100%. That 1996 telecommunications deregulation act also played a big part in the destruction of the American commercial music industry. Regional musicians could no longer emerge and playlists became centralized out of an office in Dallas. What became popular was decided by corporate shills in glass boardrooms. Producers find successful formulas and replicated them across artists (hence the popularity of the I-V-vi-IV chord progression in much of popular music even across genres). After 9/11 we saw the commercial country music industry become politicized and used as a propaganda machine.
Substack is the last bastion as far as I'm concerned and I'm super grateful for the work of Alisa and others like Kait, Ellie, and Lev
I agree with Alisa. Network,some print & social corporate media has failed America for 25+ yrs. It has hit bottom! This is a big part of the reason we are here, living this current nightmare! They are owned by a hand full of Oligarchs! Too many 'opinion shows' & lying is allowed! There needs to be a law not allowing any news media to lie. America has been suppressed, now more than ever. There was a time when we trusted our world news anchors. When 60 minutes was sold last yr & a loyalist hack put in charge of that network,I knew it was over for truth in America. There are some good journalists but they're given limits. Rachael Maddow has never wavered but she's only on 1 night a week with MSNOW on YouTube.
Alisa is a journalist that deserves that title of the 4th arm of government! In the constitution! Reporting facts without fear or favor, speaking truth to power so the American people are informed! Please support her. We need her!
Trickle-down economics (capitalism) began with Reagan & it is the biggest scam! It never worked! Nothing trickled down to workers in any industry!It benefits the very rich. Oligarchs gobbled up EVERYTHING, like Healthcare which made it a FOR profit entity by early 2000's because the CEOs & oligarchs that own hospitals, clinics, etc need more $. Bush W. is responsible for 'Managed health care'!
Reagan got rid of the 'fairness doctrine' for news networks on cable etc.Than Clinton's bill that gave an opportunity for news monopolies. If congress had put regulations & laws in place we may not be in this mess. Look what's happening to social media. Tech broligarchs never have consequences. No regulations or laws to protect citizens like other countries do.
Time for WE THE PEOPLE to demand changes in everything when we get through the current nightmare.
The hometown paper for me was the St. Petersburg Times. Highly respected, very liberal (never in its history recommending a Republican in a general presidential election contest). It maintained superficial high quality, had an ownership arrangement keeping it controlled by journalists (okay, the journalists got around to selling it, but the opportunity was there). And just a couple of decades after it swallowed its competition (Tampa Tribune), the paper's a shadow of its former self.
It's the Internet. No car dealership's going to spend big on ads when people can go to the Internet. It's the same for most businesses. That ad revenue was always going to dry up, and the newspapers didn't adapt successfully. Don't ask me what they should have done, but I will take credit for foreseeing that individual journalists would be the pull of journalism rather than legacy media brands--back in 2007.
Ad revenue is over as a working business model for news journalism.
If newspapers hadn't alienated their conservative readers, helping ultimately to give rise to Fox News, might the old model still work? Eh, probably not, but the liberal newsroom didn't help matters by producing coverage that pushed both conservatives *and moderates* away. Who trusts the legacy media these days? It's pretty much Democrats.
It would probably help if media adopted ideological diversity to improve coverage (and build perceived trust), but it's Star Trek TOS "The Enemy Within" and we're stuck with two opposite and ineffectual sides of Captain Kirk when we need the unified, effective Kirk.
It's unlikely either Kirk is interested in reunification.
That's right Alisa. When I started my newspaper in 1994 it was a community paper, covering community events and activities - school board meetings, city hall meetings, festivals, etc. I was a big part of bringing community together, but also speaking out against things that needed to be looked at more closely - like theft at the local landfill. The larger area newspapers slammed my work, and local officials tried to bully me into reporting things their way. When I refused my tires were slashed, by kids were given a hard time at school, and they used any way they could to discredit me, including holding the first taped and publicly aired landfill meeting just to harass me. Note: two years later, after I was unable to afford the newspaper anymore, the landfill manager was arrested for theft and all the things I had written about were proven to be true.
Small community papers like mine, relied on ads to exist. When advertisers were harassed into not placing ads it bankrupts a paper. Most small newspapers are the only reality people get. Larger papers and media are gobbled up by richer corporations whose aim is not to inform, but to direct the narrative. People usually believe them, and thus the propaganda machine is able to turn the public to their agenda.
I do believe that excellent journalists, such as yourself, Ellie Leonard, Kate Justice, Wajahat Ali and Zev Shalev are building a great following here on Substack, but have to rely on adding other outlets to their repertoire to get noticed beyond here. What they have to say is important, but if they confine themselves to just independent mediums, who generally agree with their points of view, the outside public will not get the information. It is a dilemma. I wish I had a good answer as to how to effectively market independent journalism without extending to mainstream as well.
Though I respect what you and others are saying, I also question how broad the reach is for independent journalists who uncover important stories such as you're writing. I'm the reader; one who has numerous subscriptions to a broad spectrum of publications, authors - large and small. Had I not tripped across Substack and signed up to see what's what, it's highly unlikely I'd have run across you; across Kait Justice, The Drey Dossier, Narativ and others. What's the solution to this dilemma?
Hell. Yes. To all of this. Especially this: "We are the majors now." Fuck legacy media 6000 ways to Sunday. Truth is found in the independently published now - the blog, the newsletter, the podcast, the zine, the samizdat newspaper photocopied 12 times and left in the coffeehouse. Clinton signing the Telecom Act of 1996 will forever be unforgivable.
Thank you! This is why I subscribe to you. I was a journalist in the old legacy media, and while the owners were (almost) always ideologically pro-business and pro-status quo, enough journalists produced enough good work anyway to make a difference. But the hand of the pro-business, pro-status quo owners has become oppressively heavy. Thank you for doing the good work. Stay safe.
Anyone else ever wondered if Clinton's rightward drift ("triangulation") might have been helped along by Epstein kompromat...? A chilling thought. I was in my 20s back then and wanted to believe that he knew what was best for the party. Instead he helped lead it and the US over a cliff...in sheep's clothing!
Alisa, the other day I restacked the article you wrote prior to this one and included this note;
"The Epstein scandal grows deeper and darker yet again…
Isn't it incredibly interesting that there isn't a single mainstream “news" outlet anywhere in our country reporting on any of this?
Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Maybe someone should ask Dan Rather, huh? "
I then noticed that within a few hours you wrote this article. I don't know if it was my restacked note above that spurred you to write it but, if it was, I apologize. Just so you know, my note was intended sarcastically to call out the very corruption of legacy media that you wrote about.
I fully recognize the need and value in independent journalism, which is why I recently supported your amazing work and that of as many others as I can afford. So again, if it was my comment that offended you, I'm genuinely sorry...
Thanks. I needed to hear that again, even though I’d already unsubscribed from most of those media outlets or newspapers. I still unconsciously believed I needed their validation. If you grew up trusting them, it’s hard to let go even after that trust is no longer there.
I came of age in the Watergate era. We had outstanding reporters, brave editors and principled owners of our legacy media then. How far it has fallen since.
Yet you and all the members of the true independent media today have taken up their mantle, as well as that of the early colonial free press which spoke truth and sense to royal power, and to the people in colonial times.
You members of the only free media still standing in this country, are our New Free Press , and the seeds for a new and better Legacy Media in our future. Until that future arrives independent journalists and media are really the only way to go if you want real truth, facts, unleashed and unadorned about what is going on in this bizarro world we’re in.
Right on 👍. You guys in substack. Democracy Now. Drop site News. A few others. Real news. Unbiased. Only balanced when required. Factual. Fair. Not racist. Not intimidated by the neo fascist thugs . Keep it 💯 up 💪
100%. That 1996 telecommunications deregulation act also played a big part in the destruction of the American commercial music industry. Regional musicians could no longer emerge and playlists became centralized out of an office in Dallas. What became popular was decided by corporate shills in glass boardrooms. Producers find successful formulas and replicated them across artists (hence the popularity of the I-V-vi-IV chord progression in much of popular music even across genres). After 9/11 we saw the commercial country music industry become politicized and used as a propaganda machine.
Substack is the last bastion as far as I'm concerned and I'm super grateful for the work of Alisa and others like Kait, Ellie, and Lev
I was telling my husband the NYT wearing the “skin” of its former self analogy 😢
I agree with Alisa. Network,some print & social corporate media has failed America for 25+ yrs. It has hit bottom! This is a big part of the reason we are here, living this current nightmare! They are owned by a hand full of Oligarchs! Too many 'opinion shows' & lying is allowed! There needs to be a law not allowing any news media to lie. America has been suppressed, now more than ever. There was a time when we trusted our world news anchors. When 60 minutes was sold last yr & a loyalist hack put in charge of that network,I knew it was over for truth in America. There are some good journalists but they're given limits. Rachael Maddow has never wavered but she's only on 1 night a week with MSNOW on YouTube.
Alisa is a journalist that deserves that title of the 4th arm of government! In the constitution! Reporting facts without fear or favor, speaking truth to power so the American people are informed! Please support her. We need her!
Trickle-down economics (capitalism) began with Reagan & it is the biggest scam! It never worked! Nothing trickled down to workers in any industry!It benefits the very rich. Oligarchs gobbled up EVERYTHING, like Healthcare which made it a FOR profit entity by early 2000's because the CEOs & oligarchs that own hospitals, clinics, etc need more $. Bush W. is responsible for 'Managed health care'!
Reagan got rid of the 'fairness doctrine' for news networks on cable etc.Than Clinton's bill that gave an opportunity for news monopolies. If congress had put regulations & laws in place we may not be in this mess. Look what's happening to social media. Tech broligarchs never have consequences. No regulations or laws to protect citizens like other countries do.
Time for WE THE PEOPLE to demand changes in everything when we get through the current nightmare.
DEMOCRACY DOESN'T SURVIVE IN AN OLIGARCHY!
Well, no, wrong diagnosis.
The hometown paper for me was the St. Petersburg Times. Highly respected, very liberal (never in its history recommending a Republican in a general presidential election contest). It maintained superficial high quality, had an ownership arrangement keeping it controlled by journalists (okay, the journalists got around to selling it, but the opportunity was there). And just a couple of decades after it swallowed its competition (Tampa Tribune), the paper's a shadow of its former self.
It's the Internet. No car dealership's going to spend big on ads when people can go to the Internet. It's the same for most businesses. That ad revenue was always going to dry up, and the newspapers didn't adapt successfully. Don't ask me what they should have done, but I will take credit for foreseeing that individual journalists would be the pull of journalism rather than legacy media brands--back in 2007.
Ad revenue is over as a working business model for news journalism.
If newspapers hadn't alienated their conservative readers, helping ultimately to give rise to Fox News, might the old model still work? Eh, probably not, but the liberal newsroom didn't help matters by producing coverage that pushed both conservatives *and moderates* away. Who trusts the legacy media these days? It's pretty much Democrats.
It would probably help if media adopted ideological diversity to improve coverage (and build perceived trust), but it's Star Trek TOS "The Enemy Within" and we're stuck with two opposite and ineffectual sides of Captain Kirk when we need the unified, effective Kirk.
It's unlikely either Kirk is interested in reunification.
I need subscriptions to access historical articles from NYT and WaPo, which passes me off, but I do it because I can't research without them.
That's right Alisa. When I started my newspaper in 1994 it was a community paper, covering community events and activities - school board meetings, city hall meetings, festivals, etc. I was a big part of bringing community together, but also speaking out against things that needed to be looked at more closely - like theft at the local landfill. The larger area newspapers slammed my work, and local officials tried to bully me into reporting things their way. When I refused my tires were slashed, by kids were given a hard time at school, and they used any way they could to discredit me, including holding the first taped and publicly aired landfill meeting just to harass me. Note: two years later, after I was unable to afford the newspaper anymore, the landfill manager was arrested for theft and all the things I had written about were proven to be true.
Small community papers like mine, relied on ads to exist. When advertisers were harassed into not placing ads it bankrupts a paper. Most small newspapers are the only reality people get. Larger papers and media are gobbled up by richer corporations whose aim is not to inform, but to direct the narrative. People usually believe them, and thus the propaganda machine is able to turn the public to their agenda.
I do believe that excellent journalists, such as yourself, Ellie Leonard, Kate Justice, Wajahat Ali and Zev Shalev are building a great following here on Substack, but have to rely on adding other outlets to their repertoire to get noticed beyond here. What they have to say is important, but if they confine themselves to just independent mediums, who generally agree with their points of view, the outside public will not get the information. It is a dilemma. I wish I had a good answer as to how to effectively market independent journalism without extending to mainstream as well.
Though I respect what you and others are saying, I also question how broad the reach is for independent journalists who uncover important stories such as you're writing. I'm the reader; one who has numerous subscriptions to a broad spectrum of publications, authors - large and small. Had I not tripped across Substack and signed up to see what's what, it's highly unlikely I'd have run across you; across Kait Justice, The Drey Dossier, Narativ and others. What's the solution to this dilemma?
You nailed it. Even the AP, which should be nearly bulletproof, maintains a certain cautiousness in its stories when it's not deserved.
Hell. Yes. To all of this. Especially this: "We are the majors now." Fuck legacy media 6000 ways to Sunday. Truth is found in the independently published now - the blog, the newsletter, the podcast, the zine, the samizdat newspaper photocopied 12 times and left in the coffeehouse. Clinton signing the Telecom Act of 1996 will forever be unforgivable.
Thank you! This is why I subscribe to you. I was a journalist in the old legacy media, and while the owners were (almost) always ideologically pro-business and pro-status quo, enough journalists produced enough good work anyway to make a difference. But the hand of the pro-business, pro-status quo owners has become oppressively heavy. Thank you for doing the good work. Stay safe.
Anyone else ever wondered if Clinton's rightward drift ("triangulation") might have been helped along by Epstein kompromat...? A chilling thought. I was in my 20s back then and wanted to believe that he knew what was best for the party. Instead he helped lead it and the US over a cliff...in sheep's clothing!
Legacy media call it what it is fascist controlled media period ‼️
Alisa, the other day I restacked the article you wrote prior to this one and included this note;
"The Epstein scandal grows deeper and darker yet again…
Isn't it incredibly interesting that there isn't a single mainstream “news" outlet anywhere in our country reporting on any of this?
Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Maybe someone should ask Dan Rather, huh? "
I then noticed that within a few hours you wrote this article. I don't know if it was my restacked note above that spurred you to write it but, if it was, I apologize. Just so you know, my note was intended sarcastically to call out the very corruption of legacy media that you wrote about.
I fully recognize the need and value in independent journalism, which is why I recently supported your amazing work and that of as many others as I can afford. So again, if it was my comment that offended you, I'm genuinely sorry...
Thanks. I needed to hear that again, even though I’d already unsubscribed from most of those media outlets or newspapers. I still unconsciously believed I needed their validation. If you grew up trusting them, it’s hard to let go even after that trust is no longer there.
I came of age in the Watergate era. We had outstanding reporters, brave editors and principled owners of our legacy media then. How far it has fallen since.
Yet you and all the members of the true independent media today have taken up their mantle, as well as that of the early colonial free press which spoke truth and sense to royal power, and to the people in colonial times.
You members of the only free media still standing in this country, are our New Free Press , and the seeds for a new and better Legacy Media in our future. Until that future arrives independent journalists and media are really the only way to go if you want real truth, facts, unleashed and unadorned about what is going on in this bizarro world we’re in.
I’m very grateful for all of you.
Right on 👍. You guys in substack. Democracy Now. Drop site News. A few others. Real news. Unbiased. Only balanced when required. Factual. Fair. Not racist. Not intimidated by the neo fascist thugs . Keep it 💯 up 💪