Abstract
Matt Taibbi's “Hate, Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise Each Other” (OR Books 2021) might make you angry, but it will make you think. Taibbi's takedown of commercial media, now updated in a post-election edition, offers a striking critique of the news media's slow but steady slide toward polarization “…skewed by a toxic mix of political and financial considerations” (20). Taibbi convincingly argues, using both historical and modern examples along with personal experience, that the press sells people on a simplified worldview where the two political parties are in a constant and perpetual conflict about everything. While Taibbi does offer some advice for independent-minded journalists seeking to navigate the current media landscape, audiences are left with little in the way of solutions, other than to stop reading (and watching) the news.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.