The Worst Headline of the Year is Here

In the final days of August before a consequential election, we - the American public who have witnessed the descent of corporate media over the past decade with equal doses of exasperation and rage - have been gifted with the “worst headline of the year” according to journalist James Fallows whom I just interviewed today about the failure of The New York Times.

Well, Politico just told the Times, “Hold my German beer.”

This is the pure, unadulterated image of a headline that Politico decided to tweet to the world on Friday evening.

If you haven’t followed Trump’s racism against Kamala Harris and Black people in general, let me quickly catch you up. Trump made the decision to attend the National Association of Black Journalists for an one hour panel interview with three female Black journalists. The disastrous session barely lasted half an hour in which Trump managed to offend the entire audience and falsely asserted that Kamala Harris, a daughter of Black and Indian immigrants, had opportunistically “turned Black.”

Obviously, Trump is not aware of the existence of biracial children or how sex and genetics work. Thankfully, he was roundly condemned and mocked for his intentional or feigned ignorance and further eroded his dwindling support with both women and Black people.

Yesterday, Kamala Harris finally sat down for a primetime cable news interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. Considering Trump’s interviews are simply a vomit salad of lies, conspiracy theories, and greivances, Harris pole-vaulted over the bar and appeared informed, even-tempered and presidential. Basically, the exact opposite of Trump. Of all the pressing questions that Bash could have asked the Democratic nominee who is two months away from potentially becoming the first female President, she decided to repeat Trump’s racist comment and asked Harris to respond. “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” Harris shot back thereby forcing Bash to actually attempt real journalism.

So, how did Politico decide to report on this exchange? They published an article with that Twitter headline. When you click the link, the headline reads: “Harris sidesteps the spotlight when it comes to her identity.”

What the fuck are we doing here, people?

I rarely swear, but I believe this warrants an exquisite expletive. This is what happens when you elevate and normalize Trump’s racism and false assertions purely for the sake of placating a GOP that has turned into an extremist movement and actively loathes the press as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.” This is an act of explicit complicity in mainstreaming MAGA’s hateful conspiracies instead of actively pushing back and correctly calling them out for insidious, bigoted fear-mongering devoid of facts and truth.

This is disapointing and destructive, but ultimately not surprising considering Politico’s German owner, CEO Mathias Dopfner, sent a message to his closest executives leading up to the 2020 election asking them “to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States.”

Well, obviously Dopfner needs to go to Church more, because God rejected his prayer. Since then, he’s done his best to use his non-divine powers to tilt the scale to benefit the convicted criminal who has promised to terminate the Constitution.

I have come to the heartbreaking realization that the entire corporate media system is now utterly corrupt and broken without the desire or agility to meet this moment. They are willing masochists doing the bidding of a future authoritarian regime that would gladly punish and target them for disobedience.

However, we the majority can fight back. At the very least, we can be aware and use our platforms to openly mock, ridicule and pressure these clowns to do better. We won’t get the clicks or retweets, but at least we can save our democracy.