Former Print Journalists Lost Their Jobs to TV and the Internet. Guess Where They’re Talking (But For Free?)

When you watch cable news TV, you can’t help notice all the formers among the guests. Former editor of the former whatever. They’re still the smartest journalists in the room, but they’re unemployed.

23 Comments. Leave new

  • EvilWizardGlick
    May 28, 2018 7:29 AM

    Now that the news has freely escaped to the internet TPTB doesn’t have the bottleneck control of information.
    In other words who gives a shit.
    If they were interviewing lathe operators or drill press operators I might learn a new technique or approach.

    Either way today, Memorial day, Audie Murphy day. You can Google him then watch To Hell and Back.
    Murphy made them tone down his story for the film because his actual acts of heroism may have been unbelievable to the audience.
    Most of the time he had Malaria. When he saved his men on the tank he was later asked why he did it and replied: “because they were killing my friends”.
    after the war, he was addicted to a PTSD drug. He locked himself in a hotel room for a week until he kicked the habit.
    A true hero and that mold is broken.

  • The business model of corporate media is to avoid, obscure and attack meaningful journalism.

    These “formers” should be ashamed for having worked a single minute for the likes of Newsweek and the SF Chronicle, for sure, and I assume, also, the Tampa Tribune.

  • EvilWizardGlick
    May 28, 2018 9:02 AM

    Hey now
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-28/caged-migrant-children-photo-goes-viral-left-rages-trump-except-it-happened-under#section-comments
    Caged Migrant Children Photo Goes Viral As Left Rages At Trump; Except It Happened Under Obama
    After a laundry list of journalists and public figures angrily tweeted the photo – including CNN’s Hadas Gold, NYT Mag’s editor-in-chief Jake Silverstein, Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau and former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, they deleted their tweets in shame when it emerged that the photo was taken in 2014, under Obama.

    Indeed – nobody thought to check the date on the attached article, published in June of 2014.

    The award for the lamest excuse goes to CNN’s Hadas Gold, who wrote “Deleted previous tweet because gave impression of recent photos (they’re from 2014)”

    • EvilWizardGlick
      May 28, 2018 9:04 AM

      I think this reply captures the mood

      Caleb Hull

      I don’t know what’s worse… Obama’s speech writer self-owning himself by sharing an article dating back to 2014 under Obama or him deleting his tweet showing that he doesn’t actually care about the kids and just wanted to dunk on Trump

  • FlemingBalzac
    May 28, 2018 2:10 PM
  • alex_the_tired
    May 28, 2018 9:47 PM

    I will point out a flaw in Ted’s cartoon. No news anchor would use the word “erstwhile” correctly. Nor would the writer of the script the news anchor would fonetikaly read from the Teleprompter have used it in the first place.

  • Yeah – once again we see the pitfalls of capitalism.

    Newspapers worked just fine when they had few employees and a small number of local ads. They were staffed by people who were serious about informing the public, and only worried about the finances so long as they were sufficient to pay the bills. But sometimes they said things that rich folks didn’t like.

    So the rich folks bought up the newspapers, and turned them into profit-making machines. National advertisers brought in higher revenues, and tended to cut ads if the paper published something negative about the advertiser.

    TV just exacerbated an existing problem. With a national audience, they strove to find the lowest common denominator. News programs became soap operas designed to attract the largest number of consumers.

    But there were still a few good journo stars. People dedicated to reporting news rather than pushing agendas. One-by-one they got picked off. (e.g. Dan Rather, Ted Rall)

    Then along came the internet and broke the system. That should be a good thing, but we are left with no way to finance investigative journalism. Hmmm, maybe if we consolidated and sold advertising and attracted venture capitalists to underwrite the whole thing … what could go wrong?

    • American Teacher
      May 29, 2018 5:55 PM

      The internet allows us to hear a variety of perspectives, not just the hard left.

      Everyone can find a home.

      • > not just the hard left.

        That’s FUNNY. The media are no more liberal than the huge multi-national corporations which own them. Rupert Murdoch isn’t exactly a commie-fag-junkie, y’know?

        The term “liberal media” was coined by Ronnie Raygun to explain why his version of reality was different than that reported in the news.

        Today, Donald T. Rump whines “fake news” every time the media tells the truth about him.

        It’s easy to understand why those whack jobs would try to convince people that they should ignore reality in favor of their personal fantasies – what’s not so easy is to understand why anybody would believe them.

        Alt right? No, alt reality

      • American Teacher
        May 29, 2018 7:58 PM

        @Crazy H

        Journalists need to be objective and dispassionate. They are not.

        One story that I am sick of that comes from corporate media is the sorrows of the aliens.

        I am sick of the endless variation of the alien who is being torn from his family, the father sent back home, the daughter left behind, bla, bla. Bla, bla, bla.

        If the alien so badly wanted to be with their family, they could leave and be with them.

        Because journalists for Newsweek, SF Chronicle, and Tampa Tribune refuse to be objective, particularly about aliens, I am not overly sympathetic to their plight.

      • This cartoon is about the fall of journalism, not “aliens.”

        In the future, please try to stay on topic.

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 1:43 AM

        @CH

        Reread the last paragraph, dolt.

        Journalists have deserved their fall since they don’t do their jobs correctly.

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 2:18 AM

        You can’t have journalists when you don’t have readers to whom you can address ideas.

      • I understand completely – you want other people to follow a different set of rules than those which apply to you. You alone hold the power of determining that which is topical (vs. that which you don’t want to talk about)

        You want “objective journalism” which presents only those stories you want to read, while hiding those that you do not.

        You faithfully followed Rich Limpbone to Faux News to Breitbart, as each of them lead you further and further away from reality into this weird, whacked out world you now inhabit.

        You have successfully transitioned from “willful ignorance” to “deliberate psychosis.” As such, you are utterly unqualified to comment on the downfall of journalism you have so enthusiastically embraced.

        Maybe you should stick to feetsball and leave the thinking to those of us qualified to do so.

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 11:39 AM

        @CH

        You, a philosopher? You’re funny.

        I am not sympathetic to a profession that does not even feign objectivity, but covers stories in the most left-handed fashion possible.

        When I can google sob story after sob story in the NYT about the woe-is-me alien, but am hard-pressed to find a story about an upright family with decent children, I have scant sympathy for their economic prospects.

        Like other Americans whose jobs have been stolen, they will just have to find another way to make a living.

      • > You’re funny. I am not sympathetic to a profession that does not even feign objectivity,

        WHAHAHAHAHahahahhahahahaha! Yo, “buddy” are you familiar with the concept of a “mirror” ?

        YOU do not even feign objectivity in your profession. YOU actively push your prejudiced, anti-science, distinctly non-objective, anti-American agenda on innocent children.

        You don’t give a flying fuck about ‘objectivity.’ So how about you drop the pretense?

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 11:56 AM

        @CH

        I am fair-minded, even-handed, and impartial.

        That is why I can maintain that the media that has helped push the sodomites on us for the last thirty years should not only face stark economic prospects, but should be shipped to one of Gina Haspiel’s ‘black sites.’

      • > I am fair-minded, even-handed, and impartial.

        WHAHAHAHahahahahaha!!! Do you even read this shit before you post it?!

        You hate gays, blacks, Jews, Muslims, women, Mexicans, transgender, and the gun-stealing, bible-eating, terrorist clown hiding under your bed.

        To try to claim “fair-minded, even-handed, and impartial.” after all the crap you’ve posted is absolutely ludicrous, ridiculous, hilarious, and just plain stupid.

        If you want to be a narrow-minded, superstitious, racist, sexist, bigot that is your right. But you should at least have the balls to own it.

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 12:27 PM

        @CH

        I hate no one. My religion forbids it.

        I feel sorry for trannies. They are mentally ill. So are faggots.

        I certainly don’t hate women. I’m married to one.

        I respect the law and believe in equality. (That’s American.) Deport aliens and end affirmative action. Keep people inimical to the West out of our countries.

        Nothing more evenhanded than that.

        And I’m employed. I’m not some bum logging in hours on someone else’s blog.

        Finally, to return to the topic. If the market won’t support you, look for another field. Those hacks can always teach. Or coach.

      • > I hate no one. My religion forbids it.

        Your religion forbids a lot of things you ignore; you’ve repeatedly shown that you’ve never actually read your own holy book. (And why are you bringing Jesus into the discussion??)

        > I certainly don’t hate women. I’m married to one.

        Please forward my condolences.

        > … believe in equality.

        You’ve said a lot of unbelievably stupid things on this site, but that one takes the cake.

        If you believe in equality, then why all the verbal diarrhea about how the white man is superior? Why use words like “faggot” and “tranny”? Why try to find loopholes Jesus’ teachings?

        There is no way you credibly claim to be an egalitarian after spewing vile, stinking, hatred out of every orifice. At the risk of repeating myself: you are a liar.

        If you want to be taken seriously, you need to quit contradicting yourself at every turn. Maybe you should have a grown-up proof read your posts before making them public.

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 6:11 PM

        @Crazy H

        All you do is attack me. I’m so tired of defending myself to you. I do not have to do so.

        Let’s just get back to Ted’s cartoon. These writers will remain unemployed.

        The status quo cannot be overturned when defended by a powerful state.

        We are all wage slaves, except you, it seems, and myself, who has a very good work/life balance. Soon I’ll be off for ten weeks…and getting paid.

        Journalists should coach “feetball.”

      • > All you do is attack me.

        99% of your editorials and posts are devoted to attacking others (including poor, innocent me.) Do you really expect other people to treat you any better than you treat them?

        Do unto others…?

        As ye sow … ?

        Judge not … ?

        du-uh … ?

      • American Teacher
        May 30, 2018 7:34 PM

        @Crazy H

        Here are some items that employed journalists are reporting on today. They will make you ecstatic.

        Tranny Bruce Jenner is marrying a tranny 47 years his junior.

        Tranny Bradley Manning got pulled back from the ledge.

        Stories such as these are why I hold journalists in such high esteem. NOT

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