The U.S. News Media is Basically Michael Scott

Considering the mainstream media, and especially the mainstream news media, it seems to me that it is basically Michael Scott from the U.S. version of The Office.

Like Scott it is a paid shill for a failing business. Like Scott it is very ill-informed about the world at large, and spends much less than one percent of its time engaged in critical thinking, while mostly believing what it wants to believe, regardless of the facts, and telling it to others as if it were the truth. Like Scott its principal talents seem to be distraction and misdirection, while it never really seems to do any real "work," or let anyone else get any real work done either. Like Scott it is a narcissist that is always trying to make itself seem more impressive than it really is in ways that just show how awkward it is, but thinks it has succeeded in achieving the elevated standing it regards as its right to go by its wildly exaggerated idea of its own standing in the eyes of others, reflected in its demands that everyone pay attention to it at all times and not anyone else. Like Scott it is also prone to feel underappreciated when its wildly unrealistic expectation of others' attention and respect are (unsurprisingly) disappointed, and very prone to self-pity, though after wallowing to its satisfaction invariably reverting to its inflated notion of its importance, no introspection required. Like Scott it presumes to be concerned and conscientious and a pillar of humane and tolerant values when it is usually the extreme opposite, not least in regard to matters like race--posturing as enlightened, while being exceedingly bigoted and exceedingly offensive in doing so, all as it indulges fascist nitwits to an extreme degree. Like Scott it is prone to react in wildly disproportionate fashion when it goes on the attack against someone it has deemed an enemy, while being as incompetent as it is irresponsible in that attack (ever ready to do the equivalent of Scott's planting "weed" on Toby). And like Scott, no sane person with sufficient lucidity to understand what it does wants to have anything more to do with it than they can possibly avoid, with that unavoidable minimum likely to be far more than they find bearable, and quite enough to force on them a situation in which they cannot help saying what they really think. (Stanley, you speak for all of us.)

Really the only time when the media isn't like Scott is in those moments when Scott surprises us with a display of significant, useful knowledge, insight or skill, or genuine human consideration for others. No, that we definitely do not see, the media's consistent loyalty to its masters (or at least, its functionaries' consistent loyalty to the protection of their phoney-baloney jobs) far too great for that to ever happen.