Matt Taibbi – HATE INC. - Review

Back in early 2018, at the beginning of the Trump administration, I published a piece on my BLOG titled: “The Purveyors of Propaganda and Divisiveness – Maddow vs. Hannity – two sides of the same Coin?” ( https://sychronicity1.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-purveyors-of-propaganda-and.html .

Interestingly, in just over 500 words, I manage to touch a few of the same themes in Taibi's HATE INC. And that is, generally, news has become a contact sport, “silo'ed” into only two binary clubs. Never offering any real news as such, but speculation, trauma-laden “breaking news” troupes, designed to keep us riveted as consumers, without reporting anything of real value, in terms of our day to day lives.

This cable news phenomenon, first designed by FOX magnate, and sexual predator, Roger Ailes, narrowed the demographic to a very distinct group: white men over 50, conservative, and fearful of any new progressive idea. MSNBC soon caught onto this winning formula of entertainment masking as real journalism, focusing on a uninformed liberal audience, gone feral over the Trump presidency, and hammered conspiracy theory after tall tale about Trump being a traitor and Russian puppet, doing Putin's every bidding. This “Left” leaning target market, these seething Trump haters gobbled these fairy tales up in mouthfuls, pushing Rachel Maddow's ratings through the roof. Making millions for the network, and leaving a wake of un-thinking-Trump hating-conspiracy theorists, that now, even since the Mueller Report revealed otherwise, has remained in the minds of many, who continue to spout Russian nonsense.

Taibbi recalls the neocon push for the Iraqi war, when the NYT's and other mainstream news outlets, rattled the sword for a full-blown invasion. He goes into specifics, how the establishment hacks of MSM, never investigated, but merely acted as stenographers for the military industrial complex. And most of us know how this turned out.

MSM, Taibbi argues, 'You'll find virtually every story checks certain boxes”. (p.41) In chapter 2, “The Ten Rules of Hate”, he lists these rules with a short definition with persuasive examples. As follows:

1. There are only two ideas.
2. The two ideas are in permanent conflict.
3. Hate people not institutions.
4. Everything is someone else's fault.
5. Nothing is everyone's fault.
6. Root, don't think.
7. No switching teams.
8. The other side is literally Hitler.
9. In the fight against Hitler, everything is permitted.
10. Feel superior.

Reading through this list, after three years of watching cable news, I believe you get the idea. The notion here is to instigate a sports fan mindset, my team is absolutely correct, and the other is absolutely wrong. In this limited game of politics, there is no room for nuance, there is no room for thinking outside the box. MSM has moulded us into intellectual imps, waving only blue or red flags, spitting at each other, as we pass each other in the hall. Even more disturbing, any attempt at a bi-partisan idea for, let's say, no more regime change wars, each side would be screaming from their respective silos, that we are all Russian bots or socialist-loving wet blankets – Assadists, Putin puppets or traitors to American exceptionalism. Most of us on social media, for example, has experienced the *hate* first hand.

MSM has turned the news into a contact sport, using superficial, anti-intellectual stances, pushing us into just two camps.

Taibbi writes:

“A political party may be preferable to another. A news channel, though, can't be a vehicle for a political party and be anything but a bad thing.” (p. 272)

At the end of Hate INC., in Appendix 2: An Interview with Noam Chomsky, Taibbi asks Chomsky about his famous text “Manufacturing Consent”, and its relevance to today's toxic binary media. I found this section of the book to be insightful on many levels. A good interview indeed.

For a greater understanding of today's corporate media, it's biases and all-to-easy slip into pure marketing as opposed to real journalism, you would be egregiously remiss, not to crack the covers of, HATE INC.