Macron, Le Pen, and the degradation of the US and UK media

Yesterday, democracy won when French president Emmanuel Macron handily defeated far right candidate Marine Le Pen. He had also defeated her in the 2017 election, also quite handily. Le Pen had said that if she lost, she wouldn't run again; of course, she announced that she was going to run again in 2027.

Now, one would think that the press in the US and UK would be rooting for a thorough thrashing of the putative fascist savior of France. However, it instead spent the past two weeks glorying in the possibility of a "shockwave" result, with Le Pen winning, pulling out of NATO, and making alliance with Russia's Vladimir Putin. Par example:

Or:

And even after Macron thoroughly humiliated Le Pen, we have this:

Others pointed out that Le Pen did better in this French election than the one five years ago, and the conservative populist movement still has to be taken seriously in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. Le Pen herself told supporters that "more than ever I will continue my work for the French."

Look. We face many threats to the liberal democratic order, from China and Russia to the fellow travelers they support in our nations. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

But this isn't vigilance. The Anglo-Saxon press is not interested in warning. It's interested in drama. It's interested in generating ad revenue. It's interested in a good story. When Les Moonves said that Donald Trump was bad for America but great for CBS, he wasn't being cheeky. He was speaking a truth. The American and British press would gladly frogmarch themselves to gulags if it meant that they'd get clicks.

Related to this is the death spiral of polling. One of the things that Macron's victory shows is the continuing death of polling. Polling the world over just can't pick up trends. And when pollsters miss a trend, like 2016, they overcorrect, often for several election cycles. Polling again overstated Le Pen's support, much like in the last election. But pollsters won't correct, because of an ingrained belief that the right / far right is the "true voice of the people". No matter how many times they're proven to be wrong. 

And, of course, the Anglo-Saxon media lapped up this polling. "This is going to be close, and it's a bellwether, and fascism is on the march! How exciting! Subscribe to get more than five articles a month!" The sad fact of it is that our press has long ago abdicated its role as one of the guardians of democracy. I'm not talking about blogs and podcasts; I'm talking about legacy media, which is supposed to be the lodestar for what journalism should be. Instead you have reporters writing books and sitting o explosive stories rather than publishing at the time. Instead you have people like Dean Baquet averring that it's not The New York Times' job to "resist". I'm a more-than-occasional reader of The Times of London, and you'll nary find a good word about President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris in it. (At the same time, it will devote column inches to Ukraine, and hardly ever mention that Pres. Biden is the leader of the coalition supporting it, achieving a unity in the West which hasn't been seen since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.)

The liberal democratic order has its faults. But perhaps its greatest fault is that it doesn't have the drama of authoritarian states. Much like Paradise Lost succeeded because Lucifer was its protagonist, Paradise Regain'd was a damp squib in comparison. Utopia sounds good in principle, but it makes for boring copy. While this is a good principle for fiction and art—cf. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine—journalism shouldn't be in the business of even tacitly rooting for chaos. And if you look at the press's actions since Joe Biden was elected, one can't but help notice that it is, in fact, rooting for chaos. Their lives were easier under Trump, when stories fell into their laps from a leaking White House. Liberal democracies, if they're worth the name, operate under consensus. The "liberal consensus" was a thing, bringing in center-left and center-right. One can argue that this consensus didn't solve all the problems besetting the West, and it's a fair argument. But peace and stability are nothing to sneeze at. We're seeing its absence now in Eastern Europe. It's not something for which anyone should wish; certainly not the supposed "tribunes of the people".

Here's the brass tacks: Macron crushed Le Pen. Absolutely eviscerated her. Fifty-eight percent to forty-one percent. Le Pen's movement had its best chance yesterday, and couldn't get the job done. And the press which is writing that Le Pen's performance was actually good is gaslighting you. The press has gone from reporting and analyzing the news to creating narratives, and that's not good for democracy.

Celebrate President Macron again defeating a fascist takeover of la Republique. But realize that those who are supposed to speak for us are rooting for theater and spectacle.