In the Belly of the Beast

NEW YORK — One World Trade Center gleams above the Manhattan skyline on the footprint of the twin towers a handful of Islamist zealots brought down with a sucker punch. The mast atop it reaches to 1,776 feet, symbolizing a year that matters far more than 2001.

Jeffrey Fagan, a world-savvy criminologist, took me through the warren of streets he was driving past when those planes struck. He had seen rescue crews brave the inferno as terrified people leapt to their death. In all, 3,000 died. Yet the lesson of that day went unlearned.

A stricken nation obsessed over that question — why do they hate us? In fact, few did. But blind fury set the world ablaze. Today, lots of people hate America. And opposing factions at home hate each other. As Fagan says, too many Americans twist facts into their own preferred biases.

Voters need the “mainstream media” to provide firsthand reporting and informed comment so 1776 continues to signify more than what history will recall as the starting point of a once-noble democratic endeavor that ended in 2025.

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For some perspective, I visited Cheryl Gould, an uncommonly wise news maven I met in 1977. She joined NBC as a radio reporter in Paris, later produced the Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and left the network as senior vice president a decade ago, disgusted by internal politics.

She has since worked to uphold principles in journalism, a profession as old as prostitution, which it now often resembles. The Ronna McDaniel flap had just erupted, and Cheryl was livid. NBC hired McDaniel after she was fired as head of the Republican National Committee.

Rachel Maddow eviscerated McDaniel on MSNBC, detailing her role in sending fake elector tallies to Washington in 2020 and then trumpeting lies about a stolen election. Cheryl beavered away in the background to explain why one bad hire was so fraught with deeper meaning.

Cheryl rarely uses Facebook, but a series of posts went viral. They were toned down versions of letters she sent to Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, and top NBC bosses. She excoriated Conde, who is also on the boards of PepsiCo and Walmart.

She wrote:

“Ms. McDaniel SHOULD be on the air: as an interviewee, not as a commentator given how she openly bashed MSNBC and other mainstream media outlets she called ‘fake news.’ She helped promulgate the lies and vitriol of her leader.”

A revolt among NBC’s news staff soon forced McDaniel out. She is demanding her $300,000 annual salary along with a payout for the remainder of her contract.

Conde took over in 2020 and caused an uproar. Joe Biden and Donald Trump were to debate on ABC primetime. When Trump pulled out, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos grilled Biden alone in a town hall format. In the same time slot, Savannah Guthrie interviewed Trump, who evaded questions about his calamitous Covid-19 response and QAnon supporters. (Links below.)

“(NBC) went for a ratings grab rather than doing the right thing for democracy by letting the American people watch both candidates, forcing them to make a choice,” Cheryl wrote. “That told me all I needed to know about the insouciance or worse, cynicism of the leader who apparently has still not learned what it means to run a respected news division.”

She had an answer to the network’s feeble argument that McDaniel could shed light on the Trump-polluted Republican Party: “That’s like saying you would hire known terrorists to do commentary on terrorism because they know it from the inside.”

NBC is hardly alone. Les Moonves at CBS crowed unabashedly at the profits Trump coverage brought in. Jeff Zucker admitted a similar bump in CNN ratings. Now under new management, CNN cameras still linger on the MAGA circus that menaces America. Among others.

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New York, where Trump has for decades brought rot to the Big Apple’s core, makes the global threat blindingly clear. Despite some hopeful signs, apathy and ignorance run deep, particularly among young people who must suffer the consequences.

I walked up Broadway to Cheryl’s place above 104th in what she calls So-Har: south of Harlem. That was my hood briefly in the 70s. As a Council on Foreign Relations fellow, I hobnobbed with heads of state and big thinkers with ideas about stability in a post-Vietnam world.

Broadway then was hometown America, alive with mom-and-pop shops, Jewish delis and such melting-pot mixes as Cuban-Chinese eateries. The only police incident I recall was the cop on a scooter who ticketed Odious Beast, my Belgian shepherd, for peeing on a tree in Riverside Park.

It is different now. At one point, my eyes suddenly burned, and I struggled to breathe. Some fool had tossed a teargas grenade. People panicked, yelling for help. This being America, I had neither mask nor wet rag. I ducked into an upwind doorway, then walked on faster.

Returning to midtown on an express train, I heard a speaker blare: “From the river to the sea, we’re gonna fight to be free.” It emanated from a young Chinese American’s boombox. I decided not to interview him.

It is never a great idea to confront strangers on the subway, and the mood was especially fraught. The New York Times had just front-paged a lengthy piece. Some lout told a stranger for no apparent reason, “I’m going to beat you up.” A knife emerged. Another passenger shot and wounded the aggressor.

Exiting, I paused to eye the guy with the speaker. He looked up and pronounced: “You’re ugly.” No argument there. When we both got off at the same stop, he whirled around and asked, “Why are you following me?” I kept walking, and he shouted, “Free Palestine!”

That was no small-bore episode if you think it through. Americans are prone toward simplistic reaction to complex situations. Trump’s demagogic gift is an animal instinct to exploit that to his advantage.

I’d bet a lot that guy had no idea which river or which sea. Nor did he realize that battle cry harks back to Arab armies in 1948 trying to dislodge Jews from a homeland they were meant to share with Palestinians after the Holocaust. It has since been used by extremes on “both sides.”

Simplistic generality only deepens rifts. Hamas’s vicious assault targeted “liberal” kibbutzniks who favor a separate Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu, a corrupt hardliner who condones mass murder to stay in power, no more represents Jews than Trump does Christians.

Trump helped Netanyahu crack down on Palestinians, backing more West Bank settlements and incursions into East Jerusalem. Now Biden is doing more than any American president to push for workable solutions not only in the unholy land but also the Middle East beyond.

The irony is tragic. Trump helped Mohammed bin Salman escape condemnation for the grisly murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi crown prince later gave Jared Kushner $2 billion for his equity firm’s grand projects.

At the height of Israeli onslaught, Trump’s son-in-law told an interviewer the Gaza seafront was “very valuable” property. It could be cleaned up and developed after Palestinians were relocated, preferably in the Negev desert.

Still, many Palestinian sympathizers in America heap scorn on Biden and plan to abstain or cast a ballot for an alternative candidate. That, in effect, amounts to another vote for Trump.

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It is pointless to rail against entrenched social media and propagandists. Some people want authoritarian rule. There is no cure for stupid. America’s best defense is “legacy media” that tries to get the story straight and independent reporters with proven credibility.

Old-style approaches are evolving fast in the “mainstream,” on air or in print. But democracy depends on bedrock principles. Staff journalists ask questions. Newsmakers answer if they choose, expecting tough follow-ups if they mangle facts. Paying them corrupts the process.

A better-informed America would have learned after 2001 that while domestic issues affect individuals, existential threats come from abroad. Wealth and weaponry can avert potential crises. Or they can create unstoppable conflict and yawning gaps between rich and desperate.

Trump’s reign defined his ignorant, self-focused worldview. Now he rants about gutting NATO, embracing tyrants, imposing tariffs, slamming shut borders, slashing foreign aid and much else. Imagine a new term with sycophantic incompetent ideologues replacing adults in the room.

Biden’s long life in politics and diplomacy is uniquely suited to the moment. He knows why Vladimir Putin must be stopped and Xi Jinping needs to see advantage in accommodation with the West. But good luck making the case to that clueless guy on the subway.