I am a free speech absolutist. I think the remedy to misinformation is more speech. Substack is a good example today of that remedy. However, I think the mainstream media is largely broken with respect to what the founders and our Bill of Rights intended with respect to the current state of the media... and including Big Tech that operates as publishers and not platforms.
For media to be what it supposed to be, journalists and news reporters need to be diverse in views, committed to objectivity in reporting, and should be independent with editorial control focused only on truth and facts... and not censorship for any other reason. Unfortunately the corporate consolidation of media has turned it into a tool for the corporatist cabal to manipulate public views and opinions at the same time that our education system populated the writing pools with too many upper-class, status seeking Theory clones.
The education system is a mess of radical leftist indoctrination, but there are signs that the people have had it and are working to fix the problems. I think this trend will accelerate as the virtual signaling benefits fall away and the status-seekers and social justice profiteers pivot to an anti-Theory position for reasons that it provides more profit and status. For example, we see 28 year old Coleman Hughes rising from his book attacking DEI, and Robin DiAngelo or Ibram Kendi falling from grace and being labeled neo-racists.
It is the corporate consolidated ownership of media that I think needs public policy. Today three multi-trillion dollar asset companies: Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street, together own a controlling interest in 80% of the mainstream media. And they own shares of each other. Then there are next tier investment corporations that are more minor shareholders, but own shares of Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street.... and those three own shares of the next tier financial industry corporations.
The bottom line is that Wall Street owns the mainstream media, and Wall Street is directing the mainstream media to report what is good for Wall Street. This includes influencing the electorate toward a political outcome that is better for Wall Street.
The same is true for Big Tech.
We need new anti-trust laws to break up this cross ownership corporatist cabal. The idea with freedom of the press was that it would always be majority independent and not captured and controlled to support an agenda other than delivering news and information to keep the people informed of the truth and facts.
What's the point of being an official priest of the Cathedral and not being able to lock a witch in the pillory and pelt her with garbage? Any fool can drive a fancy car to a fancy house and have money in the bank, but to be able to disguise your sadism as virtue, cloak it in political blather, and unleash it (on TV no less!) and be rewarded and appluaded—now, this is a rare thrill a peasant will never know!
Brad has hit most of the nails on the head here—Soviet America has a new and shinier Pravda with hotter spokesmodels and cooler graphics—but there's one thing I always wonder when I gaze upon our media clerisy: where does one score this mandatory accessory, "moral clarity"? If I went to J-school and graduated do I get to fold my diploma into a priest's collar? From which Mt. Sinai did these priests and prophets get their sacred tablets from?
I'm inclined to quote Exodus and repeat what the Israelites said when they were getting sick of that guy Moses, who seemed to think he was God's gift but got them lost in the desert:
Excellent post mortem, if heartbreaking. I miss journalism! I also wonder if the advent of the news-comedy genre, John Stewart's Daily Show in particular, didn't add to the rot. He's a late boomer but his influence on Millennials in my circles was profound. Snark replaced argument and anything resembling an earnest search for truth became cringe. Neither his post modern cynicism for the masses or the Maddow style outrage machine are the free press our founders were counting on. Good night and good luck.
This is an excellent obituary for the mainstream news and current affairs industry. But there is perhaps some grim comfort to be had in reminding ourselves that our "sacred airwaves" has always been delusional. 'The News' has always been a bogus concept where, for example, some murders incite months of agonising and outrage whilst others not even a mention. 'The News' has always been the natural territory of the uncurious....people seduced by the vanity that you can know what's 'really important' just by (in the old pre-internet days) switching on 'The News' for half an hour. Now you get the same narrow, tendentious crap on a permanent loop 24/7.
The great irony (tragedy in fact for our culture) is that paradoxically it is the college 'educated' avid news consumers of 'high end' (NYT, WP and Guardian) stuff end up having an even more distorted picture than those lower down the social scale with their tabloids. Thus it is that, in my country, the BBC has been pumping out its 'impartial' news grift for 60+ years to a credulous 'educated' public and thereby it has been a much more powerful political force in Britain than all the politicians put together.
Here in Chicago, the executive editor of one of the 2 major papers, the Sun-Times, conducted a “town hall” to get input from the public on what stories should lead the news. She said she is planning more of these, in the interest of saving our democracy.
So now the news is governed by “please tell me what I can put out there as clickbait”. Of course newspaper publishing has always been a business, and must attract customers to survive, but this seems lame. I wouldn’t want to get my news from a paper so clearly pandering for readers.
Polls show that public trust in media has plummeted, and this is part of the reason why. Nobody trusts desperate people to be fair and unbiased.
......"unhinged eschatologists".....very nice, spot on! But really, Nicole Wallace's "sacred airwaves" thing has to be in contention for the most unintentionally hilarious news bit of the year, or the decade, which is about how long it's been since I've attempted to watch any of the talking heads.....
All this wouldn’t be so grim, if, on occasion, those people pretending to be reporters would sometimes turn & wink at their audiences, like their counterparts in Pro Wrestling.
As a sidebar to this, RFK Jr.’s retort on CNN to who is the greatest threat to democracy at present will further demonize his election chance among the “Holy”. He should out Trump Trump if he wants a solid chance to win & say directly what’s on his mind always. If there’s anyone now who’s as “Great a Threat to Democracy” as Trump, now we have second devil. With his strong Liberal leanings, he’s likely to siphon a considerable number of voters away from Biden & the the Pharasees are screaming from every news media platform they own.
Great summary. One other point that I heard Taibbi raise was the fact that due to overall declining revenues (ads are dying) and the inability to make up that loss with direct subscriptions, they also are running on far lower operating revenues than in the distant past. And with that, they can’t hire as many quality journalists to actually dig in to and present real stories so we see this cut and paste of idiotic drivel that mirrors across the publications as you’ve mentioned. Probably also even harder if you have to pay top dogs like Maddow Hollywood salaries which leaves table scraps for the journalists who are actually investigating.
In today’s “America this week” they reviewed RFK’s visit to CNN. I just reflect on the fact that because of everything your article covers we have a son of a Kennedy (not a cousin, an actual son of one of our Democratic heroes) who was not permitted to run a Democratic ticket.
When I was a young kid in the 1970s, my dad used to watch what I called the ‘fighting show’ on Sundays. It was the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, PBS I think? Anyway, I think news and the culture would be in a much better place if the media had stuck with vigorous debate like that. Podcasts do that sometimes, but it’s just so fragmented now too few people are really aware of all sides of an issue. To our detriment.
This was a truly great essay. I am hoping independent journalism will continue to grow. I am hoping the media keeps overstepping to the point of insanity so their lies can be called out quicker and with more force. Pre-Musk X, if you called out lies, you were shadow banned or removed altogether. It won't be as easy to lie with more and more powerful people finally opening their eyes. I hope.
If ya'll need convincing whether we're heading for civil war or speciation, just ask a Leftist to explain why folks vote for Trump.
It's enlightening. Give it a shot, it's really entertaining....and hopeless.
I am a free speech absolutist. I think the remedy to misinformation is more speech. Substack is a good example today of that remedy. However, I think the mainstream media is largely broken with respect to what the founders and our Bill of Rights intended with respect to the current state of the media... and including Big Tech that operates as publishers and not platforms.
For media to be what it supposed to be, journalists and news reporters need to be diverse in views, committed to objectivity in reporting, and should be independent with editorial control focused only on truth and facts... and not censorship for any other reason. Unfortunately the corporate consolidation of media has turned it into a tool for the corporatist cabal to manipulate public views and opinions at the same time that our education system populated the writing pools with too many upper-class, status seeking Theory clones.
The education system is a mess of radical leftist indoctrination, but there are signs that the people have had it and are working to fix the problems. I think this trend will accelerate as the virtual signaling benefits fall away and the status-seekers and social justice profiteers pivot to an anti-Theory position for reasons that it provides more profit and status. For example, we see 28 year old Coleman Hughes rising from his book attacking DEI, and Robin DiAngelo or Ibram Kendi falling from grace and being labeled neo-racists.
It is the corporate consolidated ownership of media that I think needs public policy. Today three multi-trillion dollar asset companies: Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street, together own a controlling interest in 80% of the mainstream media. And they own shares of each other. Then there are next tier investment corporations that are more minor shareholders, but own shares of Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street.... and those three own shares of the next tier financial industry corporations.
The bottom line is that Wall Street owns the mainstream media, and Wall Street is directing the mainstream media to report what is good for Wall Street. This includes influencing the electorate toward a political outcome that is better for Wall Street.
The same is true for Big Tech.
We need new anti-trust laws to break up this cross ownership corporatist cabal. The idea with freedom of the press was that it would always be majority independent and not captured and controlled to support an agenda other than delivering news and information to keep the people informed of the truth and facts.
What's the point of being an official priest of the Cathedral and not being able to lock a witch in the pillory and pelt her with garbage? Any fool can drive a fancy car to a fancy house and have money in the bank, but to be able to disguise your sadism as virtue, cloak it in political blather, and unleash it (on TV no less!) and be rewarded and appluaded—now, this is a rare thrill a peasant will never know!
Brad has hit most of the nails on the head here—Soviet America has a new and shinier Pravda with hotter spokesmodels and cooler graphics—but there's one thing I always wonder when I gaze upon our media clerisy: where does one score this mandatory accessory, "moral clarity"? If I went to J-school and graduated do I get to fold my diploma into a priest's collar? From which Mt. Sinai did these priests and prophets get their sacred tablets from?
I'm inclined to quote Exodus and repeat what the Israelites said when they were getting sick of that guy Moses, who seemed to think he was God's gift but got them lost in the desert:
"Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?"
Excellent post mortem, if heartbreaking. I miss journalism! I also wonder if the advent of the news-comedy genre, John Stewart's Daily Show in particular, didn't add to the rot. He's a late boomer but his influence on Millennials in my circles was profound. Snark replaced argument and anything resembling an earnest search for truth became cringe. Neither his post modern cynicism for the masses or the Maddow style outrage machine are the free press our founders were counting on. Good night and good luck.
This is an excellent obituary for the mainstream news and current affairs industry. But there is perhaps some grim comfort to be had in reminding ourselves that our "sacred airwaves" has always been delusional. 'The News' has always been a bogus concept where, for example, some murders incite months of agonising and outrage whilst others not even a mention. 'The News' has always been the natural territory of the uncurious....people seduced by the vanity that you can know what's 'really important' just by (in the old pre-internet days) switching on 'The News' for half an hour. Now you get the same narrow, tendentious crap on a permanent loop 24/7.
The great irony (tragedy in fact for our culture) is that paradoxically it is the college 'educated' avid news consumers of 'high end' (NYT, WP and Guardian) stuff end up having an even more distorted picture than those lower down the social scale with their tabloids. Thus it is that, in my country, the BBC has been pumping out its 'impartial' news grift for 60+ years to a credulous 'educated' public and thereby it has been a much more powerful political force in Britain than all the politicians put together.
Here in Chicago, the executive editor of one of the 2 major papers, the Sun-Times, conducted a “town hall” to get input from the public on what stories should lead the news. She said she is planning more of these, in the interest of saving our democracy.
So now the news is governed by “please tell me what I can put out there as clickbait”. Of course newspaper publishing has always been a business, and must attract customers to survive, but this seems lame. I wouldn’t want to get my news from a paper so clearly pandering for readers.
Polls show that public trust in media has plummeted, and this is part of the reason why. Nobody trusts desperate people to be fair and unbiased.
......"unhinged eschatologists".....very nice, spot on! But really, Nicole Wallace's "sacred airwaves" thing has to be in contention for the most unintentionally hilarious news bit of the year, or the decade, which is about how long it's been since I've attempted to watch any of the talking heads.....
I find it ironic that the party that shrieks about a danger to democracy spends all its time trying to deny voters any choice
All this wouldn’t be so grim, if, on occasion, those people pretending to be reporters would sometimes turn & wink at their audiences, like their counterparts in Pro Wrestling.
Bravo and -- a question?
WHO really rules the US instead of Genocide Joe ?? – Obama?, Clintons? - WHO
Former ESPN Host Sage Steele Says Biden Interview Was Entirely Scripted – Apr 3 – Kit Cabello
https://rumble.com/v4nay3f-former-espn-host-sage-steele-says-biden-interview-was-entirely-scripted.html
Russia concluded that CIA organized Crocus massacre of 350 people – Drastic 180 degree turn away from passive tolerance of US/UK provocations imminent
Paul Craig Roberts: Heading Towards Armageddon !!! – Apr 2, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ_mlFMqCuk
Russ is Waiting for Hi Ranking US Visit To Kiev then All Gov Buildings with Visitors Inside will be Flatten! The decision has been made! – Apr 2, 2024
https://rumble.com/v4ndcft-russ-is-waiting-for-hi-ranking-us-visit-to-kiev-then-all-gov-buildings-ther.html
As a sidebar to this, RFK Jr.’s retort on CNN to who is the greatest threat to democracy at present will further demonize his election chance among the “Holy”. He should out Trump Trump if he wants a solid chance to win & say directly what’s on his mind always. If there’s anyone now who’s as “Great a Threat to Democracy” as Trump, now we have second devil. With his strong Liberal leanings, he’s likely to siphon a considerable number of voters away from Biden & the the Pharasees are screaming from every news media platform they own.
Great summary. One other point that I heard Taibbi raise was the fact that due to overall declining revenues (ads are dying) and the inability to make up that loss with direct subscriptions, they also are running on far lower operating revenues than in the distant past. And with that, they can’t hire as many quality journalists to actually dig in to and present real stories so we see this cut and paste of idiotic drivel that mirrors across the publications as you’ve mentioned. Probably also even harder if you have to pay top dogs like Maddow Hollywood salaries which leaves table scraps for the journalists who are actually investigating.
In today’s “America this week” they reviewed RFK’s visit to CNN. I just reflect on the fact that because of everything your article covers we have a son of a Kennedy (not a cousin, an actual son of one of our Democratic heroes) who was not permitted to run a Democratic ticket.
It’s bonkers.
When I was a young kid in the 1970s, my dad used to watch what I called the ‘fighting show’ on Sundays. It was the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, PBS I think? Anyway, I think news and the culture would be in a much better place if the media had stuck with vigorous debate like that. Podcasts do that sometimes, but it’s just so fragmented now too few people are really aware of all sides of an issue. To our detriment.
Chris Hayes is aiming for the Highest Priest.
This was a truly great essay. I am hoping independent journalism will continue to grow. I am hoping the media keeps overstepping to the point of insanity so their lies can be called out quicker and with more force. Pre-Musk X, if you called out lies, you were shadow banned or removed altogether. It won't be as easy to lie with more and more powerful people finally opening their eyes. I hope.