Neal Gabler at Consortium News — Missing the Biggest 2016 Story
To their everlasting discredit, most of the MSM Big Feet, which is what the late journalist Richard Ben Cramer labeled the self-important, pontificating political reporters and pundits who dominate our press, got it all wrong about Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
That is no small thing when you consider those two are the big stories this campaign season. It’s like a weatherman missing a Category Five hurricane. Of course, if a weatherman had blown that call, he probably would be fired. With pundits, getting it wrong never seems to matter
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The most powerful of them – the ones you read, see and hear the most – constitute an elite so far removed that it could only understand us through the most aggressive sympathetic imagination. And that is not going to happen.For one thing, journalists as a whole don’t look like the rest of America. “The typical U.S. journalist is a 41 year-old white male,” began a 2006 report by the Pew Research Center. When that report was updated in 2013, that typical journalist had become a 47 year-old white male, and the median age had risen not only at newspapers, where one might expect journalists to be aging along with their institution, but also at TV and radio stations and even online news sites. [emp added]
Why might it be expected that the median age of journalists to increase six years in the seven years between 2006 and 2013? Are mature journalists delaying retirement at a much higher rate than in the past and therefore, there are fewer openings for young journalists? Possibly, but that wouldn’t account for such a large increase in the median age in such a short period of time.
Are younger journalists being hired at an older age than in the past? Over the past sixty years that’s undoubtedly true as J-Schools became the feeder stream for new hires. (Not coincidentially, the quality of journalism has gone down over the same period.1) But that change pre-dated the period under discussion; although it’s not unrelated.
The death spiral of jounalism is three pronged. Consolidation mania began in the 1980s, but the speed of it for jounalism increased with the 1996 Telecom Act. Local newspapers were gobbled up, staffs were cut, and fewer new hires came after that (and only those hired had the right credentials). Poorer quality meant fewer customers in an industry that had weak revenue streams to begin with. Then advertising dollars began to disappear with internet adverts and Craig’s list. More staff cuts followed by lower quality followed by more consolidations (and a few bankruptcies, spin-offs, and reorganizations along the way).
USA Today – Gannett offers $815 million to buy Tribune Publishing
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The offer price is about 5.6 times Tribune’s estimated 2016 earnings before interest, taxes and other items (EBITDA). Gannett estimates about $50 million a year in “synergies” savings. Gannett owns USA TODAY plus 107 local news organizations including the Detroit Free Press, Cincinnati Enquirer, Des Moines Register, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Arizona Republic.
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“We believe Tribune shares the new Gannett’s unwavering commitment to journalistic excellence and delivering superior content on all platforms,” Dickey said in a statement Monday.
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If Gannett were to complete the deal, it would expand the NETWORK in strategic markets by owning dominant newspapers in major metro areas, such as the Los Angeles Times,the Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, Chicago Tribune and the Orlando Sentinel.
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Maybe when Gannett, Murdoch, and Bezos own all the news publications, they won’t even have to give lip-service to “commitment to journalism.”
1 – Journalists such as Pete Hamill and Carl Bernstein weren’t only good at getting the facts but could write. They developed their craft on-the-job and worked with and for other good craftsman.
Good article by Steven D at caucus99percent – The Democratic Party’s Forty Percent Dilemma Over forty percent (40%) of all political contributions in 2012 “came from the richest 0.01 percent of American households.” Almost 42% (41.8% to be precise) actually. That’s up from 30.8% in 2004, the previous high water mark in any election year, 29.2% in 2008 and 30.1% in 2010. It represents roughly a 36% increase in campaign funding coming from as few as 25,000 people since 2004, and a 43% increase over 2008, the last Presidential election year before 2012 for which we have numbers. Perhaps more… Read more »
Hey thanks Marie.
Trying not to make the natives too restless over here.
Delayed adding the link to this thread b/c I didn’t know if you planned to post it at the Pond. Then figured since so few people bother to read my diaries that it wouldn’t hurt to provide the link to it. You’re just riling up the pretzel brains at the Pond that have convinced themselves that trashing Bernie and his supporters using crap that likely originates out of Brock’s trolling operation constitutes a rationale for supporting HRC. Poor consumers of information that skip the critical thinking step before pontificating. Much like the only person that I ever had political arguments… Read more »
Come join Steven and me at caucus99percent. The water’s fine. So far voting is only positive, no hide rates, no numbers, click if you agree, don’t if you don’t. Conversation is supposed to be civil and so far it is. Don’t see any race hatred or other non-policy discussion. Don’t know how long it will last. I made my first post, a reply regarding writing in Bernie, Jill Stein, Donald Trump. I’ll see if anyone takes my head off. Won’t be disappointed if they do. I advocated a pretty radical stance. Won’t mind spirited reaction – as long as it’s… Read more »
Nice people there. I’m good just reading the posts. For a number of reasons, prefer to post at one blog and so far this one is okay; although there are more and more here that I have to ignore. They’ll settle down when they win b/c for the most part they’re “winning is everything” types.
OT, but the founding fathers were considered to have a “pretty radical stance” and that was a good thing. Most of us are happy with the foundations these guys laid out, but not happy with the current crop of politicians/lobbyists who try to circumvent the constitution. I think the little people are sick of the neoliberal/neoconservative policies and their voices not being heard due to the $$ in campaigns; frustrated with a rigged financial/political system which is reinforced by the media; and insulted by the condescension expressed by the elites in both parties. It’s been brewing for a while now.… Read more »
Never heard of this site but it’s interesting. I see Steven D is there along with a lot of exiles from the Great Orange Satan that I respect. Been trying to find the public record of who owns the site but have been unsuccessful. The record probably shows a privacy front company anyway. When did it start? What are the goals? Does Kos own it and is he covering his bets? Been bitten so many times I’m more than twice shy. It does seem more pleasant than RedState which is full of people foaming at the mouth, sort of… Read more »
Kos doesn’t own it.
If interested go to the contact link:
http://caucus99percent.com/contact
and ask any questions you like of the admins.
The site was created over year before the GOS turned into Hillary Central.
Thanks!
I’m registered over there.
More ignorant than those that suggest a Clinton/Cuomo or Trump/Guiliani ticket. Of course Clinton claims several states as “home” and perhaps her DC townhouse could count as her current residence to get around that pesky Constitutional requirement. And Trump does have a yuuge house in FL. So, either of those tickets might pass as easily as the GWB/Cheney ticket did.
Maybe more low income people would have turned out to vote for Bernie if he’d pushed this a little harder: HuffPo 11/3/15 How Bernie Sanders Plans to Transform the Postal Service and Help Millions in Poverty The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General supports Senator Sanders’ idea as well. “The Postal Service is well positioned to provide non-bank financial services to those whose needs are not being met by the traditional financial sector,” writes the USPS in a 2014 report. “Millions of Americans do not have a bank account, or use costly services like payday loans and check cashing… Read more »
The American Postal Workers Union had the sense to endorse Bernie in Nov. 2015. The U.S. Postal Service does a good job, in so many ways; although Repubs are always trying to destroy it. Bernie and Elizabeth Warren were backers of the Postal Service functioning as a bank in early 2014. It really irritates me when people unfairly criticize the post office; packages from them arrive more safely, quickly, and economically, when compared to the private companies. On the whole, the postal staff is nicer than the private companies, too. The latter are in such a hurry that they just… Read more »
The thing about community bankers opposition to a postal bank is that they aren’t serving the population in need of a postal bank. It’s the high cost check cashing and payday lenders that fill the void. It’s not even as if the community banks are investors in those operations — the banksters do that.
Another big story is why the media gave Trump coverage non-stop, HRC a modest amount, mostly positive, and Bernie Sanders almost nothing, except during Trump’s cancellation rally weekend of March 11. Yes, I know Trump increased ratings, and Bernie was a little known older progressive senator from the small state of Vermont. However, there’s more to this story than the reasons cited above and it looks amiss to me.
Trump said outrageous things that did not trouble advertisers.
Bernie said common sense things that outraged advertisers.
And HRC gave absolutely no indications that she would rock the boat.
AG