Welcome to the I-don’t-care-azoic Period ;
[F]or the media ponderers there’s a more troubling issue than the restoration of trust. It’s the possibility that too many people now simply don’t much care about the major media anymore. Normally the great media combines would overcome periods of lassitude by forming up focus groups to tell them what to do next. Hah! They want “Survivor”! Alas, living as we do now in a world of seemingly infinite choice, it is possible not to care for a seeming infinity of reasons, which is why the established media are having such a hard time knowing what to do.
There is also the fact that the MSM is run by a pack of not-too-bright Liberals, whose philosophy of life requires them to believe in 12 impossible things before breakfast.
The only way the MSM will survive is to go totally tabloid…..look to Britain!
The MSM has enjoyed a government issued license to to tell us all what to think and do for along time.
However, there is finally an exception to the fact that “any government that can give you everything you want, can also take away everything you have.
That is … with the internet, the people can now pull the rug out from under the government mandated MSM.
It looks good on them too. I can imagine that governments and their MSM pals everywhere are having fits about how the hell they can ever get a grip on and control the ‘New Peoples Media’. I coin it here and now. “The NPM”
It already has replaced the MSM in all the ways that matter. It will still take awhile before the car ads and sport pages jump ship. Till then we will still have something to line our bird cages and wrap our fish in.
As far as TV is concerned it has simply become the narrow reality of stupid … nothing more.
Circa 2027:
“See that kids? Don’t touch it… it’s very old and could break quite easily. That’s a newspaper. People used to read them on the bus instead of having music beamed directly to their iEars by satellite.”
“Ewww, Daddy, it’s stinky.”
“Yes it is sweetie. Yes it is.”
John: “New Peoples’ Media”? That sounds like classic left-speak. You know, like New Democratic Party – neither new nor democratic.
….“which is why the established media are having such a hard time knowing what to do.”
You bet they are stumped. In all of the media boardrooms in NA and Europe I doubt one moron has suggested the obvious, cleaning up their act by getting facts straight, enforcing rules against the editorial page crossing into every article, and presenting issues with a fair balance of opinions in an article. To accomplish this they would have to burn themselves to the ground and start over which is why it won’t happen.
They’ll just cluelessly keep doing what they do, too dumb to realize they are being diluted out of existance.
The current suicidal corporate MSM are first and foremost in competition with each other in holding a monopoly on influence peddling….essentially this is all MSM media does…. sell public influence to its patrons… commercial, corporate or political….unlicenced and undeclared lobbyists…that’s the corporate MSM.
It makes perfect sense they would pursue their dream of monopoly rather than changing to adapt to public demand…public demand never drove corporate media…it’s patrons do so they call the shots…if the MSM resists change it’s because their patrons do not want it.
As for those of us who have abandoned the MSM, it is not so much their obvious partisan/patron distortions of the truth(MSM spin)has become so trite we resent them, as much as it is the fact these schmucks aid a lot of scumbags who do more damage than good to society. Why pay for their spew to encourage that?
Kind of like a whore who promotes the bad or damaging ideas of her John without any way for listners/readers to argue the fact with her.
The alternate media and internet may have as much partisan distortion but at least it is the personal opinion of the blogger and you have a equal opportunity to counter argue and expose any fallacies to the court of public opinion.
Everything is fine folks, The dumbing down of news and information can only be in footstep with the dumbing down of our decadent western culture.
Who wants unbiased news and information that truly matters: BORING!
“Hey, take a look at my new iphone with built in pocket fisherman and shoe horn…quick, come see before I throw it out as obsolete next month”
“BE HAPPY, BUY MORE”
THX1138
Hiding behind desks at CP.
I can’t help but be amazed why Canadian Press the newswire service would not have email addresses for their individual writers.
Email addresses are scarce as hen’s teeth on their website.
Too bad, because I suspect whenever their news stories wallow in editorial content, the blogging community would very quickly point out the transgression pretty damned quickly to the individual responsible.
In the meantime Canadian Press is steadily losing relevance as reliable unbiased news distributer.
It’s like everything else, when you lose respect and trust, what’s left?
The media have lost both. This all came to a head with the election of a Conservative government. Their little games of lies and innuendo, skewing facts to manipulate opinion is not appreciated by the masses, no matter political stripe.
We don’t like being taken for fools who can’t form our own opinions.
Was a time when the national news was a routine thing to watch in many homes, now we have to do our own checking to ascertain whether it’s factual IF we watch it at all.
I agree with Penny. These guys in the MSM just don’t get it. In part, I think it’s a bit like the samurai mentality prior to the Meiji (did I spell that correctly?) restoration. The MSM can’t “get it” any more than the samurai could because to “get it” meant the end of the world as they knew it and, more importantly, their position in it. The reporters and editors would have to morph themselves into something akin to scientific researchers or private investigators, people with real expertise doing hard work, wary of their own biases without a whole lot of profile — pretty hard for general arts students who found chemistry too tough.
Nails in the coffin.
MSM vs. People w/ choices
Mr. Nail, meet Mr. Hammer.
A good example of MSM being non inquisitve where their patrons are concerned came to light this week…..what about Truscott?
In the 50s-60s the Media helped railroad him because their licencing and business interests were tied to the ruling status quo….the status quo regime in power being the media’s biggest patron and holding their licence to do business, was engaged in railroading an innocent kid to cover up their own corruption and ineptitude….the word was to hush up any talk of Truscott’s innocence so the MSM of the day went with the flow.
There is no doubt in my mind that if the private blogging community and the internet existed in 1960 Truscott would never have seen the abomination of justice he did.
As late as the 90s and even the last 4 years where was the MSM investigative reporting on Truscott’s miscarrage of justice case?…exposing who shafted him and why?…who continues to put legal road blocks in his way to seek full exoneration?…lots of fluffy feelgood gibbering but no deep investigation to nail the culprits….because the culprits are the same ones who hold the media’s licencing and patronage today.
It’s a simple symbiotic arrangement with the media …you don’t investigate and cause trouble for your patrons or the man holding your licence to do business.
….“pretty hard for general arts students who found chemistry too tough.”
Right. The lower tier worker ants in that industry frankly aren’t that bright. Face it, how tough is it to get a degree in journalism or communications? A cop or a nurse is more likely to drill down to the facts. Someone who loves good literature is more likely to craft an article better. A degree in science, history or economics and you wouldn’t screw up so many facts or conclusions. Whatever ethics you are taught get bastardized on the first job. Sub-prime lenders and used car salesmen are your ethical counterpart in the eyes of the public.
Journalism to save itself, as I see it, needs to be replaced by everyone that isn’t a journalist. How’s that for a failed industry.
I think Penny and DrD nailed it, and if you want a prime specimen of the sort of thing they’re talking about, and have a strong stomach, watch Larry King tonight: it’s Princess Diana time (again). Some dinosaurs have even smaller brains than others.
This is a little off-topic. Today’s Macleans cover shouts out about” Bush-era capitalists making millions off disasters” Katrina,Iraq,etc. I”m not positive about this ,but when Andrew hit Florida was the billion dollars worth of rebuilding donated because Clinton was in the white house?
Sorry,the other bush was there. But my point is that it doesn’t matter who is in office,after a disaster,work has to be done and profits are made.
If i hear one of those evolutionists crack-pots call me a glorified reptile will get violent i,ll pick their eyes out SQUAWK SQUAWK
It must be so em-bare-ass-ing for the media types — from editors to journos to owners.
That they are loosing their grip on a centuries long, ‘drive the adgenda’ method of reporting, is painfully obvious.
The CTV’s, G&M’s, CBC’s, own commenters are now frequently shredding the “story” — whether it is AGW, politics, fearmongering on health or what ever. They can see through the ‘tabloidism’.
And that is their own readers !! Those that are allowed through the filter !! Often 90% ridicule an article. Must be embarrassing, yet they try it again the very next day. Sad.
Kate’s post and her commenters hit on the key words;
Tabloid-like
Dumbing-down
Operating at a level of melodrama
Falsifying the news
Trust
Irrelevant
Free to choose
K-8 education in unforeseen ways
Believe in 12 impossible things before breakfast
Go totaly Tabloid
Gov’t issued license on what to think
How to control the ‘New People’s Media’
The narrow reality of stupid
Burn themselves to the ground
Hiding behind desks at CP
Lost both, respect & trust — aka PPG
Because to “get it” meant the end of the world as they knew it
Whatever ethics you are taught get bastardized on the first job
Classic, milestone words and phrases IMO 🙂
Clueless liberals put silly looking legs on the fishies when they nevr ever had them
I remember when the tories attacked pension plans as being outdated. They attacked minimum wages,rent controls(Which may be back),medicare,CWB,WCB,anything they could. The NDP defend medicare,minimum wages and all the other social programs you Tories benefit from. Are you on crack??