Morning Joe's got a bad case of nostalgia for the good old days of the liberal media's near-total control over the news. As Kasie Hunt put it on today's show, back in the day, "The media . . . was a relatively focused, narrow group, and if they made decisions together could actually impact things."
And Hunt apparently thought that was a good thing! She seemed to be longing for what might called a vast left-wing media conspiracy!
In fact, the liberal media continues to exercise an inordinate influence over the news. That's why NewsBusters exists, after all: to combat just that! But it's also true that the MSM's stranglehold on information has been diminished, if not ultimately broken, by the proliferation of countless new outlets that don't adhere to the liberal line.
Here's her full quote:
Steve, I guess that’s my question for you. You write a little bit about, and you make the point, we had three big networks, we had a handful of prominent newsweeklies, papers that covered the country, and a lot of local journalism.
And so, the media quote/unquote, as people like to think of it, was in fact a relatively focused, narrow group that if they made decisions together could actually impact things.
Now, with this fragmented landscape of these major companies, their decision-making is obviously part of this. And we know they can’t shut everything down by themselves because other websites pop up. But there is still some truth to the fact that they are mass platforms, right? Everyone is on Facebook, or many adults are on Facebook, so they have a bigger responsibility than some of these other, you know, Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan.
And yes, there's also the role that social media play in permitting individuals and groups to circumvent the MSM . . . if they can navigate the concerted campaigns of Twitter, Facebook, et. al to silence them!
Not only did the panel wax nostalgic over the MSM's reduced power, but guest Steve Coll of The New Yorker rather wistfully spoke of how the Constitution provides that "there are no restraints on speech." 
And Kasie Hunt lamented that the big social-media platforms "can’t shut everything down by themselves because other websites pop up." Yeah, a shame! If only Twitter, Facebook, etc. could entirely stamp out conservative voices! But darn it, when they try, other sites pop up like noxious weeds!
Morning Joe bemoaning the liberal media's loss of near-complete dominance over the news was sponsored in part by Shark Vacuums, Advil, Lincoln and Allstate.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
12/7/20
6:29 am ETSTEVE COLL: When you ask what's different now, obviously it’s 50 years on from the ‘60s, it’s a different country, I wonder if the role of disinformation and the way our media distributes it through social media platforms and just the saturated media culture that we’re in doesn’t create a different kind of danger than the one Joan Didion observed in San Francisco in ‘67 and ‘68.
. . .
AL SHARPTON: Doesn’t the fact that we now have these different social media and other media outlets make it possible that these can become a permanent presence that does not easily disappear from the body politic. Because they are addressing something people really feel, but they can continually exploit that?
COLL: Yeah. And I think that’s exactly the question. Because I mean, you can get a little abstract about it, but in the aftermath of Wallace’s dying-gasp, Jim Crow campaign in 1968, the media moved on.
The media were three networks and major newspapers, and they saw his campaign as a sort of a dying ember that was no longer relevant. And his voters didn’t go away. That we understand clearly now. And obviously again the country has changed a lot in 50 years and it’s not a straight line. But these sources of resentment that can be mobilized into demagogic politics have stayed with us.
And I think that’s — you’re asking the question: how long will this persist because there are no restraints on speech, as our Constitution provides, but because also we’re so connected and there’s so much bottom-up sharing of disinformation, and it’s so easy to manufacture propaganda and distribute it, almost without being detected. You know, will this provide Mo
. . .
KASIE HUNT: Steve, I guess that’s my question for you. You write a little bit about, and you make the point, we had three big networks, we had a handful of prominent newsweeklies, papers that covered the country, and a lot of local journalism.
And so, the media quote/unquote, as people like to think of it, was in fact a relatively focused, narrow group that if they made decisions together could actually impact things.
Now, with this fragmented landscape of these major companies, their decision-making is obviously part of this. And we know they can’t shut everything down by themselves because other websites pop up. But there is still some truth to the fact that they are mass platforms, right? Everyone is on Facebook, or many adults are on Facebook, so they have a bigger responsibility than some of these other, you know, Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan.
