Media face a double-bind between credibility and elite backlash over dissenting voices

Evidence

The media cannot long retain their credibility with the public without giving some access to witnesses and accounts which lie outside the consensus: it would not have dared to broadcast to the nation on the eve of the Newry march without at least one interview with Kevin Boyle, the civil rights organizer. But the moment it does so, it immediately endangers itself with its critics, who attack broadcasting for unwittingly “tipping the balance of public feeling” against the political order. It opens itself to the strategies of both sides which are struggling to win a hearing for their interpretation in order to redefine the situations in which they are acting in a more favorable way. This is broadcasting’s vicious double-bind. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 875

Categorization

• XREF: The Newry march / Kevin Boyle example grounds the abstract ‘double-bind’ claim in a concrete historical case, useful for the reader’s political history interest. — connects to: Traditional media face contradictory demands that make competent truth-telling punishable. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 177