Guest Columnist Martin Hackworth: As Much As You May Already Despise the Media, It’s Probably Not Enough

Note to readers. I’m still spending as much time as I can with the Groms enjoying our wonderful summer, but this has put a bit of a dent in my writing schedule. For that, I apologize (a little anyway). All four of them start back to school in just a few weeks and I’ll resume my normal writing schedule then. Thank you for your indulgence.

Each morning I head into town for an hour or so at my favorite local coffee shop (the fabulous Gate City Coffee) and when I’m not getting tuned up by the other morning regulars (it’s a tough room), I peruse newspapers, periodicals, news sites and aggregators: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Associated Press, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Free Press, Racket News, Science X, and others.

After many decades, this habit has, alas and alack, become a somewhat less-than- scintillating experience. Disappointment barely scratches the surface of my disdain anymore.

In fairness, some of these publications are better than others and I tend to save the best for last. What I generally learn from the first four on my list (three alleged pillars of the mainstream press and a colostomy bag) is that 1) Trump is the worst president in the history of the USA; 2) we are being humiliated in fighting with Iran; 3) democratic socialism will be a force to be reckoned with after the midterm elections; 4) the wacky coalition of liberals, feminists, and LGBTQ+ supporters of fundamentalist Islamic causes are, in fact, as batshit crazy as they seem; 5) Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were fundamentally misunderstood (what’s a hundred million murdered between friends?); 6) mental illness should be celebrated.

And, most importantly, 7) anyone who says, “Whoa, timeout!” is a fascist.

Because of this stream of revelations, I am also reminded, every single morning, of the incredible, phenomenal, absurd, even phantasmagorical lack of self-awareness on display by the self-proclaimed experts who opine on behalf of the big three and their red-headed stepchild. Never have I observed such a disconnect between high self-esteem and delivery of results as I have among these four. Not among inebriated academics trying to impress, not among scam artists cold-calling about opportunities in the stock market, not even among karaoke night champs in beer joints for the deaf. The sheer amount of unearned arrogance among big chuks of the mainstream media boggles the mind.

Even though it’s somewhat of a recurring theme here, I cannot possibly overstate that as much as you may already hate and despise the media, it’s probably not enough. You really need to hate and despise them a lot more.

Over the weekend, Senator Rand Paul released what The Free Press is calling The Fauci Diaries. Several things become abundantly clear upon reading through the revelations on Paul’s website and TFP. The first is that Covid broke many things, but the most lasting is trust. The second is that Fauci’s own writings portray him as a bigger twit than even I (and I daresay many of you) imagined. The third is that the media were willing accomplices in misleading the world during Covid, mostly just for a pat on the head from the right people.

Among other pandemic revelations in Paul’s drop was Jake Tapper having dinner socially with Fauci, whom he was supposed to be reporting on objectively, and even backchanneling questions about the nature of Deborah Birx.

This is douche-canoe level sleaze. You almost cannot despise these people enough.

But there’s always more. I’ve learned many other things during my morning reads of late that turned out to not hold up among most Americans. To wit.

Blue Angel flyovers, especially the low ones that scare NPR listeners by kicking up sand and knocking over umbrellas, are not examples of military misconduct by flight-suited thugs in the age of Trump. They are awesome.

No matter the topic, no matter the media, no matter the section—there is simply no topic too subjective, no matter too inane, for the media to eschew telling everyone else that they know better. It’s in their DNA.

The New York Times recently published a piece, The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters, that would have been immediately dismissed as the lightweight, unserious piece of fluff that it was had it not been for the arrogant response of three of its authors: pop music critic Jon Caramanica; culture reporter Joe Coscarelli; and critic-at-large Wesley Morris to the online firestorm that erupted over it.

I’ll never get over how those in the media who engage in rage-baiting feign surprise when it works. Caramanica, Coscarelli, and Morris, along with other co-authors and contributors to the piece, employed a methodology that was designed to produce subjective results. So when tens of thousands of readers (in just the first few hours) objected to who didn’t make the list—the likes of Randy Newman, Donald Fagan, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and others—to make room for a dozen or so individuals that almost no one outside of New York or LA has ever heard of—Caramanica, Coscarelli, Morris, et al., none of whom have any relevant pedigree in music—did what the smug oracles in the self-appointed expert class do when they are called out: they doubled down.

Instead of displaying as much as a modicum of humility, or barring that, self-awareness, by acknowledging that such an endeavor was bound to be controversial, the 30 Greatest posse, in true NYT fashion, produced a long, cringeworthy response video. Instead of doing what any normal person with some actual knowledge of the subject would do—”This is just my list. What’s yours?”—they blew off their critics as uneducated rubes with no musical chops. We’re just better than you.

If this were confined just to the arts section of the NYT, I’d laugh at the arrogance of assuming that ill-informed hipster opinions from a single zip code are the last word nationwide and let it go—about the amount of attention this idiocy deserved. But this smugness is not confined to the arts section or the op-ed section of the Times or any other major publication. That’s why you see news anchors and reporters chatting up people they are supposed to be covering on page one with tough questions.

You and I just aren’t among the cool kids. We’re hoi polloi. Who cares what we think? We get that message loud and clear.

The absolute best thing that I have learned from the media lo these past few months, is that according to sports columnist Nancy Armour, by way of the redheaded stepchild, USA Today, Caitlin Clark, a star player of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, bears personal responsibility for the lynching of Emmett Till. I kid you not.

No bar is too low for the mainstream media anymore. None. And the trust in the fourth estate that has been squandered by the pinheads running it won’t be earned back anytime soon.

To me, that dissolution of trust is the reason why Fauci, Tapper, Armour, et al. should be tarred and feathered. Some level of trust is required for our country to work as it was designed to. When flat earthers and moon landing deniers have the same record of honesty and fealty to facts as the “experts,” we’re all f****d.

Perhaps that’s why the communists, I mean socialists, are making their play right now. When we’ve gotten to the point where no one believes anything, you can sell a whole lot of d*** silly social/political bullshit if it comes with enough free stuff.

Thanks, Jake. Thanks, Tony. Thanks, Nancy.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, climber, skier, motorcyclist, musician, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time raising four kids. Follow him on X at @MartinHackworth, on Facebook at facebook.com/martin.hackworth, and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com.