WAS What Adults are Saying about a November Bloodbath

It's coming and not where Americans are expecting

A significant change awaits America in November. An approaching wave is coming that will shorten careers, flush the familiar, elevate some faces and beget a new path that leads to parts unknown. Our heads will spin. Some will cry and claim foul and other’s vow to overturn the intent of the voices who have spoken. It will be a mess—maybe even a bloodbath—and what’s described here has little to do with citizen or the people’s electoral intent. (For the record Kamala Harris is methodically stepping to a narrow victory as previously discussed here.)

Main Stream Media (MSM) is imploding. This has been occurring for sometime but now seems to be approaching a tipping point and November is predicted to bring a significant overhaul and reshaping of newsrooms and their public-facing “talent.” Saved until now by the momentous election that is about to end, career change beckons for many who, quite frankly, need it.

In the post Watergate era seldom have domestic affairs needed such context and ordering as now. Not just in politics but also broadly in areas as the environment and climate change, our health care system, the academy, the yawning gap between the haves and have nots, technological industrialists who make John Rockefeller and Andrew Mellon seem quaint, the rotting status of our public education systems and the way many hollow it out from the inside. This and much, much more is out there for the taking of the enterprising journalist who may wish to shed some light, tell a story or serve a couple of iotas of the public’s interest.

But the MSM role of the fourth estate has been so badly diluted that most times when camera facing folks open their mouths they seem to be auditioning to hang onto a dwindling career as much an anything. (Who can blame them). In an effort to attract an audience in the first two chapters of the digital era, MSM media have failed more than Aaron Rogers trying to convince football fans he remains a relevant quarterback. The moment to be “something” has been presented—especially in the Trump years—and has been met mostly with shrugs, polenta (or even worse) mimicking the influencers from stratified “news” channels. As a result the blood is expected to flow heavily.

NBC has already signaled its start in jettisoning Hoda Kotb in the morning. At Fox News balance sheets are still burnt by a $700M libel verdict that went rightfully south in the Dominion voting machine matter. At CNN the daggers are clearly out for a number of reasons including wacky editorial decision-making of the last year and the bumps on the log embarrassment called Jake Tapper and Dana Bash when moderating the Trump/Biden debate in June. In fact it’s gotten so bad there the network has unveiled a Saturday night program that spoofs its own core product category (Inviting comparisons with the 1980s Not Necessarily the News). At what is it aiming? To go MTV-like and cease programming the product on which it was born?

Then of course there is CBS. The historic crown jewel of American broadcasting has already waved bye-bye to Jeff Glor and is nudging Evening News anchor Norah O’Donell into “other projects” post election night. In the mornings Gayle King is somewhere between being unemployed and a ditzy tolerated boomer while a talented cadre of folks of all genders and colors routinely appear with fresh faces and sufficient journalism. All are yapping at the heels of those above.

The conventional print side is just as bad. Since Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post a decade ago new revenue streams have failed and been discarded. He’s losing shitload’s of money his accountant says is OK, but his ego doesn’t. So the original Fascist entrepreneur of the 21st century (“I want to sell everything to anybody at any time”) has gone so far as to raid the has-been executives from Rupert Murdoch’s world, many of whom are British and embedded with America’s one-percent devotees. Few could spell real “news” even if you spotted them the N, E and W.

Over at the New York Times family owners still control a majority of the corporation that runs things but constantly faces calamitous union, revenue, staffing and other challenges. This scene continues to repeat itself in Boston, Chicago, the Bay Area, LA, Pittsburgh and other cities where daily, journalists finally slide into a melting muck signalling the end.

All of this is driven by business dictates—all of that having been driven by a momentous victory for the business over the professional classes—something that is neither acknowledged nor well understood. None of the major networks other than FOX remain something like an owner of their own business entity. ABC, NBC and CNN are all owned by entertainment conglomerates and execs who run them are increasingly devoid of any “news” pedigree. CBS is similar and the once vaunted network of “Murrow and Cronkite” struggles like all to find the right news narrative in a new media world.

Yet in recent years, when reestablishing relevancy and cultural utility was there for the taking, MSM fell miserably short on a task needed for both social good and business self-preservation. Now, like the grandfather from 1995 film hit Prizzis Honor speaking to a wayward junior, MSM “you must pay.” We all will be the worse for it. It will be sad to see so many pros get publicly plucked. Some will either naively or desperately gravitate to a platform like this one believing that both a smaller living or professional relevancy can still be had. It reasonably can’t. But hey shoot your shot, take a chance—hell—at least you’ll have a place to keep auditioning.

Readers: More so than ever your responses are highly valued!