Harris-Walz, Darwin and the Media

The astonishingly low quality of leadership in the Democratic party is the fault of the misnamed “mainstream” media and their wealthy elite enablers. There is a simple Darwinian explanation for this dismal outcome.

In an earlier incarnation, the press functioned like a predator to remove unfit, corrupt, dishonest, or incompetent elected officials of both parties. But that genera of journalistic species approaches extinction because of the loss of the full range of its primary food sources: newspaper classified ads, a solid flow of ad revenue for broadcast networks (with no cable competition), and expensive, glossy, highly professional ads for other print media.

The set of successor species to old journalism relies on clickbait-generated revenue and its equivalent. No longer an apex predator, it feeds on low-calorie attention from a smaller set of sources seeking content that attacks Republicans and conservatives in general. This creates and protects a protective cocoon for a parasitic transitional elite. (A separate evolutionary tale of symbiosis.)

By analogy, recall the story of wolves in Yellowstone. Decades ago, some idiot in the federal government ordered the removal of wolves. Deer then had no predators and they ate everything. Trees, birds, and other mammal species declined and the ecosystem was out of whack until the wolves were finally restored. In short order, the system flourished once again.

At the moment, there is no comparable restoration plan underway for a professional journalistic recovery.

Weaker species of Republicans (e.g., Romney) have begun to die off rapidly, leaving only a more resistant strain. The new strain is far less vulnerable to media, quicker to repel would-be predators, and far more adept at fielding hostile questions. Back in its heyday, T-Rex could munch on lots of other dinos, but the Ankylosaurus not only had thick bony plates but a huge spiked tail that could kill. Unlike the MSM or remnants of threatened/dying species of establishment Republicans, T-Rex did not whine about an unfair advantage and simply avoided that critter.

In stark contrast to "moderate" Republicans, Democrats have lost virtually all of their natural predators. The successor media species now exclusively and reflexively attack their political opposition. In the ecosystem of the old media, the idiocy, extreme views, stunning incompetence, and a history of sexual opportunism would make Ms. Harris a natural prey item long before reaching this level.

The current effort to make Walz into a regular, centrist guy is a level of fiction creation that necessitates a group creative writing project. Cleaning up Walz's utterly appalling handling of COVID, the Floyd riots, and much else makes shoveling out the Augean stables look easy. I.B. (“Ignorant Blowhard”) is the nickname for Gov. Walz, coined and frequently applied by Minnesota native Kevin Roche, whose blog Healthy Skeptic was hands down the single best ongoing source of data, scientific papers, news, and policy during the COVID-pandemic. His take on Walz at the link is well worth a read.

The oldest political party in America, with a long record of gifted politicians and strategists, is about to nominate the single dumbest, least informed, most ideologically extreme presidential candidate in our history. The party also allowed her to select a complete buffoon for a running mate, apparently because she feared being overshadowed by a more competent figure. The party also allows the ideologically warped harridans calling themselves The Squad to influence or even set policy for the party. They can do so safely within social media cocoons in lieu of the older style crucible of professional media scrutiny.

Without a healthy media ecosystem, issues cannot be aired in an objective, practical fashion. Instead, the border disaster, campus unrest, urban violence, educational rot, overt corruption and much else are hammered into Procrustean rewordings or quashed altogether. All because the public square is no longer regulated by the cogent observations of competent professional adults.

I wonder if Chuck Todd, Joe Scarborough, et al. will ever realize that the current condition of the Democratic Party, the state of our nation, and the evolutionary inevitability of Donald Trump is what they have wrought. The extinction of their species of journalism cannot come too soon.