The Demise of Journalism

[RobDownSouth]

Adrina began this discussion in another thread, I thought it deserved a thread of its own.
The decline and fall of Journalism.

Journalism is circling the drain nowadays, journalists and articles have been replaced by "content creators".

I noticed last month that si.com website is no longer branded as "Sports Illustrated". The twice sold company, which was grossing $50 million per year as recently as 2019, licensed its archive to venture capitalists in 2019 and missed a payment to use the content they licensed on March 1st. They laid off their entire staff and what remains is a clickbait-oriented "me too!" shell designed to get clicks and nothing else.

They were unique in that their content was so good they were one of the few print/online platforms to make a profit during Covid...but then the wheels fell off the bus. They paid their new venture capitalist president almost one million dollars salary per year, he knew nothing about sports or journalism. He DID know real estate, and he used post-Covide real estate doldrums to lock up some of the best and most luxurious office space in New York, Los Angeles and Miami for a total eight million dollars a year on a 30 year lease, while readership and clicks declined due to "outsourced product".

To many Boomers, SI was an integral part of their life.

More recently, Vice.com got sold for a fraction of their worth from just three years ago. Not unlike Blockbuster, they completely misread the market when their new Venture capital management decided to ditch print/online written content in favor of video! video! video! that Facebook insisted was the wave of the future. Their last gasp was the week after the Israeli invasion of Gaza, where they actually had "boots on the ground" (unlike the hollowed out "mainstream media") and were the first to report in real time how there actually WERE a shit ton more civilian casualties in Gaza than Israel claimed. Two Emmy nominations and four Webby nominations.

The New York Times recently outsourced their entire sports department to TheAthletic.com, which provides little more than sports scores nowadays.

Venture capitalists have hollowed out and destroyed most of online media in America.

 

[ll74]

I get disgusted with the number of "news" articles which open with two paragraphs of bias setup before even mentioning the event being "reported".

Corroboration is incredibly important but is even more difficult due to multiple media being owned by the same person.

 

[wizzard426]

Brian Williams was a great journalist!

 

[Rightguide]

Brian Williams was a great journalist!

 

[wizzard426]

I should have used "sarcasm purple"

 

[wizzard426]

This was the point where journalism went sideways!

 

[RobDownSouth]

I get disgusted with the number of "news" articles which open with two paragraphs of bias setup before even mentioning the event being "reported".

Corroboration is incredibly important but is even more difficult due to multiple media being owned by the same person.

The state of journalism today is exemplified today by a website called The Palmer Report.
The formula is the same:

• Lurid clickbait headline designed for maximum emotional impact.
• Repeating the headline as the lede paragraph.
• Two generic vapid generalization paragraphs regurgitating previously known facts.
• A two paragraph boilerplate appeal for donations.

JOE BIDEN PROSTATE CANCER SCARE

Close members of Joe Biden's reelection team downplay President Joe Biden's recent prostate cancer scare.
Biden, who recently turned 80, now falls into the "significant risk" age group category for prostate cancer.
Prostate doctors know that the risk of prostate cancer is significantly higher for active white men over 80.
Quality journalism costs money! If you liked this article, please consider making a contribution to this website to keep relevant news available in a timely manner!
Click here to support quality journalism!

 

[Rightguide]

Adrina began this discussion in another thread, I thought it deserved a thread of its own.
The decline and fall of Journalism.

Journalism is circling the drain nowadays, journalists and articles have been replaced by "content creators".

I noticed last month that si.com website is no longer branded as "Sports Illustrated". The twice sold company, which was grossing $50 million per year as recently as 2019, licensed its archive to venture capitalists in 2019 and missed a payment to use the content they licensed on March 1st. They laid off their entire staff and what remains is a clickbait-oriented "me too!" shell designed to get clicks and nothing else.

They were unique in that their content was so good they were one of the few print/online platforms to make a profit during Covid...but then the wheels fell off the bus. They paid their new venture capitalist president almost one million dollars salary per year, he knew nothing about sports or journalism. He DID know real estate, and he used post-Covide real estate doldrums to lock up some of the best and most luxurious office space in New York, Los Angeles and Miami for a total eight million dollars a year on a 30 year lease, while readership and clicks declined due to "outsourced product".

To many Boomers, SI was an integral part of their life.

More recently, Vice.com got sold for a fraction of their worth from just three years ago. Not unlike Blockbuster, they completely misread the market when their new Venture capital management decided to ditch print/online written content in favor of video! video! video! that Facebook insisted was the wave of the future. Their last gasp was the week after the Israeli invasion of Gaza, where they actually had "boots on the ground" (unlike the hollowed out "mainstream media") and were the first to report in real time how there actually WERE a shit ton more civilian casualties in Gaza than Israel claimed. Two Emmy nominations and four Webby nominations.

The New York Times recently outsourced their entire sports department to TheAthletic.com, which provides little more than sports scores nowadays.

Venture capitalists have hollowed out and destroyed most of online media in America.

It seems the decline in physical magazine sales reflects a broader cultural shift towards digital consumption, as readers increasingly favor the convenience and accessibility of online platforms over traditional print formats. The trusty old newspaper and magazine are singing their swam songs.

One detects an overall decline in the quality of journalism, some of which could be related to corporate ownership prioritizing profit over investigative journalism. The reporting limits of What, When, Why, and Where are out the window. The 24-hour news cycle, and the spread of "fake news" have undoubtedly collapsed the older limits of journalistic standards that have led to the current decline in the literary quality of both printed news and digital news. Today you see people walking around their faces glued to their phones scanning sensationalized headlines in the eternal search for the truth and getting nuked with clickbait instead.

 

[Rightguide]

I should have used "sarcasm purple"

 

[jaF0]

Trace it back to the 80s and 90s. The Wiki for FAUX Snooze used to explicitly state that it was created as a slanted mouthpiece for the GOP, maybe at the behest of Newt. But even further back when St Ronny nuked the Fairness Doctrine.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Trace it back to the 80s and 90s. The Wiki for FAUX Snooze used to explicitly state that it was created as a slanted mouthpiece for the GOP, maybe at the behest of Newt. But even further back when St Ronny nuked the Fairness Doctrine.

Reagan DID nuke the "Fairness Doctrine", but that actually only affected BROADCAST TV and Radio. Broadcast TV is now essentially dead, everyone has cable and/or streaming and it's a different world. The only material affect that remains of the Death of the Fairness Doctrine is the rise of Hate Radio, which was instrumental in poisoning the civic discourse in America.

Rush Limbaugh and his many wannabees were a toenail fungus on the American Body of Politics that eventually became gangrenous.

 

[RobDownSouth]

It seems the decline in physical magazine sales reflects a broader cultural shift towards digital consumption, as readers increasingly favor the convenience and accessibility of online platforms over traditional print formats. The trusty old newspaper and magazine are singing their swam songs.

One detects an overall decline in the quality of journalism, some of which could be related to corporate ownership prioritizing profit over investigative journalism. The reporting limits of What, When, Why, and Where are out the window. The 24-hour news cycle, and the spread of "fake news" have undoubtedly collapsed the older limits of journalistic standards that have led to the current decline in the literary quality of both printed news and digital news. Today you see people walking around their faces glued to their phones scanning sensationalized headlines in the eternal search for the truth and getting nuked with clickbait instead.

I would say that the vast majority of the decline of journalism is because of the trend of hollowing out media companies and venturer capitalists looking to profit from taking individual media properties public and collecting IPO windfalls. They puff them up and sell them as the next Facebook, Twitter, etc media giant, and once the public gets sober they dump the useless stock.

 

[jaF0]

Reagan DID nuke the "Fairness Doctrine", but that actually only affected BROADCAST TV and Radio.

Which begat the rise of FAUX and clones.

Remember, FOX TV gave us the Bundys and a bunch of other cool stuff. But that was before the rise of the hate news channel.

 

[RobDownSouth]

Which begat the rise of FAUX and clones.

Remember, FOX TV gave us the Bundys and a bunch of other cool stuff. But that was before the rise of the hate news channel.

Oh I absolutely agree. But it's a cable/streaming world now so I roll my eyes when people say "Bring back the Fairness Doctrine" (or more commonly people like AJ squealing "The Demz want to bring back teh Fairness Doctrine!").

That genie popped out of the bottle two decades ago and hasn't been seen since.

For lack of a better term, "niche news" (i.e. telling people what they want to hear with coverage slanted towards their preconceived biases) is here to stay.

 

[jaF0]

No reason it couldn't be applied to streaming stuff.

 

[RobDownSouth]

No reason it couldn't be applied to streaming stuff.

Actually there IS a reason: Legal stuff.

The FTC actually has a page on their website explaining why they have no control over streaming/cable/printed news.

 

[jaF0]

I see value in legacy media, if only for their infrastructure, gravitas, relationships with Washington insiders, and respect for national security - to a point. They also "listen to both sides", (give airtime to both sides) which serves the purpose of reassuring people that their voices are being heard; which has value, imho.

Also:

The Avant-garde / online media (I would include Wikileaks) have proven to be less than perfect in their own way.

Also:

Meidas, etc, are also chasing revenue and clicks to some extent:

Now obviously, Meidas, etc don’t have the overhead of the larger legacy media outlets, so they don’t require as much patronage, and thus, can probably afford to speak a bit more freely: I like that in your face irreverent news commentary as a supplement for legacy media, but not a replacement..

Finally:

I would actually mourn the passing of legacy media institutions like the PBS News Hour, Meet The Press, Face The Nation, etc. - everything except FOX "news" and their ilk.

And I would also mourn the passing of The Meidas Touch, etc, if they ceased operations.

I don't dismiss legacy media - I still look at ABC, CNN, Newsweek, The Hill, MSN, PBS - even BBC etc. However I find that they are more wrapped up in the presentation of normalcy. The YT outlets like Meidas, Luke Beasley, Adam Mockler, The Bulwark etc aren't married to the presentation of normalcy. One of the most frustrating things to me when looking at legacy media is the absolute commitment to bothsidesism - giving equal footing to the legitimate and to the insane to maintain an image of fairness. It is as meaningful as Fox's "fair and balanced" trope.

When I look at the old style media - what the legacy media was before mass consumption/commercialization/news as a product - I see MT et al as being far more in that spirit. Yes they need money to operate, and yes they even have "commercial breaks" in their shows. (Side note, reminds me of The Burns & Allen Show for how commercials were back in the stone age.) I would consider them more of a small business than a corporate empire however. But when a spade is a spade, you are more likely to hear it called by MT et al than legacy media - where likely they'll be searching for some formulaic point/counterpoint and in doing so end up giving legitimacy to the illegitimate.

I'm not tossing out the baby with the bath water, but we have to be honest about our legacy media. Their goal is less about informing the public and more about making money.

I only use a few sources that are generally unbiased, or at least less biased. I even gave up the one or two local TV stations here due to the amount of commercials during news and their tendency to harp on a story far too long.

But what really bothers me is the number of what I used to call 'journalists' who at one time or another went to the dark side of FAUX. It showed me they had more respect for a bigger paycheck than journalistic integrity. Major names from the big networks. Hell even Rudi Bakhtiar did it for a while until she found out what a mistake it was. I've never forgiven her for that.

 

[jaF0]

Actually there IS a reason: Legal stuff.

The FTC actually has a page on their website explaining why they have no control over streaming/cable/printed news.

But that can be changed. Probably not with this Congress though.

One big issue is the mixing of print and broadcast ownership. That should never have been allowed and it was highly restricted at one time. No one company could own more than X amount of outlets in any market. Now you have monsters like Gannet and Sinclair that own all or most of everything in many places, sometimes under divisions or affiliates.

 

[Lazaran]

Journalism nowadays is like the restaurant industry: Some old "institution" are shuttering, along with some of the new flash in the pan operations. There will (imho) eventually be a new equilibrium established, where the best (operationally and otherwise) legacy and online news outlets survive, and the rest do not.

See also:

When there are too many restaurants, old restaurants that aren’t keeping up with the tastes of changing demographics, and new restaurants that don’t live up to expectations, there is a natural "culling" / "gleaning" that occurs. - I see a day in the not too distant future when legacy and online journalism achieves a new equilibrium paradigm after a similar "culling" / "gleaning" occurs.

That ^ day can’t get here soon enough for my liking.

 

[Chernosoth]

Corporate journalism is severely diminished, which was guaranteed when it became corporate. Self-employed journalism flourishes. Substack is the site most used by indie journalists. Some start their own sites. But now the whole internet is more corporate and in decline, so journalists will be moving on. As national media corporations become bankrupt and disappear, print and radio will be open again for smaller organizations.

 

[adrina]

I realized there was a problem in 2016.

The HRC coverage of emails was nonstop. It was clickbait driven and the ad revenue generated from the never ending stories encouraged them to run more and more negative stories. Even to the point of the same anchors on the same network repeating the same stories.

There were media analyses later that demonstrated just how much outsized focus that received. As well as the positive attention Trump received, with hardly any of his negatives let alone his scandal ridden history receiving air time.

And then there was the empty podium. I'm not sure exactly what they were all thinking - it was most certainly not informative, riveting or even, frankly, important. But they played up that empty podium anticipation.

These two instances demonstrated how much of the narrative in legacy media drove reality. Instead of reality driving the media.

This, in a nutshell - to me, is the serious problem with our current media. They air sensational stories, or present it in a sensational way, and instead of them reporting on current events their stories form and control perceptions. Regardless of reality.

Legacy media has become the tail that wags the dog.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

I would say that the vast majority of the decline of journalism is because of the trend of hollowing out media companies and venturer capitalists looking to profit from taking individual media properties public and collecting IPO windfalls.

This is an exceptionally silly take. There is no money in journalism. Ads in papers and subscribers used to pay for quality writers and editors. Both have all but vanished. Few, like WaPo and NYT, can go the subscription route and can attract quality writers, but Vice? Philly Inquirer? SI? Insufficient revenue stream.

 

[Bray123]

People read Sports Illustrated for journalistic excellence?

I thought it was for the pictures of fit young ladies. Who knew.

 

[Rightguide]

I would say that the vast majority of the decline of journalism is because of the trend of hollowing out media companies and venturer capitalists looking to profit from taking individual media properties public and collecting IPO windfalls. They puff them up and sell them as the next Facebook, Twitter, etc media giant, and once the public gets sober they dump the useless stock.

I can agree in part but now we have to account for the partisanship and the ideological Balkanization of media outlets. Radio, television, and the internet transformed media landscapes, allowing for targeted messaging and polarization. Media outlets cater to specific audiences, reinforcing existing beliefs and ideologies. The rise of partisan outlets intensifies ideological and social division that is fracturing the nation. As far as News reporting goes, we need to get back to the What, When, Why, and Where, rule and allow the people to draw their own conclusions.

 

[desecration]

Venture capitalists have hollowed out and destroyed most of online media in America.

Maybe, but I think this started in the 1980s when cable and television started competing more seriously with newspapers. Now the internet has joined the fray, and satellite radio. Add in SEO and social media, where no one reads more than the headline, and you have clickbait.