Thank you for highlighting the war in Ukraine in your letter. It has been pushed to out of the spotlight by the Hamas/Israel conflict and likely will be again by the renewed government funding crisis.
It seems like even the former papers of record like the New York Times and Washington Post now believe their readership can no longer think…
Thank you for highlighting the war in Ukraine in your letter. It has been pushed to out of the spotlight by the Hamas/Israel conflict and likely will be again by the renewed government funding crisis.
It seems like even the former papers of record like the New York Times and Washington Post now believe their readership can no longer think about two issues at once, and that we no longer deserve broad and deep coverage of events. Instead we are getting horse-race polling and no policy coverage. This has been documented in an article from the Columbia Journalism Review.
It is time for all of us to start making our outrage at this known to the Boards of Directors and editorial boards of these companies. They have turned to subscriber based revenue models so subscriber-based outrage can get attention.
As WaPo motto says, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." We all have to do our part to make sure that our news outlets are held accountable for biased coverage and placement and resource allocation decisions being made by editorial boards.
Yes, Georgia. The Post and the Times headlines get it wrong frequently. But there is a lot of information in those publications, that if it were lost, we would suffer. They are more than headlines - they are engines of information. If we don't like their focus, tell them. If we want more information about a subject, tell them. Our "media" has a lot of problems. The incessant Biden vs Trump obsession drives me nuts. The polls are ridiculously obsessed with what could be a non-existent match-up. Trump is fading. Joe could change his mind. And why would he announce his departure before he had to? He would only "lame duck" himself. President Johnson announced his decision on March 31, 1968. Let's stop the speculation and know that if Joe did step aside there are dozens of wonderful candidates who would rise to the occasion. Or...Biden could follow the Diane Francis suggestion of replacing Harris with Newsom - talk about a campaign booster! I digress...but please compare our media with that of the UK or other nations. We could be a lot better. But we are also a lot better.
And only "Two issues at once"? I think most of us can think about several issues during the day. What haunts me is that every minute there is a story about the horrors of Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, our House Of Clowns - we are not talking about the destruction of our home.
A recent PBS Newshour segment highlighted the hypocrisy and horror of our so-called "recycling" of plastics to other countries. In the story, an authority in Thailand said that 70 to 80% of the plastic it receives is not processed or repurposed. It is taken to landfills, burned or simply dumped into waterways that lead to the ocean. OUR plastic. This is a disaster.
A recent story revealed that the largest percentage of microplastics in our oceans comes from vehicle tires - tiny bits of the tires flying off as we drive - washed into our water ways. The resulting pollution is found in our food supplies and now us. We are now walking talking plastic people. BTW, the heavier the vehicle, the faster the wear. EVs generally weigh 30% more than conventional autos. With the right focus and the right science, we could fix this.
All of what Senator Schumer proposes should be easy peasy logical legislation. And then we could get back to saving our home - that we are currently treating like a dump.
Bill Alstrom, yesterday I wrote that in effect, cancelling the NYT is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It got around 20 “likes.” (Sorry I don’t have an exact count.) Thank you for writing at length.
We aren't going to cancel ours, Virginia, because of the many aspects of the Times I enjoy. I confess to not reading the op ed pages or most of their news, but my husband reads that part of it.
Yes, I too enjoy a lot of the Times, but am often infuriated. I have written many letters stating this but nothing really changes. The huge spread they did the other day on who Trump might pick as is VP was one such article. I looked at the reader’s comments. Huge numbers of them were really furious!
I keep my blood pressure low by not looking at articles like that. And it is infuriating. The guy is a criminal with 91 indictments and hopefully will be in jail sometime next year. Also he is increasingly senile and it shows despite his handlers trying to hide it. He goes off script and then it's bonkers time.
I have a huge file of recipes from the NYT. I do sometimes cook them. I also belong to the Burlap and Barrel spice blog where people are cooking up astounding things. The WaPo now has a way to access their recipes.
Bill, that plastics/old -technology- parts story was also on CBS Sunday morning. It was a devastating indictment of our developed world's wasteful lifestyle. We dump our waste on other, poorer countries whose people( including lots of young men and children) do " urban mining" in very toxic landfills to find copper and other components which they sell for a pittance. It was such a disturbing and horrific story. One suggestion was that the makers of the products be held responsible for and reclaim the waste they produce. Samsung was the only company to give an interview and they have begun, and are extending, projects to do just that.
The "outsourcing" of our trash should be illegal. Maybe if we had to deal with it here, we would change our ways. Our recycling programs are not serious. There are very few restrictions on single use plastics. Our town does not permit single use plastic bags at retailers. The town next door will not allow the sale of bottle water in plastic containers (it's not really healthier, anyway). It's a small something.
The process of "single stream recycling" is a joke. There are places where glass, plastic and paper products are completely separated. It's easy to do. But we are lazy.
True. But we outsource our rubbish because we are a self-serving first world behemoth, of course. The outsourcing doesn't include the megatons of plastic trash we dump in the oceans. But it's all good because we've got wind farms and EVs. Next we'll ship our crap to other planets, no doubt.
I too am questioning the reporting of the "news." Why is it that at the beginning of this Israeli/Hamas mess, we were told that the Palestinian prisoners freed 3 to 1 Jew were terrorists and criminals and that just yesterday I learned that that many of the 3000 Palestinians detained by the Israeli authority are women and boys under the age of 18? Why were they abducted and detained and given no reason? Why is this group referred to as prisoners and not hostages? Why don't we hear about the pain the Palestinians feel after having their family members abducted? Why don't we hear how the Palestinians in the West Bank feel having Israeli soldiers running around with machine guns (a very powerful symbol BTW) harassing them? Why are Jewish settlers encouraged to land-grab in Palestinian neighborhoods? It is the Israeli government that is to blame for hate crimes against innocent Jews around the world and the US is complicit! No more 3 billion/year carte blanche for the Israeli government!
Its a truly awful disease - I had a cousin diagnosed at 80 and a friend who passed away last year after a fairly short time with it - it just completely wiped him out. And I'm not surprised that its linked to plastic pollution. I watched the story on Sunday morning too (Carol mentioned above). What destruction this technology brings down on other countries just so our consumption can keep on!
Georgia, I cancelled my subscription (after almost 40 years) to NYT last year just after the ‘22 elections. Their obviously biased polling, Red Wave nonsense and as you noted, lack of policy coverage, was dangerous to our democracy in my opinion, and I was done with their agenda.
You have to call in order to cancel a subscription and I was subjected to one of the worst marketing pushes I’ve ever endured - it took over 20 minutes just to cancel - Really? When asked why I was cancelling, the guy on the other end actually started arguing about the premise for my anger and subsequent decision to cancel. Talk about hubris!
I sent a scathing letter to the Board of Directors. I followed up with several letters to the editor.
Crickets.
Your ideas are valid and will definitely help long term. But after thinking about this a great deal myself, my choice is to spend whatever spare time I have helping get out the vote in 2024. And whatever extra money I have on good candidates, important campaigns, and the best Substack has to offer (HCR, Robert Hubbell, Bill McKibben, Joyce White Vance, Jessica Craven, more).
When I was in college, my J school professors insisted that students subscribe to one national paper and our home town newspaper.
I highly doubt they would recommend the New York Times these days.
Good you told them why your were canceling. But my fear is that cancelations just drive them further towards clickbait because it is more profitable because it is cheaper to produce. I just posted another article on my Substack on a huge essay that A. G. Sulzberger, the publisher of the NY Times ,wrote back in May on the independent press in the Columbia Journalism Review., the place that jsut published the damning statistics on coverage of policy a week ago. Sulzberger is self-justifying and completely misses the forest for the trees. It is breathtaking in how far off the mark and naive he is. We have to do more to protest or there will lose an independent free press forever.
NYT doesn't depend as much on its online subscriptions as it does its print newspaper, so clickbait isn't a reason to support a newspaper (realistically, subscribing to stop the influx of clickbait?). None of the content in the NYT is free - there's a paywall, so they get their money.
Protest? How? Newspapers have been dying off for decades. Don't worry about the NYT; the real tragedy is the loss of smaller, local papers.
Or you can hit them where it hurts and cancel your subscription. Just because you don't have access doesn't mean you won't know what they are writing as most outlets (including this one) report any "fit" to print news they might offer.
I personally subscribe to the "be part of the solution to make it better" school of thought. But if you do cancel, tell them why--and not just Sulzberger but the whole Corporate Board.
I unsubscribed a month ago! My long time habit of surfing the NYT has ended. I am happy to report the quality of my life is still very good! WAPO subscription ends in a couple weeks. I soldier on...
This Columbia University review looked at the New York Times coverage of the issues 3 months prior to the 2020 election and concluded “If voters had wanted to educate themselves on issues, they would not have learned much from reading the Times.” They said it was typical of other major outlets as well, but I trust that is not reassuring.
“We found that the Times and the Post shared significant overlap in their domestic politics coverage, offering little insight into policy. Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. The main point of contrast we found between the two papers was that, while the Post delved more into topics Democrats generally want to discuss—affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights—the Times tended to focus on subjects important to Republicans—China, immigration, and crime."
I have been a long-time digital subscriber deeply interested in the issues and policies and I want to hear more about the substantive programs President Biden’s team is successfully reaching across the aisle to implement.
A colleague recently wrote...”Biden has worked for the working class; Trump worked for the oligarchs. Biden passed a massive infrastructure bill; Trump did not. Biden was part of the Obama administration and helped pass the ACA; Trump claimed he would “repeal and replace Obamacare” and failed to do either. Trump bullied NATO partners to organize without the help of the US; Biden reinforced our relationship with our European partners, as well as our Asian-Pacific partners with coalitions that strengthen the bargaining power of smaller countries with our influence. Through Trump’s reckless spending cuts to balance all the tax giveaways he offered to the rich, the Infectious Disease team stationed in Wuhan China was scrapped three months before the nexus of COVID 19. Biden coordinated and executed one of the largest US vaccination initiatives since the polio vaccine, bringing back a stronger, more sustainable economy to the USA and North America as a whole. Why isn’t anybody talking about this? “
I strongly encourage the board to in turn, encourage editors and writers to participate more positively, more actively in “deeply reporting” as you say in your editorial mission. Accurate information on policy in the days, weeks, and months ahead of the 2024 election are crucial. Thank you. "
Value Act is an activist investor group that likes to work with companies for the long term to improve profitability. The have recently established a sizeable position in NYT stock.
"It seems like even the former papers of record like the New York Times and Washington Post now believe their readership can no longer think about two issues at once..."
If that were the truth, democracy would indeed die in darkness. We cannot self-govern without sufficient information about what is going on. I suppose we still have that, if one digs; but we need it from "town criers" as well, so that few get left out. The "media" felt like a public asset during the Vietnam War and Watergate, but lately there has been far too much in-bedded journalism.
My local paper of record, The Dallas Morning News, does a decent job, considering that they are in crazy Texas. However, they have a delivery problem with their print edition. It only comes half the time. I have complained every way I know how, besides cancelling. The response is, “people just don’t want to work anymore.” What BS. Papers can’t be delivered on bikes anymore, so pay people enough to get the job done. Anyway, I have wondered if they want people to just go digital so they won’t have to bother with print anymore. I am trying to support my local paper, but they don’t support my need to get what I pay for. BTW, if people don’t want to work anymore, why are so many trying to hold down two jobs. Sorry for the early morning rant…
Jeri I can't find a neighborhood kid to help me with heavy outdoor work around the house for 25. an hour cash. Insane. We used to help our neighbors because they were our neighbors. Everything seems transactional today.
You can't work with your nose in your cell phone or other devices. At Thanksgiving we talked about problems in various institutions. Our neighbor's daughter is a cardiac nurse in Portland and she described how broken the health system is. She described one case where plain old red tape got in the way of the needs of the patient. We agreed that the pandemic has made everything much worse. One of the things we also talked about was getting an appointment with the vet. Ours is excellent, but very busy especially after a local clinic went corporate. If some corporation or hedge fund is involved, you can be sure that whatever they buy will go down hill. And everything is transactional because everything is a commodity. Read Braiding Sweetgrass for a view on this.
When I worked at high school, I always knew some kids who were happy to earn some money. Since then, nada. Yep, different world. Although grands work in fast food, hope temporary.
Also less social. Less in person interaction between neighbors period, in my experience, myself included. I think that hunger for community is part of what fuels the MAGA cult.
In all likelihood people don't want to work at a job where they can't make a living. We learned during the height of the Pandemic just how much we depend on social workers. Wages need to be adjusted and we need the very wealthy to show more patriotism by funding more of the cost of government. It's to their benefit more than anyone else's.
In assisted living where I live, many work two jobs. I'm sure they love it, NOT. Yep, the rich need to pay fair share. Which they have defined as nothing.
So, Jeri, what is the solution? From my vantage point, the workers need to unite and this means unions. Without the ability to bring strength in numbers to the negotiating table, they'll end up with subsistence wages, assuming that there is any such thing as a negotiating table. The other possibility is minimum wage laws. Good luck with this idea in Trump-dominated states.
…on the ‘Rich Getting Richer’ by not paying their fair share front…. The new guy joining the GOP race for the White House, Stuckenberg, making one of his major planks to eliminate inheritance tax. In NYS, I believe inheritance isn’t taxed until it is valued over 1 mil. Who’s that plank for?
Agreed. The wealthy just need to pay a fair share of taxes or pay them at all. The author of Poverty, by America says that if people just paid their taxes, we would be in much better shape.
The "Middle Class" was growing when taxes on the wealthy and corporations was much higher. It's complicated and while the the 1950's middle class was largely white and male, efforts at inclusion seems to expand up to Reagan; but who gained and who a suffered as a consequence of 40+ years of Reaganomic laws and policies? The truth is out there.
It is not original with me, but it has been observed that the one thing, perhaps the only thing, that one never has enough of is MONEY. There is absolutely no way in 1,000 years that a billionaire can spend that much money on consumables. We need to reimplement the practices of the past and force the ultra wealthy to be more patriotic.
Reaganomics is "Take from the poor and give to the rich." plain and simple; feudalism 2.0. The rich get the cash, the public gets the work and risk. It's like the collateralized debt obligations in the subprime crisis; put dogdoo in a blender, spray it up with golden paint, and call it gold; then find a sucker.
"Their BS" included claiming that the jobless in the "Great Recession" did not want to work. That (literally) the economic underpinning of our economy would collapse unless bankrupt bankers received bonuses, but by all means, tear up union contracts in a recession. That any aid to the poor was (again literally) "Moral Hazard" and that that the general public had to accept "austerity" and like it.
That the ultra wealthy are the "Job Creators", That any advantage allowed to workers is "Job Killing", while mergers and "downsizing", and shifting entire departments overseas in the midst of a recession is not. Things that you can only believe if you reject the evidence of your eyes and of your ears. It's their final, most essential command.
I’d like to segue about jobs for a moment. In the area I live there are help wanted signs all over the place! I asked my husband, “Do you really think no one wants to work?” He said, “Heck No! How many people do you think live around here! They’re all working! When we go out to dinner or shop everyone is working themselves silly.” I hadn’t thought of it that way. Everyone I know, even some retired from good jobs are working for something to do. We hire 2 great high school students to come every Saturday and help with our business/hobby. They want to work. We need more people in our area.
As to the newspaper delivery issue, more money is the answer.
my suggestion, but I don't think the paper wants to support print. Digital is pushed but it's not what I pay for. Guess I'm too old to appreciate screenshot news.
I hate the digital "paper." Dallas Morning News will be about $650 a year starting in Dec. They don't like to do print anymore. The ones in my family who stopped subscription had delivery problems, in addition to pathetic excuse for news.
People are eager to work and make a difference. People need to be compensated for their time. This is a very simple equation.
I am so psyched the unions are making noise, getting noticed, and making positive change. My whole working life I could not decide if unions were good or bad. I still really don't have my answer. I like what the unions are doing today though.
Unions can be hard to love. But let me tell you about a Hungarian immigrant who came to this country as a 12 year old boy and went to work in the coal mines of SWPA, my grandfather.
Or the woman who came as a young adult sponsored by a good Jewish family who treated her well until she married and moved to a small coal mining community where after having 5 children she made and sold moonshine until she saved enough money to buy property and open a grocery store and butcher shop to get her beloved husband out of the mines. My great-grandmother. My grandfather married their oldest daughter. The union made a huge difference in my grandparent’s lives. My mother and uncle were both college educated. My great-grandfather fought for the right to unionize until Grandma Haluska made enough money to open the store. Many lives were lost due to brutal coal barons and the dangerous mines.
Unions have crossed lines and made many people anti-union and that’s on them. But, look at all we gained in human rights because of unions.
I belonged to a union until I retired. Until teacher unions, there was no job security. Anybody on the school board who’s brother in law needed a job was given yours. You want that back? 7 days a week for 12 hours? No safety requirements? Yes, they can be hard to take at times, but look back just 100 odd years ago and see what’s what.
The power of unions comes from the support of the public as well as the solidarity of their workers, and I think a lot of union leaders lost track of that, but, just as you said, history shows that unionization made a hell of a difference to building a middle class and offering living wages to more (including non-union) workers"Gilder Age" "Robber Barons" were classic tyrants who exploited workers and corrupted government. That's the past the "GOP's" patrons are keen on recapturing. That's the unstated goal of "Reaganomics".
Unions won a lot of benefits and rights for all workers in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, though a number of those gains have been eroded since. Concentrated power tends to corrupt, and I have seen corrupt and unwise behavior on the part of some unions, but they serve us as a counterbalance to the concentration of capital, and other balances as well. Union and non-union workers might benefit by greater solidarity and greater accommodation than in the past. We are now seeing the consequences of too little balance in who gets to call the shots.
I had the same subscription - I cancelled because I was not impressed. My gripe with Dallas Morning News is because I couldn't opt out of home delivery for just the online edition.
But Jeri, people do not want to Deliver the Papers Anymore - I know this for a fact as I had a few family members do this job. Lots of reasons - pay, transportation expenses , and the dangers associated with being out delivering at odd hours. But then the pay cuts happened and that finished any opportunity to make a living..
I did that nasty job for a couple years long ago. Not one day off the whole time, a 3 am wake up call and a full time day job. It kept me out of debtors prison though ; ()
One thing that happened around here was that papers dropped their evening edition. Do people really prefer that? To me, it was a choice between read today's news in the evening, or yesterday's news in morning. Plus, I was too much of a night owl to get up any earlier than I had to to read the paper before leaving for work. One virtue of electronic media is it's fast (maybe too fast). Evening papers were easier for kids to deliver. Plus our society is now deemed too unsafe for kids to be on their own. I sold a lot of stuff door to door, for school, for YMCA, for Scouts by my lonely. I think part myth, part truth, our society is more predatory today.
We live in a small town in Michigan and most of the local paper comes from the Associated Press. There are a few local articles of interest and then lots of advertising. It costs over $200 a year to subscribe! My husband walks to the library to read it because we won't pay that kind of money for it...
Got an email saying price going up in Dec to about $650 a year. And they blame people not being interested. Deliberate effort to kill local news, by whoever is buying small papers, or who is influential for larger ones
Telephone land lines are treated the same way—price them so high that subscribers emigrate to VOIP or cell phones, then raise the prices because they allocate the maintenance costs among fewer subscribers. And so it goes.
My experience is that in the last decade corporations have broken new ground selling less and less product for more and more money. That includes dramatically shrinking the quantity and often the quality (many have been reformulated with cheaper ingredients) of packaged food in particular, spurious "junk fees", and just try to get telephone customer service. Some agents I have called admit to me that they are just contractors who know little about the problem and can't resolve a problem. Some of the largest companies want you to "chat" with a robot that knows even less that a random person would. I think of the old satirical line. "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company" back when AT&T was the only game in town.
I received multiple calls from them offering slightly lower rates. Then one day the newspaper advertised a special for online subscription a full year for $1. I took it. Sometimes you can wait them out and get a better deal.
Our home delivery subscription to the DMN is mostly a donation to local journalism and letters I sometimes respond to like:
LTE On ‘Christian nationalism’ Paul Kramer 11/25/2023 pg 13A
I doubt my response will get printed anywhere else but here. I hope you don't mind reading it.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations liberty, equality, individual rights, intellectual and religious freedom is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Key to the enlightenment is Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan Chapter 30 which specifies the Social Contract including:
1) “For since the right of nature permits those who are in extreme necessity to steal the goods of others, or even to take them by force, they ought to be maintained by the commonwealth and not left to the uncertain charity of private citizens lest they be troublesome to the commonwealth.”
2) “If the number of people who are poor but strong continues to grow, they should be transplanted into countries that are not sufficiently inhabited.”
3) “When a riotous insurrection occurs, the commonwealth can profit from the example of the punishment of its leaders and teachers, but not the punishment of the poor seduced people.”
4) “To be severe to the people is to punish their ignorance, which may be largely laid at the door of the sovereign, whose fault it is that they hadn’t been better instructed.”
So ... Public welfare, immigration and punishing the leaders and teachers of insurrection is a requirement. DMN please help us not be seduced.
Perhaps they think "social media" has supplanted them. You can't get an article about twice as long as necessary on "social media". (Yes, I'm ridiculing the term).
As long ago as the Iraq War the NYT was worried about losing readers. I remember hearing George Packer at the Chicago Humanities Festival during the period. I have specific writers I read in the Times, several of whom I see regularly on MSNBC. Given that the Chicago Tribune is now a “conglomerate,” haven’t time or funds for a paper I wouldn’t read when I have WaPo and NYT, plus RSM with its excellent choices.
I stopped watching TV news in the runup to W's Iraq War. All they needed was was the pom poms to lead the cheer. I found far more relevant and accurate information at the Guardian, which I support. I was paying $120 a year to the local paper just to keep it around, but finally went to their cheaper, digital version which I rarely read.
When I was in Berlin at the end of October, I saw an art exhibit that was really about the experiences of North Eurasians under the Soviet Union occupation and their struggles to regain their identities after the end of the Soviet Union, as well as the psychic pain they suffer from the occupation. A part of the exhibit was on the Holodomor. It was painful and powerful! The exhibit is at the House of World Cultures (Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt- HKW) until January 14, 2024. https://www.hkw.de/programme/as-though-we-hid-the-sun-in-a-sea-of-stories
Thank you for the link. I am a second generation Ukrainian American and am deeply concerned by how easily it is fading into the background in the mainstream media
I will say that in my art group here in Germany, one of the women is doing a series of art pieces about Ukraine. I would say this war is much more pressing. I have a niece and nephew who are Ukrainian German and in our family Ukraine is not forgotten. Their mom is married to my husband's cousin. Her parents were going to stay in their city in Ukraine but she talked them into coming to Germany. Her sister's family just moved to the USA about 3 years ago after living in China for 2 years. So, it was her parents who needed to get out, and Germany was closer. My daughter did an exchange in a school in Vienna that has adopted the war in Ukraine as their school project. That means that all classes have students from Ukraine in them, and many of them are living with families in the school as unaccompanied minors. My daughter is studying in Berlin and in her class the largest group are from Ukraine or Russia. In the beginning they were all friends because of speaking Russian, but now, there has been some separation because of some differences of values. My daughter's friendship group includes several progressive Ukrainian students. That is the males in her group are mainly gay, and she says that the ones who are offensive to them are not in her group. Still, in the beginning while language was a bond, after a while values have become the bond. Everyone in the class speaks English and German as well. So, while I am very concerned about this trucker situation with Poland, and the anger that Polish truckers and farmers are showing to Ukraine, I think the EU needs to help sort the situation out. I can understand why Polish farmers and Truckers do not need to be undercut by Ukrainian ones. However, some of this sentiment was stirred up by the falsely named "Law and Order" party in Poland. I am hoping that Biden's tying funding for border policing, etc... to Ukrainian aid, will force Republicans to pass the bill. We shall see. The Democrats seem to be starting to figure out how to work the Republican dysfunctional situation. Let us hope they get over their learning curve, because we need them to. Slava Ukraini!
When considering Americans' consumption of news, it is crucial to know where they get the news.
'News Platform Fact Sheet' (Pew Research Center)
'The transition of the news industry away from print, television and radio into digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. Today, an overwhelming majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices.'
'News consumption across platforms'
'A large majority of U.S. adults (86%) say they often or sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 56% who say they do so often. This is more than the 49% who said they often got news from digital devices in 2022 and the 51% of those who said the same in 2021. The portion that gets news from digital devices continues to outpace those who get news from television. The portion of Americans who often get news from television has stayed fairly consistent, at 31% in 2022 and 32% in 2023. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently than to digital devices and television.'
'When asked which of these platforms they prefer to get news on, nearly six-in-ten Americans say they prefer a digital device (58%), more than say they prefer TV (27%). Even fewer Americans prefer radio (6%) or print (5%).'
'Who uses each news platform'
'News consumption across platforms varies by age, gender, race, ethnicity, educational attainment and political leaning. Americans ages 50 and older are more likely than younger adults to turn to and prefer television and print publications.'
'Digital news has become an important part of Americans’ news media diets, with social media playing a crucial role in news consumption. Today, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media.'
'News consumption on social media'
'When it comes to where Americans regularly get news on social media, Facebook outpaces all other social media sites. Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they regularly get news there. Slightly fewer (26%) regularly get news on YouTube.'
'Smaller shares regularly get news on Instagram (16%), TikTok (14%), X (12%) or Reddit (8%). Even fewer Americans regularly get news on Nextdoor (5%), LinkedIn (5%), Snapchat (4%), WhatsApp (3%) or Twitch (1%).'
'(Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say they have seen or heard something about the renaming of Twitter as X. The platform’s name change took place in July 2023.)'
'Some social media sites – despite having relatively small overall audiences – stand out for having high shares of users who regularly go to the site for news. For example, roughly half of users on X (53%) get news there. On the other hand, only 15% of Snapchat users regularly get news on the app.'
'Who consumes news on each social media site'
'There are demographic differences, such as by gender, in who turns to each social media site regularly for news. Women make up a greater portion of regular news consumers on Nextdoor (66%), Facebook (62%), Instagram (59%) and TikTok (58%), while men make up a greater share on sites like Reddit (67%), X (62%) and YouTube (58%).'
'Some partisan differences also arise when it comes to who regularly gets news on some social media sites. The majority of regular news consumers on many sites are Democrats or lean Democratic. No social media site included here has regular news consumers who are more likely to be Republicans or lean Republican, though there is no significant partisan difference among news consumers on Facebook, X or Nextdoor. (Read the Appendix for data on U.S. adults in each demographic group and party who regularly get news from each social media site.)' (Pew Research Center) There is a good deal more information about where we turn for the 'news' from the Pew Center of Research. See a link below.
And this has been true for many years. A 30 something co-worker of mine gets "dinged" whenever a new story breaks. She subscribes to no newspapers and rarely watches TV, so whatever she sees on her phone is her reality of the world today.
She also spends a lot of time on Facebook and other social media platforms. My friends and I spend none. Of course, we're all old farts who are resistant to change.
Gary, call yourself an 'old fart', but leave me out of it. As for resisting change, that is true for some 'old farts' and others are thoughtfully selective about the changes they will make!
I think that anyone who reads and subscribes to this site is looking for strategic changes. I am aware in order age of some of the things I see changing and try to sort out which are inevitable and which might throw babies out with the bathwater. The other thing about this particular newsletter is it's connections to history, not just as quaint curiosity, but as a more holistic view of patterns impacting our lives, part of which is where things have gone wrong, but also what foundationally supports our desired ways of life. For example, I am repelled by Facebook and certainly "X", but I can see a place for it. I wish it were less exploitatively commercial and wonder if a "Wiki" version would be practical? I want to see far more discussion of what what kind of future we can extrapolate from trends we now see, and what kind of future we can imagine, with some attention to how we might get there, that we'd like to see. Rapidly emerging circumstances, such as our responses to resource management and climate change, not to mention the extended impact of AI on society and the world of work needs, I think, far more attention. Stuff like this: https://radiolab.org/podcast/40000-recipes-murder I'm distracted by such stuff to be something of a curmudgeon when it comes to cat videos, despite the fact (I'm forced to admit) some of them are pretty cute.
Is LFaA social media? I think yes and no; more evidence-based presentation and discussion, less fluff.
Gary, I am also an "old fart" and I am changing because I have to. And I want to. And it's entertaining. Haven't received a newspaper in decades - but I read them all day long digitally. More sources than I can count. Your 30 something co-worker is the new norm. Although if she is getting a notification for every new bit of news, I worry about her.
Our TV is a black screen all day until we watch BBC news and then the Newshour. But sometimes our chats are more interesting and we just skip it. Black screen. The nightly news is usually just a recap of what we have read through a news aggregator on our phones or tablets or Chromebook. After dinner, a movie or a series.
No FB or X for me. There is no "news" there. Just puppies, kittens, family pictures and insane political nonsense that some call "news". It's not. Of course, one can either customize the social media experience or let it capture you. My brilliant wife has allowed only family and friends connections to exist on he FB "feed". And she gets the local updates on "Nextdoor". Social media can be helpful if we own the experience.
It's all moving fast. Soon, we'll have a chip in our heads which will project a holographic news experience that we can wallow in. Hopefully it will come with an on'off switch :)
Increasingly software and "smart" appliances are doing things "for" me I don't want them to do, with no "escape" key. My printer got caught in a loop that I could only escape by pulling the plug. With an old fashioned motorized cam driven wash cycle I could run partial cycles of my washing machine, but with a digitally controlled one I can't. That's an engineering decision, not the technology. I want automation like a DSLR camera, like breathing; automatic when you want automatic, full control when you want what you want.
In Canada, Facebook withdrew ALL of its Canadian news postings, and won't let you share anything that seems to smack of being a new channel. Thanks to a fight with the Canadian government which now insists publishers be reimbursed by FB for postings of their material to it. FB is also arguing they want to turn toward social interaction etc but not be a news outlet. Oddly Wikipedia is still permitted! So is BBC
Fern: Thanks for adding to the conversation on this topic here. I just posted a more orderly analysis of the NY Times situation and leverage for change on my substack. May I copy this with attribution to you over there?
Thank you for the invitation to your substack, Georgia. Your opinions and research reports -- positive and negative concerning the value of the 'news' Americans read/watch and or listen to will be strengthened by your knowledge of the sources Americans are using and whether those outlets employ journalistic standards or not.
Interesting that there was no mention of the news feeds that pop up when using various search engines such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or Bing. Anyone logging onto a device to go to Facebook, X, or Reddit will likely see one of these feeds before going to their intended site. This is another example of the limits of research in general. To be effective with their inquiry, a researcher must be focused on a specific question/area, with a purposely limited scope set out to answer a specific question. Once reported, the data is applied to everything by those who do not understand the research process and don't know how to handle data.
The research you sited is excellent, but it will be used to answer questions out of its scope. That there was no mention of news feeds shows how difficult it is to ask the right questions to get a full picture of what we are trying to describe.
Steve, check out Pew Research Center on this subject for yourself. There are a good number of links. The sources they use are given as well as limitation to what can be known or may be available to the public.
I have no particular interest in defending the Times, and they have no interest in having my defense, but I sense this is a case of stoning the prophet because you don'l like the prophecy, in this case the results of their poling. Polls are not definitive, but they are also to be neglected at one's peril. I am certain that the Democrats are doing their own polling, and there is a good chance that it tracks the polling the Times does. Again, polls definitive, but they are one element used to look at probable statistical outcomes and they are not looking favorable. I'm almost, but not quite ready to make a $500 bet on a Trump victory in 2024, so that when I win I could donate the winnings to the ACLU. I'll paraphrase a previous post to say: if Biden loses to Trump, as now looks likely, history will remember him most for the fact that he held on in desperation when all the signs were against him, and he will be assigned shared blame for the disaster of the 2nd Trump administration. If Biden were to step aside now, even if Trump won a second term, he would be remembered as an effective president, perhaps even a heroic one.
"Please join the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for an online event, Beyond the SCIF with House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner on Ukraine, on November 29, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. (ET) via Zoom.
Register to attend online
Hamas’ savage attack on Israeli civilians may have put the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine on the media’s back pages, but it has not diminished the threat that Russia poses to American security and prosperity. Putin’s aim today is to subdue Ukraine, but that is not the end of his ambitions. He aims to restore effective control over the countries that once made up the Soviet Union and to exert influence in the countries that were once part of the Kremlin-controlled Warsaw Pact. Put simply, he has designs on NATO allies whom we are obliged to defend.
As its support for Hamas makes clear, the damage Moscow does goes well beyond Europe. The place to stop Putin—to contain him—is in Ukraine. This is the smart and economical way to defend core US interests.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center gather a panel of experts for “Beyond the SCIF” to discuss US interests in Ukraine today and tomorrow as well as the importance of continued assistance, highlighting Ukraine’s priorities and needs in the fight, and the role the US and the West play in providing support. “Beyond the SCIF” (sensitive compartmented information facility) is an effort by House Intelligence Committee members to connect with experts and leaders in the national security field to create an open dialogue on threats facing the United States and ways committee members can counter the malign actions of our adversaries.
PANELISTS
Ian Brzezinski
Resident Senior Fellow
Atlantic Council
Rebeccah Heinrichs
Senior Fellow and Director, Keystone Defense Initiative
Hudson Institute
Ambassador John Herbst
Senior Director, Eurasia Center
Atlantic Council
Catherine Sendak
Director, Transatlantic Security and Defense Program
Thank you Georgia for your insight and suggestions. I went out and read all the articles that you sent links to...they were very telling! I also subscribed to CJR after reading their article on Warped Front Pages..really fascinating. I have been considering discontinuing my digital subscription to the NYT...the CJR article moved me much closer.
I hope Dr. Richardson will read this bombshell of a report in the Columbia Journalism Review and write about the effect of corporate power and right-wing propaganda on our nation's mindset.
Thank you for highlighting the war in Ukraine in your letter. It has been pushed to out of the spotlight by the Hamas/Israel conflict and likely will be again by the renewed government funding crisis.
It seems like even the former papers of record like the New York Times and Washington Post now believe their readership can no longer think about two issues at once, and that we no longer deserve broad and deep coverage of events. Instead we are getting horse-race polling and no policy coverage. This has been documented in an article from the Columbia Journalism Review.
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php
It is time for all of us to start making our outrage at this known to the Boards of Directors and editorial boards of these companies. They have turned to subscriber based revenue models so subscriber-based outrage can get attention.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/new-york-times-revenue-chart/#google_vignette
Below is the link to the corporate board of the NY Times.
https://www.nytco.com/board-of-directors/
As WaPo motto says, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." We all have to do our part to make sure that our news outlets are held accountable for biased coverage and placement and resource allocation decisions being made by editorial boards.
The stakes couldn't be higher.
For $46.45 you can buy a share of NYT and go to shareholders meetings and make your feelings known in a venue with more clout.
Yes, Georgia. The Post and the Times headlines get it wrong frequently. But there is a lot of information in those publications, that if it were lost, we would suffer. They are more than headlines - they are engines of information. If we don't like their focus, tell them. If we want more information about a subject, tell them. Our "media" has a lot of problems. The incessant Biden vs Trump obsession drives me nuts. The polls are ridiculously obsessed with what could be a non-existent match-up. Trump is fading. Joe could change his mind. And why would he announce his departure before he had to? He would only "lame duck" himself. President Johnson announced his decision on March 31, 1968. Let's stop the speculation and know that if Joe did step aside there are dozens of wonderful candidates who would rise to the occasion. Or...Biden could follow the Diane Francis suggestion of replacing Harris with Newsom - talk about a campaign booster! I digress...but please compare our media with that of the UK or other nations. We could be a lot better. But we are also a lot better.
And only "Two issues at once"? I think most of us can think about several issues during the day. What haunts me is that every minute there is a story about the horrors of Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, our House Of Clowns - we are not talking about the destruction of our home.
A recent PBS Newshour segment highlighted the hypocrisy and horror of our so-called "recycling" of plastics to other countries. In the story, an authority in Thailand said that 70 to 80% of the plastic it receives is not processed or repurposed. It is taken to landfills, burned or simply dumped into waterways that lead to the ocean. OUR plastic. This is a disaster.
https://youtu.be/kXpzWWv0b0U
A recent story revealed that the largest percentage of microplastics in our oceans comes from vehicle tires - tiny bits of the tires flying off as we drive - washed into our water ways. The resulting pollution is found in our food supplies and now us. We are now walking talking plastic people. BTW, the heavier the vehicle, the faster the wear. EVs generally weigh 30% more than conventional autos. With the right focus and the right science, we could fix this.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/08/16/world/tyre-collective-microplastic-rubber-waste-climate-hnk-spc-intl/index.html
And what about drinking water? Need I go on?
All of what Senator Schumer proposes should be easy peasy logical legislation. And then we could get back to saving our home - that we are currently treating like a dump.
Bill Alstrom, yesterday I wrote that in effect, cancelling the NYT is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It got around 20 “likes.” (Sorry I don’t have an exact count.) Thank you for writing at length.
We aren't going to cancel ours, Virginia, because of the many aspects of the Times I enjoy. I confess to not reading the op ed pages or most of their news, but my husband reads that part of it.
Yes, I too enjoy a lot of the Times, but am often infuriated. I have written many letters stating this but nothing really changes. The huge spread they did the other day on who Trump might pick as is VP was one such article. I looked at the reader’s comments. Huge numbers of them were really furious!
I keep my blood pressure low by not looking at articles like that. And it is infuriating. The guy is a criminal with 91 indictments and hopefully will be in jail sometime next year. Also he is increasingly senile and it shows despite his handlers trying to hide it. He goes off script and then it's bonkers time.
For the first time online I have the recipes! May not cook any, but they’re lovely to read!
I have a huge file of recipes from the NYT. I do sometimes cook them. I also belong to the Burlap and Barrel spice blog where people are cooking up astounding things. The WaPo now has a way to access their recipes.
Bill, that plastics/old -technology- parts story was also on CBS Sunday morning. It was a devastating indictment of our developed world's wasteful lifestyle. We dump our waste on other, poorer countries whose people( including lots of young men and children) do " urban mining" in very toxic landfills to find copper and other components which they sell for a pittance. It was such a disturbing and horrific story. One suggestion was that the makers of the products be held responsible for and reclaim the waste they produce. Samsung was the only company to give an interview and they have begun, and are extending, projects to do just that.
The "outsourcing" of our trash should be illegal. Maybe if we had to deal with it here, we would change our ways. Our recycling programs are not serious. There are very few restrictions on single use plastics. Our town does not permit single use plastic bags at retailers. The town next door will not allow the sale of bottle water in plastic containers (it's not really healthier, anyway). It's a small something.
The process of "single stream recycling" is a joke. There are places where glass, plastic and paper products are completely separated. It's easy to do. But we are lazy.
True. But we outsource our rubbish because we are a self-serving first world behemoth, of course. The outsourcing doesn't include the megatons of plastic trash we dump in the oceans. But it's all good because we've got wind farms and EVs. Next we'll ship our crap to other planets, no doubt.
Well done.
I too am questioning the reporting of the "news." Why is it that at the beginning of this Israeli/Hamas mess, we were told that the Palestinian prisoners freed 3 to 1 Jew were terrorists and criminals and that just yesterday I learned that that many of the 3000 Palestinians detained by the Israeli authority are women and boys under the age of 18? Why were they abducted and detained and given no reason? Why is this group referred to as prisoners and not hostages? Why don't we hear about the pain the Palestinians feel after having their family members abducted? Why don't we hear how the Palestinians in the West Bank feel having Israeli soldiers running around with machine guns (a very powerful symbol BTW) harassing them? Why are Jewish settlers encouraged to land-grab in Palestinian neighborhoods? It is the Israeli government that is to blame for hate crimes against innocent Jews around the world and the US is complicit! No more 3 billion/year carte blanche for the Israeli government!
And then there is this. I now know several people who have (or who had)
Parkinson
https://www.sciencealert.com/nanoplastics-linked-to-changes-in-brain-proteins-associated-with-parkinsons-study-finds
My brother-in-law lost his Dad to Parkinson’s, and I have a friend whose Parkinson’s set in at 60.
Its a truly awful disease - I had a cousin diagnosed at 80 and a friend who passed away last year after a fairly short time with it - it just completely wiped him out. And I'm not surprised that its linked to plastic pollution. I watched the story on Sunday morning too (Carol mentioned above). What destruction this technology brings down on other countries just so our consumption can keep on!
Georgia, I cancelled my subscription (after almost 40 years) to NYT last year just after the ‘22 elections. Their obviously biased polling, Red Wave nonsense and as you noted, lack of policy coverage, was dangerous to our democracy in my opinion, and I was done with their agenda.
You have to call in order to cancel a subscription and I was subjected to one of the worst marketing pushes I’ve ever endured - it took over 20 minutes just to cancel - Really? When asked why I was cancelling, the guy on the other end actually started arguing about the premise for my anger and subsequent decision to cancel. Talk about hubris!
I sent a scathing letter to the Board of Directors. I followed up with several letters to the editor.
Crickets.
Your ideas are valid and will definitely help long term. But after thinking about this a great deal myself, my choice is to spend whatever spare time I have helping get out the vote in 2024. And whatever extra money I have on good candidates, important campaigns, and the best Substack has to offer (HCR, Robert Hubbell, Bill McKibben, Joyce White Vance, Jessica Craven, more).
When I was in college, my J school professors insisted that students subscribe to one national paper and our home town newspaper.
I highly doubt they would recommend the New York Times these days.
Good you told them why your were canceling. But my fear is that cancelations just drive them further towards clickbait because it is more profitable because it is cheaper to produce. I just posted another article on my Substack on a huge essay that A. G. Sulzberger, the publisher of the NY Times ,wrote back in May on the independent press in the Columbia Journalism Review., the place that jsut published the damning statistics on coverage of policy a week ago. Sulzberger is self-justifying and completely misses the forest for the trees. It is breathtaking in how far off the mark and naive he is. We have to do more to protest or there will lose an independent free press forever.
NYT doesn't depend as much on its online subscriptions as it does its print newspaper, so clickbait isn't a reason to support a newspaper (realistically, subscribing to stop the influx of clickbait?). None of the content in the NYT is free - there's a paywall, so they get their money.
Protest? How? Newspapers have been dying off for decades. Don't worry about the NYT; the real tragedy is the loss of smaller, local papers.
Or you can hit them where it hurts and cancel your subscription. Just because you don't have access doesn't mean you won't know what they are writing as most outlets (including this one) report any "fit" to print news they might offer.
I personally subscribe to the "be part of the solution to make it better" school of thought. But if you do cancel, tell them why--and not just Sulzberger but the whole Corporate Board.
I unsubscribed a month ago! My long time habit of surfing the NYT has ended. I am happy to report the quality of my life is still very good! WAPO subscription ends in a couple weeks. I soldier on...
I did the same last year. I got tired of the opinion section, mostly. Toxic and salacious, especially the right wing goons on WaPo.
Thank you Georgia, this is helpful and I will encourage their participation in the democratic awakening of citizens everywhere.
Her it goes out the door...
To: New York Times Board of Directors,
A.G. Sulzberger
Amanpal S. Bhutani
Manuel Bronstein
Beth Brooke
Rachel Glaser
Arthur Golden
Hays N. Golden
Meredith Kopit Levien
Brian P. McAndrews
David Perpich
John W. Rogers, Jr.
Anuradha B. Subramanian
Rebecca Van Dyck
New York Times Bureau
New York City, NY
November 26, 2023
Re: Warped Front Pages
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php
– Columbia Journalism Review, Nov 20, 2023
I write to strongly encourage the New York Times to be more of an active participant in the "Awakening of Democracy" in America.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/07/democracy-awakening-review-heather-cox-richardson-us-history
This Columbia University review looked at the New York Times coverage of the issues 3 months prior to the 2020 election and concluded “If voters had wanted to educate themselves on issues, they would not have learned much from reading the Times.” They said it was typical of other major outlets as well, but I trust that is not reassuring.
“We found that the Times and the Post shared significant overlap in their domestic politics coverage, offering little insight into policy. Both emphasized the horse race and campaign palace intrigue, stories that functioned more to entertain readers than to educate them on essential differences between political parties. The main point of contrast we found between the two papers was that, while the Post delved more into topics Democrats generally want to discuss—affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights—the Times tended to focus on subjects important to Republicans—China, immigration, and crime."
I have been a long-time digital subscriber deeply interested in the issues and policies and I want to hear more about the substantive programs President Biden’s team is successfully reaching across the aisle to implement.
A colleague recently wrote...”Biden has worked for the working class; Trump worked for the oligarchs. Biden passed a massive infrastructure bill; Trump did not. Biden was part of the Obama administration and helped pass the ACA; Trump claimed he would “repeal and replace Obamacare” and failed to do either. Trump bullied NATO partners to organize without the help of the US; Biden reinforced our relationship with our European partners, as well as our Asian-Pacific partners with coalitions that strengthen the bargaining power of smaller countries with our influence. Through Trump’s reckless spending cuts to balance all the tax giveaways he offered to the rich, the Infectious Disease team stationed in Wuhan China was scrapped three months before the nexus of COVID 19. Biden coordinated and executed one of the largest US vaccination initiatives since the polio vaccine, bringing back a stronger, more sustainable economy to the USA and North America as a whole. Why isn’t anybody talking about this? “
I strongly encourage the board to in turn, encourage editors and writers to participate more positively, more actively in “deeply reporting” as you say in your editorial mission. Accurate information on policy in the days, weeks, and months ahead of the 2024 election are crucial. Thank you. "
Done
It is cheaper to buy one share of the NYT than to subscribe for one year!
And here is a link to what is likely the best pressure point to write to get action NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/business/media/new-york-times-valueact-stock.html
Value Act is an activist investor group that likes to work with companies for the long term to improve profitability. The have recently established a sizeable position in NYT stock.
Follow the money, profitability rules, and we are the fools
"It seems like even the former papers of record like the New York Times and Washington Post now believe their readership can no longer think about two issues at once..."
If that were the truth, democracy would indeed die in darkness. We cannot self-govern without sufficient information about what is going on. I suppose we still have that, if one digs; but we need it from "town criers" as well, so that few get left out. The "media" felt like a public asset during the Vietnam War and Watergate, but lately there has been far too much in-bedded journalism.
My local paper of record, The Dallas Morning News, does a decent job, considering that they are in crazy Texas. However, they have a delivery problem with their print edition. It only comes half the time. I have complained every way I know how, besides cancelling. The response is, “people just don’t want to work anymore.” What BS. Papers can’t be delivered on bikes anymore, so pay people enough to get the job done. Anyway, I have wondered if they want people to just go digital so they won’t have to bother with print anymore. I am trying to support my local paper, but they don’t support my need to get what I pay for. BTW, if people don’t want to work anymore, why are so many trying to hold down two jobs. Sorry for the early morning rant…
No people don't want to work, for a pittance, that is.
exactly, my bros delivered papers on their bikes. Different world
Jeri I can't find a neighborhood kid to help me with heavy outdoor work around the house for 25. an hour cash. Insane. We used to help our neighbors because they were our neighbors. Everything seems transactional today.
You can't work with your nose in your cell phone or other devices. At Thanksgiving we talked about problems in various institutions. Our neighbor's daughter is a cardiac nurse in Portland and she described how broken the health system is. She described one case where plain old red tape got in the way of the needs of the patient. We agreed that the pandemic has made everything much worse. One of the things we also talked about was getting an appointment with the vet. Ours is excellent, but very busy especially after a local clinic went corporate. If some corporation or hedge fund is involved, you can be sure that whatever they buy will go down hill. And everything is transactional because everything is a commodity. Read Braiding Sweetgrass for a view on this.
When I worked at high school, I always knew some kids who were happy to earn some money. Since then, nada. Yep, different world. Although grands work in fast food, hope temporary.
Also less social. Less in person interaction between neighbors period, in my experience, myself included. I think that hunger for community is part of what fuels the MAGA cult.
"Living wage" jobs seem popular.
In all likelihood people don't want to work at a job where they can't make a living. We learned during the height of the Pandemic just how much we depend on social workers. Wages need to be adjusted and we need the very wealthy to show more patriotism by funding more of the cost of government. It's to their benefit more than anyone else's.
In assisted living where I live, many work two jobs. I'm sure they love it, NOT. Yep, the rich need to pay fair share. Which they have defined as nothing.
So, Jeri, what is the solution? From my vantage point, the workers need to unite and this means unions. Without the ability to bring strength in numbers to the negotiating table, they'll end up with subsistence wages, assuming that there is any such thing as a negotiating table. The other possibility is minimum wage laws. Good luck with this idea in Trump-dominated states.
…on the ‘Rich Getting Richer’ by not paying their fair share front…. The new guy joining the GOP race for the White House, Stuckenberg, making one of his major planks to eliminate inheritance tax. In NYS, I believe inheritance isn’t taxed until it is valued over 1 mil. Who’s that plank for?
Fair share for those who pay zip is not a new idea.
Agreed. The wealthy just need to pay a fair share of taxes or pay them at all. The author of Poverty, by America says that if people just paid their taxes, we would be in much better shape.
The "Middle Class" was growing when taxes on the wealthy and corporations was much higher. It's complicated and while the the 1950's middle class was largely white and male, efforts at inclusion seems to expand up to Reagan; but who gained and who a suffered as a consequence of 40+ years of Reaganomic laws and policies? The truth is out there.
It is not original with me, but it has been observed that the one thing, perhaps the only thing, that one never has enough of is MONEY. There is absolutely no way in 1,000 years that a billionaire can spend that much money on consumables. We need to reimplement the practices of the past and force the ultra wealthy to be more patriotic.
Reaganomics is "Take from the poor and give to the rich." plain and simple; feudalism 2.0. The rich get the cash, the public gets the work and risk. It's like the collateralized debt obligations in the subprime crisis; put dogdoo in a blender, spray it up with golden paint, and call it gold; then find a sucker.
Those may be the most eloquent words I've ever read with dog poo as the subject.
me too. And I can't get that image out of my mind.
dont want to work? 3% or so unemployment?
Their bs
"Their BS" included claiming that the jobless in the "Great Recession" did not want to work. That (literally) the economic underpinning of our economy would collapse unless bankrupt bankers received bonuses, but by all means, tear up union contracts in a recession. That any aid to the poor was (again literally) "Moral Hazard" and that that the general public had to accept "austerity" and like it.
That the ultra wealthy are the "Job Creators", That any advantage allowed to workers is "Job Killing", while mergers and "downsizing", and shifting entire departments overseas in the midst of a recession is not. Things that you can only believe if you reject the evidence of your eyes and of your ears. It's their final, most essential command.
We are being "Orwelled."
I’d like to segue about jobs for a moment. In the area I live there are help wanted signs all over the place! I asked my husband, “Do you really think no one wants to work?” He said, “Heck No! How many people do you think live around here! They’re all working! When we go out to dinner or shop everyone is working themselves silly.” I hadn’t thought of it that way. Everyone I know, even some retired from good jobs are working for something to do. We hire 2 great high school students to come every Saturday and help with our business/hobby. They want to work. We need more people in our area.
As to the newspaper delivery issue, more money is the answer.
my suggestion, but I don't think the paper wants to support print. Digital is pushed but it's not what I pay for. Guess I'm too old to appreciate screenshot news.
Same, Jeri, although my local paper sold to Gannett awhile back, and covers the Willamette Valley now; maybe 2 or 3 Eugene stories any more.
So far I find computerized information great for searching, lousy for browsing, at least of the same material rendered in print.
I hate the digital "paper." Dallas Morning News will be about $650 a year starting in Dec. They don't like to do print anymore. The ones in my family who stopped subscription had delivery problems, in addition to pathetic excuse for news.
People are eager to work and make a difference. People need to be compensated for their time. This is a very simple equation.
I am so psyched the unions are making noise, getting noticed, and making positive change. My whole working life I could not decide if unions were good or bad. I still really don't have my answer. I like what the unions are doing today though.
Unions can be hard to love. But let me tell you about a Hungarian immigrant who came to this country as a 12 year old boy and went to work in the coal mines of SWPA, my grandfather.
Or the woman who came as a young adult sponsored by a good Jewish family who treated her well until she married and moved to a small coal mining community where after having 5 children she made and sold moonshine until she saved enough money to buy property and open a grocery store and butcher shop to get her beloved husband out of the mines. My great-grandmother. My grandfather married their oldest daughter. The union made a huge difference in my grandparent’s lives. My mother and uncle were both college educated. My great-grandfather fought for the right to unionize until Grandma Haluska made enough money to open the store. Many lives were lost due to brutal coal barons and the dangerous mines.
Unions have crossed lines and made many people anti-union and that’s on them. But, look at all we gained in human rights because of unions.
I belonged to a union until I retired. Until teacher unions, there was no job security. Anybody on the school board who’s brother in law needed a job was given yours. You want that back? 7 days a week for 12 hours? No safety requirements? Yes, they can be hard to take at times, but look back just 100 odd years ago and see what’s what.
The power of unions comes from the support of the public as well as the solidarity of their workers, and I think a lot of union leaders lost track of that, but, just as you said, history shows that unionization made a hell of a difference to building a middle class and offering living wages to more (including non-union) workers"Gilder Age" "Robber Barons" were classic tyrants who exploited workers and corrupted government. That's the past the "GOP's" patrons are keen on recapturing. That's the unstated goal of "Reaganomics".
Always saw the downside, but Samuel Gompers saw the upside. He was for the workers, period.
Unions won a lot of benefits and rights for all workers in the late 19th and 20th Centuries, though a number of those gains have been eroded since. Concentrated power tends to corrupt, and I have seen corrupt and unwise behavior on the part of some unions, but they serve us as a counterbalance to the concentration of capital, and other balances as well. Union and non-union workers might benefit by greater solidarity and greater accommodation than in the past. We are now seeing the consequences of too little balance in who gets to call the shots.
There may or may not be a labor shortage in the US, but there is certainly a shortage of decent jobs.
Can't argue that; Joe is working his arse off on that problem.
I had the same subscription - I cancelled because I was not impressed. My gripe with Dallas Morning News is because I couldn't opt out of home delivery for just the online edition.
But Jeri, people do not want to Deliver the Papers Anymore - I know this for a fact as I had a few family members do this job. Lots of reasons - pay, transportation expenses , and the dangers associated with being out delivering at odd hours. But then the pay cuts happened and that finished any opportunity to make a living..
I did that nasty job for a couple years long ago. Not one day off the whole time, a 3 am wake up call and a full time day job. It kept me out of debtors prison though ; ()
One thing that happened around here was that papers dropped their evening edition. Do people really prefer that? To me, it was a choice between read today's news in the evening, or yesterday's news in morning. Plus, I was too much of a night owl to get up any earlier than I had to to read the paper before leaving for work. One virtue of electronic media is it's fast (maybe too fast). Evening papers were easier for kids to deliver. Plus our society is now deemed too unsafe for kids to be on their own. I sold a lot of stuff door to door, for school, for YMCA, for Scouts by my lonely. I think part myth, part truth, our society is more predatory today.
“Pay cuts happened”
We live in a small town in Michigan and most of the local paper comes from the Associated Press. There are a few local articles of interest and then lots of advertising. It costs over $200 a year to subscribe! My husband walks to the library to read it because we won't pay that kind of money for it...
Got an email saying price going up in Dec to about $650 a year. And they blame people not being interested. Deliberate effort to kill local news, by whoever is buying small papers, or who is influential for larger ones
Jeri, the Houston Chronicle print edition priced themselves out of this family’s budget at almost $20 per week—we now get the digital edition.
I'm old enough to remember newspapers for five cents.
Must be another "oldie"
Loved the Houston Chronicle for many years. I think they all are doing that, then blaming the subscribers. Digital is so much less trouble.
Telephone land lines are treated the same way—price them so high that subscribers emigrate to VOIP or cell phones, then raise the prices because they allocate the maintenance costs among fewer subscribers. And so it goes.
Yes, and those of us who live in areas with crappy cell phone coverage are stuck!
Another follow the money
My experience is that in the last decade corporations have broken new ground selling less and less product for more and more money. That includes dramatically shrinking the quantity and often the quality (many have been reformulated with cheaper ingredients) of packaged food in particular, spurious "junk fees", and just try to get telephone customer service. Some agents I have called admit to me that they are just contractors who know little about the problem and can't resolve a problem. Some of the largest companies want you to "chat" with a robot that knows even less that a random person would. I think of the old satirical line. "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company" back when AT&T was the only game in town.
I remember that far back. It's the robber barons redux, but with more tricks up their corporate sleeves
Our local paper, The Denver Post costs $500 a year. I canceled. I was to support local news but It was just too high.
I received multiple calls from them offering slightly lower rates. Then one day the newspaper advertised a special for online subscription a full year for $1. I took it. Sometimes you can wait them out and get a better deal.
Was that for digital
That's absurd. And how do we provide an informed electorate when people can't afford a decent information service? No wonder total BS is flourishing.
DMN will be about $650 starting in Dec., and I get it about half the time. 6
Our home delivery subscription to the DMN is mostly a donation to local journalism and letters I sometimes respond to like:
LTE On ‘Christian nationalism’ Paul Kramer 11/25/2023 pg 13A
I doubt my response will get printed anywhere else but here. I hope you don't mind reading it.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations liberty, equality, individual rights, intellectual and religious freedom is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Key to the enlightenment is Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan Chapter 30 which specifies the Social Contract including:
1) “For since the right of nature permits those who are in extreme necessity to steal the goods of others, or even to take them by force, they ought to be maintained by the commonwealth and not left to the uncertain charity of private citizens lest they be troublesome to the commonwealth.”
2) “If the number of people who are poor but strong continues to grow, they should be transplanted into countries that are not sufficiently inhabited.”
3) “When a riotous insurrection occurs, the commonwealth can profit from the example of the punishment of its leaders and teachers, but not the punishment of the poor seduced people.”
4) “To be severe to the people is to punish their ignorance, which may be largely laid at the door of the sovereign, whose fault it is that they hadn’t been better instructed.”
So ... Public welfare, immigration and punishing the leaders and teachers of insurrection is a requirement. DMN please help us not be seduced.
Hobbes needs reworking but is certainly history. The notion of a social contract being central to our way of life. Not all seem to agree.
"https://www.ushistory.org/gov/1c.asp#:~:text=Nowhere%20is%20the%20word%20%22democracy,Founders%20actually%20feared%20democratic%20rule."
People don't agree on much but Hobbes' book was able to stop 20 years of bloody war that could have gone on for much longer.
Checks on authority by the "rule of law" I guess is the central feature of American life.
Perhaps they think "social media" has supplanted them. You can't get an article about twice as long as necessary on "social media". (Yes, I'm ridiculing the term).
As long ago as the Iraq War the NYT was worried about losing readers. I remember hearing George Packer at the Chicago Humanities Festival during the period. I have specific writers I read in the Times, several of whom I see regularly on MSNBC. Given that the Chicago Tribune is now a “conglomerate,” haven’t time or funds for a paper I wouldn’t read when I have WaPo and NYT, plus RSM with its excellent choices.
I stopped watching TV news in the runup to W's Iraq War. All they needed was was the pom poms to lead the cheer. I found far more relevant and accurate information at the Guardian, which I support. I was paying $120 a year to the local paper just to keep it around, but finally went to their cheaper, digital version which I rarely read.
You might be interested in the Substack of Tim Mak called Counteroffensive, who is working out of Ukraine and reporting on it. It keeps it alive.
https://counteroffensive.substack.com/
When I was in Berlin at the end of October, I saw an art exhibit that was really about the experiences of North Eurasians under the Soviet Union occupation and their struggles to regain their identities after the end of the Soviet Union, as well as the psychic pain they suffer from the occupation. A part of the exhibit was on the Holodomor. It was painful and powerful! The exhibit is at the House of World Cultures (Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt- HKW) until January 14, 2024. https://www.hkw.de/programme/as-though-we-hid-the-sun-in-a-sea-of-stories
Thank you for the link. I am a second generation Ukrainian American and am deeply concerned by how easily it is fading into the background in the mainstream media
I will say that in my art group here in Germany, one of the women is doing a series of art pieces about Ukraine. I would say this war is much more pressing. I have a niece and nephew who are Ukrainian German and in our family Ukraine is not forgotten. Their mom is married to my husband's cousin. Her parents were going to stay in their city in Ukraine but she talked them into coming to Germany. Her sister's family just moved to the USA about 3 years ago after living in China for 2 years. So, it was her parents who needed to get out, and Germany was closer. My daughter did an exchange in a school in Vienna that has adopted the war in Ukraine as their school project. That means that all classes have students from Ukraine in them, and many of them are living with families in the school as unaccompanied minors. My daughter is studying in Berlin and in her class the largest group are from Ukraine or Russia. In the beginning they were all friends because of speaking Russian, but now, there has been some separation because of some differences of values. My daughter's friendship group includes several progressive Ukrainian students. That is the males in her group are mainly gay, and she says that the ones who are offensive to them are not in her group. Still, in the beginning while language was a bond, after a while values have become the bond. Everyone in the class speaks English and German as well. So, while I am very concerned about this trucker situation with Poland, and the anger that Polish truckers and farmers are showing to Ukraine, I think the EU needs to help sort the situation out. I can understand why Polish farmers and Truckers do not need to be undercut by Ukrainian ones. However, some of this sentiment was stirred up by the falsely named "Law and Order" party in Poland. I am hoping that Biden's tying funding for border policing, etc... to Ukrainian aid, will force Republicans to pass the bill. We shall see. The Democrats seem to be starting to figure out how to work the Republican dysfunctional situation. Let us hope they get over their learning curve, because we need them to. Slava Ukraini!
Ukraine deserves our support, and it's idiotic to think that Putin wishes us anything but harm.
Thank you Georgia for sharing these again.
When considering Americans' consumption of news, it is crucial to know where they get the news.
'News Platform Fact Sheet' (Pew Research Center)
'The transition of the news industry away from print, television and radio into digital spaces has caused huge disruptions in the traditional news industry, especially the print news industry. It is also reflected in the ways individual Americans say they are getting their news. Today, an overwhelming majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices.'
'News consumption across platforms'
'A large majority of U.S. adults (86%) say they often or sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 56% who say they do so often. This is more than the 49% who said they often got news from digital devices in 2022 and the 51% of those who said the same in 2021. The portion that gets news from digital devices continues to outpace those who get news from television. The portion of Americans who often get news from television has stayed fairly consistent, at 31% in 2022 and 32% in 2023. Americans turn to radio and print publications for news far less frequently than to digital devices and television.'
'When asked which of these platforms they prefer to get news on, nearly six-in-ten Americans say they prefer a digital device (58%), more than say they prefer TV (27%). Even fewer Americans prefer radio (6%) or print (5%).'
'Who uses each news platform'
'News consumption across platforms varies by age, gender, race, ethnicity, educational attainment and political leaning. Americans ages 50 and older are more likely than younger adults to turn to and prefer television and print publications.'
'Digital news has become an important part of Americans’ news media diets, with social media playing a crucial role in news consumption. Today, half of U.S. adults get news at least sometimes from social media.'
'News consumption on social media'
'When it comes to where Americans regularly get news on social media, Facebook outpaces all other social media sites. Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they regularly get news there. Slightly fewer (26%) regularly get news on YouTube.'
'Smaller shares regularly get news on Instagram (16%), TikTok (14%), X (12%) or Reddit (8%). Even fewer Americans regularly get news on Nextdoor (5%), LinkedIn (5%), Snapchat (4%), WhatsApp (3%) or Twitch (1%).'
'(Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say they have seen or heard something about the renaming of Twitter as X. The platform’s name change took place in July 2023.)'
'Some social media sites – despite having relatively small overall audiences – stand out for having high shares of users who regularly go to the site for news. For example, roughly half of users on X (53%) get news there. On the other hand, only 15% of Snapchat users regularly get news on the app.'
'Who consumes news on each social media site'
'There are demographic differences, such as by gender, in who turns to each social media site regularly for news. Women make up a greater portion of regular news consumers on Nextdoor (66%), Facebook (62%), Instagram (59%) and TikTok (58%), while men make up a greater share on sites like Reddit (67%), X (62%) and YouTube (58%).'
'Some partisan differences also arise when it comes to who regularly gets news on some social media sites. The majority of regular news consumers on many sites are Democrats or lean Democratic. No social media site included here has regular news consumers who are more likely to be Republicans or lean Republican, though there is no significant partisan difference among news consumers on Facebook, X or Nextdoor. (Read the Appendix for data on U.S. adults in each demographic group and party who regularly get news from each social media site.)' (Pew Research Center) There is a good deal more information about where we turn for the 'news' from the Pew Center of Research. See a link below.
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/news-platform-fact-sheet/
And this has been true for many years. A 30 something co-worker of mine gets "dinged" whenever a new story breaks. She subscribes to no newspapers and rarely watches TV, so whatever she sees on her phone is her reality of the world today.
She also spends a lot of time on Facebook and other social media platforms. My friends and I spend none. Of course, we're all old farts who are resistant to change.
Gary, call yourself an 'old fart', but leave me out of it. As for resisting change, that is true for some 'old farts' and others are thoughtfully selective about the changes they will make!
I think that anyone who reads and subscribes to this site is looking for strategic changes. I am aware in order age of some of the things I see changing and try to sort out which are inevitable and which might throw babies out with the bathwater. The other thing about this particular newsletter is it's connections to history, not just as quaint curiosity, but as a more holistic view of patterns impacting our lives, part of which is where things have gone wrong, but also what foundationally supports our desired ways of life. For example, I am repelled by Facebook and certainly "X", but I can see a place for it. I wish it were less exploitatively commercial and wonder if a "Wiki" version would be practical? I want to see far more discussion of what what kind of future we can extrapolate from trends we now see, and what kind of future we can imagine, with some attention to how we might get there, that we'd like to see. Rapidly emerging circumstances, such as our responses to resource management and climate change, not to mention the extended impact of AI on society and the world of work needs, I think, far more attention. Stuff like this: https://radiolab.org/podcast/40000-recipes-murder I'm distracted by such stuff to be something of a curmudgeon when it comes to cat videos, despite the fact (I'm forced to admit) some of them are pretty cute.
Is LFaA social media? I think yes and no; more evidence-based presentation and discussion, less fluff.
Gary, I am also an "old fart" and I am changing because I have to. And I want to. And it's entertaining. Haven't received a newspaper in decades - but I read them all day long digitally. More sources than I can count. Your 30 something co-worker is the new norm. Although if she is getting a notification for every new bit of news, I worry about her.
Our TV is a black screen all day until we watch BBC news and then the Newshour. But sometimes our chats are more interesting and we just skip it. Black screen. The nightly news is usually just a recap of what we have read through a news aggregator on our phones or tablets or Chromebook. After dinner, a movie or a series.
No FB or X for me. There is no "news" there. Just puppies, kittens, family pictures and insane political nonsense that some call "news". It's not. Of course, one can either customize the social media experience or let it capture you. My brilliant wife has allowed only family and friends connections to exist on he FB "feed". And she gets the local updates on "Nextdoor". Social media can be helpful if we own the experience.
It's all moving fast. Soon, we'll have a chip in our heads which will project a holographic news experience that we can wallow in. Hopefully it will come with an on'off switch :)
Increasingly software and "smart" appliances are doing things "for" me I don't want them to do, with no "escape" key. My printer got caught in a loop that I could only escape by pulling the plug. With an old fashioned motorized cam driven wash cycle I could run partial cycles of my washing machine, but with a digitally controlled one I can't. That's an engineering decision, not the technology. I want automation like a DSLR camera, like breathing; automatic when you want automatic, full control when you want what you want.
You pretty much just described my viewing news experience too.
Dings for the dingy. Walter, how we miss you!
In Canada, Facebook withdrew ALL of its Canadian news postings, and won't let you share anything that seems to smack of being a new channel. Thanks to a fight with the Canadian government which now insists publishers be reimbursed by FB for postings of their material to it. FB is also arguing they want to turn toward social interaction etc but not be a news outlet. Oddly Wikipedia is still permitted! So is BBC
It's complicated isn't it? Follow the money.
Fern: Thanks for adding to the conversation on this topic here. I just posted a more orderly analysis of the NY Times situation and leverage for change on my substack. May I copy this with attribution to you over there?
Georgia, I'm a newsnik and happy to pass it on. Please copy whatever you like, and forget the attribution.
Thank you! You are a strong voice on this medium. I hope you will stop b the porch!
Thank you for the invitation to your substack, Georgia. Your opinions and research reports -- positive and negative concerning the value of the 'news' Americans read/watch and or listen to will be strengthened by your knowledge of the sources Americans are using and whether those outlets employ journalistic standards or not.
Interesting that there was no mention of the news feeds that pop up when using various search engines such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or Bing. Anyone logging onto a device to go to Facebook, X, or Reddit will likely see one of these feeds before going to their intended site. This is another example of the limits of research in general. To be effective with their inquiry, a researcher must be focused on a specific question/area, with a purposely limited scope set out to answer a specific question. Once reported, the data is applied to everything by those who do not understand the research process and don't know how to handle data.
The research you sited is excellent, but it will be used to answer questions out of its scope. That there was no mention of news feeds shows how difficult it is to ask the right questions to get a full picture of what we are trying to describe.
Steve, check out Pew Research Center on this subject for yourself. There are a good number of links. The sources they use are given as well as limitation to what can be known or may be available to the public.
Fern,
Excellent post with clarity about how we consume information. Thank you.
I have no particular interest in defending the Times, and they have no interest in having my defense, but I sense this is a case of stoning the prophet because you don'l like the prophecy, in this case the results of their poling. Polls are not definitive, but they are also to be neglected at one's peril. I am certain that the Democrats are doing their own polling, and there is a good chance that it tracks the polling the Times does. Again, polls definitive, but they are one element used to look at probable statistical outcomes and they are not looking favorable. I'm almost, but not quite ready to make a $500 bet on a Trump victory in 2024, so that when I win I could donate the winnings to the ACLU. I'll paraphrase a previous post to say: if Biden loses to Trump, as now looks likely, history will remember him most for the fact that he held on in desperation when all the signs were against him, and he will be assigned shared blame for the disaster of the 2nd Trump administration. If Biden were to step aside now, even if Trump won a second term, he would be remembered as an effective president, perhaps even a heroic one.
Polls are never prophecy.
Thankyou for making your suggestion easy to do!
"Please join the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for an online event, Beyond the SCIF with House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner on Ukraine, on November 29, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. (ET) via Zoom.
Register to attend online
Hamas’ savage attack on Israeli civilians may have put the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine on the media’s back pages, but it has not diminished the threat that Russia poses to American security and prosperity. Putin’s aim today is to subdue Ukraine, but that is not the end of his ambitions. He aims to restore effective control over the countries that once made up the Soviet Union and to exert influence in the countries that were once part of the Kremlin-controlled Warsaw Pact. Put simply, he has designs on NATO allies whom we are obliged to defend.
As its support for Hamas makes clear, the damage Moscow does goes well beyond Europe. The place to stop Putin—to contain him—is in Ukraine. This is the smart and economical way to defend core US interests.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center gather a panel of experts for “Beyond the SCIF” to discuss US interests in Ukraine today and tomorrow as well as the importance of continued assistance, highlighting Ukraine’s priorities and needs in the fight, and the role the US and the West play in providing support. “Beyond the SCIF” (sensitive compartmented information facility) is an effort by House Intelligence Committee members to connect with experts and leaders in the national security field to create an open dialogue on threats facing the United States and ways committee members can counter the malign actions of our adversaries.
PANELISTS
Ian Brzezinski
Resident Senior Fellow
Atlantic Council
Rebeccah Heinrichs
Senior Fellow and Director, Keystone Defense Initiative
Hudson Institute
Ambassador John Herbst
Senior Director, Eurasia Center
Atlantic Council
Catherine Sendak
Director, Transatlantic Security and Defense Program
Center for European Policy Analysis
Moderator
The Honorable Mike Turner
United States Representative (R-OH);
Chairman
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence"
Thank you Georgia for your insight and suggestions. I went out and read all the articles that you sent links to...they were very telling! I also subscribed to CJR after reading their article on Warped Front Pages..really fascinating. I have been considering discontinuing my digital subscription to the NYT...the CJR article moved me much closer.
I hope Dr. Richardson will read this bombshell of a report in the Columbia Journalism Review and write about the effect of corporate power and right-wing propaganda on our nation's mindset.
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php