FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz convened his much-anticipated, “Please Save My Wife’s Job” workshop yesterday. Since I wasn’t invited, I don’t know how much progress was made on Leibowitz’s core goal of finding new ways for the federal government to “save” newspapers from death-by-Internet, but I must credit the chairman on his impeccable timing. While media elites like Rupert Murdoch and Arianna Huffington spoke under Leibowitz’s ever-clueless gaze, the press they were trying to save continued to deteriorate with gusto.
I’m referring here to the media-wide meltdown over a minor traffic accident involving a professional athlete. I won’t give the details here. But when said athlete failed to immediately genuflect before the traditional and non-traditional press, there was quite a collective temper tantrum (or should I say, Twitter tantrum.)
Indeed, I was reading the tweets of one gallant sportswriter at the Washington Times, who derided our athlete friend for daring to assert any level of privacy in the face of media demands. Of course, within the past few hours the tweets have changed to desperate pleas — for work. Turns out the writer will likely lose his job soon, as the Times plans to slash 40% of its staff, including the entire sports department, because Times ownership has decided 27 years is long enough to lose millions of dollars annually.
There’s poetic beauty here. The feds are desperate to save an industry that’s resorted to shrill, third-rate gossip as a means of supporting thousands of overpaid college journalism majors. The FTC and old media clearly deserve one another.
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I’m going to party heavily the day the New York Times goes under. May it happen very soon!
I have been praying that Woods would put out a statement that what happened “Is no one’s *#@*&ing business.” However, I am sure he will eventually be brought to bended knee asking the media for forgiveness.
If some leftist fundie in Congress gets wind of this non-vital bastion of dumb-down media on the ropes, expect a lot of “science” to be fabricated to demand gov’t subsidy for the fish-wraps.
Being a journalism major, I take a bit of exception to the “overpaid college journalism majors” comment.
I would say the supply of journalism graduates may be too high, due to state subsidies and the university system being what it is.
I don’t think any daily newspaper or regular, researching magazine freelance writer would concur with any “overpaid” statement.
But I do share in the appreciation towards the crumbling of our basic media structure as it’s been since the early 1900s.
“I don’t think any daily newspaper or regular, researching magazine freelance writer would concur with any “overpaid” statement.”
Probably true – but they don’t get to decide what the correct compensation for their work is. They are worth whatever someone is willing to pay them. The overpaid part is generally proved by looking at newspapers that are laying off established journalists, who don’t have much hope to earn as much as they did at their old job.
My understanding of being overpaid is the lack of quality content. Newspapers for years push a political agenda and endorse those supporting it.
This idea of government funding of newspapers is only legitimizing the current system. eg. global warming.
consolidation is a necessary and healthy economic reality. let a couple of papers go out of business and all of a sudden the supply of avaiable ad space shrinks, driving up demand and prices for the remaining papers. we can keep a bunch of zombie papers afloat thanks to the tax payers or we can eliminate some and have self sustainable papers left.
Propaganda & the State
Just a quick comment: Many people seem to think the mass media support “liberal,” i.e., Democratic, causes.
I take issue with that conclusion. Look at The New York Times, for example: The paper might support gay marriage and reproductive rights, but it was also responsible for publishing much of the disinformation that led this nation into the Iraq War. A few days after his own aide Scooter Libby had planted a story about Iraq pursuing nuclear-weapon technology, Dick Cheney cited that exact story on Meet the Press. Judith Miller, the reporter under whose byline the lies were published, never published the obvious follow-up story with the obvious follow-up headline: “Administration Manipulates Times Into Publishing Disinformation.”
In my mind, mass media communicates one all-encompassing message, regardless of whether it is Fox News or CNN or MSNBC or The New York Times: Everything is fine. The large issues of war and peace and finance and fiscal policy are being handled by people much smarter and wiser than you. Concern yourself with issues you can understand: like abortion and gay rights. Vanquish the other side, that seeks to (a) repress your rights to free expression, or (b) turn the country into Soddom and Gomorrah. Consume. Consume. Consume.
The point: Newspapers are failing because their lies are becoming so obvious. Everything is not fine. The people in charge do not have access to some higher source of wisdom than we do. And socially divisive issues are not of paramount importance to the long-unemployed. As newspapers and mass media lose credibility, a vacuum will emerge, as people look for explanations of the events around them. Hopefully, those of us who believe in classical liberalism and the political economy of the Austrian School gain listeners.
Mitch,
“Being a journalism major, I take a bit of exception to the “overpaid college journalism majors” comment.”
By OVERPAID, the commenter meant that you guys earn more money than you create in value. That most journalist only regurgitate statist propaganda and therefore, even if you earn a miserably small salary, it is still too much money paid to spread lies and harmful propaganda.
Please, do us all a favor and recycle yourself into honest work that actually create value, like picking up garbage. That would be much more useful than writing garbage.
Here comes Henry Waxman to the rescue. The government has to rescue the media from a failing business model!
http://www.reuters.com/article/COMSRV/idUSN0281320091202
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