Tag: Fairness Doctrine
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Starting to get it?
Yesterday I wrote a vain hope for survival of the local “news” business. More features, more plain reporting, and especially more service of the type that specialized magazines used to provide. Answer specific questions for paid subscribers. Use local knowledge and local sources INTERACTIVELY, not just shouting Party slogans. Today Nieman published its annual collection…
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Where are the goddamn philosophers?
After mentioning Sidney Webb’s history of the Russian Revolution I tried to find it online. Couldn’t find it in free form, but an accidental reference was worth reading. A 1929 article in a British journal of socialism [Klugmann, p 48 of PDF] discusses the takeover of politics by ideology. Sounds mighty familiar. Klugmann was focusing…
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Another 400 year sync
History Today’s short features are good this month. The London Gazette is the longest-running continuous newspaper in Britain, and possibly in the world. I think one Dutch paper might be older. The Gazette’s starting point gives us another neat 400 year resonance. = = = = = START QUOTE: The Restoration government needed to manage…
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Missing the divide
Via NiemanLab, a survey tried to distinguish active vs passive news consumers. Do you spend money and time seeking out news, or do you happen to hear about things? The separation is clear, though the author didn’t seem to catch it. Upper status people spend money and time seeking “news”. Lower status people don’t bother.…
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Not entirely predictable
This is one of the EXTREMELY RARE cases where journalists actually work both ways. Via Nieman, journalists have universally derided Trump’s Napoleonic effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This, of course, is more predictable than gravity. Journalists NEVER go along with anything ordered by Official Wrong Party. Locally, journalists…
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Halfway Fairness Doctrine kudos
The local newspaper has done a halfway decent job of exposing the crime-loving city’s fraudulent fakery. Unfortunately the headline doesn’t match the article. The headline would lead you to think the city is doing something about the homeless mess: City reports street outreach has closed nearly 100 homeless encampments in 10 days When you read…
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Useful vs useless infrastructure
NewScientist has an unusually well-balanced take on the Altman Bubble. They are more balanced than usual because some of the Bubble Lords have gone over to the Official Dark Side, but nevertheless the article is fair. It points out that most of the data center investment is happening in unregulated “shadow banking” circles, so the…
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Speaking truth to Zappone
Spokane COUNTY has issued an official tonguelashing to the CITY idiots (mayor and council) who insist loudly that they can’t possibly control crime and homelessness because “the jail is full”. Idiot Zappone has been among the loudest supporters of crime. The county’s press release is worth a long quote. = = = = = START…
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It’s not an algorithm.
We constantly bitch about the obnoxious results of algorithms on the web. New thought: The most obnoxious shit happens when there ISN’T an algorithm. An intelligence, whether you call it a brain or an algorithm or a program, does three things: 1. Take input from the world. Different types of intelligence take input in different…
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If they really wanted….
NiemanLab cites a new survey that accurately pins down what people want from local news. We want LOCAL reporting of WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE. Crime, troubles, power outages, fires. We do not want “investigative pieces” that always just happen to “investigate” Repooflicans while celebrating Democrats who commit exactly the same crimes. This pattern is constant from…
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Modern equivalent of Features
Media no longer includes Features because some of them were true, and truth is utterly prohibited now. The non-mainstream news sources can follow the old tradition by deadpan reporting of crazy shit. This dude would be an improvement on any of our current mayors, governors and presidents. He’s crazy in a private way. He’s not…
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Snacks and turkeys
The website devoted to Hudson material includes quite a few Dealer Bulletins. These gave dealers the company’s talking points on this year’s cars and options. Each bulletin started with a long set of features and fillers, giving salesmen some jokes and bits of knowledge to spice up their talks. I’m an avid consumer of Features,…
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New crime, old failure of media
This is a new form of fraud! The report by KHQ is overly vague to protect identities, but the subject is clear enough. An older homeowner was at work, and his neighbor called to tell him that somebody was changing the locks on his house. There were also appraisers and others looking over the property.…
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Proof not needed
Trillionth proof that media are shit. CBS News cites sources like the Universal Postal Union to say that foreign shipments to US have dropped by 80% since Trump partly eliminated the “de minimis” exemption for lower-value imports. The provision was originally meant for tourists bringing back souvenirs like a bottle of wine, but its threshold…
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Cancelleds converging as usual
Shocked shocked shocked: Bari Weiss left the old dying media and built a new media empire in the fake “independent” media so she could make more money. Now she has sold her “independent” “Free” “Press” to CBS so she can return to the old dying media with a more lucrative contract. The purpose of the…
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