Decay and Decline: The Slow Deaths of National & Local Media
How the Corporate Consolidation of News Has Corroded American Politics and Society. And the Importance of Agency.
More to come on the recent 2024 primaries (like the decisive primary victory of Congresswoman Summer Lee), the NY special election, and upcoming primary contests in the days to come.
But today I wanted to cover a much broader issue: where has our society gone?
This week’s Fareed Zakaria GPS nailed it on the head. How is it that society seems so close to the point of breaking down completely in the United States? In his take at the beginning of the show, Fareed summarized it well. He described a loss of community and a certain unraveling of social bonds. It started long before COVID, though COVID accelerated the decline. Americans have become more secluded, more isolated, and more distant from their neighbors. We see this in community groups. We see it in churches and town centers. We even see it on college campuses that are supposed to be bedrocks of community development and personal growth.
Throughout all this, social media and the Internet have greatly worsened the loss of community ties. Trust me, the Internet, when used wisely, can be used for incredible purposes. Unfortunately, the current tech status quo is not set up like that, explaining the outrage over tech companies and how they sow distrust, anger, and misinformation in our society today. Mainly, large Big Tech companies and businesses like Facebook, Twitter (I refuse to call it X here), Instagram, SnapChat, and TikTok. We know from past history that their computer algorithms have been designed to trigger highly emotional and explosive reactions merely for profit.
The digital marketplace has taken a similar toll on the community and society as a whole. Think of the fragmentation that came about with the rising in online streaming with platforms like Apple TV. Or think of online shopping on Amazon.
But the digital arena is part of a bigger problem. TV programs now almost completely cater to their audiences as well. Instead of hearing what you should hear, the talking heads have you hear what you want to hear. If you watch MSNBC and Fox News in the same day, you would think we were living in two entirely different universes.
Again, what happened? What gives? As with many things, we can trace the decline back to Ronald Reagan. In 1980, he famously criticized government as “the problem” and not the solution. Now, I am not saying that government is the answer to every single obstacle in life we face, but Reagan got it all wrong. When government is run right, government is not the problem. It is big business (without any guardrails especially) that is the problem. It is the corporations that want to run our entire nation like a business. They are the ones who threaten the spirit of innovation and creativity that helped America get to where it is.
We have to realize that there is more to what we see or know than the black-and-white narratives we create. That is the problem with the January 6th crew. Those who went to the Capitol that day approach Donald Trump like a cult leader. Why is that? Because Trump taps into something that they feel on a deeply emotional level. He connects to his voters in ways that no one else can. It would not be a bad thing in itself, if not for how Trump uses that power to make large numbers of people think of him as an idol—or God—instead of a simple human being, especially for his own personal gain.
We should never think of anyone like that, never mind a pure con artist like Donald Trump. As most of my readers know, I consider myself a proud supporter of Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. But that does not mean I embrace every single thing that comes out of his mouth. In fact, as most of you likely know already, there are certainly issues and positions which I disagree with the President on. I do not think of him as God Almighty; I just compare him to the alternative and accept him as a man with many assets, and even a few vulnerabilities.
That is how it should be in a democracy. When it matters most, we can disagree and adapt. In 1937, Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to pack the Supreme Court. Yet the U.S. Senate—controlled by FDR’s own party—opposed the President’s attempts to directly reshape the judicial branch, fearing the possibility of FDR gaining too much power as an imperial President. Congress disagreed, it pushed back, and FDR had to course-correct. For the sake of separation of powers, Congress took a courageous stand against an otherwise ideal president (although in the long-term FDR’s court-packing push spooked the Court enough to go along with much more of his New Deal policies).
A much more tragic example occurred during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency. In response to the Johnson Administration’s handling of the Vietnam War, Senate Democrats like Arkansas’s William Fulbright launched a series of congressional hearings putting new scrutiny on the war. Consequently, those hearings played a crucial role in breaking the narrative established by several US presidents to justify their misguided involvement in Vietnamese affairs. The Pentagon Papers went on to further validate that committee’s mission.
Finally, in 1974, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona pressured Richard Nixon to resign, knowing he would be impeached. Even as a good friend and political ally of Nixon, he saw the seriousness of Nixon’s crimes and put the country’s fate ahead of Nixon’s.
Almost all of these instances happened because of the work of great journalists and reporters along the way. In the name of public service, they broke the stories that would hold the politicians accountable to the people. Unfortunately, the new business model for media does not empower that kind of work. It weakens it rather severely, even for the most-qualified staff—who are in the media landscape for all the right reasons.
The corporate media model seeks ratings boosts and revenue over true journalistic integrity and public service. That is why media today is all about targeting; conservative businessmen target conservative viewers via Fox News, and so on and so forth. Corporate media has increasingly merged with entertainment and has encased its agenda/ratings and revenue push in hyper-anxious sensationalism. Think of the endless hours of CNN’s college protest coverage recently. Think of all the other stories that have been overlooked. Like Ukraine. Like the current crises in countries like Sudan. Like the recent story about the murder of multiple law enforcement officials in North Carolina. Is that sort of 24-hour monitoring of one issue an example of journalism on the merits, or is it more about garnering more profits and drama for pleasing corporate management and media executives?
And what about the recent 60 Minutes puff piece on US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo? That story came about despite practically the entire program’s team having received various tips about Raimondo’s track record in Rhode Island from as early as October of 2021. It also came about despite the lingering questions about her role in Rhode Island’s current Washington Bridge affair (which, to repeat, could have endangered the safety of President Biden and his close aides), and her overall performance at Commerce. At the end of the day, what likely happened was their corporate management overlooked these tips because it was much more concerned with the ratings and revenue that this biased, complementary segment could generate.
In local media, there is much of the same. How do corporate entities make money in the local media world? They consolidate, lay off journalists and reporters—especially political reporters and journalists in smaller towns—slash the pay of staff, and shrink the newsrooms. They make money by shutting down local news outlets. No wonder rural newspapers and all newspapers at every level are disappearing like crazy. Worst of all, since there is no local media in rural areas, most rural voters do not watch the news at all. Without local media presence, it is even harder to get a true picture of what communities in small towns are really like, as Colby College’s Dr. Nicholas Jacobs emphasized recently at a Providence College political forum.
We have seen this “business at the expense of the public interest” mentality infect almost every part of American society. Colleges with ridiculously high tuition costs are run like a business to please a clientele. Healthcare in our nation is run like any other obstructionist bureaucracy-filled insurance company, except when it promotes the distribution of dangerous drugs like opioids (something that former CVS executive and rumored RI gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes knows from experience).
Likewise, exploiting our environment has become an industry in itself. Businesses have been founded on giving out predatory loans and promoting online gambling addiction. Social media’s success has centered around its ability to tap into political tribalism and exploiting our children and teenagers. Financial firms have developed a model of media based in choking off the places where local media can truly shine. Even campaigns have become a business. America is being run like a business, right to the ground. And no one—not even Reagan, if he were alive today—can blame the government for the mess we are in today.
Let me put it this way: do not spoon-feed yourselves everything you listen to and see on your TV screens. Do your job to inform yourself, starting now and beyond. Get a variety of reliable, established sources. Read and support independent and objective reporters, both national and local. Subscribe to your local newspaper. Try to cut through the sensationalism to get straight to the heart of the matter.
Be your own person. Assert your own agency and independence. Do your part in helping America turn the page on this era of division and chaos. And reject the mob mentality.