I’m starting a thread for news on mounting media layoffs as well as criticism of the media and journalism. Stuff that doesn’t necessarily or directly touch on politics.

 

Dire warnings after BuzzFeed laid off 15 percent of their workforce:

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

That's why it's misguided to lionize or revere these talking heads, just by what you see on television. Many of them are glorified script readers at best.

I kind of prefer the title that they are given in Britain, that if newsreader, because that's essentially what they do, they read the news. Actual journalists research, write and deliver their own news stories.

You're exactly right. 

I don't even entirely disagree with Nate Silver about t he recall - not having a backup candidate was a very high-risk strategy - but you'd think an election forecaster would have better insights, and he has completely destroyed any credibility or goodwill.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I don't even entirely disagree with Nate Silver about t he recall - not having a backup candidate was a very high-risk strategy - but you'd think an election forecaster would have better insights, and he has completely destroyed any credibility or goodwill.

It wasn't high risk. If you talked to people in California this was never going to be successful no matter who ran.  The California machine does the same thing the Illinois machine does for the democrats - they downplay even when their internal polls show their candidates way ahead. I can't tell you how many times it's happened here in Illinois. The local media is smart enough to see through it. The national media continues to clown themselves. Nate Silver has embarrassed and discredited himself many times over in the past few years. His attempts to be a twitter epidemiologist has turned that moron into a complete clown and joke.

6 hours ago, JaneAusten said:

It wasn't high risk. If you talked to people in California this was never going to be successful no matter who ran.  The California machine does the same thing the Illinois machine does for the democrats - they downplay even when their internal polls show their candidates way ahead. 

I think given the last time the recall happened, there was a lot of blame over a Democrat running a major campaign on the second ballot (even though I doubt that was the deciding factor), some of the concern was justified. Silver just made it too much of an absolute and came across as insufferably smug, yet again. 

Smug and wrong, don't forget wrong, which would have been fatal to his career as a prognosticator, if he were anyone else but a white guy. Nobody else on earth gets this many opportunities to be loud and wrong with virtually no consequences.

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I think given the last time the recall happened, there was a lot of blame over a Democrat running a major campaign on the second ballot (even though I doubt that was the deciding factor), some of the concern was justified. Silver just made it too much of an absolute and came across as insufferably smug, yet again. 

Gray Davis was a totally different situation including the fact he had an approval rating in the mid 20's. Did anyone bother to see Newsom's. It was over 50%. That in itself made this whole hyperventilation useless by the mostly WHITE MALE national media.

 

Just want to say I appreciate this thread.  Sometimes I read something in the news and think WTF did did that "reporter" just say? Or how could that "reputable" newspaper be printing something so obviously untrue? And then I come here and see that I'm not the only one thinking that.

Edited September 16, 20214 yr by janea4old

fyi, in Trinidad slang "bacchanal" usually means "drama".

Edited September 16, 20214 yr by janea4old

2 hours ago, janea4old said:

fyi, in Trinidad slang "bacchanal" usually means "drama".

I can't wait for this story to (hopefully) go away!!!!

Today's Politico/Jennifer Rubin high school beef (which I will not link) of their own making may be a new low for Politico. I know exactly who Rubin is and where she's been and I have no illusions about her, but this is an outlet doing a diss track/burn book and trying to make it into 'news' because they and other Beltway reporters are pissed and feeling the heat from a changed consumer climate in the social media age. Rubin's op-eds are simply the tip of the spear. It's Gossip Girl level [!@#$%^&*].

 

 

 

Maggie Haberman is pathetic and spiteful beyond belief. That "the paper of record" sees her as a gold standard just tells you why they should be dismissed.