Part of the Series
Moyers and Company
For decades the Republicans won with tall, good-looking candidates who purported to represent the flag- and family-loving “little guy.” Romney seemed cut from the mold — an actual hereditary member of the 1 percent who spoke eloquently about the sufferings of the unemployed. But then he made his “47 percent” remarks and was revealed as a centi-millionaire who lives in his own bubble of super-wealth and has probably never ridden a city bus, punched a time clock, or dodged a collection agency in his life.
Part of the problem I think is that class polarization has gotten so extreme in this country that it’s almost impossible to find super-rich guys who can even impersonate regular people. We are a nation of the very rich and the very poor, with a lot overworked, stressed-out scramblers in the middle, who can occasionally be mobilized against “entitlements.”
Rhetoric about an imagined universal “middle class” won’t cover up the gaps. I’m waiting for Obama to recognize the existence of widespread poverty — not just the 15 percent who are officially under the poverty line, but the 30 or more percent who barely getting by from week to week. Mr. President, kiss Goldman Sachs goodbye and bail out your real constituency!
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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