The Exact Problem with the Media

It's more obvious than you might think.

Jun 26, 2025

Last week Tucker Carlson interviewed—and to the nation’s delight—repeatedly humiliated Ted Cruz. The clips were everywhere and the reactions were varied and revealing. Some marveled at Tucker’s journalistic capabilities. Some pointed out that Tucker could’ve been doing this throughout his entire career. But folks unconvinced of Tucker’s newfound integrity wondered something else:

To paraphrase an old saying, if everyone is arguing over whether it is or isn’t raining, why don’t more journalists just stick their goddamn hands out their windows?

It’s a valid question.

This country has had the same problems for a pretty long time and it’s not as though the causes are difficult to find. In fact, the solution to a problem is often revealed in failed solutions of the past. This is especially true of our major issues.

For example, this country has a uniquely horrifying problem with firearm deaths. A quick glance at our history will tell you that we’ve been passing gun laws on this land since 1640. Why haven’t they worked? Well, a more deliberate glance will show you that most of our nearly four-hundred years of gun laws weren’t written to save lives, but instead to punish Black people.

The United States also leads the world in overdose deaths. A quick glance at our history will tell you that we’ve been passing drug laws on this land since 1875. But, a more deliberate glance will show you that most of our 150 years of drug laws were written not to save lives, but instead to punish first Chinese people, then eventually Black people and Latinos as well.

The United States leads the world in healthcare costs, while being among the worst in healthcare outcomes. A quick glance at our history will show you that we haven’t really tried to solve this. And, a more deliberate glance will show you that our insurance industry leaders in the 1800s established a business model prioritizing the protection of fortunes made not from saving lives, but by overcharging Black people.

I could go on, but I think you’re beginning to see a pattern—which puts you miles ahead of most of the media.

As I write this, Abundance is #5 on the New York Times’ Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller List. A joint-effort by NYT’s Ezra Klein and The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, the book effectively points the finger at bureaucracy as cause for our societal stagnation. The authors love details, but as refined as they get, they have a suspicious lack of focus around the origins of said bureaucracy.

For example, Klein spends a lot of time getting deep into the weeds on zoning laws, but can you guess what he leaves out?

If you guessed that American zoning laws were created for the deliberate purpose of white supremacy specifically in the form of racial segregation, you’ve established quite the lead on the media!

By the way, Klein and Thompson aren’t avoiding the mention of white supremacy out of ignorance. Nearly every expert on the subject acknowledges the exact purpose of US zoning origins—including the Abundance authors during promotional interviews, though passingly and maybe a little begrudgingly. But I guess the obvious fundamental cause of the problem they’re claiming to address just wasn’t really worth putting in the book.

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Normally, the media tries to squeeze our problems into a Democrat/Republican frame. Not to state the obvious, but if that framing worked, we surely would’ve solved these problems by now. Also, any slightly curious glance at that framing can show you exactly why it doesn’t work. Of course, that would involve confronting why all these Republicans like Trump and Musk and RFK, Jr. used to be Democrats. What could possibly bring them together? Why would the largest electric car manufacturer in the country join the party of drill baby drill? Why would the heir to this country’s most historically famous Democrat legacy so soundly reject it?

While you’re contemplating the white supremacy of it all, one might also wonder what it means that John Kennedy—the extremist Louisiana Republican Senator of no relation—started out as a Democrat? Or that Mitch McConnell began his career as a champion for Black civil rights?

George Wallace, the most famously racist politician of the Civil Rights era began his career as an Alabama Attorney General, making a name for himself by openly fighting the KKK. But when he lost his first bid for Alabama Governor in 1958, his explanation for his loss was, “I was out-niggered, and I will never be out-niggered again.” And he sure wasn’t.

Again, I could go on, but I think you’re beginning to see a pattern. White supremacy is the most valuable currency in the country and a successful political career is much more achievable with that understanding. So, why does the media so desperately avoid this topic?

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One reason is that the American Narrative takes priority over truth and that narrative requires Black suffering. Right-wing propaganda will tell you this directly. So will white liberal Hollywood, though less directly with its failure to tell Black stories outside of slavery, the Civil Rights Era or police brutality.

This American Narrative doesn’t stop with the media. It’s everywhere including our understanding of our previously mentioned major issues.

It’s in the cultural fear of Black gun ownership contrasted with the fact that most gun deaths are white—not just because white people are the majority, but also because most gun deaths are self-inflicted, disproportionately by white people.

It’s in the mass of white fentanyl deaths viewed as an epidemic contrasted with mass death from crack presented as a flaw inherent in Black people.

It’s in a proposed national healthcare system presented as yet one more handout demanded by lazy Blacks.

It is everywhere, so, don’t ask too much of Tucker or Ezra or any other steward of the American Narrative. After all, they’re just doing their jobs. But, you know, don’t ask them about the rain.

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