Hey, remember all of last year when every time the report came out showing that inflation kept going up, we were treated to the damn jagged line graph of doom at the top of every news source, and no one would shut up about it for days, with every nattering pundit in a race to make the most dire projections of recession and ruin, and gene…
Hey, remember all of last year when every time the report came out showing that inflation kept going up, we were treated to the damn jagged line graph of doom at the top of every news source, and no one would shut up about it for days, with every nattering pundit in a race to make the most dire projections of recession and ruin, and generally making sure everyone considered this issue the most uber-important thing facing all of the world, upon which all of our pasts, presents, and futures hinged, in each and every possible multiverse?
One would imagine the reversal of this trend would be celebrated with equal fervor! Anyway, the report showing the 7th month straight of declining inflation was released yesterday. It was the 101st headline on the Washington Post website (out of 112, yes I counted them all). It read: "Inflation eases again, but bringing prices further down will take work," was illustrated not with THE GRAPH but with a stock photo of shoppers' feet, and (understandably, I'm sure) sat below such other pressing items as "Star Wars script auction stopped after plea from Chewbacca actor’s widow," "Queen Consort Camilla will wear a recycled crown, without cursed diamond," "The clever trick that turns ChatGPT into its evil twin, DAN," "This snake can make babies without a mate," and "Advice: Complaining about your partner? It might be you." Perplexing!
The Guardian thought it more notable, putting "US inflation eases again for 7th consecutive month" as the 13th item for the morning, though come the evening it was gone entirely. Higher up yesterday morning, and still there: "Amazon deploys fleet of self-driving robotaxis, with employees as passengers." The New York Times, to their credit, put the one-would-assume-Earth-shattering-based-on-how-many-times-it-was-previously-made-to-seem-to-shatter-the-Earth news at #3 (#9 by evening), with THE GRAPH in tow, and the wait-is-this-good-or-still-yucky-I-can't-tell announcement, "Inflation Cooled Just Slightly, With Worrying Details."
What changed? It couldn't possibly be that the first midterm of a Democratic president just passed. No, it couldn't be that. Why, if it was - but it just couldn't be! - one would almost be tempted to undergo the revelation that the all-encompassing "liberal media" that conservatives seem so perpetually desperate to escape being brainwashed by is actually anything but, and that those conservatives are instead just paranoid crybabies on a cosmically hilarious scale.
Though, to be fair, there was this huge top headline in WaPo's Politics section: "Analysis: Democrats growing more comfortable with another Biden run." I have to admit, this does track pretty closely with my recently conducted study (rigorous and comprehensive, albeit sample size of one): "28-year old male Bay Area recent college grad growing more impatient by the day to keep world's most absurdly underestimated grandpa in the White House, and give him what he needs to finish off these pathetic charlatans and shove us fricking finally into the future."
P.P.P.P.S. It seems Nikki Haley (yeah, *her*) is running for President, claiming we need a "generational change." Yeah... but... just... gurl, you think that's you? Oh, honey. Bye.
I’m glad to see that someone else is frustrated by the gloom and doom headlines unlike those during 2020 when the economy was falling off a cliff. At best, they seem to be in the mold of “sure, things are better now, but the sky is about to fall”.
It's almost as if the people publishing the headlines are a buncha grumpsters that their predictions of economic disaster didn't happen. It's almost as if they are rooting for constant fighting and gridlock and instability, because that creates unnecessary drama that creates easier to sell stories to the easily distractible. It's almost as if voters beginning to consistently turn out for the actual party of the working class and democratic stability poses the biggest threat to the business model of concocting narratives around perpetual imminent demise. It's almost as if that is the case. So curious.
“my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.”
That’s the thing. JD Vance is not stupid. He’s calculating. He’s calculating that his supporters are stupid enough to continue to believe him and he’s likely right. Most of these Maga/Trumper politicians are not stupid. Well to be fair, some are, but most aren’t. They are however, master manipulators. They know how to push the emotional internal lizard brain section of humans by using fear and distrust to pit us “minions” against each other. Then they sit back and watch in amusement like the emperors of old watching the lions eat the gladiators. All the while filling their pockets and bank accounts with the gold earned from selling tickets to the spectacle. They create the spectacle. They get rich from the spectacle. And the poor suckers in the arena and the stadiums are left dying in the dirt and starving in the hovels they are thankful for because the emperor thinks so highly of them he invited them to his games. It disgusts me. And I truly don’t understand how people can’t see it for what it is. Best I can do is blame it on that lizard section in our brains. If we don’t evolve into higher thinking beings sometime very soon, the best we’ll be able to hope for in life is we get offered a ticket to attend the spectacle rather than being forced into the arena with the lions.
When I read "Hillbilly Elegy" I predicted that unless he got tons of professional psychological help he would be awful to live with. He's incredibly smart, and he grew up in circumstances that check all the boxes of childhood trauma, ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences. His most positive and "there for him" source of comfort and information was a truly bizarre grandmother who was, sadly, better than the others around him. His mother was an addict and a nurse. The part of the country where he grew up was full of very emotionally damaged people who fed on each other's opinions. He married a smart woman from another culture who although smart, learned to honor her husband and be subservient enough to be controlled. I worry about her. He has anger issues. Basically, he's still looking for acceptance and approval from others. Like all too many in this truly hurting land of ours. We need to continue our work to end generational trauma by supporting individuals and families from the start. Pie in the sky maybe, but we have to try.
The lies are never-ending! I surely hope that these lawsuits against FOX news continue to reveal the bottomless cynicism and contempt that the faux-reporters have for viewers.
I think you are right.Gloom and doom sells and the the media are in it for profits above all. Why they are not talking up Biden’s many positive actions is troubling.I am spending a week in Tennessee and am seeing many F Biden signs around.I was floored when I saw a black man with a 4 foot F Biden flag.That any persons of color, women, LGBTQ person,Hispanic etc could be for the Republican agenda is beyond me.
It is unfortunate that persons of color, women, LGBTQ, etc. are not immune from the ignorance, gullibility and often pure stupidity which fuels the Republican Party.
Could Al Gore win the TN Governor race today? A big transformation has happened to the southern states. Koch’s investments paying him dividends at democracy’s expense. Read Democracy in Chains’
I read it when it first came out and constantly refer to it. Shortly after I read it the first time I lent it to a republican politician friend of mine and after perhaps reading the introduction he returned it to me without comment.
Yes.It has to be that.More of the results of our dumbing down of America, these people are either uninformed or uneducated, under-educated ,saturated with Fox “news”and it is sad and infuriating.Defunding of public education and under paying our teachers is reaping what it has sown.
Actually, I'm hearing a lot of good news - substantiated by details - on MSNBC. At least they're asking good questions of experts in various fields. Meanwhile, Fox is often a one man/woman show of opinion without basis in fact or thought. Or are they just the 21st century's answer to Goebbels?
In comments I've made on previous LFAA articles, I've mentioned something similar, Will. Former journalist here, completely fed up virtually all media today. The most recent "last straw" was Judy Woodruff's interview of President Biden, in which she acted like a PR person for Republicans--questioning and challenging everything he said.
Judy Woodruff no longer appears to be bipartisan; it’s as if she goes out of her way to present the right wing point of view so that she can claim to be “balanced” while ignoring the viewpoint of the other side of the aisle.
I saw it that way, too. She asked something which forced him to say that he couldn’t answer her because the investigation was ongoing. She would have known that, or should have.
You just nailed it, Will (even though my response slotted in FAR below your post...way to go, Substack!). The media, Right AND (it seems) Left, thrive on drama, fighting, fear, turmoil, anger, negative, negative, negative...why?? Because, in their eyes, that generates interest in their stories and analysts. The more people read/click-on their stuff, the more $$ they make and the more revenue they earn (more ads). GOOD news, and an economy improving and puttering along, is B-O-R-I-N-G! Readership obviously stagnates when there's nothing spectacular grabbing the headlines. They had it good with "Old Yam Tits", because every day there was a mini-"scandal du jour" to keep the press salivating. It didn't matter that the country was being drug through the mud and our very democracy was in peril, THERE WERE STORIES TO REPORT!! I like to think we on here are just a bit more discerning and less apt to immediately swallow everything that is fed to us. For myself, I try to wait a bit after something breaks to let more information become apparent and see what is going on. I think HCR is as well, and it is to her credit that with her academic zeal, she cites her sources extensively. That, thereby, gives us on here the opportunity to "consider the source" and decide whether or not, in our view, it has merit. I think that's kind of where we find ourselves at the moment with the daily barrage of information that confronts us. One has to do some serious sifting through all the "stuff". (How many citizens in this country bother to do that now?) So many people just skim only the few lines of a story from one or two sources, or listen to abbreviated news stories, and then move on. Time is at a premium for us ALL and there's just not enough time in the day to plough through everything. So, a lot of people then end up depending on others to go through all the detritus of the day to pick out the stories that, in their view, we should centre on. Some are better at this than others. HCR's take on everything, using her historian's eye, is one that we on here tend to subscribe to and appreciate precisely because it does give us the opportunity to pursue things ourselves, should we desire. I find this page, and some others on Substack, a blissful, more sane respite from all the screaming headlines and biases of mainstream media. Here we tend to think through things a bit more, not always agreeing, but welcome to an adult space. Peace, y'all...
I do agree. I left to visit my daughter the day after the train wreck In Ohio. Didn’t have the time or energy for more bad news. Finally caught up with the story yesterday and I could read it more intelligently after a break. I think we need to teach ourselves how to take a step back and find one or two things t really focus on. Trying to take everything in at once is self-defeating and somewhat demoralizing.
Will Bad news sells, good news seems boring. One plane has trouble flying across the Atlantic gets headlines. 1000 planes safely crossed the Atlantic is on the cutting room floor.
I found in my Op-Ed writing days that newspaper headline writers must be a different department than the editors. I once got all sorts of grief from disabled rights advocates due to a letter I wrote disagreeing with a college newspaper that was against increasing penalties for Drunk Drivers. My letter described my experience as a Nursing Assistant caring for a quadriplegic man who was hit by a drunk driver. The headline "DRUNK DRIVERS NEED TO LEARN THAT LIVING IN A WHEELCHAIR IS HORRIBLE." NO, that wasn't the focus of my letter, which was to make driving drunk a more serious offense with real consequences.
Not almost. Is. It is about selling stories. To sell stories in a hyper competitive market headlines need a wide range, grab attention, and invoke emotion. Headlines are made to leverage the “attention” economy. New devices and technology make it possible to monetize the smallest micro second of everyone’s attention. Truth and reality have been subordinated to click bait.
Your comment is a reminder for me to update my subscription to Yes! I never have understood the logic of wanting to read bad news. https://www.yesmagazine.org/about
Amen. It’s like the kid in the courtyard getting two guys to fight so the crowd can watch at their bloodied expense. “ let’s you and him fight and I’ll sell tickets “
As many people have observed, doom and gloom sell better than sunny and bright. Do you pay more attention to the details of a weather forecast when a storm is coming than when the weather will be fair? Most of us do.
BK Hats off to Chelsea! Humor is a marvelous silver bullet and wooden spike against vicious bullies who are unable to take a punch. A catalogueof Trump’s humor should go into his book-less library. Even those idiots to listen to Tucker Carlson couldn’t miss the rapier humor of Chelsea.
I am reminded of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. His humor relegated Hitler to a puddle of slimy ooze. So let’s hit the humor button aimed at Gangrene Greene, Rock-and-Hard Place McCarthy, Turdy Trump, and Nobel Prize winner Santos.
It’s almost a shame that Giggles Giuliani is no longer in the top 100 hit list.
Will, from Cal, this has to be one of the most enjoyable readers’ comments to LFAA I’ve ever read: sagacious, cleverly organized content and impeccable punctuation. Bravo! 👏
Agreed! Well crafted single-sentenced first paragraph. I guess you’re either a journalist, an aspiring columnist, or a wonderfully delightful chatty bot. ;D
Thanks Will! I've been saying this for weeks. Before the mid-terms that was all we heard: inflation, inflation, inflation! Now that it's going down crickets. I'm sick of being sold soap and not getting anything of substance form them. I know all about the fact that someone was pregnant while preforming at the Super Bowl but when it comes to things that really matter I have to sift through all the bull shit to get to anything of real substance. -saw-
Will Some years ago there was a newspaper called the GOOD NEWS WEEKLY. It only published ‘good news’-(in the weekly magazine, THE WEEK, there is a quarter page section on ‘good news). The paper folded, because few people wanted to read boring, dull ‘good news.’
I remember when the three nightly CBS, NBC, ABC news shows actually focused on news—Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and other serious newsmen. Now it is entertainment and spot disasters, with scant serious journalism.
The challenge is to ‘sell’ good news.The country is in far better shape today that under Trump’s turdy turbulence.There’s no sustained interest in the fact that the Covid economy is emerging far better than the ‘experts’ had predicted, Biden administration legislation will pump major investment into American industry and climate change palliatives. We are again a leader in the world rather than being the pet dog of authoritarians.
Advertising is now brief spots with repetition on Tik Tok and other social media. Why not Dem vs. Rep?
One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark. Then have punchy content, with some humor and ridicule (of some of the greatest Republican absurdities).
Content—have you ever been involved in the ‘elevator game?’ This is when you are obliged who you are, what you want, or some other specific in an imagined 60 seconds when you meet the target in an elevator. Try it!!! Try to summarize something complex in 60 seconds where the target doesn’t turn blurry eyed in a few seconds.
It’s tough work, but I have seen this accomplished with dozens of bright foreign leaders who, initially, thought this would be simple. Sharp synthesis is not simple—it’s tough work.
Try crafting a 60 second elevator speech for one of Biden’s ‘hear’s the deal.’ An hour, a day, or a week later you may stumble on to a BINGO. Good luck.
"One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark." How about HERE'S THE WILL (from Cal)? The Will to speak truth in direct, accessible language with intelligent humor bringing home the zinger, obliterating any and all oppositional rhetoric.
In rural Maine we are seeing a really great paid ad on the positives the infrastructure bill brought to us giving credit to where the credit is due. It’s quite refreshing compared to all the lies we normally are saturated in from the Fascist Party. I tried to find a link to it but couldn’t.
Will I remember when that mean, incompetent President Biden was personally responsible for gas prices soaring to $5.00 in my neighborhood. Yesterday gas was $3.21. There were no headlines thanking President Biden for his sagacious leadership.
News editors pick what sells—as you so clearly illustrate. [Is your day job as a nightly news journalist who breathlessly spews forth buckets of sensation bad news? Even weather reports are now jazzed up with ‘bomb cyclones.’]
The extra hilarious thing about blaming the government, especially the President, for high gas prices is that the only solution they could theoretically take directly to ensure that never happens is mandating/fixing prices. You know, the central government controlling the business and overriding the free market. You know, like... what's the word for the system that allows for that... uh... oh, yeah...
Will, thank you for the best belly laugh I’ve had in weeks. Your analysis of the positioning of the headlines in some of the major news outlets is not only spot on, the “multiverse- ending-graph -of-doom” description had me nearly spitting coffee - which tends to aggravate whichever cat is flopped on my lap in the morning.
🐈⬛, 🐈 and I send our deepest gratitude for your analysis and support for the world’s most absurdly underestimated grandpa.
Add a laughing emoji to the heart in response to this post - but if only the the "liberal media" were "just paranoid crybabies" - this reader believes it to be more sinister.
Hey, remember all of last year when every time the report came out showing that inflation kept going up, we were treated to the damn jagged line graph of doom at the top of every news source, and no one would shut up about it for days, with every nattering pundit in a race to make the most dire projections of recession and ruin, and generally making sure everyone considered this issue the most uber-important thing facing all of the world, upon which all of our pasts, presents, and futures hinged, in each and every possible multiverse?
One would imagine the reversal of this trend would be celebrated with equal fervor! Anyway, the report showing the 7th month straight of declining inflation was released yesterday. It was the 101st headline on the Washington Post website (out of 112, yes I counted them all). It read: "Inflation eases again, but bringing prices further down will take work," was illustrated not with THE GRAPH but with a stock photo of shoppers' feet, and (understandably, I'm sure) sat below such other pressing items as "Star Wars script auction stopped after plea from Chewbacca actor’s widow," "Queen Consort Camilla will wear a recycled crown, without cursed diamond," "The clever trick that turns ChatGPT into its evil twin, DAN," "This snake can make babies without a mate," and "Advice: Complaining about your partner? It might be you." Perplexing!
The Guardian thought it more notable, putting "US inflation eases again for 7th consecutive month" as the 13th item for the morning, though come the evening it was gone entirely. Higher up yesterday morning, and still there: "Amazon deploys fleet of self-driving robotaxis, with employees as passengers." The New York Times, to their credit, put the one-would-assume-Earth-shattering-based-on-how-many-times-it-was-previously-made-to-seem-to-shatter-the-Earth news at #3 (#9 by evening), with THE GRAPH in tow, and the wait-is-this-good-or-still-yucky-I-can't-tell announcement, "Inflation Cooled Just Slightly, With Worrying Details."
What changed? It couldn't possibly be that the first midterm of a Democratic president just passed. No, it couldn't be that. Why, if it was - but it just couldn't be! - one would almost be tempted to undergo the revelation that the all-encompassing "liberal media" that conservatives seem so perpetually desperate to escape being brainwashed by is actually anything but, and that those conservatives are instead just paranoid crybabies on a cosmically hilarious scale.
Though, to be fair, there was this huge top headline in WaPo's Politics section: "Analysis: Democrats growing more comfortable with another Biden run." I have to admit, this does track pretty closely with my recently conducted study (rigorous and comprehensive, albeit sample size of one): "28-year old male Bay Area recent college grad growing more impatient by the day to keep world's most absurdly underestimated grandpa in the White House, and give him what he needs to finish off these pathetic charlatans and shove us fricking finally into the future."
P.P.P.P.S. It seems Nikki Haley (yeah, *her*) is running for President, claiming we need a "generational change." Yeah... but... just... gurl, you think that's you? Oh, honey. Bye.
I’m glad to see that someone else is frustrated by the gloom and doom headlines unlike those during 2020 when the economy was falling off a cliff. At best, they seem to be in the mold of “sure, things are better now, but the sky is about to fall”.
It's almost as if the people publishing the headlines are a buncha grumpsters that their predictions of economic disaster didn't happen. It's almost as if they are rooting for constant fighting and gridlock and instability, because that creates unnecessary drama that creates easier to sell stories to the easily distractible. It's almost as if voters beginning to consistently turn out for the actual party of the working class and democratic stability poses the biggest threat to the business model of concocting narratives around perpetual imminent demise. It's almost as if that is the case. So curious.
……and then they just lie….
“my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.”
- J.D. Vance
He lies. But I also think he would be stupid enough to be unaware of DeWine's refusal of Federal assistance. Which was pretty stupid in itself.
That’s the thing. JD Vance is not stupid. He’s calculating. He’s calculating that his supporters are stupid enough to continue to believe him and he’s likely right. Most of these Maga/Trumper politicians are not stupid. Well to be fair, some are, but most aren’t. They are however, master manipulators. They know how to push the emotional internal lizard brain section of humans by using fear and distrust to pit us “minions” against each other. Then they sit back and watch in amusement like the emperors of old watching the lions eat the gladiators. All the while filling their pockets and bank accounts with the gold earned from selling tickets to the spectacle. They create the spectacle. They get rich from the spectacle. And the poor suckers in the arena and the stadiums are left dying in the dirt and starving in the hovels they are thankful for because the emperor thinks so highly of them he invited them to his games. It disgusts me. And I truly don’t understand how people can’t see it for what it is. Best I can do is blame it on that lizard section in our brains. If we don’t evolve into higher thinking beings sometime very soon, the best we’ll be able to hope for in life is we get offered a ticket to attend the spectacle rather than being forced into the arena with the lions.
Carey, what a colorfully accurate picture you paint!
Lizards, yes. Shape shifters as well. This could be the alien invasion we saw in the movies. I bet Vance was hatched from a pod.
When I read "Hillbilly Elegy" I predicted that unless he got tons of professional psychological help he would be awful to live with. He's incredibly smart, and he grew up in circumstances that check all the boxes of childhood trauma, ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences. His most positive and "there for him" source of comfort and information was a truly bizarre grandmother who was, sadly, better than the others around him. His mother was an addict and a nurse. The part of the country where he grew up was full of very emotionally damaged people who fed on each other's opinions. He married a smart woman from another culture who although smart, learned to honor her husband and be subservient enough to be controlled. I worry about her. He has anger issues. Basically, he's still looking for acceptance and approval from others. Like all too many in this truly hurting land of ours. We need to continue our work to end generational trauma by supporting individuals and families from the start. Pie in the sky maybe, but we have to try.
They may not be stupid but they are EVIL.
I would say more voters are stupid than not because of the Republican votes! Especially if they rely on Fox "News".
Brilliant, Carey!
They could have had Tim Ryan.
Tim Ryan would be there.
We tried, honestly. But the Democratic Party didn't think Ohio was worth spending money on this election.
Stupidity is a hallmark of the Republican Party .... and most importantly, of many who vote for its candidates.
No one said Vance is/they are smart.
If you ask THEM, they will claim to be smart, and offer as evidence his defeating Ryan in 2022. But still, I agree that doesn't make them smart.
The lies are never-ending! I surely hope that these lawsuits against FOX news continue to reveal the bottomless cynicism and contempt that the faux-reporters have for viewers.
much better!!
I think you are right.Gloom and doom sells and the the media are in it for profits above all. Why they are not talking up Biden’s many positive actions is troubling.I am spending a week in Tennessee and am seeing many F Biden signs around.I was floored when I saw a black man with a 4 foot F Biden flag.That any persons of color, women, LGBTQ person,Hispanic etc could be for the Republican agenda is beyond me.
It is unfortunate that persons of color, women, LGBTQ, etc. are not immune from the ignorance, gullibility and often pure stupidity which fuels the Republican Party.
Any and all vulnerabilities can & will be exploited at every opportunity.
Could Al Gore win the TN Governor race today? A big transformation has happened to the southern states. Koch’s investments paying him dividends at democracy’s expense. Read Democracy in Chains’
I read it when it first came out and constantly refer to it. Shortly after I read it the first time I lent it to a republican politician friend of mine and after perhaps reading the introduction he returned it to me without comment.
Robert🙏
Victoria, Too stupid or ignorant to realize they've been taken?
Yes.It has to be that.More of the results of our dumbing down of America, these people are either uninformed or uneducated, under-educated ,saturated with Fox “news”and it is sad and infuriating.Defunding of public education and under paying our teachers is reaping what it has sown.
Agree 100%!
Actually, I'm hearing a lot of good news - substantiated by details - on MSNBC. At least they're asking good questions of experts in various fields. Meanwhile, Fox is often a one man/woman show of opinion without basis in fact or thought. Or are they just the 21st century's answer to Goebbels?
Murdoch has a Goebbels propaganda agenda for sure.
Not too curious, money not only talks, it screams
Will, from Cal....communicating truth.....really well written ....thanks! Also an excellent addition to Heather's letter.
In comments I've made on previous LFAA articles, I've mentioned something similar, Will. Former journalist here, completely fed up virtually all media today. The most recent "last straw" was Judy Woodruff's interview of President Biden, in which she acted like a PR person for Republicans--questioning and challenging everything he said.
Thank you for bringing this up, Ann. I felt the same while listening to Judy's interview. Fed up, angry and frankly sad.
Judy Woodruff no longer appears to be bipartisan; it’s as if she goes out of her way to present the right wing point of view so that she can claim to be “balanced” while ignoring the viewpoint of the other side of the aisle.
I agree with you, Mary.
I saw it that way, too. She asked something which forced him to say that he couldn’t answer her because the investigation was ongoing. She would have known that, or should have.
You just nailed it, Will (even though my response slotted in FAR below your post...way to go, Substack!). The media, Right AND (it seems) Left, thrive on drama, fighting, fear, turmoil, anger, negative, negative, negative...why?? Because, in their eyes, that generates interest in their stories and analysts. The more people read/click-on their stuff, the more $$ they make and the more revenue they earn (more ads). GOOD news, and an economy improving and puttering along, is B-O-R-I-N-G! Readership obviously stagnates when there's nothing spectacular grabbing the headlines. They had it good with "Old Yam Tits", because every day there was a mini-"scandal du jour" to keep the press salivating. It didn't matter that the country was being drug through the mud and our very democracy was in peril, THERE WERE STORIES TO REPORT!! I like to think we on here are just a bit more discerning and less apt to immediately swallow everything that is fed to us. For myself, I try to wait a bit after something breaks to let more information become apparent and see what is going on. I think HCR is as well, and it is to her credit that with her academic zeal, she cites her sources extensively. That, thereby, gives us on here the opportunity to "consider the source" and decide whether or not, in our view, it has merit. I think that's kind of where we find ourselves at the moment with the daily barrage of information that confronts us. One has to do some serious sifting through all the "stuff". (How many citizens in this country bother to do that now?) So many people just skim only the few lines of a story from one or two sources, or listen to abbreviated news stories, and then move on. Time is at a premium for us ALL and there's just not enough time in the day to plough through everything. So, a lot of people then end up depending on others to go through all the detritus of the day to pick out the stories that, in their view, we should centre on. Some are better at this than others. HCR's take on everything, using her historian's eye, is one that we on here tend to subscribe to and appreciate precisely because it does give us the opportunity to pursue things ourselves, should we desire. I find this page, and some others on Substack, a blissful, more sane respite from all the screaming headlines and biases of mainstream media. Here we tend to think through things a bit more, not always agreeing, but welcome to an adult space. Peace, y'all...
I do agree. I left to visit my daughter the day after the train wreck In Ohio. Didn’t have the time or energy for more bad news. Finally caught up with the story yesterday and I could read it more intelligently after a break. I think we need to teach ourselves how to take a step back and find one or two things t really focus on. Trying to take everything in at once is self-defeating and somewhat demoralizing.
Will Bad news sells, good news seems boring. One plane has trouble flying across the Atlantic gets headlines. 1000 planes safely crossed the Atlantic is on the cutting room floor.
I found in my Op-Ed writing days that newspaper headline writers must be a different department than the editors. I once got all sorts of grief from disabled rights advocates due to a letter I wrote disagreeing with a college newspaper that was against increasing penalties for Drunk Drivers. My letter described my experience as a Nursing Assistant caring for a quadriplegic man who was hit by a drunk driver. The headline "DRUNK DRIVERS NEED TO LEARN THAT LIVING IN A WHEELCHAIR IS HORRIBLE." NO, that wasn't the focus of my letter, which was to make driving drunk a more serious offense with real consequences.
Headline writers objective is to shock not to inform. Correct? Erghhh
Majority will not read the article, but only scan it, distracted by the next advertisement. It is like being trapped in a casino with no exit signs.
Not almost. Is. It is about selling stories. To sell stories in a hyper competitive market headlines need a wide range, grab attention, and invoke emotion. Headlines are made to leverage the “attention” economy. New devices and technology make it possible to monetize the smallest micro second of everyone’s attention. Truth and reality have been subordinated to click bait.
Car crashes sell, good news does not
Your comment is a reminder for me to update my subscription to Yes! I never have understood the logic of wanting to read bad news. https://www.yesmagazine.org/about
Curious indeed. Happy, hopeful, united people don’t make good Fascists.
Amen. It’s like the kid in the courtyard getting two guys to fight so the crowd can watch at their bloodied expense. “ let’s you and him fight and I’ll sell tickets “
As many people have observed, doom and gloom sell better than sunny and bright. Do you pay more attention to the details of a weather forecast when a storm is coming than when the weather will be fair? Most of us do.
True. But sunny and bright gets me outside and moving.
BK Hats off to Chelsea! Humor is a marvelous silver bullet and wooden spike against vicious bullies who are unable to take a punch. A catalogueof Trump’s humor should go into his book-less library. Even those idiots to listen to Tucker Carlson couldn’t miss the rapier humor of Chelsea.
I am reminded of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. His humor relegated Hitler to a puddle of slimy ooze. So let’s hit the humor button aimed at Gangrene Greene, Rock-and-Hard Place McCarthy, Turdy Trump, and Nobel Prize winner Santos.
It’s almost a shame that Giggles Giuliani is no longer in the top 100 hit list.
Amen !!!
Rebekha You seem to be a fellow member of Flip Wilson’s Church of the Here and Now congregation.
Indeed !!!
Meh
Thanks, Will from Cal. That was a nice lift full of accurate assessments and good humor to boot.
Will, from Cal, this has to be one of the most enjoyable readers’ comments to LFAA I’ve ever read: sagacious, cleverly organized content and impeccable punctuation. Bravo! 👏
Agreed! Well crafted single-sentenced first paragraph. I guess you’re either a journalist, an aspiring columnist, or a wonderfully delightful chatty bot. ;D
Rule #1 in the news media, info-tainment industry; bad news is good for business. Good news, not so much.
“If it bleeds, it leads” has been the mantra since the days of the town crier.
Thanks Will! I've been saying this for weeks. Before the mid-terms that was all we heard: inflation, inflation, inflation! Now that it's going down crickets. I'm sick of being sold soap and not getting anything of substance form them. I know all about the fact that someone was pregnant while preforming at the Super Bowl but when it comes to things that really matter I have to sift through all the bull shit to get to anything of real substance. -saw-
Thank you Will from Cal, that was a joy to read. And to use a nice English phrase, “spot on”!
Will Some years ago there was a newspaper called the GOOD NEWS WEEKLY. It only published ‘good news’-(in the weekly magazine, THE WEEK, there is a quarter page section on ‘good news). The paper folded, because few people wanted to read boring, dull ‘good news.’
I remember when the three nightly CBS, NBC, ABC news shows actually focused on news—Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and other serious newsmen. Now it is entertainment and spot disasters, with scant serious journalism.
The challenge is to ‘sell’ good news.The country is in far better shape today that under Trump’s turdy turbulence.There’s no sustained interest in the fact that the Covid economy is emerging far better than the ‘experts’ had predicted, Biden administration legislation will pump major investment into American industry and climate change palliatives. We are again a leader in the world rather than being the pet dog of authoritarians.
Advertising is now brief spots with repetition on Tik Tok and other social media. Why not Dem vs. Rep?
One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark. Then have punchy content, with some humor and ridicule (of some of the greatest Republican absurdities).
Content—have you ever been involved in the ‘elevator game?’ This is when you are obliged who you are, what you want, or some other specific in an imagined 60 seconds when you meet the target in an elevator. Try it!!! Try to summarize something complex in 60 seconds where the target doesn’t turn blurry eyed in a few seconds.
It’s tough work, but I have seen this accomplished with dozens of bright foreign leaders who, initially, thought this would be simple. Sharp synthesis is not simple—it’s tough work.
Try crafting a 60 second elevator speech for one of Biden’s ‘hear’s the deal.’ An hour, a day, or a week later you may stumble on to a BINGO. Good luck.
"One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark." How about HERE'S THE WILL (from Cal)? The Will to speak truth in direct, accessible language with intelligent humor bringing home the zinger, obliterating any and all oppositional rhetoric.
In rural Maine we are seeing a really great paid ad on the positives the infrastructure bill brought to us giving credit to where the credit is due. It’s quite refreshing compared to all the lies we normally are saturated in from the Fascist Party. I tried to find a link to it but couldn’t.
Christie Wahoo@
Will, this old dame loves you. Keep on posting, dearie.
Will This old curmudgeon loves you. I shan’t impose on dearie Linda’s turf.
This one does too! I actually came here to post that Kathy from OH loves Will from Cal but you said it better.
Excellent. Thank you.
Leigh McGowan, Politics Girl, with an in-depth look on her podcast as to what the heck is going on in Wisconsin.
https://youtu.be/ITCA7jsVxZk
Salud.
🗽
Bravo! Write more!
Will I remember when that mean, incompetent President Biden was personally responsible for gas prices soaring to $5.00 in my neighborhood. Yesterday gas was $3.21. There were no headlines thanking President Biden for his sagacious leadership.
News editors pick what sells—as you so clearly illustrate. [Is your day job as a nightly news journalist who breathlessly spews forth buckets of sensation bad news? Even weather reports are now jazzed up with ‘bomb cyclones.’]
The extra hilarious thing about blaming the government, especially the President, for high gas prices is that the only solution they could theoretically take directly to ensure that never happens is mandating/fixing prices. You know, the central government controlling the business and overriding the free market. You know, like... what's the word for the system that allows for that... uh... oh, yeah...
communism.
Will, thank you for the best belly laugh I’ve had in weeks. Your analysis of the positioning of the headlines in some of the major news outlets is not only spot on, the “multiverse- ending-graph -of-doom” description had me nearly spitting coffee - which tends to aggravate whichever cat is flopped on my lap in the morning.
🐈⬛, 🐈 and I send our deepest gratitude for your analysis and support for the world’s most absurdly underestimated grandpa.
Here, here. Agree with every word
❤❤❤❤😎 Will you're a fabulous writer. Thanks for the smile this morning!
Add a laughing emoji to the heart in response to this post - but if only the the "liberal media" were "just paranoid crybabies" - this reader believes it to be more sinister.