Oh, no. It’s not just journalism. Private equity is America’s great enshittification engine. Everything it touches withers and dies, syphoning the last valuable remains back to the parasitic host.
“To see high quality publications bought and broken by rich people is like watching a drunk hedge fund dickhead throwing up on a Picasso that he hung in his yacht. It’s just a fucking shame. “
I worked for a little community newspaper. We served democracy and our community by working hard and digging up important information for shit wages. That wasn’t enough for the hedge fund: It killed everything good so many of us poured our life into. Now I live in a news desert (and write independently instead of covering local news). My novel (The Trailer Park Rules) tells a similar fictional story as it follows a poor reporter’s story.
The loss of legacy media both large and small is killing democracy.
Sounds like the name of Satan would be more appropriate here. The Father of Lies and Ruler of this Material World,and Boss of All those Oligarchs especially the mind-fucked one with the sci-fi name and the Grendel style Mother who now thinks he can dictate policy to Great Britain. Sadly,he probably can.
No I don't believe it, because it did not happen. I assumed you were at least gonna go with "cancel culture" or some such to prove the libs were acting as the real totalitarians, or admit to Debra you had nothing at all. But apparently no one ever pointed out to you that it is better to remain silent and have folks think you are a fool instead of opening your mouth and removing all doubt. But that's not for you; instead, you doubled down and just went full on nutter.
The absence of a quality free press that HamNo noted leads directly to this sort of dipshittery so thanks for the immediate example, I guess?
The Dems are not in control … get a grip. Here we go into the void. It will soon become clear through real time events the things people have been warning you about… sit back and just watch, try not to comment as much. You’ll probably live to regret all the silly content you’re generating. Just watch , read, take it in .
Drink the poisoned Kool-Aid until you die. Or join the sane. "Woke" is a trigger word for people who want someone to hate, but don't have the intellectual chops to dive deep into root causes.
You are absolutely correct. Trump is not “the problem.” He is merely the nasty reflection of the evil that men like you do to avoid to avoid being kind, generous, thoughtful, law abiding, respectful of others, and all other descriptions of being a “woke” American. While we are those who have opened their eyes to the grave injustices we all have committed against our neighbors, those different from us, and all who are concerned about the unremitting greed of those who want power only for that purpose.
You're the one who is peddling "woke and totalitarian" with pro-fascism undertones. Stop deflecting from the root problem in the world: human inequality. Some people have hundreds of billions in resources while billions have not enough to eat. Chew on that.
I know so many liberal, educated people who wring their hands over the election of Trump and question why any reasonable, sane person would vote for him. Yet few of these liberals subscribe to a daily newspaper or an intelligent mainstream periodical. They get their news sometimes from TV but more often from a few minutes looking at stuff that flys across the screens of their smartphones. They can easily afford to subscribe to publications but have become too intellectually lazy to regularly read long form journalism. They consider Trump votes dumb asses, but these people are voluntarily no better informed themselves. This is a real problem and is part of the reason for the demise of journalism.
Longform journalism isn't for everyone. Wonks like you and me are outliers. Not everyone can be expected to keep up with what's going on to the degree that someone like you or me keeps up with shit. And honestly it is unfair to expect them to do that. What we are missing is the kind of simple cultural glue that someone like Walter Cronkite could provide. But that barn door has been opened and there is no going back. I wish I knew what the solution was. Sigh
There is not an easy solution. Hamilton is analyzing the decline of the MSM, and respect/interest in "objective" journalism, at the production end. But there is a parallel decline at the consumption end. My parents were high school grads and not intellectual types. The Wash Post landed on the doorstep in the AM but that was not sufficient, they also subscribed to another decent DC paper at the time, The Evening Star. And they watched network news every night. I delivered the Post for 6 years in 1950's/60's. I had 70-80 customers and didn't have to walk far because about 75% of the houses on my route subscribed. People wanted to know what was going on; they were interested. What is the source of that lake of interest today among regular people? The internet is certainly part of the blame; people have absorbed the notion that online is where you get in touch and have grown accustomed to quick updates and summaries.
You are incorrect. Many of us have long been subscribers of both national papers and local and regional ones. Epoch News is NOT included among those. Most Trump “conservatives” watch only Fox and don’t read.
News papers are hardly worth reading today. I live in Wisconsin. Not far from Chicago. Along with our local paper I have always read the Tribune or the Sun Times. Mainly for the sports reporting and op eds. Not that I didn't read the news. We still get the Trib and our local newspaper. Lately our local paper doesn't have a local section except on Sunday. Anything I can read in the paper I can read on line, listen to podcasts or watch videos. Politically and economically speaking I get more out of watching or reading independent journalists. I still like the internet because I still find interesting things to read that are not in the newspapers. I came here through a link in the Sunday Long Read. Great site for and you can it free every Sunday. The bad thing is that sometimes there are links to articles that are behind a paywall.
You are correct in all you say. As a distant observer (a Brit in France) I have wondered for decades when the rot in the American systems would conspire to bring the empire down, and if it would be in my lifetime. And here we are, with the architect of the destruction voted in, not just once but twice! No lessons learned. We are all awaiting the 20th with trepidation; just how far will he go?
But for me, the most interesting thing is the numbers of people still in denial. Still talking about how they'll take back power in the next election (what next election?), how everyday America will carry on as normal, and how if Americans just do this, this and that, then everything can be fixed!
At least Americans cannot blame anyone but themselves for what happens next; no Islamic terrorists, no Twin Towers, not even an alien invasion from space! All that military power, all that money spent, all those American kids killed and maimed, and now no one to nuke!
Just American greed, selfishness, overconfidence and laziness as democracy, integrity and fair play slipped away, washing away The American Dream with it.
I am often reminded of The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, where guests book a dinner table to watch the End of the Universe on a time loop. That's how I feel, sitting here in Europe, watching the short-lived American empire self-destruct in fascination, and hoping we are at the Safe Recommended Distance from the blast.
I am not complacent about Europe either. Many similar issues affect many European countries, and the overarching threats of climate heating and wars and mass migration are certainly high on the agendas here too, including for me personally. I have the benefit of old age, so I am hoping to be around long enough to watch what happens over there, and not be around to experience too much of what happens over here!
so happy europe is reverting back to economic wasteland it traditionally was. id bother to insult your colossal ignorance but God already did the heavylifting by making you british
This is an amazing thing we're witnessing. Republicans are salivating over the opportunity to do so much evil, and having spats about aiming for greater destruction or lesser destruction more quickly, and over a narrower focus with a surer outcome or a broader aim with less certainty. But the desire to fuck things up animates and unifies them. The last thing they can withstand is scrutiny, so the media must go, like the universities, the last bastions of resistance however poorly they were doing it.
The mainstreams would have had to report on this the way they did WWII, by overtly taking sides, and they couldn't do that. There was a lot of middle ground and they might have done better but they couldn't swallow their vanity to the necessary extent. 'Confederate Forces Sack Capitol.' It wasn't going to happen. 'Red States Send Raft of Traitors to Washington.' Not possible. I understand that, but Sulzberger is as much an incompetent nepo baby as Bush and Trump. Destruction, however, is easier.
And the crazies have that fucking drive. Rooted in compensation, in my opinion. Deep down they know they're pieces of shit, so they spend their lives in resentment and in trying to convince themselves they aren't pieces of shit, those that haven't given up, like Stephen Miller, and revel in being evil and hurtful. Really, it's hard to take in. I didn't think it possible because Americans hadn't taken the kind of narcissistic hit that engenders this stuff. Then I moved to the South. Somebody lost a war.
Somebody was dying to get even. That's what we're witnessing, the last, final attempt of the Confederacy to smash the hated, Yankee federal government. They're abetted by assorted losers with authority issues, including an understandable collection of geeks whose talents in the old days would have rooted them in windowless rooms balancing accounts to the penny. Some are getting rich. Others rejoice over the internet making porn much more readily accessible to incels. A bad lot, in any case.
The lesser sites, like Gawker, were easier prey. They fall under the 'flood the zone' plan now, destined to be buried in a tidal wave of shit. You can see it happening. Since the election there's a new menace coming from the right, and it's classically terrifying, demonizing the other side to the point of dehumanization. The evil left commie traitor cowards must be annihilated. Of course they've diagnosed themselves. But all three branches of government are fully corrupted, so they will have their way.
Jacob, they’re not trying to run it, they’re trying to raze it. They’re accelerationists. While they had you looking at the shiny object of COVID commie totalitarians you didn’t have time to read all the accelerationist content they were generating behind the scenes. They’re not trying to run the government.
Wow- such a distillation. Excellent piece of writing. If this was a game of ‘Free-Press Battleship’- I’d say the billionaires have taken out the aircraft cruiser and are circling our battleship now.
Ann did do something heroic in putting principle before paycheck, but it’s not something most can do. I have been somewhat encouraged to see the public embrace her and her subscriber numbers steadily tick up from somewhere in the ballpark of 4,000 to over 32,000 when I last checked. I personally paid to be a subscriber- we must care for and protect those willing to stand on principle and protect our collective interests.
As a recovering journalist, I can't help but agree. First you're part of a great, aggressive new thing; then it becomes corporate, which has its good sides (health insurance! regular paychecks!) and its bad (notes from the suits!); then it gets sold or taken over; and then the owners shrug while the journalists who fought the good fight leave or go down.
I wish the family-owned NYT, the foundation-owned Phila Inquirer, the non-profit Chicago Sun-Times, and especially ProPublica, long, productive lives. But I hope nobody's fooling themselves that becoming Pravda is always just a step or two away.
"...analyzing what is happening right now requires nothing but the ability to describe events accurately without succumbing to delusion." Correct, and sadly it seems a big part of this country is feeding and under this delusion.
Presidents are expected historically to understand their role as actor for the American Will. Trump cares only about personal loyalty to him and him only. How is that in any way an American tradition?
I too have sentlmentality about the mainstream media, especially WAPO and NYT. I find lots of good reporting there and strong biting editorials and opinion pieces. Still subscribe to them.
The question I have is how to keep them alive and pressure them to not tilt further to the right. If they go then there will not be a place readers will go to who are not as true blue as you and me and most of bluesky (where I post daily) communicate. I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good (even the lukewarm good )
It is a ggod thing to share our information and thoughts in our silo. But we need after that to figure out how to communicate to others, either directly or to help other voices in different communities get the word out.
It's a tradeoff and a question of strategy and tactics when the Trump side is throwing hardballs inside at the media's heads.
Oh, no. It’s not just journalism. Private equity is America’s great enshittification engine. Everything it touches withers and dies, syphoning the last valuable remains back to the parasitic host.
“To see high quality publications bought and broken by rich people is like watching a drunk hedge fund dickhead throwing up on a Picasso that he hung in his yacht. It’s just a fucking shame. “
Brilliant
Yep, it is. reminds me of the del amitri lyric in nothing ever happens,
'computer terminals report some gains
on the value of copper and tin,
while american businessmen snap up van goghs
for the price of a hospidal wing'
Thank you for writing this.
I worked for a little community newspaper. We served democracy and our community by working hard and digging up important information for shit wages. That wasn’t enough for the hedge fund: It killed everything good so many of us poured our life into. Now I live in a news desert (and write independently instead of covering local news). My novel (The Trailer Park Rules) tells a similar fictional story as it follows a poor reporter’s story.
The loss of legacy media both large and small is killing democracy.
So are billionaires. No one individual should have control of so much.
This is a great post and very heartbreaking and I wonder how many people understand the truth of what you were saying here
What in the name of God are you actually talking about?
Sounds like the name of Satan would be more appropriate here. The Father of Lies and Ruler of this Material World,and Boss of All those Oligarchs especially the mind-fucked one with the sci-fi name and the Grendel style Mother who now thinks he can dictate policy to Great Britain. Sadly,he probably can.
No I don't believe it, because it did not happen. I assumed you were at least gonna go with "cancel culture" or some such to prove the libs were acting as the real totalitarians, or admit to Debra you had nothing at all. But apparently no one ever pointed out to you that it is better to remain silent and have folks think you are a fool instead of opening your mouth and removing all doubt. But that's not for you; instead, you doubled down and just went full on nutter.
The absence of a quality free press that HamNo noted leads directly to this sort of dipshittery so thanks for the immediate example, I guess?
The Dems are not in control … get a grip. Here we go into the void. It will soon become clear through real time events the things people have been warning you about… sit back and just watch, try not to comment as much. You’ll probably live to regret all the silly content you’re generating. Just watch , read, take it in .
"Nolan is misunderstanding the situation. We face totalitarianism by those persons understood as "Liberal," but who are actually crazy."
Citation needed. Srsly.
What 'liberal' policy position is REMOTELY 'crazy'?
Liberals have indeed gone authoritarian. People call it fascism but I call it liberal authoritarianism. It’s catastrophic.
words mean things dude...When you start putzing around with terms and definitions in that Orwellian way, I can completely dismiss your arguments...
Are you sure you understand words? Totalitarian, for instance?
Drink the poisoned Kool-Aid until you die. Or join the sane. "Woke" is a trigger word for people who want someone to hate, but don't have the intellectual chops to dive deep into root causes.
Most everything the Cultural Left says is straight up lies and propaganda. At the least it’s never falsifiable.
You are absolutely correct. Trump is not “the problem.” He is merely the nasty reflection of the evil that men like you do to avoid to avoid being kind, generous, thoughtful, law abiding, respectful of others, and all other descriptions of being a “woke” American. While we are those who have opened their eyes to the grave injustices we all have committed against our neighbors, those different from us, and all who are concerned about the unremitting greed of those who want power only for that purpose.
You're the one who is peddling "woke and totalitarian" with pro-fascism undertones. Stop deflecting from the root problem in the world: human inequality. Some people have hundreds of billions in resources while billions have not enough to eat. Chew on that.
I know so many liberal, educated people who wring their hands over the election of Trump and question why any reasonable, sane person would vote for him. Yet few of these liberals subscribe to a daily newspaper or an intelligent mainstream periodical. They get their news sometimes from TV but more often from a few minutes looking at stuff that flys across the screens of their smartphones. They can easily afford to subscribe to publications but have become too intellectually lazy to regularly read long form journalism. They consider Trump votes dumb asses, but these people are voluntarily no better informed themselves. This is a real problem and is part of the reason for the demise of journalism.
Longform journalism isn't for everyone. Wonks like you and me are outliers. Not everyone can be expected to keep up with what's going on to the degree that someone like you or me keeps up with shit. And honestly it is unfair to expect them to do that. What we are missing is the kind of simple cultural glue that someone like Walter Cronkite could provide. But that barn door has been opened and there is no going back. I wish I knew what the solution was. Sigh
There is not an easy solution. Hamilton is analyzing the decline of the MSM, and respect/interest in "objective" journalism, at the production end. But there is a parallel decline at the consumption end. My parents were high school grads and not intellectual types. The Wash Post landed on the doorstep in the AM but that was not sufficient, they also subscribed to another decent DC paper at the time, The Evening Star. And they watched network news every night. I delivered the Post for 6 years in 1950's/60's. I had 70-80 customers and didn't have to walk far because about 75% of the houses on my route subscribed. People wanted to know what was going on; they were interested. What is the source of that lake of interest today among regular people? The internet is certainly part of the blame; people have absorbed the notion that online is where you get in touch and have grown accustomed to quick updates and summaries.
You are incorrect. Many of us have long been subscribers of both national papers and local and regional ones. Epoch News is NOT included among those. Most Trump “conservatives” watch only Fox and don’t read.
Was subscribing , now cancelled
News papers are hardly worth reading today. I live in Wisconsin. Not far from Chicago. Along with our local paper I have always read the Tribune or the Sun Times. Mainly for the sports reporting and op eds. Not that I didn't read the news. We still get the Trib and our local newspaper. Lately our local paper doesn't have a local section except on Sunday. Anything I can read in the paper I can read on line, listen to podcasts or watch videos. Politically and economically speaking I get more out of watching or reading independent journalists. I still like the internet because I still find interesting things to read that are not in the newspapers. I came here through a link in the Sunday Long Read. Great site for and you can it free every Sunday. The bad thing is that sometimes there are links to articles that are behind a paywall.
You are correct in all you say. As a distant observer (a Brit in France) I have wondered for decades when the rot in the American systems would conspire to bring the empire down, and if it would be in my lifetime. And here we are, with the architect of the destruction voted in, not just once but twice! No lessons learned. We are all awaiting the 20th with trepidation; just how far will he go?
But for me, the most interesting thing is the numbers of people still in denial. Still talking about how they'll take back power in the next election (what next election?), how everyday America will carry on as normal, and how if Americans just do this, this and that, then everything can be fixed!
At least Americans cannot blame anyone but themselves for what happens next; no Islamic terrorists, no Twin Towers, not even an alien invasion from space! All that military power, all that money spent, all those American kids killed and maimed, and now no one to nuke!
Just American greed, selfishness, overconfidence and laziness as democracy, integrity and fair play slipped away, washing away The American Dream with it.
I am often reminded of The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, where guests book a dinner table to watch the End of the Universe on a time loop. That's how I feel, sitting here in Europe, watching the short-lived American empire self-destruct in fascination, and hoping we are at the Safe Recommended Distance from the blast.
I am not complacent about Europe either. Many similar issues affect many European countries, and the overarching threats of climate heating and wars and mass migration are certainly high on the agendas here too, including for me personally. I have the benefit of old age, so I am hoping to be around long enough to watch what happens over there, and not be around to experience too much of what happens over here!
You see, I can do 'selfish' too! 😬
so happy europe is reverting back to economic wasteland it traditionally was. id bother to insult your colossal ignorance but God already did the heavylifting by making you british
This is an amazing thing we're witnessing. Republicans are salivating over the opportunity to do so much evil, and having spats about aiming for greater destruction or lesser destruction more quickly, and over a narrower focus with a surer outcome or a broader aim with less certainty. But the desire to fuck things up animates and unifies them. The last thing they can withstand is scrutiny, so the media must go, like the universities, the last bastions of resistance however poorly they were doing it.
The mainstreams would have had to report on this the way they did WWII, by overtly taking sides, and they couldn't do that. There was a lot of middle ground and they might have done better but they couldn't swallow their vanity to the necessary extent. 'Confederate Forces Sack Capitol.' It wasn't going to happen. 'Red States Send Raft of Traitors to Washington.' Not possible. I understand that, but Sulzberger is as much an incompetent nepo baby as Bush and Trump. Destruction, however, is easier.
And the crazies have that fucking drive. Rooted in compensation, in my opinion. Deep down they know they're pieces of shit, so they spend their lives in resentment and in trying to convince themselves they aren't pieces of shit, those that haven't given up, like Stephen Miller, and revel in being evil and hurtful. Really, it's hard to take in. I didn't think it possible because Americans hadn't taken the kind of narcissistic hit that engenders this stuff. Then I moved to the South. Somebody lost a war.
Somebody was dying to get even. That's what we're witnessing, the last, final attempt of the Confederacy to smash the hated, Yankee federal government. They're abetted by assorted losers with authority issues, including an understandable collection of geeks whose talents in the old days would have rooted them in windowless rooms balancing accounts to the penny. Some are getting rich. Others rejoice over the internet making porn much more readily accessible to incels. A bad lot, in any case.
The lesser sites, like Gawker, were easier prey. They fall under the 'flood the zone' plan now, destined to be buried in a tidal wave of shit. You can see it happening. Since the election there's a new menace coming from the right, and it's classically terrifying, demonizing the other side to the point of dehumanization. The evil left commie traitor cowards must be annihilated. Of course they've diagnosed themselves. But all three branches of government are fully corrupted, so they will have their way.
Trump isn't the one in charge. He's too stupid to understand that.
Jacob, they’re not trying to run it, they’re trying to raze it. They’re accelerationists. While they had you looking at the shiny object of COVID commie totalitarians you didn’t have time to read all the accelerationist content they were generating behind the scenes. They’re not trying to run the government.
Wow- such a distillation. Excellent piece of writing. If this was a game of ‘Free-Press Battleship’- I’d say the billionaires have taken out the aircraft cruiser and are circling our battleship now.
Ann did do something heroic in putting principle before paycheck, but it’s not something most can do. I have been somewhat encouraged to see the public embrace her and her subscriber numbers steadily tick up from somewhere in the ballpark of 4,000 to over 32,000 when I last checked. I personally paid to be a subscriber- we must care for and protect those willing to stand on principle and protect our collective interests.
As a recovering journalist, I can't help but agree. First you're part of a great, aggressive new thing; then it becomes corporate, which has its good sides (health insurance! regular paychecks!) and its bad (notes from the suits!); then it gets sold or taken over; and then the owners shrug while the journalists who fought the good fight leave or go down.
I wish the family-owned NYT, the foundation-owned Phila Inquirer, the non-profit Chicago Sun-Times, and especially ProPublica, long, productive lives. But I hope nobody's fooling themselves that becoming Pravda is always just a step or two away.
The (((New York Times))) is awful and so is the (((family))) that runs it.
Awesome read. I'm still mad about what happened to Gawker.
"...analyzing what is happening right now requires nothing but the ability to describe events accurately without succumbing to delusion." Correct, and sadly it seems a big part of this country is feeding and under this delusion.
Presidents are expected historically to understand their role as actor for the American Will. Trump cares only about personal loyalty to him and him only. How is that in any way an American tradition?
Cogent and depressing, a ominous combination.
What a bummer.
May the lord bless you and keep you, Hamilton. 🥇
Which lord?
Damn, you tell it well.
I too have sentlmentality about the mainstream media, especially WAPO and NYT. I find lots of good reporting there and strong biting editorials and opinion pieces. Still subscribe to them.
The question I have is how to keep them alive and pressure them to not tilt further to the right. If they go then there will not be a place readers will go to who are not as true blue as you and me and most of bluesky (where I post daily) communicate. I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good (even the lukewarm good )
It is a ggod thing to share our information and thoughts in our silo. But we need after that to figure out how to communicate to others, either directly or to help other voices in different communities get the word out.
It's a tradeoff and a question of strategy and tactics when the Trump side is throwing hardballs inside at the media's heads.
But their new owners now care only about the money, not the job of informing the public.