(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . It’s Official - NYT, Washington Post and Mainstream Media are Done [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-05-15 I’m calling it — the mainstream media is done. I just read yet another example of the complete hollowness and irrelevance of the mainstream political media. The Post this morning, following a surprise 10 + point victory by an Angela Alsobrooks (a black woman) who trailed in the polls by 8 points to an old white guy decided to publish an “analysis” piece with the following headline: Republicans’ chances at winning the Senate just skyrocketed In the same story, the reporters/“analysts” write that: New polling from the New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer shows that Democratic Senate candidates in four states that are also presidential battlegrounds — Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona — are leading their Republican challengers The story fails to note that Dems are also ahead in Ohio, Montana, everywhere (if you look at the polling averages). Heck we even have a shot at Texas. Instead they decided to add to the following modifier to the fact above… Republicans dismiss the critiques, insisting that Democrats are grasping at straws on a Senate map that is hugely beneficial to Republicans. “Democrats are running a bunch of career politicians who have been totally corrupted by the D.C. swamp. On top of that, every one of these Democrats has voted lock, stock and barrel for Joe Biden’s extremely unpopular agenda of open borders, higher prices, and chaos around the world,” NRSC spokesman Mike Berg said. This is just terrible reporting and is confusing given that the GOP has huge candidate quality issues. The “mainstream” press is completely responsive to GOP talking points. That’s what they think their job is — to “cover” the issues from the other side (I guess). Witness the strange machinations of the NYT in the last week with the fulminations of the executive editor and weird promotion of bad Biden polls (and burying of good ones). The thing is, both the Times and the Post, have readerships that are … us. Older progressives (sorry fellow Kossacks but I get the sense we are an older crowd). The Times whole business model is based on subscriptions from those who wanted to save democracy when Trump was President. Yet, they are run and controlled by editorial people who are desperate for relevance with those in power and have decided that means trying to get the GOP/MAGA to still think they are relevant (by showing how tough they are with their own people). So, the write for them (not us) The thing is… it will never work. MAGA doesn’t read. We do. And, even worse, our kids and the next gen don’t read the paper either. They should be writing for… us (for financial and other reasons) and they don’t want to… They are determined to be irrelevant. And, according to the numbers, referenced in the above Times story, they are… Much of the news media industry is in turmoil, with publishers like The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and Business Insider laying off journalists or offering buyouts in recent months. Headwinds include a decline in readers who reach news sites through social media platforms, less user interest in news and a tough market for advertising. Advertising was a weak spot for The Times in the fourth quarter. Total advertising revenue decreased 8.4 percent, to $164.1 million. Digital advertising fell 3.7 percent and print advertising 16.2 percent, and the company said it expected further declines in the first three months of this year. The reality is that — in the broader scheme of things — the NYT and Washington Post really don’t matter. Even if Trump wins, given that we are the only ones who read and care (well for me used to care) what they said, how will they be able to “save democracy” the next time around given that no one on the GOP side cares at all what they write or say? They only matter to us and since they are bound and determined to show they don’t care about us, they matter a lot less to us as well. Hopefully, they will wake up before it’s too late but I’m done hoping/waiting for it to happen. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/15/2240811/-It-s-Official-NYT-Washington-Post-and-Mainstream-Media-are-Done?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/