You may notice in the pacing and topics I post, that I tend to avoid a lot of current affairs. That’s because I’m trying to focus on enduring topics, given that enduring difficulties are the source of most of the woe. Also, many others comment on daily events, and my additional contributions beyond the concepts of which I ordinarily write likely have at best marginal benefit.
However, I could only shake my head to hear that Matthew Dowd had been fired from MSNBC, and as usual the reasoning (as per a reported memo) was “made an unacceptable and insensitive comment about this horrific event” (the Charlie Kirk shooting). We could all scream that Charlie Kirk himself would have opposed this, etc.; but this is not particularly about Charlie Kirk, or any of the other people I’ll mention; this is about the honesty of (not just mainstream) media, and particularly media owned for-profit, that has to collect revenue to keep going.
Just as e.g. Meta Platforms Facebook has a right not to want to cover news on certain topics, and Paramount CBS has a right not to take a financial bath on late night TV hosts, so too, Comcast NBC doesn’t have to host commentators of a particular bent or slant. The Washington Post just let some people go because they weren’t going to write in support of corporate objectives. But, the program has to be explicit (as the Washington Post was), and the factual basis has to be clear, in order for us to trust anything else that comes out of the organization. Once you promote your position or philosophy regardless of the facts, you are just another corporate lobbyist; but that doesn’t mean you can’t provide valuable input. However, people have to realize that you aren’t going to surface or emphasize other valuable information; rather, they would like to get what facts or reasoning they can get out of you, and get the rest of the facts from somewhere else (e.g. the opposing lobbyists). If they can’t rely on your words having clear basis in reality, it’s just more dreck to ignore.
And this is where a lot of these organizations are failing:
- Alphabet/Google/Youtube, Meta Platforms/Facebook/Instagram, and many other online forums, inconsistently censor data.
- Paramount CBS pays a bribe to Trump, fires someone Trump doesn’t like, and then claims finances were the reason why Stephen Colbert’s show was cancelled.
- Comcast NBC is undergoing major changes, such as separating the NBC News and MSNBC operations. Naturally, it’s going to be difficult to understand what slant or take (if any) the respective reporting is going to take.
- The Washington Post is struggling with unclear amounts of commentary in “normal” news articles.
The consumer of news, commentary, analysis, recommendations, etc. usually is less informed; they are relying on our support to prepare for decisions such as:
- Engagement in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, etc.
- The evaluation of candidates for office, in advance of these momentous decisions
- Whether to take actions, such as reaching out to representatives, protesting, or to kill people identified as threats/enemies
which means our readers are not in a position constantly to sort out what is true, false, our opinion, our reasoned conclusion, our hot takes, etc. WE HAVE TO HELP THEM if we want people to take any other attitude than the most short-sighted, what-I-see-is-what-I-get, rabble-roused mentality towards the world (which is to say: if we want them to behave like anything other than gangsters).
We have to present clearly helpful information; and the way we have to present is to use our confidence qualifiers, to separate what we think are clearly facts from things we hear reported, assumed, our logical deductions, weighing multiple factors, etc. and to try to limit our word counts so people have time fully to comprehend and digest what we’re communicating.
In this most recent instance, Comcast NBC’s reaction and follow-on memo failed on several of these, including:
- Ignoring the time context of the comments (including the fact that the presenter didn’t have, and knew he didn’t have, all the facts)
- Running their mouths about a free environment of ideas as they take concrete actions to punish a speaker
If Comcast NBC executives don’t think it’s appropriate to report on emerging events because of the likelihood of error, then they shouldn’t broadcast real-time commentary. If Youtube doesn’t want to sort out truth from falsehood, then they shouldn’t be yanking videos almost at random based on rumours. If Paramount CBS wants to put the almighty dollar first, then it needs to do that when it’s clear the red ink will not stop, and those thresholds need to be communicated to the shareholders. They need to try to do what the Washington Post is trying to do: say “this is what we are going to tell you” and then tell it to us as best you can. Right now, they are failing, and the sequence of actions is consistent with a pattern of behavior that hides the truth.
Sure, if the vast majority of media outlets collapse/become ignored by the general public, that’s “good” for my and many other independent thinkers’ and small-time journalists’ careers. However, when almost every aware person correctly considers lying to be human beings’ default, the historical precedent has been the establishment of gangster rule, the most notorious of which was Stalinism. Forget about killing some activists or even an emperor here and there: Stalinism, Maoism, etc. slaughter 10% or more of the population. Our wistful memories of the reliable free press that we had been building up in the post-WWII era would be among the least tragic losses.
Corporate America – United Healthcare, Boeing, Big Tech, all these media companies, and a lot more – as you lie and commit crimes, you join the mass of national politicians, the false religionists, and all the other enemies of society. “Enjoy” your irrelevance and inability to influence whatever it is that the rest of us decide to do.