With the greatest respect, this model is outdated by about 20 years. Most regime media outlets are struggling to survive. Their revenue pales in comparison to what it was before the introduction of social media. What little ad revenue that remains has been diluted by subscriber revenue and even govt subsidies. And many of the biggest news outlets are no longer owned by successful corporate media empires, with some exceptions. Many of them are owned by billionaires who regard their acquisitions as nostalgic play things.
Interesting, in-depth analysis. I really need to watch that Murray/Gladwell debate; I keep hearing about it. Growing up as an upper middle-class kid in Southern California (and as an intellectually curious punk rocker as a teen) I of course started reading Chomsky. As always, he became my leftist God for a while. I grew out of him at some point. Now I’m 40. I tried reading him again a few years ago and, intelligent and knowledgeable as he is, I found him basically unreadable. His extreme bias is so flagrant, so over the top, that I just couldn’t read it.
The media conversation is complex. Up until 2020 I was mainly reading NYT, the New Yorker, and WaPo. I lived in Manhattan. But ever since Trump’s rise in 16 I’d been noticing subtle shifts in language and approach in major media outlets. Then after Floyd everything shifted religiously. NYT has since then routinely misrepresented stories (Central Park Karen, for example); buried unfavorable pieces (black guy who ran car into Wisconsin parade; NYC black racist subway shooter); or falsified information to continue a narrative (black men beating up Asians in the city was ‘white supremacy’). I could go on. NYT and others still have great reporting. There’s still plenty worth reading. That said: They are no longer totally trustworthy institutions, sadly. Neither are any outlets on the right side of the ledger. I’ve turned to podcasts like The 5th Column and Bill Maher.
Anyway. Fun article. Sounds like we have some things in common.
I suspect all of this is actually a diversion. have us debating things we have no control over: like telling us that today we have no power (of course as individuals we never had any power). The goal of the very rich can only ever be to get richer, which means at our expense.
It’s also okay to agree to disagree.
With the greatest respect, this model is outdated by about 20 years. Most regime media outlets are struggling to survive. Their revenue pales in comparison to what it was before the introduction of social media. What little ad revenue that remains has been diluted by subscriber revenue and even govt subsidies. And many of the biggest news outlets are no longer owned by successful corporate media empires, with some exceptions. Many of them are owned by billionaires who regard their acquisitions as nostalgic play things.
Interesting, in-depth analysis. I really need to watch that Murray/Gladwell debate; I keep hearing about it. Growing up as an upper middle-class kid in Southern California (and as an intellectually curious punk rocker as a teen) I of course started reading Chomsky. As always, he became my leftist God for a while. I grew out of him at some point. Now I’m 40. I tried reading him again a few years ago and, intelligent and knowledgeable as he is, I found him basically unreadable. His extreme bias is so flagrant, so over the top, that I just couldn’t read it.
The media conversation is complex. Up until 2020 I was mainly reading NYT, the New Yorker, and WaPo. I lived in Manhattan. But ever since Trump’s rise in 16 I’d been noticing subtle shifts in language and approach in major media outlets. Then after Floyd everything shifted religiously. NYT has since then routinely misrepresented stories (Central Park Karen, for example); buried unfavorable pieces (black guy who ran car into Wisconsin parade; NYC black racist subway shooter); or falsified information to continue a narrative (black men beating up Asians in the city was ‘white supremacy’). I could go on. NYT and others still have great reporting. There’s still plenty worth reading. That said: They are no longer totally trustworthy institutions, sadly. Neither are any outlets on the right side of the ledger. I’ve turned to podcasts like The 5th Column and Bill Maher.
Anyway. Fun article. Sounds like we have some things in common.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Most remarkably, Chomsky himself was captured by The Narrative - COVID Edition.
I suspect all of this is actually a diversion. have us debating things we have no control over: like telling us that today we have no power (of course as individuals we never had any power). The goal of the very rich can only ever be to get richer, which means at our expense.