Not ‘who owns the news media,’ but rather, WHO OWNS THE NEWS? The facts. Unfortunately but not unsurprisingly, many mainstream journalists believe that THEY do… and therein lies much mischief.
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Remembering Dick Rutan
July 26, 2024
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It’s the editors job to filter out the journalists bias along with any obvious inaccuracy.
Sync issues again. At 9:00 Steve says “Please” before Bill asks if he can jump in. Y’all were doing better with it, but it appears to be breaking down again.
As though to illustrate the premise of this episode, I give you this: https://cogentreach.com/you-gotta-watch-jd-vance-sends-george-stephanopoulos-over-the-edge/
Snuffy spouted his talking point and won the argument by shutting off JD Vance’s microphone. Vance can address points of Constitutional Law as easily as you could recite the alphabet but superstar George Snuffleupagus owns the microphone.
“Shut up,” George explained.
Much like playing soccer is not the US Women’s National Soccer Team’s job, the job of “news” organizations is not to publish news. It is to sell newspapers, get clicks, drive people to their website. The vehicle they use to accomplish this is supposed to be writing news stories. This has not been true for a very long time (see Hearst, William Randolph). That it has gotten worse is a result of the competition from other, and more nimble, players. Thus, like any good Mafioso, they want to eliminate the competition. Don Corleone did it by setting fire to his… Read more »
There’s something inherently wrong happening with this “eliminate the competition” approach that has been adopted, as you say, ala the mafiosa approach. Thinking of the media competition as a race to harvest attention — When you run a race for it to have any significance at all there must by definition be competitors. If you eliminate all the other competitors you “win” every race but your victory is hollow. It’s not a race if you can cheat your way to being the only racer. No matter how you go about it. There’s a temptation to do that in any race.… Read more »
Steve, which one is Shirley?
adversarial, not advocacy == great comment by Bill. One aspect of all this is the personal level cost. With one or two newspapers as your info source, you may have spent $50 to $150 per year on a subscription. Now, in addition to BWDC, a set of subscriptions to a few Substacks, and a couple of conservative web sources, and we can spend over $500 per year. And if I was really going for a full breadth “neutral and objective” exposure, I would have to view CNN, MSNBC, Salon, The Atlantic, etc. to know how the other side viewed things… Read more »
The cost level is significant and I just can’t afford it. This is the only paysite I subscribe to and I’m here as much for the discussion as I am for the information. I would love to be able to afford a few more subscriptions to conservative sites but … I don’t really think I’d be any more informed that way. I don’t think you have to dig down to fine-grained details to know what’s going on. Those excavations are nice, they’re fun, they’re entertaining and amusing but they’re not vital. They do a great job of satisfying curiosity, much… Read more »
I used to read opposition sources, such as The Nation or Washington Compost. The Left has been so far radicalized that they’ve just stopped making any effort at being truthful. It’s a waste of time reading them, unless I’m looking to write a reaction piece correcting all of the mistakes, half truths, or outright lies.
Yeah, I don’t bother with things that are so obviously biased as to be a complete waste of time anymore either. In those situations they’re also not telling me anything I don’t already know. I’ve heard their Social Marxism viewpoints enough times that I could play their own schtick back to them like a record. As I’ve pointed out quite often, this is a problem when it comes to obtaining real, actionable information. There’s so much background noise that it’s hard to pick out the facts. “Infotainment” is simply another form of entertainment and entertainment is something you use to… Read more »
I just have to mention that the story Steve told about the article concerning the rancher fighting the epa (lower case letters used intentionally) occurred in southwest Wyoming about 40 miles east of where I live. Much to everyone’s surprise the rancher actually won out!
Good to know. Thanks for the update.
“So shines a good deed in a weary world.”
-Willy Wonka
I think the best, and only remidy, for fake news is to allow all voices. Although that will certainly result in a lot of crap, it is often the only way that the crap can be exposed for what it is. This is especially true when the producers of said “crap” are the gatekeepers, such as legacy media. It also goes without saying that it may take a lot of time an effort to sift through the many other voices in order to determine the reliability of a story. This is where news-discussion sites like FreeRepublic.com are very important. They host a… Read more »
I agree, the only remedy is to allow everything no matter how much crap that invites. The problem isn’t the crap. The problem is in giving someone the power to determine for everyone else, by their own measures with their own bias, what is and is not crap. Crap has always been attractive to some people, it draws them like flies to actual dung. I’m pretty sure about the same motivation and mentality applies in either case. Whether someone eats crap or not, and especially whether they enjoy eating crap or not, is a matter of personal responsibility and accountability.… Read more »
The fatal wound to the dying legacy media was self inflicted. The remedy for the legacy media would simply be to become and maintain themselves as the most reliable, most truthful, most honest and most unbiased operators in their field. If they were these things then they would still get the lion’s share of public confidence and attention. This is easily within their grasp, they still have a lot of resources that a guy with a cellphone camera doesn’t have. It’s not that they can’t save themselves, it’s that they won’t. Any media is going to be less than perfect… Read more »
“… stopped aiming for more perfection”
Maybe they started aiming to be “perfecter” instead.
“the legacy media exsanguinated itself ” I really like phrasings like that.
“Maybe they started aiming to be “perfecter” instead.”
No doubt you’ve hit on a core issue there.
“I really like phrasings like that.”
Thanks for saying so. I try to use the right words to convey the idea I’m trying to express. Some in here think that’s me trying to prove I’m smarter than they are. It’s not, and I’m not responsible for their inferiority complexes.
I experience something similar in my job, “no longer owning the facts”. As a physician, I sometimes encounter a patient who, through diligent investigation and/or blind luck, comes across something on line that turns out to be cutting edge research of which I was not aware. A chance for me to learn something.
Of course, most of what they read is crap.
I’ve known several doctors personally, outside the professional environment of their practice, where they are just human beings that put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us. The ones I’ve known that would go on to become friends all display an attitude similar to yours. The other ones are as you say, “owners of the facts” and I wouldn’t trust them for anything medical more serious than a case of tennis elbow. Which means they’re useless to me as physicians, I can treat things like that myself. Sadly, those more trustworthy doctors are no… Read more »
Yep, I intentionally ended with “most of it is crap”, implying just what you said. Like those who’ll believe/trust/search for answers in scouring the internet for what is truth/the answer/something to believe with little to guide them, crap is the main thing you find. But we should still search, because you might find useful things, you might learn to recognize crap, and you might find others responding to your crap who have great things to say. Like you.
Docs, like a lot of professions, get more adamant that they know everything and shouldn’t be questioned the more money they make.
“Docs, like a lot of professions, get more adamant that they know everything and shouldn’t be questioned the more money they make.”
Lol, yeah, that’s pretty common and not at all unique to the medical profession.
It’s the garden variety manifestation of an unmerited internal cognitive refutation to the pungent and fetid olfactory-devastating noisomeness of one’s own excreta. Or to put it more simply, those who think they shit rose petals.
When the jab mandates were coming around in 2020, I had some real concerns based on personal history with similar vaccines. Of all people, it was my chiropractor who educated me on alternatives that hadn’t hit the news yet, such as Ivermectin, HCL. or the Malaria vax as alternatives. When the subject came up with my PCP, I explained her my concerns with the clot shot and asked about the alternatives and she… doing a perfect job of showing she didn’t hear a word I said just told me the the vax is safe and to get the shot, That… Read more »
Fortunately for me I was never subject to any mandates and whether or not to get the Fauci Ouchie was solely left to my own discretion. When I was seriously hurt with a back injury at work I had to spend considerable time in a lot of pain. There was actual physical damage to my spine and when I say “a lot of pain” I mean a LOT of pain. I was treated by several medical doctors including the chief of orthopedic surgery at a State University. That particular doctor offered me surgery but was very open and clear about… Read more »
Yeah, I’m generally not a fan of chiropractors either, but I started going to one on Sister Babe’s recommendation. I know a few others as friends of a friend and knowing how they live outside of work I would never want them working on me or anyone I know. Even my chiro isn’t infallible – she got one or two things wrong with me. Still, I feel she has my best interests in mind better than my PCP.
I do miss the days when we could trust experts