Yeah - there are a lot of different issues you could mention. One that sticks with me is conversations both Tim Miller and Ben Smith reported with Steve Bannon before trump was elected. The media elites used to set the narrative, the tone, the cycle etc. That isn't true anymore. It's all bottom up.
I don’t know if I’d say “bottom up.” Trump is a celebrity, which in the attention economy is a form of wealth every bit as useful as cash or credit. Brannon is a hedge fund billionaire. Without that sort of wealth, Trump isn’t much more than an internet rando m on par with something like catturd or some other edgelord. He’s certainly not a threat to gain access to the nuclear codes (again). That he has some appeal to a mass of voters is probably an accident of history. That Mass makes him a threat, but I don’t think it’s the mass that generates the narrative. It’s rich ********s who don’t need the media for validation because their forms of wealth put them beyond the reach of mere convention.
How, by getting rid of clicks? The internet and social media has changed the entire landscape, and there’s no obvious way back.
Josh is making some solid points here. Yes. Political Journalism Remains Wired for the GOP. "I heard from a reader yesterday who saw one of the country’s top political journalists give a public presentation about the race. The run-down I got of that event crystallized something I’ve been giving a lot of thought to over the last few months and writing about here and there. At the elite level, political journalists have a basic contempt for Democrats. It’s not even very concealed because in a way it’s hardly even recognized as such. This continues to be the case despite the fact that most of the people I’m talking about, if they vote, probably vote for Democrats. They are socio-economically and culturally, if not always ideologically, the peers of Democrats. We often confuse cosmopolitan social values for liberalism. If anything, this basic pattern has become more the case over the last decade. These people are highly educated. They are affluent. They are the creatures of the major cities." "Democrats are far more likely than in the past to attack elite and mainstream media in the way I am doing here. The response from members of the media is usually some version of either “well, if I’m being criticized by both sides I must be doing something right” or something else a bit more revealing: “you say you’re on the side of democracy and a free press, but you’re doing just what Trump does now.” I’m thinking of a recent exchange with a prominent New York Times journalist in which the journalist protested that if Democrats say they care about free media and democracy how do they think they’re helping things by criticizing the Times and thus eroding trust in media. And there you have it. Democrats must not only submit themselves to whatever scrutiny comes their way. They also need to prop up the media, sing its praises, knock down any criticism of it as part of their advocacy of civic democracy." Full article here.... https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/yes-political-journalism-remains-wired-for-the-gop
We're weeks away and only now am I seeing some reporting on Trump's "weaving" and how he cannot answer basic questions or string together a few thoughts. Joe was slipping for a while but it was literally all we heard about after the debate until he decided to step aside (or pushed out) The new one is asking Kamala to comment about the crazy statements of Trump & Vance. She should say "he's f-ing nuts and his brain is Swiss cheese from a lifetime of Adderall abuse. How do I know WTF he's banging on about? Stop asking me and let's focus on the issues Americans care about"
It's interesting because they spent 6-7 years throwing everything at him and many criticized the coverage (specifically 2016 election) for basically giving him free campaign advertisement. It's also what brought in viewers in an era that cable news ratings was already dropping. All of that coverage didn't make him go away. I am not really sure continuing with that "strategy" was going to make much of a difference.
Besides being too poor to leave and no foreign family/friends to help that process, I'm sticking it out till the end. Helping people as part of my job until I get black bagged. Whether that's in a year or decades from now.
Just heard Lakshmi Singh on NPR headlines say that he was “showing us another side to Trump” or some bullshit to that extent.
All people involved deserve the worst: Olivia Nuzzi said she was manipulated by RFK Jr., ex-fiancé claims in court filings
Holy crap, did the GOP billionaires just buy out all media outlets.. even f’n PBS Who the hell is there to hold even these folks accountable?
NYT Pitchbot needs to branch out now John Lennon meets avid fan at the Dakota.— 🪷Wendy L. Temple (@temple_winds) October 16, 2024
yes! i wish people would read Ben Smiths ‘Traffic’. everyone talks about journalism and clicks as if this is some great insight but when you really sit down and understand it from an organisational level the problem is structural. Media orgs need to get traffic to their content. How shall they get it? The problem is that many were no longer destination websites and all the traffic was in the walled garden of Facebook or Google search. ETA - this is why the NYT flourished post the Facebook traffic squeeze. They built up mostly on newsletters. But almost everyone else is dependant on search engine optimisation and scraps of traffic from social.
Birds of feather….They truly deserve each other. Basket of deplorable. In the Court documents ,” Lizza said Kennedy, the former presidential candidate and subject of a Nuzzi profile last year in New York magazine, had manipulated the journalist, telling her that he wanted to “possess,” “control” and “impregnate” her. “ “Lizz didn’t include more details about what happened in 2020, though he wrote in court Nuzzi had a “previous affair” that year. “