Hell hath no fury like an idiot Mainstaim Meda (iMSM) scorned:
The current state of the iMSM is horrible:
- Nine’s metropolitans are centrist loss leaders for real estate sales.
- Nine’s AFR is the nation’s leading vested interest whore for hire.
- Murdoch’s The Australian is a culture war propagandist for the (anti-woke) fake right.
- The Guardian and Crikey are culture propagandists for the (woke) fake left.
- The ABC is dying swiftly by privileging diversity targets over journalism.
- TV is more idiotic than ever.
- Radio is the last bastion of robust discussion.
The injection of funds from Google and Facebook four years ago has expanded geographic coverage, but the calibre of journalism has continued to deteriorate.
‘He said, she said’ reporting is 99% garbage.
In commentary, Peter Hartcher is the only person I feel compelled to read. Sometimes Bernard Keane and Ian Verrender. Occasionally, Alan Kohler. Paul Kelly has lost it. Absurdly, the AFR has no columnists of insight beyond Chris Joye.
I can barely read the wall-to-wall daily shlock, which has never been so full of smut and trivia. Coverage of the political economy is corrupt, thin-sliced and visionless.
Admittedly, there is a ‘chicken and egg’ problem.
Did it get so bad because Google and Facebook siphoned off newspaper revenue? Or did the revenue migrate to alternative global sources channelled by Google and Facebook? Such as MB!
Mostly the first but the second is relevant. The local iMSM’s tribal culture wars are vocal minorities irrelevant to a polity in which living standards come first and sport a close second.
Should Meta and Google be forced to pay to support this schism between media and polity? Probably, given they are partly responsible. And even a manure producer should be paid for his shit.
But let’s not pretend it will make any difference to the calibre of what you read.
