Summary
MSNBC, CNN, and major newspapers like The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times are softening their once critical stances, citing fear of retribution, business pressures, and audience polarization.
This shift has drawn backlash, with critics warning that neutrality risks undermining journalistic integrity in the face of Trump’s autocratic tendencies.
Meanwhile, Fox News is thriving, reaching record ratings.
As the media faces dwindling resources and public trust, experts argue it must choose between challenging authoritarianism or losing credibility entirely.
How could for-profit media ever survive this? They’re incentivised to move with the flow in order to maintain profit whether or not this flow leads in the direction of truth or democracy. I have a feeling that for-profit media isn’t able to to fulfill the role of media required for a working democracy.