The Epstein saga shows us the impotence of polite 'centrist' media – Greg Jericho
Journalism that panders to fascists and mass murderers is fuelling our societal collapse
Greg Jericho is the Chief Economist at the Australia Institute and the Centre for Future Work, and a Walkley Award-winning columnist on economics and politics. Opinions expressed are those of the author alone.
Among the millions of Epstein files, The Nation’s National Affairs Correspondent, Jeet Heer, found one missive between Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Thiel that reveals not only how the files present a vast network of abuse perpetrated by the elite but also how power operates and works to destroy. It serves to remind just how utterly impotent the traditional media has been in the face of such forces.
Thiel, like Steve Bannon, is one who lurks mostly behind the scenes, much like did Epstein – putting powerful people together, applying pressure on candidates and groups to follow certain lines, and above all doing everything in his power to make stonks of money at the expense of anyone.
In 2016 (some eight years after he had already served jail time for sex offences), Epstein wrote to Thiel saying “brexit, just the beginning”.
Thiel replied, wondering to know “of what”.
Epstein responded:
“return to tribalism . counter to globalization. amazing new alliances. you and I both agreed zero interest rates were too high, and as i said in your office. finding things on their way to collapse , was much easier than finding the next bargain”
That last sentence is the key to understanding the past decade.
The reality is, among those wielding the darkest power, chaos and collapse is not something they fear but rather aim to create. The Brexit debate, Trump, the Voice referendum, climate change, Israel’s genocide, and many other events involve one side which actively desires collapse – and is ready to profit from it.
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This finds those centrist types sitting in their press gallery bureaus or media offices thinking that the purpose of the media is to observe and report on both sides and “interrogate the powerful” left completely impotent. The centrist media is powerless to fight those forces that care not for shame, nor embarrassment, nor norms, nor the public good, nor ever being held to account.
Journalists rocking up to interviews thinking they should be respectful and asking questions that give the racist or neo-Nazi or current President of the United States a chance to provide their point of view are so naive as to be barely worth arguing with, let alone reading or watching their reports. (Which is why fewer and fewer are.)
We live in a world where a female journalist can ask Donald Trump about the Epstein files and he responds that “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile. They [CNN] should be ashamed of you.”
No one protests, really. No one demands an apology (they know they won’t get one), and no journalist does anything other than show up again the next day to pretend it is important to be balanced and not show any bias.
The second-richest man in the world guts The Washington Post, and the reaction is one of dismay but little understanding that its collapse was always the point. Screaming “fake news” wasn’t about causing people to distrust the media, but about collapsing any trust.
This failure of centrism in the face of those seeking collapse also infects politics.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate Leader posts that “Democrats want common sense reform for ICE”. A kinder, more legal Gestapo, I guess. Forgetting – as centrists always do – that the laws are designed by autocrats to allow autocracy and fascism, and if not, are ignored.
You really think Thiel or Bannon or Trump or Vance are worried about the American legal and judicial system collapsing?
In Australia we see the centrist forces arguing we need to welcome a man who proudly signed messages on artillery shells destined to be fired at civilians in Gaza, because apparently the reason of his coming trumps anything he might have done in the past.
Be polite, and ignore that you are being used by forces who celebrate collapse.
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It would be nice to say this is just a feature of the past decade, but we know the forces of collapse have been active for many decades now. The forces that seek the collapse of public services by arguing we need to cut back on government spending. When the services collapse, the goal is achieved. It’s not about delivering better services by the private sector; it’s about collapsing the public service so profit can be made by those who hold power in the private sector.
And yet we continually see laughable debates about whether the private or public sector is more efficient as though one side gives any damn about the actual service being delivered.
The centrist reporter or commentator is suckered in – wage growth must be bad because it will lead to inflation. Public spending on child care, or child care workers being paid a living wage, is irresponsible and will lead to inflation. It all seems so sensibly centrist – until you peel back the layers and realise it is just (purposefully or not) pushing the lines of those who seek to profit from the collapse of the public sector.
Think about unemployment benefits and wonder where the centrist journalist or politician currently sits. Whitlam rose the rate to around 20 per cent below the poverty line. John Howard as Treasurer dropped it, Hawke and Keating semi-restored it, then Howard gutted it.
By the time Rudd came into power, where was the centrist line? Was it that Howard had strayed to an extreme? No, it was all around the margins, and there was no pressure at all for Rudd – or Gillard, or Abbott, or Turnbull, or Morrison – to raise it.
We are now at the point where the safety net of unemployment benefits has totally collapsed, replaced by a hell of “mutual obligations” where elites profit off suffering, and centrist media believe they are holding politicians to account by wondering about the impact on the budget deficit of slightly raising the level of Jobseeker back to around where it was under Howard.
Epstein was right: finding things on their way to collapse is easier than finding bargains. The reason is because – as he and Thiel and many others over the past decade or more have shown – while it is tough to create a bargain, you can definitely cause a collapse, and the centrist media will give you a helping hand.
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 | A guest post by
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The liberal-wing of the establishment cannot face the present as the structures it supports have collapsed. It lives in a past where the right are active partners in upholding a system instead. Because it cannot face the reality of this collapse it is unfit to either combat further collapse or lead the regeneration.
Thanks Greg. Always great to read his humanist take on politics and economics. We need more commentators to recognise what's happening across the legacy media landscape. No wonder independent media is on their rise.