I would like to see the correlation with top 1% tax rates and with Citizens United… News partisanship plummeted in the 20th century. But the forces behind that shift have run out of gas, or are in outright reversal, and now news fragmentation and partisanship is going back to the 19th century, w/ the twist of digital algorithmic mediahttps://t.co/anHFacUeW0— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) May 19, 2023
Putting the fash in fascism: The Strategic Fashioning of Casey DeSantis - The New York Times https://t.co/D02owmFeSJ— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) May 25, 2023
Article about Chris Licht’s leadership of CNN He thought he could win conservative voters. He was wrong, and everyone who posts in this forum could have told him that. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/06/cnn-ratings-chris-licht-trump/674255/
The captain of the Titanic steps aside. CNN CEO Chris Licht has ceded control of business operations to David Leavy, chief corporate officer for CNN’s parent company. In Licht’s year as CEO, CNN’s ratings, revenue, and reputation have plummeted. pic.twitter.com/bvw0JicaTt— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) June 3, 2023
The Chris Licht piece is fantastic. Well worth the time investment to read. Apart from Licht being a clown who doesn’t understand news it shows the problem of getting anyone to watch these days.
Right? Imagine being the boss at CNN and not understanding that conservatives who watch TV news have negative interest in the truth. They want shibboleths. They want enemies.
Somebody was on a pod somewhere that I caught, who talked about how we are about as partisan as we were in the early to mid 1800s. It was in reference to Presidents' communication, and Lincoln figured out how to effectively do that by writing to/in more partisan newspapers so he could more directly speak to more people.
You can really get down in the weeds on this. A lot of people at the time, including me, understood the business logic for the strategy. Otherwise you are cutting your target demo in half - so it seemed like the idea could work, even if we didn't like it. IMO the problem indicated in the longread is the strategy they actually rolled out, is not particularly what they advertised. If your organisation don't believe in the mission, it seems unlikely you'll build an audience around the mediocre, confused crap you churn out. IOW, Licht failed in delivery, even if there was a market (debateable). But also, the whole point of CNN+ and what Fox was attempting was to try to build a younger audience around streaming. All the political news junkies are not watching CNN. They are doomscrolling, listening to podcasts etc. Even FNC is a dying channel. Zaslav and co seem to see CNN as just another entertainment channel for them - but they are failing at that Maybe no one really wants to watch straight news anymore.
I'd like to watch TV news, however, there's an issue: 90% of TV news is just people talking over each other while a chyron has "Breaking News" over something mundane like a Senator giving a speech. CNN, MSNBC and such have been like that for as far as I can remember. Especially with the prime time hosts (7-10). Lawrence O'Donnell (He actually kicked off Orly Taitz off his show if you remember her( is decent but that's because he's old school. Fox News appears professional but we all know it's a Murdoch property. Somewhere along the way, the likes of Limbaugh and such ended up making opinion come across as news. The last time I willingly watched cable news was the January 6th hearings. Otherwise, I don't watch it unless it's on at someone's house. I read a lot of my news (WSJ, WaPo, New Yorker and the locals), but that's because it doesn't allow them to be dramatic compared to what you can get away with on TV.
For me the difference is evident when watching American news channels vs non-American new channels. On the non-American ones I actually learn what's going on in the world. On the American ones I get talking heads bickering with each other and presenting spin. I don't really learn anything. As such, when I watch the news, I watch France 24 or something along those lines.
It is that nobody under the age of 45(or 40 or 35 or whatever) doesn't want to sit through an entire news program. A good 1 to 2 minute take is usually what is desired for the youngins. And I have noticed that a lot of news-ish pods are in the range of 10 to 20 minutes. Hell, a 30 minute pod feels long.
I am at this moment in Lisbon. It’s midnight, my wife has fallen asleep, and I’m watching Al Jazeera. They just spent a few minutes discussing the new members of Erdegon’s cabinet. Can’t imagine any US news channel even thinking to talk about that.
1 - Repped for you watching political TV after your wife fell asleep. I guess that's how you wind down your part of the evening... 2 - Turkey is in the Al Jezzera part of the world, and Erdegon is a very important figure. I can't image them doing the same for some place like Sudan or Algeria. 3 - I can image some place like MSNBC having a segment like that on the Alex Wagner Show or Rachel Maddow Show (or one of their evening shows).
right. Format wise it’s all streaming of podcasts and email newsletters. Pfeifer pointed out recently that the Thursday pod he does with Favreau on hard messaging has more audience that CNN has on average nightly.
Right - my main take from the Licht piece is they are just failing at content whether its supposed to be news or panel stuff. IMO that is much more CNNs problem If i am thinking who does great panel stuff for news/political junkies I am think Maitless/Goodall
Chuck you will not be missed! Chuck Todd to Leave ‘Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd, who has served as moderator of NBC’s Sunday-morning talk show “Meet the Press” since 2014, will pass the baton to colleague Kristen Welker, starting in September, the Washington Post reports.
Good take on Licht I think this is correct. Actual liberals have rejected these views. It’s not that we won’t hear then and engage with them. We already did and don’t like them. From The Atlantic's profile of Licht comes this gem, one screamed at us by pundits and media executives since the Tea Party uprising of 2009. It seems impossible to explain to them that we heard all these views a million times and simply do not like them. Yes. As a country. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Jivg7iFq5S— Greg Fish (@GregAFish) June 3, 2023
Cya, Chuckles Chuck Todd never recovered from Trevor Noah dragging him.“Chuck Todd is here. Chuck, you here? How you doing? I'd ask a follow-up, but I know you don't know what those are.” pic.twitter.com/YxYN1DzKsC— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) June 4, 2023