1. 1
  1.  

  2. 1

    This is exactly right:

    Step 1) A star will say something that some people find disagreeable.

    Step 2) A number of people on Twitter will react angrily.

    Step 3) The entertainment media will group a selection of these tweets into an article headlined “[Insert name of star] Receives Backlash,” then a former costar or ex-girlfriend will weigh in and make the controversy even more headline-worthy.

    Step 4) People will always look back on the star and note how he received “backlash” as a reference point without discussing the validity of the original complaints.

    It’s lazy “journalism,” even by the poor standards of today’s #mediajackals.

    But what to do about it? Mainstream #mediajackal “journalism” has effectively no standards, no official bodies that could apply informal pressure to conform to more reasonable social norms. About the closest might be awards bodies: Unless #mediajackals agree to follow better norms, they would be ineligible to qualify for awards.

    Of course the same #mediajackals run the awards bodies–and one suspects that they like cancel culture because most of the victims have been conservatives–so it’s not going to happen.

    Meanwhile the right should not unilaterally disarm.