Its the end of the Media as we know it …
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10:42 am, February 28th, 2025 - 42 comments
Categories: capitalism, Deep stuff, Donald Trump, Media, Politics, us politics -
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Two recent media related stories made me wonder if there was now formal acknowledgement that the concept that media should fearlessly and impartially report the news is now dead.
In America rich man with far too much money Jeff Bezos has announced that the Washington Post, which he owns, would henceforth be nothing more than a cheerleader for laissez faire capitalism and “personal liberties”. I suspect not all personal liberties, more the far right Trumpian concept of personal liberties used to create mayhem and disorder.
From the Guardian:
Jeff Bezos, the self-proclaimed “hands-off” owner of the Washington Post, emailed staffers on Wednesday morning about a change he is applying to the paper’s opinion section that appears to align the newspaper more closely with the political right.
“I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos said.
“We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.”
The drift to the right by the Washington Post has become something of a rush recently. Just before the last election Bezos instructed the Post not to endorse a Presidential candidate. Earlier this year the publication of a cartoon critical of the relationship between American billionaires and Trump was blocked. His most recent announcement that dissenting voices will not be published will clearly be the last straw for many.
There has been a recent local event which mirrors what Bezos has planned.
NZME, owners of the Herald, has also planned a change in tone and emphasis. It also recently announced the shedding of staff including some very experienced reporters.
Helping New Zealand thrive matches Christopher Luxon’s rhetoric, and this and sharing stories of success mirrors Bezos’s support of free markets. It appears that the Herald will become an even stronger cheerleader for this Government.
“Improving the tone of the conversation to build positive momentum” has a decidedly North Korean feel about it. Presenting the news with the theme of everything is awesome will do nothing to assist in the really important discussions that we need to be having in relation to such topics as climate change and child poverty.
At one level this is nothing more than we always thought, that the main stream media is in the service of the wealthy.
But it is jarring for this to be acknowledged and presented so publicly and so bluntly.
Alternative media will become more and more important. It is a good time to think about how the Standard can contribute to fill in a rather large hole that main stream media are creating.
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I see Ryan Bridge is going to be fronting the NZHerald new format. Are they so devoid of good journalists they have to go to this nasty ZB cooker? I agree ; a discussion about how the Standard can help fill the void is timely.
Micky, can you please pop into the back end this morning when. you have a moment?
as an aside to that, I also agree we should have about TS and what next.
The thing that really worries me about this is that it's basically the tech bros understanding that Trump has enabled them to take power and demolish democracy. They can now say things out loud in places that they couldn't before.
NZH is still being a bit coy, although I agree the change is not good. The fact that it's not as up front as the US is good, and we should make use of that while we can.
Those three statements from the Herald about "setting a new tone" are just breath-taking. It is the most thinly-veiled admission of a propagandist intention that anyone could come up with.
They also remind me of the experience of working for a business that is struggling and where everyone who is not (yet) made redundant is monitored to the hilt for their positivity and 'buy-in' to the changes that are being made. So I'd guess there is also an element of internal policing going on with these statements.
I have always been sceptical of the Right's professed commitment to freedom of speech, suspecting that it was mostly about using economic, political and media power to ensure the dominance of their own speech, of the world-view it expresses and of the status quo it defends. This statement from NZME confirms that view.
I think some people must have short memories because up until the big media corp mergers of the 1980s almost every newspaper you could name was privately owned and followed the editorial line of their owner.
the difference is that they weren't fascists with an action plan on how to replace democracy.
Lord Rothermere of the Daily Mail was literally spruiking for Hitler.
As for Rupert Murdoch…
link me to their action plans for removing democracy.
An old adage goes…”the freedom of the press belongs to those that own one…” Provincial Tory newspaper operators were pretty clear where they stood, not many left now.
I think there is room/a call for a new news entity…
A lean/mean not-for-profit online aggregator of what is worthwhile to read and view…local and international..as it's core..
..and of course with room for guest commentary etc…
..now that the gloves are off on the right…a clear opposing ethos has validity/bite…
I feel the time is ripe for such a media model…
I believe they accept donations if you want to provide support Phil.
https://thestandard.org.nz/contact-us/donate/
It could come under the standard banner ..or a new entity could be developed..
It's a simple model…but it works..
..and the not for profit status opens the doors to funding not available to commercial models ..and also draws other support..
Something like it is certainly needed..
That NZ Herald "Setting the tone" bollocks will be familiar to anyone who's had to participate in setting an organisation's 'mission, vision and values' statements. Merely stating what the organisation is there to do (in NZH's case, this would be something like "We will do a good job of reporting the news") is woefully insufficient. Instead, your organisation must be the last and best hope of humanity to create a shiny, prosperous and happy future society, leaving unwritten that this will be achieved via… doing what your organisation is there to do.
Zuckerberg man ups.
Part one. Gym buff.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jun/01/mark-zuckerberg-completes-extreme-fitness-challenge-in-20kg-vest
Part two. Aligning with an alpha male – wolf pack bro style.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/543301/meta-fires-employees-for-leaks-amid-zuckerberg-s-trump-pivot
This reminds one of the old Greek saying.
It would be better if an educated woman was to vote than men without an education.
Listening to Bongino, Crowder, Rogan, Carlson and Peterson on Rumble does not make one educated.
Or to Spotify podcasts.
https://podcastcharts.byspotify.com/
There is the Silo effect, given the numbers ex Fox News into these pathways for reinforcing right wing messaging.
Many argue that resistance begins by moving beyond MSM reporting to contest the narrative.
Funny, that. That's what many early suffragettes in the UK thought too, which is why they supported eugenics programmes to stop the hoipolloi outbreeding the 'proper electorate'. eg
Why? Really?
There is no connection between wanting middle class women to have the right to vote and eugenics.
In the USA, where all men could vote, there were people like Samuel Bush and Henry Ford in the USA who supported eugenics (to have better male workforce) and all without seeking to extend the franchise to women.
The suffragettes didn't support eugenics. Some people who were Suffragettes also supported eugenics. At the time eugenics was a widespread notion so there were probably some people in almost any group who supported eugenics. I don't hold with eugenics but we seemed to have slipped into the reverse – Idiocracy – which isn't that great either.
Can you learn from them if you listen on another platform?
One can learn from a lot of sources, once trained/educated to critically analyse them.
The thing about platforms and the algor interweb in general is the reinforcement of messaging.
The silo narrative, crafting a new perception of the world.
Set up a page each day for links to news stories.
That could work…using the readership of the standard to find the good stuff….
That would also work as an option on the nfp model I cited…
Could call it "whoar!"
Heh .!…yeah ..
My timing wasn't too good..only about 20 yrs too soon..
..but yes .. That aggregation of all that is good is what I was doing with whoar…
I saw the need them…and it is still there…
how do you mean?
I imagine similar to Open Mike but dedicated to comments linking interesting articles from a left viewpoint
so a set, repeating post where commenters can bring good media of the day? I like the idea.
it would need some curating to stop it being just a dump fest of links or turning into FB.
The benefits from setting up as a not for profit separate entity…is the eligiblity for funding…and support coming in in other ways…
Pretty much already exists here on TS in the menu section on the right (Feeds, Party, Govt, Media).
I think it's more that commenters can bring the media they are reading.
I would like to thank the Herald for its honesty in openly stating its bias and move towards censorship. For too long it has masqueraded as a balanced news source.
Even back in the 80s when I was a trainee journalist my older peers told me about the Herald and warned me that if I wanted journalistic credibility not to work there. Of course if you were only concerned about making money – no problem. They called it "the biggest circulating National Party newsletter".
In the c1999 period I faxed Richard Long and Karl du Fresne at the Dominion and called them Mr Magoo. Karl du Fresne is even worse now, but can concede he is/has become a curmudgeon (unable to stand real journalists like Campbell), Long became a National operative in the 2000’s.
The Nat Party support was evident then, when 6 months before an election, the old Laura'nOrder drum would begin to be beaten, as regular as clockwork.
When algorithms 'go bad'. Meta's Instagram Reels feed flooded users with violent deaths.
' "As Instagram rolls back content moderation this is likely to be a sign of things to come,” said Andy Burrows, the foundation’s chief executive [of a UK charity for online safety]. “Meta’s changes will mean this type of content is more freely available and will more often be recommended to appear in user’s feeds.” '
Expect more Curia polls as they suck up to the coalition. Seymours threats would appear to have had the desired effect.
Blatantly partisan and hey let's be more like SM as that's soooo great for our business.
A huge part of the problem here is our owned media full of coalition mouthpieces ( and pissweak TVNZ) just publishing whatever BS comes out of a ministers mouth.
To my ears….rnz has become somehow less questioning…
To be provocative for a moment, I heard Seymour on Checkpoint defending the indefensible
clusterfuck that is cost cutting by giving hungry children inferior quality frozen and heated again 'food'Compass.He sounded positively Prime Ministerial, certainly more so than the current offering.
Has quite the ring to it – 'Arise Sir David Breen Seymour'.
I honestly don't know why you all find this disturbing given that Righties like me abandoned the MSM years ago – in my case around 2003 – and will not be returning no matter how many click-bait articles they publish attacking Hipkins and company.
And people younger than me don’t bother watching, reading or listening to the MSM irrespective of their ideological or partisan bent – unless they’re political activists.
The MSM have increasingly been dead to the RW since the early part of the 21st century and their audience increasingly seems to be people aged 70+. Now it seems they're dying for the Left as well.
No problems, internet sites are already here to report – and only report – the news as it happens, and alternative journalism from Substack and such will continue to provide the analysis of that news. Older sites, blogs, like The Standard, will likely have a role in that ecosystem, hopefully larger than at present.
The MSM are dying anyway. Good. Let them die. This government doesn't have the spine to shut down RNZ and TVNZ but they're becoming so worthless that a future government will do so. It might even be a Labour-led government?