Didn’t I see this every day I worked in corporate America? I know how this functions, have made mental observations and adjustments around these people for decades, knowing that they were in their positions for different reasons I was in mine. And it wasn’t just about the salary or “career goals.” They were there primarily for the power they could attach to themselves. I was there for the work itself. And to this day, I believe that they had no idea what “the work”really meant. Oh, but could they talk a good game.
The gathering of what the manufactured reality looks like in your writing is real. Your own eyes have verified it. The mirror that was handed down to you from your father is the same mirror you still look in. It's proven itself. It still doesn't have a pricetag on it. I know one thing, and it is this ~ what I see in the mirror will never be for sale.
"a rookie reporter-without a tuxedo, and obviously without the gift shop access-was producing his report with genuine, unironic commitment and sincerity." Transactional news outlets are run by corporate teams of profiteers. The woman in the car at 6:30 has what none of the others have: ethics, a moral compass, a humility to be wrong and admit it with a retraction or edited correction--relationship. If this sounds corny or trite, it is because we have lost our own relationship with meaning and truth.
I figured out quite a few years ago that all TV news was absolute horseshit and quit watching what little I had been. This just proves what I already thought. These people are bought and paid for actors willing to whore themselves out to the highest bidder. They would have done exactly the same thing in 1930s Germany. But unfortunately the majority of Americans aren't smart enough to realize this and continue to swallow the shit being spoon fed to them.
Appreciate you reading it, and you're not wrong about TV news running on the same incentives no matter which channel it's on. That's the whole point of the piece, really. It was never about picking a side, it's about who the arrangement actually serves. I stopped watching also. Cutting it off does more than any article ever could. Glad it landed the way it did for you. Keep questioning what you're being spoon-fed. That instinct is exactly what this piece was trying to put into words.
It's not just cable news, which I stopped watching well before Trump stripped the facade of legacy media, and the institutional rot that destroyed most of our democracy years ago.
Look at Woodward, who held off reporting on vital Covid information that might have save lives...to sell a book.
Or Haberman, whose career was built on access to Trump and warmed over stories, regurgitated in a book as "deja news".
Or the endless podcasts, where opinions now substitute for reporting or facts...and the endless grifting of old and new media.
Or the absurdity of tech media, mindlessly repeating the utter nonsense of Musk, Altman, etc and helping to create yet another economic bubble.
The public bears responsibility as well...for settling for infotainment vs investigative journalism...for refusing to demand accountability when actual journalists at ProPublica uncover SCOTUS' corruption and Democrats just run out the clock...for continuing to watch cable news decades into its loss of both relevance and integrity...for abdicating critical thinking.
All the incentives are on the side of corruption, access, snd self-dealing because most Americans won't act until they're personally impacted.
Here in the UK we have a couple of news outlets that do a good job - the Byline Times for one, and some new ones popping up. And there's a network of local on line papers that allows "citizen journalists" to get their stuff out - the Bylines Network.
And there are some local papers outside that network, still, one or two worth reading.
Most of the UK nationals are not even worth wrapping your chips in any more, and the paper they use won't even make good firelighters. They're owned by the same sort of gangsters-in-suits that run your US news outlets.
Once the AI data-centers run out of water & sparks, life will be really interesting, won't it?
I was witness and participant in the early days (1970s) of reporting conformity to please some public official. I was at a major academic conference giving a paper on the impact of media being owned by companies that had interlocking directorates w special interests. I had discovered the US domestic nuclear industry had suffered major life-threatening accidents nobody much knew about. When a public interest group got three anti nuke measures on the ballot, the CA media went after them BEFORE they had been qualified. It troubled me WHY TV and papers were so adamantly opposed to these measures. So I began digging and found those w ties to the nuke industry were far more likely to have buried those accidents than media without those ties.
I gave the paper on a panel with Barry Commoner. His talk was bout how he had learned it was now possible to make photovoltaic panels for solar that would generate energy, not just heat. This was a radical game changer for the uses of solar energy. He said the Department of Energy was not making it public, and they needed to. It meant expensive nuclear plants were far less attractive than inexpensive solar.
After the panel, I was approached by a reporter from a major wire service who wanted a copy of my paper and argued that he NEVER would fail to tell the truth. I asked if he was going to write about what Commoner said, and he said, of course. We parted ways, and I began, daily, to look for his story in every major paper. About a week later I found it. It wasn't a story of Commoner's revelation at all. It was a story about how the Department of Energy had announced that week that photovoltaic cells could now generate energy. Complete whitewash. Good that Commoner seemed to have pushed them to admit it - but readers would never know that they had hidden the information and were outed by Commoner, a fact I think is quite significant. Of course, there was not a word about my findings on media's cozy ties to the nuke industry and how it influenced reporting. And so it began. Deference to power. The young journalist had done EXACTLY what he said he never did. He covered up. He deferred. The things that are never said out loud. Even then, mid 1970s, that was already the norm. Downhill from there.
Absolutely - this is why I’ve always hated this event. It lays bare that none of these people - the politicians as well as the journalists - mean what they say — it’s all a performance.
Washington is a performance town. Inbred, incestuous, a parody of a joke no one laughs at. It lacks substance and gravitas. It is what we have, and thus Trump gets another stage to babble and the rest of the country struggles to eat, have health coverage, and survive a shady Naked King.
The world is appalled, and the MAGA fanatics dance into their seppuku.
Good for you that you are true to yourself and the truth. I’m so happy that Substack writers are available for reporting that isn’t compromised by their own role as reporter, their fame, and their ambitions. It seemed like there was a quiet tone of anger, disgust, and disappointment in your post—character on display that isn’t for sale at any price.
Yes, they are an amazing bunch. I like the depth of their learning, cleverness of expression, thoughtfulness, and genuine goodness. Who do you read regularly?
I'm thinking those "journalists" are devoid of any self respect. To sell one's soul and then still be able live with one's self... Every single person who had a plate at that Correspondence Dinner has something in common with the worst people in the world. They all wear that stink.
Didn’t I see this every day I worked in corporate America? I know how this functions, have made mental observations and adjustments around these people for decades, knowing that they were in their positions for different reasons I was in mine. And it wasn’t just about the salary or “career goals.” They were there primarily for the power they could attach to themselves. I was there for the work itself. And to this day, I believe that they had no idea what “the work”really meant. Oh, but could they talk a good game.
The gathering of what the manufactured reality looks like in your writing is real. Your own eyes have verified it. The mirror that was handed down to you from your father is the same mirror you still look in. It's proven itself. It still doesn't have a pricetag on it. I know one thing, and it is this ~ what I see in the mirror will never be for sale.
"a rookie reporter-without a tuxedo, and obviously without the gift shop access-was producing his report with genuine, unironic commitment and sincerity." Transactional news outlets are run by corporate teams of profiteers. The woman in the car at 6:30 has what none of the others have: ethics, a moral compass, a humility to be wrong and admit it with a retraction or edited correction--relationship. If this sounds corny or trite, it is because we have lost our own relationship with meaning and truth.
I figured out quite a few years ago that all TV news was absolute horseshit and quit watching what little I had been. This just proves what I already thought. These people are bought and paid for actors willing to whore themselves out to the highest bidder. They would have done exactly the same thing in 1930s Germany. But unfortunately the majority of Americans aren't smart enough to realize this and continue to swallow the shit being spoon fed to them.
Sharing your post with my subscribers tomorrow.
Appreciate you reading it, and you're not wrong about TV news running on the same incentives no matter which channel it's on. That's the whole point of the piece, really. It was never about picking a side, it's about who the arrangement actually serves. I stopped watching also. Cutting it off does more than any article ever could. Glad it landed the way it did for you. Keep questioning what you're being spoon-fed. That instinct is exactly what this piece was trying to put into words.
It's not just cable news, which I stopped watching well before Trump stripped the facade of legacy media, and the institutional rot that destroyed most of our democracy years ago.
Look at Woodward, who held off reporting on vital Covid information that might have save lives...to sell a book.
Or Haberman, whose career was built on access to Trump and warmed over stories, regurgitated in a book as "deja news".
Or the endless podcasts, where opinions now substitute for reporting or facts...and the endless grifting of old and new media.
Or the absurdity of tech media, mindlessly repeating the utter nonsense of Musk, Altman, etc and helping to create yet another economic bubble.
The public bears responsibility as well...for settling for infotainment vs investigative journalism...for refusing to demand accountability when actual journalists at ProPublica uncover SCOTUS' corruption and Democrats just run out the clock...for continuing to watch cable news decades into its loss of both relevance and integrity...for abdicating critical thinking.
All the incentives are on the side of corruption, access, snd self-dealing because most Americans won't act until they're personally impacted.
Thank you, Tom. Kristen Welker and every journalist in that room should be ashamed of themselves. Fucking hypocrites🤮
What I wish Welker had done is stand in front of that soulless piece of shit and spat in his stupid fucking face.
But she didn’t, did she? And she never would.
And that’s unfortunate
Here in the UK we have a couple of news outlets that do a good job - the Byline Times for one, and some new ones popping up. And there's a network of local on line papers that allows "citizen journalists" to get their stuff out - the Bylines Network.
And there are some local papers outside that network, still, one or two worth reading.
Most of the UK nationals are not even worth wrapping your chips in any more, and the paper they use won't even make good firelighters. They're owned by the same sort of gangsters-in-suits that run your US news outlets.
Once the AI data-centers run out of water & sparks, life will be really interesting, won't it?
I was witness and participant in the early days (1970s) of reporting conformity to please some public official. I was at a major academic conference giving a paper on the impact of media being owned by companies that had interlocking directorates w special interests. I had discovered the US domestic nuclear industry had suffered major life-threatening accidents nobody much knew about. When a public interest group got three anti nuke measures on the ballot, the CA media went after them BEFORE they had been qualified. It troubled me WHY TV and papers were so adamantly opposed to these measures. So I began digging and found those w ties to the nuke industry were far more likely to have buried those accidents than media without those ties.
I gave the paper on a panel with Barry Commoner. His talk was bout how he had learned it was now possible to make photovoltaic panels for solar that would generate energy, not just heat. This was a radical game changer for the uses of solar energy. He said the Department of Energy was not making it public, and they needed to. It meant expensive nuclear plants were far less attractive than inexpensive solar.
After the panel, I was approached by a reporter from a major wire service who wanted a copy of my paper and argued that he NEVER would fail to tell the truth. I asked if he was going to write about what Commoner said, and he said, of course. We parted ways, and I began, daily, to look for his story in every major paper. About a week later I found it. It wasn't a story of Commoner's revelation at all. It was a story about how the Department of Energy had announced that week that photovoltaic cells could now generate energy. Complete whitewash. Good that Commoner seemed to have pushed them to admit it - but readers would never know that they had hidden the information and were outed by Commoner, a fact I think is quite significant. Of course, there was not a word about my findings on media's cozy ties to the nuke industry and how it influenced reporting. And so it began. Deference to power. The young journalist had done EXACTLY what he said he never did. He covered up. He deferred. The things that are never said out loud. Even then, mid 1970s, that was already the norm. Downhill from there.
Absolutely - this is why I’ve always hated this event. It lays bare that none of these people - the politicians as well as the journalists - mean what they say — it’s all a performance.
Woodward and Bernstein and Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite they ain't.
Washington is a performance town. Inbred, incestuous, a parody of a joke no one laughs at. It lacks substance and gravitas. It is what we have, and thus Trump gets another stage to babble and the rest of the country struggles to eat, have health coverage, and survive a shady Naked King.
The world is appalled, and the MAGA fanatics dance into their seppuku.
Good for you that you are true to yourself and the truth. I’m so happy that Substack writers are available for reporting that isn’t compromised by their own role as reporter, their fame, and their ambitions. It seemed like there was a quiet tone of anger, disgust, and disappointment in your post—character on display that isn’t for sale at any price.
I get probably 80% of my information from the wonderful independent writers here on SubStack.
Yes, they are an amazing bunch. I like the depth of their learning, cleverness of expression, thoughtfulness, and genuine goodness. Who do you read regularly?
Here are a few
https://substack.com/@walterrhein
https://substack.com/@dearlstephens
https://substack.com/@jhardycarroll
https://substack.com/@punkrockpixie
https://substack.com/@scinrb
https://substack.com/@johnschwarzkopf483902
https://substack.com/@pkawake
https://substack.com/@michaelgb
https://substack.com/@wayneshaw
https://substack.com/@melissaamour72
https://substack.com/@cordane
https://substack.com/@burg55
https://substack.com/@amscdgrad
https://substack.com/@wisdomswhisper
https://substack.com/@slightylucid
https://substack.com/@olgabourlin
https://substack.com/@dawnastromsoe
https://substack.com/@timesmirror
https://substack.com/@choicelady
https://substack.com/@latelyfound
https://substack.com/@cajunblue
https://substack.com/@fredericpoag
https://substack.com/@socialcontractwithjoewalsh
https://substack.com/@michelleteheux
https://substack.com/@kristenstaffordhowexgen1
https://substack.com/@nooneaskedbutpolitics
https://substack.com/@thelongversion
https://substack.com/@chrisarmitage1
https://substack.com/@whispersofhersoul
https://substack.com/@jasonliegoisauthor
And many more. This is just off the top of my head.
When I saw that clip, I imagined Stephen Miller thinking, “I’m going to deport you.”
Wow, this is such a raw and honest take. It’s refreshing to see someone speak their truth without holding back. Keep writing my friend !
I'm thinking those "journalists" are devoid of any self respect. To sell one's soul and then still be able live with one's self... Every single person who had a plate at that Correspondence Dinner has something in common with the worst people in the world. They all wear that stink.
this kissing up to power spiraled out of control w/ 24 hour “news” programming.
Where’s our Substack mouth-readers?