Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

No one could have predicted…

This blog will pay for itself.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Second rate reporter says what?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Wednesday Night Open Thread: Our Failed Media Villagers

Wednesday Night Open Thread: Our Failed Media Villagers

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I usually call them Idiots, which they are, but they have the self-preservation instincts of a subway rat. These guys loved having TFG in the Oval Office, churning out reams of copy 24/7, no need for the high-dollar ‘journalists’ to do more than stenography — with the hopes of TV facetime and maybe a fat book deal to keep them interested, when it all got kinda repetitive.

But what has he done for them lately?

What they don’t want, at this moment in time, is for the possible downfall of the Trump Crime Cartel to let the rubes — er, their target markets — see how rotten and shaky the whole Republican party edifice actually is. If this means downvoting TFG in order to preserve a figleaf of deniability, well, Mr. You’re-Fired should’ve known the job was dangerous when he took it!



(Sam Stein’s modest self-attribution on Twitter is Politico/MSNBC. Beating heart of the great media beast, and yet not a clue to be found there. )

Callback to Rich ‘Sparklepants’ Lowry, Editor of the National Review, back in 2020:

And, apparently, those “well-heeled benefactors” are still willing to throw money down the Klout rat-hole…

“Semafor has raised $25 million from wealthy individuals, with a goal of cultivating direct relationships between its journalists and its audience.”

… Justin Smith and Ben Smith surprised the media world early this year when they said they were leaving prominent jobs at Bloomberg Media and The New York Times to start a global news organization, Semafor. They said it would tackle the lack of trust in media and compete for English-language readers against outlets like CNN, The Times and The Washington Post.

The coverage is set to start this fall, they said in a recent interview, with a staff of about 30 journalists based in London, New York and Washington, D.C., and another international location, either in Africa or the Middle East. The operations will initially be supported by around $25 million from investors, with early revenue coming from advertising and live events. They plan to eventually charge for subscriptions. They hired Rachel Oppenheim, an advertising executive at The Times, to be the company’s chief revenue officer.

The money to get started comes from a variety of wealthy people, including the crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabe; Jessica Lessin, the founder of The Information; David G. Bradley, chairman emeritus of The Atlantic; and John Thornton, co-founder of the American Journalism Project and The Texas Tribune. Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire founder of Bloomberg L.P., was pitched but decided not to invest.

Justin Smith, who had been the chief executive of Bloomberg Media, said Semafor’s decision to seek money from wealthy individuals rather than venture firms was a sign that the founders were not looking to cash out anytime soon. In the interview, he said that he and Ben Smith, who was a media columnist at The Times, wanted to leave behind a news organization that would last for generations. Both have committed to work on the project for at least 10 years…

“I think the business model conditions for global news media are better in 2022 than they’ve ever been since before the internet arrived,” Justin Smith said, “and it has to do with the ubiquitous broad adoption of subscriptions and the loosening grip of tech platforms on global ad markets.”…

Sounds like a high-dollar SubStack, only with celebrity ‘professionals’ to do the ghostwriting for its sponsors:

… Reporter bylines will be sized similarly to headlines, part of an effort to cultivate direct relationships between Semafor’s journalists and its audience. Employees will be encouraged to offer their own perspective on social media “in a fair, analytical way,” said Ben Smith.

He said the company aimed to have a different relationship with its reporters than other newsrooms, including by ensuring that journalists receive “all or most” of the financial upside of their intellectual property, such as book deals or movie rights…

Wonder if Tucker Carlson pitched in a token few hundred thousands, as a good-faith investment. Maybe he just put it on his Fox company expense account, under ‘publicity’?

Punchbowl News, when Politico isn’t *quite* enough like Tiger-Beat-on-the-Potomac:

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    guachi

    Nothing like a nice Anne Laurie post getting stomped on in less than a minute.

    The 1/6 Committee has done a great job using whatever non-Democratic sources they can to make their case – Republicans, British filmmakers, Capitol Police – and it’s made it very hard for Republicans to mount an effective counterattack.

  2. 2.

    schrodingers_cat

    That Trump is a racist is news to our media betters tells you all that you need to know about them. They have been asleep at the switch and complicit.

    My friend’s son knew it when the Orange One came down that escalator and announced his candidacy.  He was only 12 then.

  3. 3.

    The Oracle of Solace

    It’s a source of endless frustration that the people who are paid Big Money to explain politics to the nation either don’t know anything or won’t explain anything. I’ve only made fifty bucks off my explanations and I feel like I do a better job than these millionaires. But then, of course, if I were a millionaire, I might be trying to defend my class interests by pretending everything is fine. I don’t know, but I would be willing to find out, for science. I need to find a billionaire willing to shovel money at me so we can measure when it changes me!

  4. 4.

    Joe Falco

    Cartoonist Matt Bors would often draw a strip that satirized the mainstream media Sunday pundit shows with a cast of characters sitting in the roundtable discussion that included a literal American nazi in a nice suit with swastika armband. It’s not too far off from what this latest “news” venture will be. Better see if one of the backers also have more direct financial ties to the Kremlin as Adam had talked about in his nightly post. Russia may want to start over after burning its foreign Russia Today outposts to the ground.

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    @schrodingers_cat:

    That Trump is a racist is news to our media betters tells you all that you need to know about them. They have been asleep at the switch and complicit.

    Ain’t that the truth! Fuckin’ garbage, boot-licking stenographers.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Both have committed to work on the project for at least 10 years…

    (stifles guffaw) Yeah, right. CNN+ lasted what, 10 minutes?

  9. 9.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Related, does anyone have opinions about News Nation? They brand themselves as being a straight news network

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    We are not well served by these courtesans. Who depend on the king’s favor, or their masters’.

  12. 12.

    kalakal

    To misquote Humbert Wolfe

    “You cannot hope
    to bribe or twist,
    thank God! the
    British US journalist.
    But, seeing what
    the man will do
    unbribed, there’s
    no occasion to”

  13. 13.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jackie:

    I haven’t yet. Though them being owned by Nexstar doesn’t fill me with confidence. A local TV station is owned by them and often presents a conservative slant in their local news coverage

    Edit:

    Found this: Variety article from last year:

    Nexstar’s NewsNation channel is in turmoil as it faces staff defections amid concerns that the outlet is being pushed by management to lean to the right in its news coverage.

    The simmering controversy for the channel previously known as WGN America gained steam on Tuesday when Nexstar confirmed that Jennifer Lyons, the WGN-TV Chicago news veteran who led the launch of the primetime “NewsNation” block last September, has resigned her post as VP of news. That follows several lower-level departures last week that appear to have been prompted by concerns that former Fox News executive Bill Shine is leading a charge to steer the channel to the right. Shine is a consultant to Nexstar and NewsNation but does not have a formal role at the company.

    [..]

    (Nexstar founder-CEO) Sook told staffers that the goal from the start was to produce a telecast that reflects centrist views. As such, NewsNation would naturally lean more to the right than other mainstream news outlets because, in Sook’s view, the political perspectives of journalists in most newsrooms lean to the left. Sook’s affirmation of Nexstar’s commitment to news is notable given the low viewership.

    That last paragraph tells you all you need to know, thinking the newsrooms of major mainstream news is “left-leaning” is lmao worthy

  22. 22.

    Benw

    My breaking point was the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The media coverage of a uniquely successful operation presented as a total failure with no context was galling.

  28. 28.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    That last paragraph tells you all you need to know, thinking the newsrooms of major mainstream news is “left-leaning” is lmao worthy

    The tell is how hard they promote themselves as “unbiased U.S. news & video delivered from the heartland of America.” and “news that represents the full range of perspectives across the country.”

    Nope, no dog whistles there, no siree.

  29. 29.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As MMMM said, cats “chatter” when frustrated looking at something  – usually an indoor cat looking at a bird outside.  They want to get out and chase it and can’t.  Hence, frustration.

  32. 32.

    phdesmond

    this was interesting to read elsewhere:

    Speaking to the Texas Senate, the state’s Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw said Ruben Ruiz had known his wife, Eva Mireles, had been injured by the gunman but that he was forcibly moved away from the classroom in which she was trapped. “We got an officer whose wife called him and said she’d been shot and she’s dying,” McCraw said. “He tried to move forward into the hallway. He was detained, and they took his gun away from him and escorted him off the scene.”

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    How do you like that K[3/4]80 keyboard? Been thinking about getting one and using it with tablet or even cell phone for travel and leaving the notebook computer at home. Lightening the load. But I want something I can type reasonably fast on.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    A Delaware judge on Tuesday rejected a motion by the parent of Fox News Network to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems Inc’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over the network’s 2020 presidential election coverage.

    Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who last December said Dominion could sue Fox News Network, said the voting machine company can also sue Fox Corp (FOXA.O) on a theory it was directly liable for statements on the network.
    [snip]
    “Dominion has adequately pleaded actual malice with respect to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch,” the judge wrote.
    [snip]
    Smartmatic, another voting machine company, is also seeking billions of dollars in damages from Fox and various Trump allies it has accused of defamation. Source

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    Legal proceedings take a long time. I’d almost forgotten about the Dominion/Smartmatic defamation suits. I hope Powell and Ghoulini are taken to the cleaners too

  38. 38.

    piratedan

    man…. I wonder what tomorrow’s hearing will bring (other than how Trump hollowed out the DOJ, with the assistance of Barr).

    just running in my head the laundry list of likely GOP politicians that are on my own personal sedition list… will appreciate any arguments for or against…

    would likely be guilty as hell – Hawley, Cruz, McConnell, Grassley, Johnson, Paul, Lee, Scott and Tuberville from the Senate…
    Could be on the short list…. Blackburn, Lummis, Cassidy, Kennedy, Cornyn, Graham and Collins

    In the House….. Cawthorn, Brooks, Biggs, Gosar, Gohmert, Greene, McCarthy, Jordan, Roy, Laudermilk, Nunez, Banks and Stefanik all come to mind…

    Just speculating on who was either involved or likely knew what was going to happen… and I would not be shocked if my list is short by a few folks as well.

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @James E Powell:

    I’m having flashbacks to the hours long coverage of an empty podium, waiting for Trump to speak alone. CNN etc gave Trump billions in free advertising

  44. 44.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    I have a personal rant…

    So we were going to do Father’s Day dinner with the kid last Sat night, but she was going to a baby shower that afternoon and suggested we postpone it to the next day we both weren’t working so we’d have more time together.  So, we scheduled it for this Sunday.  She asked if she could bring her boyfriend along and I agreed, since we’d not meet him and she’s getting serious about their relationship.  So, last Saturday, I visit madame and she has a lady there who madame introduces me to and then on the way out the door tells me she’s invited her to join us on Sunday along with a guy we’ve known for about 20 years.  So on Monday, we’re talking about where to go for dinner, and she wants to go out, I say that I’m uncomfortable with going out(I mask at work all the time, and it can be quite uncomfortable).

    I’m not happy about any of this, either going to a restaurant, even though we may eat outside or with additional guest who I was not even asked if it would be OK to join us.  I guess I’ll show and walk home when they go to dinner.

  46. 46.

    patrick II

    Stringer Bell: Is you takin’ notes on a fuckin’ criminal conspiracy?
    Trump: No, I’m going to have a British guy take a video.

  47. 47.

    Basilisc

    Two bureaus in the US, and no bureau in Asia? I guess 4.5 billion people, including the world’s most dynamic economies and two rising powers who are not exactly at peace with their neighbors, don’t seem likely to generate what these guys consider “news”. Or not likely enough to give up their kids’ places in top NY private schools.

  48. 48.

    opiejeanne

    @ BillinGlendaleCA:  We had a Father’s Day get-together on Sunday, and this evening our son tested positive for Covid. His wife took him to the ER because he was so sick and had a fever over 100, and all of the other symptoms. He tested negative at home but the doctor told him that there’s a strain that is not detected by the home tests, so yay. Fun.

    This means that everyone who was here on Sunday has been exposed. I let everyone know this evening.

    He couldn’t get a prescription for Paxlovid at the ER for some reason. He has to find a personal doctor in order to get a prescription; he doesn’t have one yet because he just moved to the area in late January and hasn’t been able to take time off to get one, until now.

  49. 49.

    Emerald

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): And while they focused on that empty podium, often they’d have a little square in the lower right-hand corner with Hillary actually speaking, but without audio. No doubt they saw that as equal coverage. I’ve rarely turned on CNN since.

    If we lose our democracy, it’ll be entirely the fault of the media.

  52. 52.

    Dan B

    @phdesmond: Horrifying to read.  Her husband was kept from her in her dying moments.  His testimony at trial about the emotional trauma will be devastating.

  54. 54.

    Dan B

    @opiejeanne: Terrible news and the bureaucratic malfeasance of the American Healthcare system.  We’re with Kaiser and they find ways to take care of emergencies.  I believe it’s from its origins as patient owned Group Health.

    Raise holy hell!  Call TV reporters.  It’s a story about bureaucracy versus a vulnerable individual.  If someone can cry on camera at the hospital while an administrator is on the phone with a pushy reporter the earth and heavens will move

    You may have to wait until 5 or 6 AM for the morning commute time reporters.

  59. 59.

    raven

    @Baud: It just dawned on me that, when the boss lady picked me up, I hit a bunch of here iced coffee. I know there is no scientific basis but it ALWAYS wire me! That and the steroid may have done it. I just walked Artie and shot the breeze with a neighbor and the weakness is still there but the discomfort I’ve felt standing for a period of time is less. That good!

  61. 61.

    Jeffery

    I would be nice if the GOP base actually cared about the republic. They don’t. Their interests come first. If that means doing away with the current form of government it’s OK with them.

    It isn’t like this is new position. They have never liked having anyone else having a say in how things should be run.

    If and when they do get control again they will never let go.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @ BillinGlendaleCA: Happy Father’s Day!

    Oh, you thought that Father’s Day was going to be about you?  Just because you are the father???

    Thoughtless people are thoughtless.  It’s too bad they are being that way on the day that’s supposed to be for you.

  63. 63.

    J R in WV

    @Benw: ​
     

    My breaking point was the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The media coverage of a uniquely successful operation presented as a total failure with no context was galling.

    Yes, this.

    Plus Biden was following in the wake of a diplomatic agreement reached by the previous administration, not breaking new ground on his own.

    I was impressed by the speed and efficiency of the operation, personally. But the Mass Media needed for some reason to show the crowd of desperate would be refugees clinging to the outside of a huge aircraft repeatedly. For some reason.

  66. 66.

    Brachiator

    @ BillinGlendaleCA:

    I’m not happy about any of this, either going to a restaurant, even though we may eat outside or with additional guest who I was not even asked if it would be OK to join us.  I guess I’ll show and walk home when they go to dinner.

    Have you and your family gone out less because of Covid? Could it be that the people involved want an opportunity to socialize?

    Since your daughter wants to bring her special guy, it might be good to try to be accommodating.

    Belated Happy Father’s Day.

  72. 72.

    J R in WV

    @Baud:

    Yeah, I can’t drink coffee after noon or I’ll be up all night.

    I, on the other hand, can take a nice nap after finishing my morning coffee, after a good night’s sleep. Love sleeping. Was never into naps until the plague, when they became a valuable hobby…

Comments are closed.