Lousy Journalism Comes Home to Roost
A Shaky Ethical Foundation Continues to Crumble
We recently wrote about the role of corporate media in the cultural and political landscape while highlighting the mistrust that these entities have earned as they continue to fail to demonstrate the integrity on which their audience depends. Today we highlight recent news about some major corporate media outlets that are paying the price for soaking their reporting with bias and failing the public by placing their agenda ahead of the truth.
Investors like to make money from their investments, right? So, when billionaires purchase media institutions, as was the case for The Washington Post (purchased by Jeff Bezos in 2013), the LA Times (biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong in 2018), and Time magazine (software creator Marc Benioff in 2018), one would not expect them to remain idle while these businesses lose money. Now, these institutions are hemorrhaging money. It would seem that integrity does have a cost.
On January 23, 2024, The Los Angeles Times published an article announcing that they are laying off 115 people. The article explains the necessity for these layoffs because “the paper could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year” without some sign of improvement. These losses indicate a trend for the Dr. Soon-Shiong, who sold the San Diego Union-Tribune just a few months ago. Sharon Ryan, executive VP of the California MediaNews Group, points to “substantial revenue pressures brought on by big tech aggregators who redistribute our original content for their own profit.” The sharks are feeding on one another.
Last year, BuzzFeed News shut down. Fatigued by budget cuts and stalled contract negotiations, staff members at Forbes and the Daily News recently walked off the job. The future of of Sports Illustrated is in peril as well. This is just more evidence of the turmoil in corporate media.
According to the LA Times, more than 2,500 journalism jobs “vanished” last year. Of course, the article says that value of “2,500” comes from a recent report but fails to cite the report from which it came (that is just bad journalism; perhaps that author should be laid off). Those jobs did not exactly “vanish,” did they? Those people lost their jobs because they failed to perform the most essential role of journalism: to report authentic information and to hold those with power accountable for their actions.
Further Observations and Commentary
The NY Times notes that The Washington Post “has struggled to hold on to the momentum that it had gained in the wake of the 2020 election.” Recall that during that time, the liberal corporate media vilified former President Donald Trump and their audience absolutely ate it up. The corporate media benefited greatly from Trump’s ascension and his antics, and so it should be no surprise that he is once again the frontrunner to be the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential candidate. Throughout primary season, the liberal corporate media has facilitated Trump’s 2024 campaign by keeping the spotlight on him while also continuously engaging in attacks on his Republican opposition. If Trump gets elected again, a great deal of credit should go to the liberal corporate media.
The esteemed Glenn Greenwald discusses the journalist layoffs during his System Update show on Rumble.com. In the linked episode, titled “Mass Media Layoffs Expose Their Utter Fraud,” he discusses some of the sources linked here and taps into others as well. Mr. Greenwald notes, “One thing you will never, ever find… is any kind of self reflection, any kind of effort on the part of the journalists who are in these failing sectors, to ask of themselves: ‘Why is it that the kind of journalism I am producing has no market? Why is it that the public hates me and my colleagues?’”
The Babylon Bee, a satirical website, had a little fun at the expense of the laid off journalists. They featured a picture of an unemployed reporter sitting on the side of the road, holding a sign that says, “Will call you racist for food.” The irony being illustrated here is that these journalists have succeeded up to this point in their careers by spending so much time and energy pointing out the faults of others (faults that often do not actually exist), but now find themselves with no marketable skills.
Can We Meet in the Middle on Journalistic Integrity?
One would hope that we can meet in the middle on the concept of journalism! Think for a moment about what you depend on from any source of information. The source needs to be honest. The source needs to be consistently dependable and be willing to admit when they are wrong. The source needs to consider, report, and fairly represent all sides. What other characteristics can we agree upon as common ground for what constitutes a trustworthy source of information? If we can agree on these fundamental characteristics, we can surely meet somewhere in the middle on the issue of the integrity of journalism.
Here is an important question: Does the source need to be unbiased? Frankly, there is no need to discuss the merits of unbiased sources of information, because they simply do not exist. Everyone has an agenda, whether it is to achieve world peace, to make a buck off of advertising, or to search for solutions that have some hope of success. A trustworthy source of information discloses their biases and agendas in an upfront and honest way.
In that spirit, Meet Me in the Middle wants to be upfront about our agenda, particularly as it pertains to journalism: we want everyone to be more skeptical of corporate media, to train themselves to recognize the agendas and biases of all journalists, and open their minds and their hearts to independent media.
Bringing It Home
Please understand that, while all of this news is probably seen as a crisis among those journalists losing their jobs, this is not a crisis for journalism. Journalism is very much alive and thriving in the independent media space, such as Substack and Rumble. Hollowing out the corporatized version of this industry is a step toward a better-informed public. These job cuts represent a seismic shift toward the delivery of truthful information. The public demands and deserves truth and authenticity. More and more, people are coming around to independent sources who are beholden only to the truth demanded of their audience and not to the advertisers that pay their bills.
The job cuts in corporate media are being couched as a crisis. In reality, it is a market correction. And there are important lessons in it for any journalist: do not sell your soul for a paycheck, always report with integrity, and remember to demonstrate a little self-reflection. This story evokes a recollection of the old joke about lawyers at the bottom of the ocean, which is apt for adaptation: What do you call 2,500 laid off corporate journalists? A pretty good start.