A Desperate Attempt at Revival

The Real Problem With Media

As the old legacy media begins its final decent into the pit of darkness, beware of what takes its place.

I’m cautious of those who say we must bring back fairness to the industry of journalism, because the resuscitators are often times the same people who didn’t recognize bias in the first place.

I read through some of the new “sources” and find articles littered with bias.

It’s frustrating for people like me who do see it because it’s so obvious but to those who live in that bubble it is not.

When I was in the industry the problem was too many likeminded people preaching one ideology fails to challenge itself and falls into a club mentality.

In my news days I was one of just a few more conservative voices in the newsroom.

Our news director thought that made us balanced.

I bet the ratio was close to 4 conservatives to 30 more liberal folks.

For the record I don’t think these “journalists” were trying to be unfair.

At least not back in my day.

They were so sure their ideology was correct that everything else was invisible to them.

When I was president of the City Club of Eugene I saw example after example of people pushing one side of a story and not the other.

They made half-hearted attempts at being fair but it was far from it.

I watched this go on for years in my community and in my business and others like you saw it too.

We tried to ignore it but look where that got us.

Now, we can’t unsee the damage and while these folks write about the distance and disconnect people have with their community.

They know balance needs to be found but as I read these “new sources” it’s apparent they are building the same machine under a different name.

What’s missing in the attempts to bring back our communities is humility.

What these old players in a new playground don’t understand is a new media already exists.

We The People created it and we are not going back to being told what to think and how to think.

People are finding their voice in podcasts and sources outside the paradigm.

They aren’t going back to a new version of the old thing.

There are no experts, no journalists, no publishers or editors.

We are those things.

You can tidy things up, put fancy terms on the old thing and a bow to top it off.

But the audience you really need, isn’t buying,

You will end up preaching to the choir the same way the legacy media did.

True harmony doesn’t rise from something like that no matter how well intentioned.

You will get the same audience that already agrees with you.

The other’s don’t need your voice to give theirs value.

They found their voice and also discernment….a deadly combination in a world hell bent on reconstituting something that didn’t work and is already dead.