Tag: Fairness Doctrine
-
Just perfect
Beautiful example of “journalistic” stupidity. Ted Gioia posted an item from Nieman about the limited opportunities for indie “journalists”. One “journalist” commented: Pretty hard to maintain democracy without a free and independent press. Pretty bleak when everyone I know not in a major city gets all their news from Facebook and/or TikTok. If you really…
-
Misses everything
Via NiemanLab, “local” “news” sources are trying to organize and collaborate. They held a Local News Day yesterday. WordPress put together a supposed list of local news sources outside the mainstream. It misses everything in Spokane. The only thing listed is rangemedia.co, allegedly “regional”. I looked there and found the standard DNC talking points. You…
-
Used to be called 2
Via Nieman, a survey of journalists in Austria has one interesting conclusion. It’s correct for USA, but I don’t know Austria so can’t judge if it’s correct there. This paragraph is phrased in the alien language of journalists. It needs some translation into human thought patterns. = = = = = START QUOTE: Meanwhile, perceptions…
-
We know what we’re missing, asshole.
Via NiemanLab: [Surveyed] adults from 206 counties that fit Medill’s definition of news deserts (“counties with no professional source of local news, such as a print or online newspaper, based within that county”), and adults from counties you might call news oases (those with 30 or more professional news outlets). Many people who live in…
-
Gossip interceptors
Related to the bot invasion of Facebook local news sites…. Altman’s OpenAI says it handles 1 million questions per week about local news. Most are on the subjects that Facebook groups cover but legacy media totally ignores: People continue to trust local news more than national news, and the demand for reliable local news is…
-
They knew how to be fair
Trying for a little non-modern amusement while slaving away on dull alt-text work. Randomly sampled the latest uploads at American Radio Library and came up with a gem immediately. From a 1962 trade journal aimed at broadcasters and advertisers. At that time the Fairness Doctrine was firmly established and ensconced. Broadcasters hated every minute of…
-
More positive signs from mainstream
Via Columbia Journalism Review. A few larger TV stations are cutting loose from the networks and becoming truly local. Best of all, it’s not about Trump, it’s about MONEY. The stations decided that networks are charging too much for nothing meaningful except big league sports. Most people get their entertainment elsewhere now. The stations also…
-
Hardass for hardass
It’s easy to tell when a new stronger batch of fentanyl comes along. The overdose deaths suddenly spike. I’m getting the same spiky feel from the AI addicts. They seem to be smoking a batch that tells them to go hardass, to smash the remaining skeptics and heretics. Altman’s distribution chain is much more instant…
-
Insiderish?
At the moment this insiderish event in the “news” business strikes me as fairly significant. Detroit still has morning and evening papers. They started out independent, then semi-merged in 1989 with a Joint Operating Agreement. The upper levels of management and financing were together while the newsrooms were independent. In the 80s many papers formed…
-
Another “fair” source
I haven’t bothered with ANY news lately while I’m trying to push through a frustrating stage of courseware. Another “unbiased” source has popped up. Allsides News aggregates the news in three columns, from left, center and right sources. Previous attempts always revealed the standard journalistic viewpoint with hidden assumptions and loaded words, ESPECIALLY on “climate”…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
Polistra's Mill 