We complain about U.S. media organizations’ shitty political coverage a lot around here, and with damn good reason. Hardworking, underpaid reporters toiling at local dailies still expose corruption and bring relevant facts to light for voters, as do similarly motivated national players like ProPublica.
But with few exceptions, the multimillionaire celebrity TV journos are hacks, and horserace-obsessed outlets like Politico and Axios trivialize issues with life-or-death stakes because in reality, their job is to sell space to people angling for government contracts.
This isn’t new, but a more recent scourge is politics desk reporters building personal brands on social media and squirreling away stories gleaned from assignments to repackage in books. That’s not exactly new either, but it seemed to reach a grotesque nadir (as so many things did!) after the 2016 election.
Some political reporters aired their mommy issues in dissecting Clinton’s campaign while others monetized access to Trump, both repugnant spectacles. But according to this piece by David Graham in The Atlantic, that era may be coming to a close because of Joe Biden and Elon Musk, who the author says are respectively helping to “kill the demand and the means for journalists to brand themselves.”
Donald Trump isn’t responsible for the celebrification of the press, but he supercharged it, especially in political journalism. During his presidency, the American public was more fixated on the news than it had been in decades. Journalists, in turn, became celebrities in their own right: Maggie Haberman of The New York Times became a household name thanks to her perpetual stream of Trump scoops. CNN’s Jim Acosta’s press-room grandstanding elevated his renown. The TV-retread Tucker Carlson found his moment as Trump’s greatest media apostle. Books about Trump seemed to shoot up the best-seller lists on a weekly basis.
This has all slowed to a crawl in the Biden era. The president has intentionally pursued a strategy of being boring and normal, and the result is much-reduced attention from the press. It’s hard to think of any reporter who has become a new, massive star since 2021. No Biden-book boom has ensued. Readership at news sites dropped after the 2020 election, and so have TV-news audiences. The calmer mood reverses an infamous tweet: The change is good for our country, but this is dull content.
Musk’s purchase and gradual demolition of Twitter is an even bigger part of the equation. Twitter was a branding machine that allowed reporters to make a direct connection with consumers. A clever or funny or piquant or simply hyperactive journalist could bypass the traditional gatekeepers of their outlet and become famous for something other than—or in addition to—whatever appeared under their byline. Now Twitter is disintegrating for reasons of both ideology and technology.
Graham believes Twitter will eventually collapse (at least as a de facto “town square”) under the weight of its owner’s penchant for rightwing trolling and technical/managerial flailing. Instead of its journo userbase and, critically, those users’ audiences reconstituting on a successor platform, Graham thinks we’ll see “a much more fragmented landscape.”
I don’t know if he’s right. But if a combination of Biden’s aversion to drama and Musk’s world-historical business incompetence puts a dent in the Beltway branding scam and diminishes direct-to-consumer sales of recycled reportage, who knows, maybe the hacks will do their damn jobs or leave so someone else can. If so, it might be the best thing to happen to political coverage since the invention of movable type.
Open thread.
Baud
I’d like to think that if I already wasn’t a yellow dog Dem, I’d vote for Biden for this reason alone.
VeniceRiley
Can Elon buy Fox News and kill it? Asking for a country.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud: There’s just so much to love about the man and his administration, but having all the right enemies is icing on the cake!
Miss Bianca
What was that old saw “it’s an ill wind that blows no good” all about…?
(A propos of nothing, the way that particular old saw is phrased always threw me for a loop as a kid. Usually preferred the way I saw the same sentiment expressed in the Little House books, where Ma is often quoted as saying, “There’s no great loss without some small gain.”)
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Occam’s razor and Trump’s razor both tell us to assume that Twitter’s failures are a result of Musk’s narcissistic incompetence, childish behavior, and autocratic tendencies, rather than a crafty secret plan to destroy Twitter on behalf of the international right-wing conspiracy.
Yes, the “genius” is that stoopid.
Ken
Though there are a few who have imploded into a black hole.
different-church-lady
Tool designed for attention hoarding helps people in the attention hoarding biz hoard attention?
No… misses the mark. Tool designed to leverage the attention-hoarding weakness in human psychology transforms and corrodes profession filled with people who were attention-hoarding curious.
It’s no accident that the news biz was the first to embrace Twitter, nor that Trump was Twitter’s greatest beneficiary.
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@Miss Bianca: From an old Danny Kaye song:
”And an oboe, be it clearly understood,
Is an ill wind that no one blows good.”
different-church-lady
@VeniceRiley: He doesn’t have to buy Fox. It’s already fascist.
sdhays
I’m convinced that Twitter will die – it has a terminal illness which might be treatable, but the treatment (kicking Musk out and going substantially back to the way things were pre-Musk) is incredibly unlikely to happen, and definitely not before it’s too late. I don’t know when “too late” is, but I suspect we won’t know until we’ve already passed it.
But, there does seem to be a demand for a Twitter-like “town square” platform, so it seems likely that it will be replaced in some fashion. I wouldn’t write off the celebrification of the news media so quickly, unfortunately.
MattF
‘Fragmented’ social media sounds right. Twitter is (for me) still good for daily complaining about the NYT Spelling Bee game, but is only marginally useful now for Ukraine news. Mastodon is good for a dose of math, via mathstodon.xyz, and maybe Ukraine. If or when Threads supports the ActivityPub protocol, I can see using that to follow specific stuff, rather than Instagram (or Mastodon). Maybe.
different-church-lady
@sdhays: First as tragedy…
Butch
The news business in general depresses me. The evening news and cable in general have come to sound like chipmunks chattering at each other; I can’t watch either.
bbleh
I think Graham is right on both counts. And the fragmentation worries me a little bit, because information sources are already so badly fragmented that they’re not so much information sources as echo chambers. You almost have to make a serious effort to get out of the bubble of people who think like you do. That seems … ungood for a democracy.
Tim Curtin
Shining a spotlight on an access-journalist court scrivener like Haberman but not on an investigative-journalist like Farenthold at the Post leaves out an important aspect of the story: Biden would be boring even if he were, like Trump, addicted to gossiping with reporters and seeing his name in print. Because he isn’t running a criminal enterprise from the Oval Office, the Farenthold types have nothing to write about there, either.
Baud
@bbleh:
I don’t know. Having everyone in one place could be viewed as causing the current fascination people have with extreme behaviors and viewpoints — sort of a digital rubbernecking. I’m not convinced a little fragmentation isn’t better for the non-right.
Bupalos
@Tim Curtin: There is plenty to write about. It just isn’t the kind of thing that can compete with the rest of the hyperactive entertainment universe.
dmsilev
I’ll be interested to see what Meta does. Right now, their Twitter clone is app-only, and doesn’t have one of Twitter’s big selling points, the ease of sharing and embedding Tweets all over the web. Yes, Instagram has a big reach, but not that big. Of course, Musk might decide to kill off embedding Because Reasons, so who really knows.
Amir Khalid
My own, ex-journo’s take on it: every reporter should strive to be as credible and unbiased as humanly possible. That is difficult enough as it is, and
somemany don’t even try. How many times have we read some reporter’s book about their beat, and wondered how much of the juicier stuff was held from their daily reporting — thus shortchanging us all as news consumers?Striving for personal fame/celebrity has nothing to do with bringing the news the public. Anything or anyone like Joe Biden who doesn’t encourage journos’ fame-seeking is doing the public a service.
Jeffro
One of many reasons we owe Uncle Joe a debt we can never repay…
bbleh
@Baud: I’m thinking not of a uniformity of opinion so much as a uniformity of information available to each person, i.e. a sharp narrowing of awareness. I think fragmentation can lead to people becoming increasingly unaware of opinions different from their own or of information that might cause them to question those opinions. It’s like a world with a lot of different languages and no translators. I’m all for diversity of opinion, as long as people are generally aware of opinions that differ from their own.
Anyway
Meh. I can’t grok a universe in which MagaHabs is considered a “celebrity” and her writing is considered “Scoops” – words have no meaning.
Michael Bersin
This couldn’t happen to more deserving people.
Sure Lurkalot
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
I’m not unconvinced that Musk is/was trying to cram down his hapless lenders. If he can buy back the debt for pennies on the dollar, it may cut his losses enough to keep the cesspool he’s made as his personal, albeit still expensive, plaything.
But it’s hard not to agree that this whole episode has shown this would be emperor has no clothes.
Amir Khalid
@Anyway:
A meagre celebrity is generally all we journos can realistically hope for. Yet not a single one of us doesn’t dream of writing their own All The President’s Men.
waspuppet
She became a household name because she was on CNN about 17 hours a day. It wasn’t like a weather pattern. Someone did that. And for all the “access” she had, she had remarkably few scoops.
ETA: Not coincidentally, she and her bosses want Trump back so bad. So, so bad.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I could be misremembering, but ISTR that there were very few gossipy insider accounts about the Obama administration, compared not only to trump but Bush II and maybe even Clinton. I think even Bob “Norma Desmond” Woodward’s books didn’t sell very well compared to his previous stuff.
Michael Bersin
One of these days, maybe even if I write a book, or if I get a few beers in me, I’ll share the minute details about one of my somewhat distant encounters with a now disgraced national media wunderkind currently slumming at lunatic fringe right wingnut outlets.
Many years ago.
Let’s just say I was standing at the back of the main photography riser at a national campaign event when I noticed the wunderkind in question sitting at a press table ten or so feet directly below my position. I had a full frame camera with a 70-200 mm lens and assorted other attachments. Let’s say it was 4 1/2 pounds. The thought ever so briefly crossed my mind, but losing $5,000 or $6,000 in gear just wasn’t worth it…
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I don’t know what Elmo wants to do with Twitter – destroy it, make money with it, use it to feed his ego, transform it into some mythical be-all, end-all app with himself governing it all – but whatever his goal is, I’m convinced things aren’t going according to plan. If he was intending to destroy Twitter, he’d be going about it in a way that didn’t shred his vaunted reputation in the process.
Jackie
Missouri is having a party this weekend!
“A southwest Missouri town is the site of a gathering this weekend that organizers say will honor and raise money for those charged in Capitol riot cases.”
“Called the J6 Truth and Light Freedom Festival, the event runs Friday through Sunday in Rogersville and is supposed to feature numerous speakers, live and via Zoom. Some are facing multiple felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and one recently was sentenced to 18 years in prison.”
”“An amazing weekend of love and support for our J6 community!” says a flyer being circulated about the event. “Bring your RV, tent, lawn chairs and the whole family for this annual gathering of the Jan6 community!””
Snip
“The festival is “a closed event only for J6’ers and their families,” the promotional material says. Tickets are $150 for a three-day family pass and $75 for one person. A daily pass is $37.50 per person.”
““Any J6 Defendant previously or currently under indictment is absolutely free!” the material says. “All funds go right back to the J6 Community.””
Snip
“Sponsors of the festival include StopHate.com, J6Truth.org and American Gulag Chronicles, according to the flyer. Listed as “supporters” are J6 Patriot News, Patriot Mail Project, Tommy Tatum News, Freedom Express Media, Mel Hawley of Justice in Jeopardy and Patriots at Large.”
Much, much more at the link:
https://nordot.app/1049710484829258525?c=592622757532812385
Baud
@Jackie:
Haha. They’re so owned by grifters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Michael Bersin: Taibbi?
can we crowd fund you a six pack ?
M31
@Jackie: someone needs to go there and put up some flyers offering free legal advice for J6 perps who haven’t been caught yet, and then send all the info to the FBI tip line
Jackie
@Baud: And so many suckers/losers will think they’re getting a steal of a deal!
Elizabelle
I think it’s interesting this topic has come up in The Atlantic, after Biden himself raised it in the Nicolle Wallace interview on MSNBC.
Deadline:
Joe Biden Laments Reporters Being Pressured To Build Up Their Own “Brand”
I would be interested in Biden’s previous comments on journalism. Does anyone have any sources there?
Ken
@M31: What makes you think the whole thing wasn’t put together by the FBI? “Ah, yes, you’d like a free admission for J6 participants, can I see some ID please…”
Come to think of it, the event may be a huge flop because their potential audience fears a trap.
Chat Noir
I read Carol Leonnig’s book about the US Secret Service a few years back because I was interested in the subject matter. I didn’t care for her writing style but I was even more appalled by the number of typos I found (8). Once I found one, I read the rest of the book with a pen in hand to note them. I listed them at the front and then dropped it in my neighborhood’s community library book depository — someone ended up taking it.
Jackie
@M31: Hmmmm, any Missouri jackals interested? 😉
Ken
Have you not heard of the giant cocaine ring moving million$ through the White House every day?
Paul in KY
@Michael Bersin: If it mushed in his/her head and it was quality equipment, the damage might have been much less that you would have feared.
narya
I’ve been dabbling on Mastodon–I found/followed a handful of people I regularly read on the bird site who had migrated. I haven’t found everyone yet (and not everyone has gone there), but I get enough. It’s possible something else will emerge–I also dabbled with discord and Post–but frankly I get most of what I want here, some podcasts, and a handful still on the bird site. My biggest worry is Jorts the cat, which shows you where my head is (Jorts is still twitter-only).
Anoniminous
@Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:
HA!!!!!!!
Doppio Movimento of Appalachian Spring!!!
CHECKMATE Libtard!!!!
(Doppio Movimento = ‘Simple Gifts’)
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: There are many ‘reporters’ I would love to brand….
JoyceH
Biden is boring? I find him a tragically heroic figure. Here’s this guy, late 70s, he’s retired! Had a long and distinguished career and now he can rest and hang with the grandkids. But he comes out of retirement to basically save democracy – and succeeded, at least for now. And now he’s got the job and there he is — in the office he always dreamed of for his dead son Beau. How can that be boring?
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Graham refers to that conversation between Biden and Wallace in The Atlantic piece, so it’s not coincidental. Your quote above is a bit more extensive that Graham’s, I think, but it captured the gist. I can’t recall hearing Biden talk about the issue before, but I bet he has.
Chris
If nothing else, I think the spectacle of Joe Biden and how the media’s treated him should wipe away any illusion Democratic officeholders have about the media not being their enemy.
Because look: Joe Biden is an affable old white guy, with a lifetime of experience in Official Washington getting to know all the people at all the dinner parties pundits love to go to, who’s been careful never to fly too close to what was perceived as the extreme left of the party, and generally looks and acts the part of the East Coast establishment politician that the media loves. If the media was going to love or at least go easy on any Democrat, it was going to be him. And instead they declared total war on him basically as soon as he got out the gate and have been waging a scorched-earth campaign for two years to a degree that they normally never do unless it’s a presidential election year.
It’s as good an advertisement as you can hope for for the fact that, fuck it, no, no Democratic president will ever get a fair shake out of the mainstream media, and trying to make them happy is a complete waste of time. All elected Democrats should notice this; Biden certainly has, and it shows in the press conferences.
Ruckus
@Butch:
The general news business is selling the equivalent that is the sound of toilet paper. On the whole it has a primary use, but after that it’s job is to make money for someone(s). News broadcasting/printing is a business like any other, it exists to make money for the owners, and while it’s often important, it also often exists solely to make money. No one needs 24 hr news in this day and age or any other age. What 24 hr news does is make the world a sellable item. And I’d bet that if you measured it on any news station the majority of the time is commercials, which often do not sound very much like commercials. One can go weeks without listening to the news and your life is changed only for the better. When TV started they did a 1/2 hr of news, then 1 hr then 3 then 24 hrs. It is a sellable product that if you don’t watch you don’t miss anything actually necessary. It can be interesting, informative and is easily forgettable. Or easily addicting.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Cattle or lemmings? You make the call!
different-church-lady
I’m going to go unorthodox here: it was worth having a lot of news about Trump, because he was a unique danger to the country. The problem wasn’t the quantity of the news — the quality very much was.
trollhattan
@Chris: The nail, you have hit it. It gets well beyond “love of the horse race” to a baked in conclusion that Dems are boring and love big gummint while Republicans are flawed but fascinating reformers.
Soprano2
@Jackie: *facepalm* Why does my part of the world only make the news for awful things? So far there’s nothing in the local rag about this, and I don’t even remember them having it last year. Maybe it doesn’t draw that many people.
Anonymous At Work
“‘Tis consummation devoutly to be wished.”
Original Overly-Dramatic Emo-Boy, Denmark
rikyrah
@JoyceH:
Yes, he is and thank goodness.
When I can’t sleep at night, it’s not because I am worried about what the President might tweet in the middle of the night.
Anoniminous
@Anonymous At Work:
“Tis that a dagger I see before me or merely art thou happy to see me?”
(A line usually cut from Hamlet )
trollhattan
@rikyrah: For four years the phrase “Today, the president…” was enough to send my pulse northward by a good 40 BPM. Enough of that mess.
Hoodie
@Elizabelle: A lot of this is probably the result of the radical downsizing of personnel and the unrelenting drive to grab eyeballs that comes down from management, which is typically corporate/private equity. My friend, a newspaper editor for years, was reassigned from editor to reporter after they laid off most of the reporting staff. Now he acts as a reporter and quasi editor across multiple outlets. They are graded on how many clicks their headlines generate. Reporters are desperate to brand themselves because there is zero job security in the business.
Tim Curtin
@Ken: I really feel like the raw thirst coming from the right-adjacent mainstream there is reinforcing the overall point – they’re desperate to stop covering policy. They know they’re bad at it and there’s only us weirdos demanding it in the first place.
FWIW, whatever SS agent dropped his stash, I hope this is the wake-up call for that middle aged white male Trumpist to get the help he needs to kick that monkey off his back for good!
trollhattan
@Jackie: “Our J6 community”? The hell, you say.
“Hey, guy who took a dump on the Capitol floor, come on down and collect your defense money!”
I’m assuming this is in the Ozarks without lifting a finger to find out.
Brachiator
Could they really? How often did any reporter post something on Twitter that contradicted or defied what they produced for their editors and publishers?
And the larger issue still is that newspapers are dying and news sites are shutting down. Reporters are not going to be posting anything on Twitter or its successors if they cannot earn a living.
CBS Sunday Morning recently had an interesting piece on South Carolina newspapers struggling to survive.
And of course another threat to journalism is right wing plutocrats buying up news organizations.
different-church-lady
@JoyceH: Look this Merchant-Ivory shit just ain’t gonna compete against Jackass.
rikyrah
@Chris:
I know that’s right
Mai Naem mobileI
@Michael Bersin: you’re going to just leave us hanging like that? You’re carefully not mentioning gender which makes me think its female. My guess was Lara Logan but she’s not at Newsmax anymore but maybe you’re not aware of that?
rikyrah
Because, to cover policy, would to be forcing them to do actual WORK and ANALYSIS that doesn’t involve BOTH SIDES.
Have said it repeatedly – they resent the COMPETENCE of 46 and his Administration.
Anoniminous
With ChatGPT 4 (& also et.al.) coming on the scene print reporters will soon go the way of buggy whips. They’ll still be some around in niche markets like buggy whips, i.e., Amish still buy ’em. The majority are technologically surplus to requirement since the Large Language Models can spew Word Salad & Bullshit just as well, if not better, than your standard reporter and they can do it at the speed of electrons and the owners only need to pay the electricity and internet bills.
different-church-lady
@Anoniminous: A cutting remark.
Michael Bersin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Definitely Nope.
Beer is good! Bud Light would poetic.
Michael Bersin
@Mai Naem mobileI:
I would never accidentally drop gear on a lady. Then again, I see your point.
schrodingers_cat
@JoyceH: He is boring for our cretinous press. who love themselves the ugly orange toad.
Jeffro
Speaking of the media…we are FINALLY getting some traction and dot-connecting on trump’s increasing attempts at violence and intimidation:
Posting The Obamas’ Home Address…And Leaving It Up Even After a Psycho trumpie Was Arrested In Their Neighborhood With A Machete and Over 400 Rounds…Shows trump Is Ramping Up on the Violence And Intimidation
So let’s see here…since the whole country is so normalized to trump’s erratic, lunatic, violent statements…let’s just picture what would happen if a Democratic ex-president had, just in the past week:
Here’s to more stories about these blatant attempts at intimidation and attempts at inciting violence against his enemies. And hopefully, trump will get so carried away that he’ll get himself arrested for these crimes, too.
Ken
@schrodingers_cat: I have in the past suggested ways to give the White House Press Corps the excitement they want, but people recoiled in horror muttering something about “morality”.
Let me float a different idea. Announce that there will be some long-needed renovations to the briefing room, and unfortunately until these are complete, only one camera crew and six reporters will be able to attend the press briefings. Then let the press sort it out for themselves.
different-church-lady
@Michael Bersin: Never accidentally, eh?
Scout211
In another Musk newsy failson company: (probably old news to you New Yorkers, but news to me).
New York State Built Elon Musk a $1 Billion Factory. ‘It Was a Bad Deal.’
davecb
@Chris:
In Canada there are two newspaper chains and a few major independents.
The Globe and Mail is the paper of record, is independent, and is a formal supporter of the Conservative party.
The National Post and its papers is a chain explicitly brought into being to support a rightward movement of the Conservative party.
The Toronto Star is independent, owns some other papers, and usually supports the Liberal and occasionally New Democratic parties. Its new owners are avowedly Conservative, and are in negotiation to sell it to the National Post chain.
And the Globe notes that Canadian papers are not nearly as right-wing as American papers.
I’m not surprised one of your very best Presidents is not getting a fair shake.
Betty Cracker
@Hoodie: & @Brachiator: Y’all bring up an important issue, i.e., the vulture capitalists hollowing out local newspapers. I can see where there might be some points of intersection on this topic, like local reporters maintaining a Twitter presence so people in their communities can follow breaking news through their feed.
That said, I think the politics desk at The Times, etc., is a different animal altogether. For one thing, their jobs aren’t in danger, and they are building and monetizing national brands.
different-church-lady
@Scout211: c’mon, that’s clearly a kind of genius…
jeffreyw
@Ruckus: I remember TV news being 15 minutes, expanding to 30 when they tacked on the weather. It was a big deal when the PBS Newshour debuted.
Chris
@trollhattan:
2016 permanently killed any lingering thoughts I might have had that the media was driven by such shallow things as “the horse race” or other non-partisan issues.
If you hand people a profile of two politicians with the R and D removed, and one of them has scandals involving sex, drugs, and Russian spies, and the other has scandals involving the intricacies of best practices in email server management, there isn’t a talking head in the world that’s going to decide that the second one is the one that’ll get eyeballs. And if there were, their boss would smack them with a flyswatter and put them on unpaid leave for a month until they’d straightened their head out. Butter Emailz wasn’t just false on the merits, it flew in the face of every eyeball-grabbing instinct in journalism, and it took a gigantic lift to make that the scandal of 2016. It really isn’t explainable as anything but the media being a partisan actor, whatever the exact reasons for it.
FelonyGovt
@JoyceH: “Boring” means every day isn’t a steady stream of OMG WTF did that orange racist moron do/say/tweet today?
I like boring.
Michael Bersin
@different-church-lady:
The gear is just too expensive. You know, photographers generally just get crumbs and scraps when it comes to remuneration.
Chris
@davecb:
And you don’t even have Rupert Murdoch!
To be honest, I prefer your setup, at least as you describe it. A “newspaper of record” that formally bills itself as supporting the Conservative Party is a hell of a lot more honest than the New York Times is, where they’ve officially endorsed every Democratic presidential candidate from JFK onwards, but in practice spend pretty much the entire campaign season treating Democratic campaigns like free fire zones while burying anything that might cast shade on the Republican opponent.
different-church-lady
@Michael Bersin: So, say you had a budget and funding…
trollhattan
@Scout211:
“Solyndra!”
[drink]
Also sounds like Scott Walker’s Foxcon factory or whatever the hell that mess was. Wonder what happened to that?
Suzanne
Twitter is this self-referential human centipede of content. I followed a Twitter link this morning, clicked on my feed, and saw that Keke Palmer has a boyfriend who complained about her wearing something sexy and dancing up on Usher. Okay, some minor celebrity gossip, whatever, a fun distraction. Then by midday, my Facebook feed was showing me “news” stories writing up this incredibly minor non-issue. Journalists like Twitter not just because they can share with a larger audience, but also because they don’t have to work very hard and they can just report on stupid stuff that happens there.
FelonyGovt
@Jeffro:
My God, I hope the Obamas have good Secret Service protection, and NOT of the Trump-loving kind.
Hoodie
@Betty Cracker: But they are acutely aware of the state of the industry and determined not to lose that privileged perch. Used to be you could make a decent career at a regional paper, but NYT and Wapo and maybe a couple others are about the only game in town because national brands are the only ones that have a chance of surviving.
Baud
@Suzanne:
That process will be more efficient now that Meta has launched Threads.
Ken
Cracked.com is succumbing to the same effect. More and more, their writers aren’t putting in the effort to produce quality researched listicles like “Five Bizarre Ways Eighteenth-Century Popes Died”. Instead they go for a lazy “Twenty of the Best Tweets About SNL’s Latest Rerun”.
Betty Cracker
@Hoodie: I agree the outlook is dire for regional papers, but I don’t know if the demise of Twitter will have much of an effect on that. In my experience, local reporters don’t use the platform the same way the would-be and actual celebrity journalists do.
I also want to be extra clear that I am not dancing on the graves of local/regional papers. They are a necessary pillar of self-government, and their decline imperils democracy. If it were up to me, every taxpayer dime that subsidizes extraction industries would be redirected to an independent journalism fund.
Another Scott
I wonder if part of Z’s quick push of Threads out the door is related to Canada (and maybe others) demanding that the big on-line software house pay publishers for news stories.
Have all the reporters run to Threads with their breaking news stuff, repackage the stuff as MetaNews/GNews, and make the publishers pay them instead to push it out to their users.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@jeffreyw
Much as Huntley had his Brinkley, MacNeil had his Lehrer.
;)
Jeffro
LOVE IT
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t understand why this myth persists. Newspapers have died and are dying because their business model, display and classified advertising, evaporated. And people want free media on the Internet.
Again, reporters can’t exist as volunteer freelance journalists. And if Twitter dies, which is likely, another news outlet will also die.
The Times and WaPo are trying to become national media, I guess like USA Today. But WaPo was rescued by Jeff Bezos’ deep pockets. USA Today is losing steam. The Times might last for a while, but can democracy thrive if there is only one national newspaper?
ETA. Do people here still subscribe to their local paper? Or even to a regional paper?
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: It’s not a myth that venture capital firms are purchasing and hollowing out local papers. You pointed out the collapse of the business model that preceded their predation, but your calling what is an easily verifiable fact about the current state of affairs a myth, etc., makes me reluctant to waste any more time on your reply. Also, journalist can’t survive as freelance tweeters? You don’t say! My original instinct appears to have been correct.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Interesting. I don’t know how Threads might work as a counter to the new law, but Meta seems to be considering the nuclear option.
I sympathize with the publishers, and I think that Meta and Google might throw them a bone so that they can continue to provide links to stories. But this still will not save newspapers, especially those which insist on using paywalls.
ETA. Ooh, Twitter is threatening to sue Meta for creating Threads, claiming a misappropriation of trade secrets.
geg6
@Amir Khalid:
This.
My mother, also a reporter, would have said exactly the same.
Jay
@Brachiator:
The Tyee here, while not a print paper, but an online regional paper, does well. They run off the PBS donation/Guardian subscribe model, and do in depth local articles and commentary. (Wokish).
Burnaby Now does okay, 25% human interest, local news, commentary and 75% flier delivery service.
I cancelled my subscription to The Province when they dropped the Sunday Comics and went to a “news blurb” format little better than being on Next Door, and that was 30 years ago.
Ditto for the Vancouver Sun.
Now the only paper you see anybody reading on busses or the train is The Epoch Times.
So which came first, Newspapers becoming unprofitable, or the loss of readership because of a lack of journalism?
In Canada, the answer is simple,
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour KCSG
Baud
@Brachiator:
I hope they settle it with fisticuffs, like gentlemen.
rikyrah
HawaiiDelilah™![]()
(@HawaiiDelilah) tweeted at 1:43 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
Strength in leadership. @matthewjdowd makes a crucial point about Republican voters: they’re looking for strength in leadership, & that’s why Trump has the advantage in that GOP field. He also reminds us that DeSantis’ bigoted ads are effective in the primary (& primary alone).
(https://twitter.com/HawaiiDelilah/status/1677025593765007362?t=05-FsTNVkbqJq7qzI5hwvA&s=03)
geg6
@Chris:
This sounds almost right. Except (and this may be the problem) he wasn’t going to the dinner parties. He was going home to Delaware take care of his motherless children and later to support his working wife and his daughter and sons. He was never one of them and they hate that.
JaneE
Threads has an advantage with the experience of handling millions of users successfully on other social media platforms. How well they will do with Threads may depend on how many Instagrammers are ready to ditch Twitter. I would love to see the Twitter lawsuit. Does Twitter even have people who are capable of knowing if the code was stolen or not?
eclare
@Brachiator:
I subscribe (internet) to my local paper.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Greg Pinelo (@gregpinelo) tweeted at 1:36 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
The Governor of Virginia is taking orders from national right wing media, politicizing public health and weaponizing his office against LGBTQ+ people. Youngkin won because of perfect storm circumstances. He’s 2nd most-overrated GOP pol after DeSantis.
https://t.co/zFIxVk4PBF
(https://twitter.com/gregpinelo/status/1677023668810010653?t=cMmrw_1KbIJu75ySGF381A&s=03)
rikyrah
Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) tweeted at 0:36 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
Today, I am heading to Arizona to visit the Gila River Indian Community to make clear our Administration’s commitment to uphold our trust and treaty obligations, honor Tribal sovereignty, and ensure Tribal self-determination.
(https://twitter.com/VP/status/1677008666598187008?t=TDlef2WGEVfTcRDbj1zCnw&s=03)
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HAH AH A
Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) tweeted at 11:04 AM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
Wow. Watch the moment Fox learned about the new jobs report today. “Big, big, big jump”; “That’s not recessionary at all”; The U.S. economy is “strong.” These are Fox’s words, not mine. And all I have to say is thank you, President Biden. https://t.co/q2WKFLlrL3
(https://twitter.com/Victorshi2020/status/1676985594210136064?t=wusDsViUKZ-CmJrzM7sR_g&s=03)
rikyrah
Qondi (@QondiNtini) tweeted at 1:10 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
I can not stress this enough but for us to reach this goal in 12 years we need 12 years of DEMOCRATIC presidents
(https://twitter.com/QondiNtini/status/1677017087208742941?t=ss5uHL8SdwHBpNoBnWzhlA&s=03)
rikyrah
Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) tweeted at 0:10 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
“If he has your back, he always has your back,” Biden says of @RepJamesClyburn, his longtime ally.
“Our plan is working,” Biden says, of his economic reforms. “Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week became a punchline.” https://t.co/f77q8pC4V9
(https://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP/status/1677002040948535296?t=0Usvy72DcJxMnKlSgrAliw&s=03)
brantl
@Miss Bianca: The saying is “It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good.” The way you’ve heard it is a misquote..
sab
@Brachiator: We subscribe to two locals and one regional.
cain
@narya: Feel free to join some of the jackals – mine is @[email protected] – if you like. From there you could find others.
I honestly get whatever I need from mastodon – and I’ve found new people. It’s especially interesting given that some of you want to get on a social media site and follow a brand as well. I’m dont give a shit about that – whether you’re a CEO or a homeless person, straight, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent whatevs – if you’re writing good stuff I’ll give it a read.
rikyrah
Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) tweeted at 1:29 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
Houston officials have filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas to block a new law, House Bill 2127, which restricts local governments from enacting ordinances that surpass state law. The law is set to take effect on Sept. 1.
https://t.co/7OgvnubiAj
(https://twitter.com/TexasTribune/status/1677021846854574080?t=-_MbL0hQ2MuJYrsTarO5Bg&s=03)
rikyrah
Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) tweeted at 1:20 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
Jan 6 defendant Joshua Johnson of Texas has been sentenced to TWO YEARS in prison. Feds argued Johnson was inside Senate chamber on Jan 6
Feds: “Johnson rifled through documents on a Senator’s desk and recorded video of himself and others in the chamber using his cell phone”
(https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1677019708942344205?t=8SSCQBIrfwyyQJyZ9o0BEQ&s=03)
rikyrah
MARIA TERESA KUMAR![]()
(@MariaTeresa) tweeted at 1:15 PM on Thu, Jul 06, 2023:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed misinformation that COVID vaccines were microchips to control people. That misinformation targeted Spanish speakers at higher rates. @votolatino combatted anti-vaccine info that quite literally killed our community.
His run for president? Hard pass.
(https://twitter.com/MariaTeresa/status/1677018507693916160?t=erP5rJxyn7sZu4jcTX5Mbw&s=03)
zhena gogolia
@geg6: Thank you!
trollhattan
@eclare: We do also, but it’s a sad remnant of what it once was–the flagship McClatchy paper.
They stretched financially to acquire Knight Ridder and then the decline of papers on top the Great Recession did the rest. The former offices covered most of two city blocks and is slated for demo and infill housing.
There’s always Next Door!
rikyrah
Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) tweeted at 9:25 PM on Tue, Jul 04, 2023:
A reminder that Robert F Kennedy Jr is a propagandist chaos agent hired by treasonous felon Steve Bannon and has allied himself with traitors Michael Flynn and Roger Stone. He’s in no way a Democrat.
(https://twitter.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1676416918599913473?t=7tfteXKELUfQD9tEQU4Ulg&s=03
MC
I would like to mention that libs of tik-tok and other far right hate accounts are already on Threads. Same for BlueSky, apparently.
A social media site safe for marginalized people? Impossible!
rikyrah
Miss Aja (@brat2381) tweeted at 8:55 PM on Tue, Jul 04, 2023:
There’s a lot of folks out there about to find out that Affirmative Action was never just for Black Folks.
There wasn’t a single law/bill passed that our grandparents and parents fought and got that only protected us.
Women, 55+, disabled and many more are about to find out![]()
(https://twitter.com/brat2381/status/1676409442848636928?t=unhnMXabne_ImxJ3AwBXbw&s=03)
trollhattan
@rikyrah: He’s got a giant source of wingnut cash now because he can only hurt Biden and will have no impact on Republicans whatsoever. They’ll keep this going until he self-destructs in some spectacular fashion (“something, something, Hitler: good guy!”). We’re in for a long year.
cain
Looks like that cage match might happen after all!
narya
@cain: thanks! I will! I’m @GingerChe
ETA: I’m not really posting though.
geg6
@Brachiator:
We do, but that’s only because my SO insists. For myself, we’ve had an independent online local news outlet that does investigative pieces and really good reporting on local governments. Little of the fluff and none of the ads that our local paper, bought up a few years ago by USAToday, has. I will check out the obits in the paper but for news I go to the Beaver Countian online. I don’t know how he funds it, but it started as a one-man operation and he now has a few employees. But he still does most of the reporting himself. I don’t know why other places don’t have someone like the guy who started the Beaver Countian here.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, hedge funds are buying up many of the remaining profitable newspapers and killing them, but this is only accelerating the death spiral of newspapers and magazines. I don’t know anyone under 35 who has ever subscribed to a newspaper. And I don’t see anyone buying or reading physical newspapers. In my news market, even independent online media is struggling.
I know a number of reporters who were laid off from their old newspapers who still try to freelance. But most of them have had to get jobs outside the industry to pay bills. I don’t know if Patreon and other revenue streams are working for other journalists.
JustRuss
Another reason to appreciate Biden. I can’t think of anyone who’s exceeded my expectations by so much.
NotMax
@rikyrah
“See? Biden so senile and inept he can’t even do a recession right.”
//
rikyrah
Jack Walsh (@JackWaltimore) tweeted at 3:14 PM on Sun, Jul 02, 2023:
If a different person had won in 2020, at least one DHS agency would currently be functioning as federal secret police and our intelligence agencies would be run by political hacks for fascism.
Oh, and the Ukrainian people would be enslaved, if you care.
(https://twitter.com/JackWaltimore/status/1675598909429923840?t=aUTsa-KIix6Jse17BJp5CQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Portia ♍️ 🐳McGonagal portiamcgonagal1619 on Insta (@PortiaMcGonagal) tweeted at 9:17 AM on Mon, Jul 03, 2023:
Funny what happens when you become more diverse and younger people assert themselves.
“Mormonism is in decline, and Democrats are gaining traction with younger church members. There are no easy solutions for the church or the GOP.”
Portia ♍️ 🐳McGonagal portiamcgonagal1619 on Insta (@PortiaMcGonagal) tweeted at 9:21 AM on Mon, Jul 03, 2023:
Maybe when some of the Black and brown colonized adoptees start to assert themselves as they live a different reality from what their very white church has taught them, there’s a cause and effect? Or maybe your kids see the unholy alliance between your church and the GOP? https://t.co/JWvn0fal7w
(https://twitter.com/PortiaMcGonagal/status/1675872276787646464?t=ZuYRoRAO8-R0uo6wiD2nGA&s=03)
JaySinWA
Elon’s mom won’t let him fight.
rikyrah
Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) tweeted at 7:43 PM on Sun, Jul 02, 2023:
Six deputies have been fired from a Mississippi Sheriff’s Office after allegations surfaced that the deputies violently tortured two men for nearly two hours! Details of this investigation MUST be made public! We cannot let these allegations be swept under the rug! https://t.co/7HSLKk5hG0
(https://twitter.com/AttorneyCrump/status/1675666414290751489?t=6qY331Qo-62sNOTun5n9pA&s=03)
rikyrah
Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeemjeffries) tweeted at 4:52 PM on Sat, Jul 01, 2023:
Trump once asked Black Americans what do you have to lose by supporting him?
The extremists he appointed to the Supreme Court have answered the question.
Everything.
(https://twitter.com/hakeemjeffries/status/1675261041909833730?s=02)
JaySinWA
You could do what policemen do, invest in a drop piece. /s
terraformer
what we need is some plucky news enterprise to send out its people as the journalist-equivalent of “the unknown comic”, intentionally wearing a paper bag or some other unidentifiable headgear – and just report the news. Not in it for “the branding” or for “building a brand”. Report the news with context, get popular for focusing on the institution of informing and educating the populace, put the whole “I’m a star” mentality to bed
eclare
@rikyrah:
So true. Also I really appreciate your retweets!
rikyrah
Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) tweeted at 8:43 AM on Sun, Jul 02, 2023:
The worst thing the Supreme Court did last week that you haven’t already read about. SCOTUS left stand Mississippi’s strict felony disenfranchisement provision that was enshrined in the state’s avowedly racist 1890 constitution.
https://t.co/KzMOKXHv7S
(https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1675500549792227334?t=MJX-mvp2p2TQFiwTwF_bHA&s=03)
rikyrah
Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) tweeted at 8:19 AM on Sun, Jul 02, 2023:
Ending Affirmative Action does hurt Asians
People were circulating the @washingtonpost article that said ending Affirmative Action helped Asians
But that is only the case when in substitution they relied on testing and scores. W/ o that Asians saw their numbers drop
Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) tweeted at 8:26 AM on Sun, Jul 02, 2023:
In the Supreme Court case the Students for Fair Admission were suing for a more standardize process in admissions, saying the subjectivity hurts Asians.
The Justices correctly side step their request. In fact, if anything there will be more subjective criteria going forward.
Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) tweeted at 8:31 AM on Sun, Jul 02, 2023:
They ignored this request probably:
1. Asian acceptance at elite universities were well above the population at 25 to 35%
2.,Colleges do have an interesting in looking at the whole student
What makes Harvard the school of presidents is seeing factors other than scores
(https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1675497386804740096?t=ri64uUPLXfjrAz1UbBSW2A&s=03)
Geminid
I’m sure everyone has been on tenterhooks over today’s meeting in Brussels between the Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Finland and Turkiye, so here’s the scoop: there was no agreement as to Sweden’s NATO membership.
This is no surprise. Turkish FM Hakan Fidan is one of President Erdogan’s most trusted associates, but this is a decision reserved for the boss.
So now Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson and Erdogan will meet on Monday in Vilnius, Latvia on the eve of the NATO summit. Something for Mr. Kristersson to look forward to over the weekend!
Suzanne
@rikyrah: So, having grown up in Mesa, AZ, which is the second-largest LDS community in the world after Salt Lake City…… I have seen dozens of my friends and classmates fall away from the LDS Church. The major themes: some of them are gay or are at least not-anti-gay and that causes strife. My friend’s dad was subjected to “Church discipline” for saying that people who profess to be all about family shouldn’t disown their gay kids. Other themes: plenty of them have doubts about the veracity of the Church’s founding and rites (which are shrouded in much secrecy), and there are now active ex-Mormon communities online that pull the lid off. Also: strict gender roles (women stay home!) and culturally large families are intersecting with economic reality.
LMAO, I remember when we first moved to Mesa, and classmates asked me if I went to church. I said that, yes, we went to church, and that we were in the process of trying different churches in the area until we found the one we liked. Their minds were BLOWN….. pick a church?!?!
Brachiator
@Jay:
@eclare:
@sab:
@geg6:
Thanks for the info on your local news providers.
I started subscribing to the Los Angeles Times again after the 2016 election.
Not too long ago, the paper was bought by a billionaire godfather, who moved the paper out of downtown and relocated to El Segundo.
The paper is still losing money and has laid off staff. I don’t think that the paper can last more than another five years.
ETA. At one time, based on advertising revenue, the Times was the most profitable newspaper in the United States. Their home delivery base was more than 800,000 subscribers and street sales pushed total circulation to more than a million copies.
Kathleen
@JoyceH: That story doesn’t resonate with soulless narcissists who lack empathy and who see their jobs as framing their subjects as characters in their own mommy and daddy psychodramas. Their obsession with Joe showing love and respect for his family has me wondering what kind of childhoods they had.
VFX Lurker
I have a subscription to the Los Angeles Times, which I read daily. It gives good coverage of California and the Los Angeles area.
Thinking of letting my Washington Post subscription self-cancel after my Amazon subscription vanishes later this year. If I wanted to keep it, I’d have to subscribe to the Post directly. I can read it for free with my library card, so I only kept my heavily-discounted Amazon subscription out of habit.
Kathleen
@Chris: Great comment.
rikyrah
Daric L. Cottingham, M.A. (@DaricCott) tweeted at 10:41 AM on Fri, Jun 30, 2023:
What’s wild is college use to be free in U.S. especially public state schools, until they stopped only admitting white students. Race plays a factor in systemic oppression no matter how much folks pretend it doesn’t.
(https://twitter.com/DaricCott/status/1674805456643182594?t=hPFphRkOAOGKzFbo-MCzlA&s=03)
Ruckus
@Hoodie:
Quality after profit.
Modern business in 3 words.
Kathleen
@Anoniminous: I’m starting to think that was the point of the pixel puke that’s recycled by every damned outlet online, cable and broadcast. No one will be able to tell when they fire the high paid personnel and replace them with AI. One of the points, anyway. The rest is need for propaganda and lazy reporters.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
And of course another threat to journalism is right wing plutocrats buying up news organizations.
I believe it is threat #1 to journalism.
Normal humans don’t seem to want the government/country that right wing, white, wealthy conservatives want because it fucks normal humans every which way from Sunday.
Michael Bersin
@different-church-lady:
In 2019 I had the time, and probably the funds, but I’m getting too old for this $#^%, so I didn’t sign on to cover Kamala Harris’ entire bus tour across Iowa as one of the great unwashed on the bus. I did cover a stop in West Des Moines.
Iowa – Meta – #ForThePeople – August 10, 2019
Sen. Kamala Harris (D) – West Des Moines, Iowa – August 10, 2019
There were so many candidates in that primary season that the traveling press accompanying the various candidates were spread pretty thin.
“…Aside from a few Iowa print reporters, a sound guy with a boom microphone (covered by a dead cat), and me, all of the media present at this event (print, video, still) looked to be around twelve years old…”
The 2020 cycle was different from 2008 and 2016. I covered a lot more events during the 2020 primary, but I didn’t run into notorious media types.
By the way, with one exception, in my experience the campaign advance teams in 2020 treated the press with the utmost professionalism. The standout campaigns were Biden, Harris, Booker, Klobuchar, and Warren. The advance work for the campaign events I covered with those candidates was first rate – we were able to get our work done with minimal fuss.
It was a lot of fun back then. Now things are different. These days I can’t even get an invite to a neighborhood birthday party…
Michael Bersin
@JaySinWA:
Yeah, but the problem is in hauling all that extra weight…
Captain C
@Ken:
Don, jr. is back hanging out in the White House?
Jay
@JaySinWA:
Oceangate, the operator of the Titian sub has suspended operations, so that option is gone as well.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: THIS
THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS
different-church-lady
By the way, I’m calling bullshit on the 30 million sign-ups claim.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
Half baked thought: (a) a lot of the electorate wants a quiet president. (b) the media has completely lost the ability to recognize anyone who isn’t screeching. (c) Therefore the media cannot recognize Biden’s base of support. But Biden is hearing them, and they’re hearing him.
Subsole
@rikyrah:
Yep.
Some folks are about to discover they got played.
Hard.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: Supposedly there are 2.35B Instagram users (per month). 30M is not even a rounding error.
But maybe stories about the Threads app wanting permission to search through your sock drawer, garbage, and every piece of digital data on your phone is giving people a bit of a pause??
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Totally true!
grandmaBear
@Brachiator: I subscribe to the electronic versions of the WaPo, LA Times and the (pretty dreadful) Dayton paper. And the dead tree version of my local village’s weekly paper. I suppose that marks me as an old. On the other hand I don’t watch tv except the occasional streamed program or movie. And I’m not on any social media (only a few blogs).
Miss Bianca
@brantl: A quick Google search brings up as many examples of one as t’other, so I guess if I’ve heard it “misquoted” for nigh on 60 years I have a helluva lot of company, nu?
Not that there’s a jot of actual difference between the two constructions, far as I’m concerned.
Roberto el oso
@Geminid: sorry for the pedantry, but Vilnius is in Lithuania.