The Seattle Time Aug 13th edition continues
their recent attempts to justify a Free Press Subsidy. Action is needed because:
“This
system is in peril of imminent collapse, which would exacerbate the current
civil discord across the country and jeopardize democracy and freedom as we
know them.”
It’s unclear why the Free Press Subsidy is
needed to prevent an imminent collapse of the system. One could
reasonably argue it’s the media and the Times that have spent the last three
years “exacerbating the current civil discord”. Whatever actions took place prior to Trump’s election
would have never been an issue if Hillary had won.
Since Trump’s election the divisiveness has
been the result of Times and most of the media acting like an active wing of
the DNC, denying his legitimacy, denigrating his successes, and exaggerating
any failures.
The article claims:
“Because
of your support and the Blethen family’s five generations of unwavering
commitment to public service, The Seattle Times has become a role model and a
beacon of light for the survival of our nation’s local free press system.”
While the Times may be a “role model” they
apparently haven’t attracted much support from the other 50 regional metro
newspapers. It’s also not clear “the
other 84% controlled by absentee financial opportunists damage local
communities and civic engagement and deepen social fault lines by disinvesting
in the quality and volume of local journalism”.
The justify the need for support claiming
Today’s
free press and economic crises are the result of a serious erosion of checks
and balances at least three decades in the making.
Only the Times would claim the current “economic
crises” was “at least three decades in the making”. Much of the Times problem is self inflicted. The Times
“filtered” approach to local and national problems turns off much of the more
conservative older generation.
Younger voters are more attracted to the Internet. Losing readers devalues advertising.
The Times approach to “Capitalism” exemplifies
the paper’s approach to national issues.
The article claims “Capitalism is the most productive economic system
the world has ever seen”. Yet concludes:
“Our
capitalistic economic system has been co-opted by Wall Street at the expense of
Main Street and healthy local economies. Wealth has been dangerously
concentrated and left many Americans with little hope of working hard and
building a secure life and family.”
Prior to the pandemic, the country’s economy
was an historic success with record low levels of unemployment, wage growth,
and economic prosperity. It’s not
clear how the paper proposes to “Address the
dysfunctional control of our capitalism and wealth by far too few individuals
and avaricious corporations.
The paper is rightly concerned about the
need “to regulate the Internet for
public good rather than allow Facebook and Google to evolve into secretive,
monopolistic and dangerous fiefdoms”. However the papers real concern is not with how
Facebook and Google “filter” their information it’s because they “prevent
local media from profiting and competing in the digital advertising space”.
The Times solution a “Free Press Super Fund,
funded by a fee on the major internet platforms” would have more credibility if
supported by other regional papers whether or not they were locally owned.
Again the Times could add to the value of its
advertising by attracting more readers.
Instead they’ve spent a decade alienating much of their audience with their response to both national and local problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment