The Death of Media

...and why we need to save it

The fragmentation of media audiences is not only sad, but dangerous. I am old enough to remember the day of, and multiple days following, the Kennedy assassination. For people my age, that was the first multi-day memory we had as kids. The images of John-John saluting, Jackie in that blood-stained suit, Jack Ruby shooting Oswald....burned in our brains, along with the kid running from Napalm in Vietnam, the 14-year-old girl, arms spread wide, crying over the dead body of her friend at Kent State....and so many others when our sources of truth were Life, Look, Time, and Uncle Walter. 

As a country, we all saw the same news, based on facts (albeit Daniel Ellsworth disagreed until the Times and the Post published him.) We watched in awe and admiration as Aldrin and Armstrong walked on the Sea of Tranquility. We believed the same facts and knew them to be true.

Media fragmentation is terrible for a society that truly needs facts. We need legitimate, responsible, honest media sources to present FACTS to a hungry public.

This article encapsulates the many problems that are facing legitimate media outlets nowadays. Axios Finish Line: Most difficult media moment ever And as the author says, it’s only going to get worse.

Years ago, when blogging ruled, I became a co-owner of a blog called Democratic Convention Watch. While we still publish, it's a shadow of when we pulled a half million pairs of eyeballs a day, press passes to the conventions and other events, and were cited by a lot of MSM sources. We held, and still hold, to the Code of Journalistic Ethics: double-checked sources; source citations; and apologies if we got something wrong. I was heartbroken when our hosting platform went out of business, and we lost all of our work. (Should have kept copies, lesson learned.) Journalistic ethics used to matter. 

What does it say about our society that people get their “news” from media that has limited ethics? What does it say that people believe deep fakes and Russian/Chinese/Iranian disinformation programs?

This chart from Statista shows where people get their news. Most shocking to me is that 47% of those ages 18-34 get their news from social media. And from what I know, this doesn’t mean clicking on a link from a reputable source, it’s just opinion.

Pew did a deep dive into how Americans use social media for politics. Only read it if you’re sitting down.

Personally, I want to save good media. And yeah, I know I cannot do this by myself! But there are a lot of things that I, and you, and many others can do.  

The first imperative is to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November. If not, it won't be the fragmentation, monetization models and other current issues - it will be that the Republicans, led by Convicted Felon Trump, will jail media creators with whom he disagrees, and generally strip the airwaves and internet of others. Only his version of "Pravda" will exist.

The second step will be to enact legislation akin to Canada's prohibition on lying on TV. This is critical to stop at least some of the disinformation, and hopefully it will include streaming services relative to the news content they produce. Once people are "entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts" it will be possible for legitimate media outlets to grow and shine. 

The third step will be to change Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act. Right now, it protects platforms like Twitter (and no, I will never call it anything else), Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. from any liability for harmful content posted by third parties. From the Act:

(c) Protection for “Good Samaritan” blocking and screening of offensive material

(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

You can read the link above for more context, but fundamentally, the Communications Decency Act was enacted in 1996, when the internet was nothing like it is now, and the closest thing to “social media” was AOL – and that was not political.

We can’t pass good legislation unless we have elected officials committed to working for their constituencies. So, I circle back to making sure that Democrats are elected up and down the ballot. Every ballot. Face it, this Republican House has been dedicated to STOPPING legislation, not passing it. Source Here’s some data:

In future posts, I’ll be providing information on what YOU can do. And honest, there is something YOU can do, even though you are “only one person.” Remember what Margaret Mead said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." And remember, while the Democratic Party is large, working on the local level starts with one person, and grows from there. BE THE CHANGE!