue reading after the music break…
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This is one of the greatest YouTube music clips, in my opinion. Just three musicians jamming in what looks like a hotel meeting room. The only detail to add is that the three happen to be Chet Atkins, Doc Watson and Leo Kottke. The song is “The Last Steam Engine Train.” By the way, there seem to be a lot of country and Americana songs called “the last” this and “the last” that. It’s sort of an underlying sadness that life is change.
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People with specialized knowledge (in foreign affairs, politics, technology, finance and so forth) can have a voice that doesn’t rely on those fading and in some cases co-opted behemoths to validate them by carrying their commentary. These folks can sell their views for a few bucks a month directly to the readers. And, since the Democrats are largely out of government, there are plenty of talented and knowledgeable experts available. It’s 21st century version of samizdat, the underground publications illicitly distributed in the Soviet Union.
The bottom line is that the technical revolution that has transformed blogging platforms into far more efficient ways of disseminating expert information. The major media outlets will survive and, in the long run, be made stronger by use of the new media platforms. And they still draw advertisers. What seems to be happening is that commentary will be more web-focused and the expensive stuff–sending reporters to around the world, paying pollsters, doing long-form journalism — will be done the old-fashioned way.
Even though the Internet provides a bit of a workaround, a political figure–even a president–can’t be allowed to browbeat these organizations into submission. We can be sure that this will continue. The only way to reign it in is to put real limits on the administration’s power. The way to do that is to vote.
This all brings us back to Trump and his efforts to corrupt the media. He indeed is having success. In the big picture, he is accelerating a process that already was under way. Lawyers unhappy with can move to another firm. Professors unhappy that their school paid up can move to another school. Journalists who think their company blinked can move to the future.
