Cable news ratings are collapsing because of a design flaw in the coverage. Washington, DC-based media sees the world in a stilted way. The coverage presumes politics is upstream from culture. It isn’t. It’s downstream. That’s the fundamental disconnect, and why people are tuning out.
There was a quote from ‘Yellowstone’ Governor John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner, that struck me as deeply true when applied to so many leaders atop media, politics, technology companies and other giant corporations. Here it is:
“Cowards rule the world these days with coward customs and coward rules. To succeed today all you have to know is how to blame and complain. I truly believe it is survival of the unfittest these days.”
When considering the flaccidity of GOP politicians’ reaction to Trump’s demand to burn the US Constitution, or the obscenity of Herschel Walker’s candidacy, which will be defeated this evening, it seems like no truer words have ever been spoken.
There is an astonishing story from Business Insider that documents the staggering corruption of Washington, DC, told through the lens of the SBF and FTX debacle. There are no words. The conduct is despicable and the corruption of Washington, DC, in 2022 is historic.
Yet, very little of it is ever seen and exposed. There is no accountability. There is no conviction. Everything is a transaction. The public good never figures. The great question in American politics and life is a simple one: how much longer will the American people stand for it?
“Cowards rule the world these days”
It's ALL about power and money, starting with Trump and continuing through the entire Republican Party. The game they're playing is transparent: long-term power at all costs, even if it means courting Nazis and trashing the Constitution. They are not for the United States or its people. They are in it for themselves.
You begin with cable news here. You excoriated media and celebrity with an earlier missive this week. Both are correct, but the problem is money -- rather the idea that covering the news is a path to revenue. The constant, 24-hour cacophony that is "news" now, has cheapened it, certainly. But it (and our democracy) face near-death because "news" is a major money-maker -- Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. These, and lesser networks and websites, are now expected to be profit centers.
Oh for the good old days of public airwaves and public service and no multiples of media ownership in any single market. But mostly, oh for the good old days when the news was insulated from how a network made its money. That firewall was broken down by internet advertising and cable channel copulation. Now that advertising dollars are dispersed and targeted by the data we creat all day, every day, those dollars are harder to come by and cheaper by the click-dozen. So it's news for sale, not just the facts, ma'am.
The framers knew that their creation -- these United States -- could be kept viable by a free and competitive press. This press ain't free, it's just for sale to soap flakes, car insurance and drugs for clearer skin.
The news can't be the product that you're selling 24/365 or it becomes as tawdry and repetitive as a shopping channel.
We need to know what we need to know, but we've killed our local papers, diluted our television reporting by the hundreds of channels and expect that we can find what we need to know in a Tweet or two.
So yes, cable news ratings are collapsing, but it's not just a design flaw in the coverage. It's a design flaw in how the bills are paid. The money should be made across the hall and the news should be reported, not chosen for the advertising eyeballs it can attract.