WAS: What Adults are Saying about Media Capitulation
Its the hypocrites, not the purists, that are left to shut out the lights
Even with Main Stream Media’s (MSM) implosion in high gear, Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Mika Scarborough-Brzezinski’s boot-licking capitulation to President-Elect Donald Trump was stunning. In the shrinking cable world few have been more critical of Trump than this tandem. Yet, there they sat in a Mar-A-Lago waiting room recently with hat in hand hoping to kiss the king’s ring on a path to an eventual appeasement.
The TV couple and its MSNBC employer officially stated the meeting’s outcome offered a chance to “restart” with der Fuerher (uh..I mean) President-Elect Trump. But if you are thinking this seems exactly how it was when Luca Brasi visited Don Corleone on the day of his daughter’s wedding, you are correct—except Luca was less fawning and the Don (the mob one, not the dim one), was more gracious.
Before wheels were up from their Florida act of self-disgrace the “Scarbezinskis” were already taking heat which may continue for awhile. But lest we wrongly lead the handsome couple to the gallows, its good to note this is merely the first widely reported incident of media suppliance. More surely has already happened, and still more, will occur with lights shining offering up embarrassment (or worse), for those seeking contrition.
On one hand many can understand the difficult choice faced if either an employer or a self-sense of career or financial preservation says “suck up or die.” On the other other hand when entering the world of anything like “news” it’s intuitively understood adopting a one-way morality is part of the job. When those like the Scarbezinskis drive the wrong way on that street, more than their public smackdown are the uncomfortable questions about the pernicious effect of them caving. This leaves media types and the handful of folks left practicing journalism in a narrow space where professional character is far more relevant than many other professions. That historic hard-asses like Daniel Schoor or Cokie Roberts were fitting examples of taking character to the max offers little reprieve for today’s media folk. They are squeezed badly and hypocrisy is bound to flourish.
The Scarbrezinskis or other working media facing a similar plight could had this turn differently. Main Stream Media (MSM) used to follow a simple model—especially in print journalism. Changing economics (primarily the death of classified advertising thanks to Craigslist and others) was a big threat to this approach but not solely responsible for today’s carnage. Too many reporters sought to be "talent" or worse, “brands”, forgetting the real talent they may have--and certainly distinctive value provided--was in reporting. Seemingly all of that was not sufficiently sexy, lucrative or otherwise appealing. When the first digital competitors appeared the urgency to adapt went further and further away from what makes real news important in the first place. That's how MSM awoke one day in a small hole and then dug itself a Mariana’s Trench to irrelevancy. It guided us to learn more and more about less and less—-and never with much context.
New media platforms like Substack are well intended but end-up even worse where too many presume content built from, mostly youthful, first-person perspectives is valuable. It’s encouraging to see such risk-taking but most seemingly skipped the lesson where the Talking Stick is only one-half of the relevancy conundrum. Credibility, in a variety of very old-world ways is earned, not given.
Ironically, the example set here may not be nearly enough to save anyone from anything. The parlor game of late ‘24 is guessing who has been “forced out” of MSM employment versus those leaving “voluntarily” as things worsen. Already dozens have fled a ship that’s on fire and how one leaves a burning hull is secondary to making land. As the keel goes to ashes there will be “lights” of some sort to distinguish if for no other reason than tradition and to channel the last moment of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Those completing this task will be the last to have sold their souls and then, probably at a deep discount.