Here is a nice list of Don’ts and Do’s for the left liberal press – from a blog post by Tara Henley.
She nicely lays out the topics which are off-limits for the intellectual class – in a self-censorship kind of way. And also points out the kind of stories favoured by them.
Here goes. First the Don’ts :
Here’s a good place to start: Ask yourself how many liberal media pieces you’ve seen over the past two years that, say, interrogate COVID restrictions critically (especially early on, with school closures, lockdowns, and mask mandates). Or evaluate Black Lives Matter as a political movement, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. Or offer opposing viewpoints on transgender athletes in women’s sports; or mass immigration; or diversity, equity, and inclusion philosophies, trainings, or policies. Or acknowledge the excesses of #MeToo, or prejudice against the white working class. Or present critiques of identity politics. Or explore downsides of puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for teens; or delve into the growing censoriousness on social media and in education, Hollywood, the arts, and NGOs. Or probe inner city gun violence. Or reflect the positive sides of masculinity. Or talk about God. Or reference anything that’s currently deemed a conspiracy theory in non-derogatory terms (see: the lab leak theory). Or express genuine curiosity on the reasons behind the rise of independent media, whether that’s Joe Rogan or Substack.
This, I would argue, is the no-fly list. These are the tripwires.
I’ll admit that, months after leaving legacy media, I still feel an instinctive trepidation even running down this list — that’s how ingrained this is.
Now the Do’s :
Meanwhile, here are the stories that tend to play well in story meetings: The first “X” to do “Y” (the more local the better); celebratory ethnic heritage stories; local examples of racism; refugee stories; police brutality stories; investigations into misinformation or disinformation; calls for more robust online content moderation; the changing of the names of institutions; representation of diverse identities in literature, film, dance, music, and art; interesting identity takes on news developments, or holidays, or activities. Immigrant stories. Female empowerment stories. Stories warning about populism. Stories warning about conspiracy theorists, or other bad actors online. Stories warning about free speech absolutists. Stories about people getting exposed for saying objectionable things. How “X” initiative falls short of addressing “Y” social problem. Experts warning about the threat of a new COVID wave and why we need tougher restrictions.
