by William Skink
The final scorched-earth moves by the corrupt and inept resistance to remove Trump from office, when all is said and done (and regardless of outcome) will see the credibility of legacy media destroyed for a generation to come, maybe longer.
Glenn Greenwald was the big story in the media world yesterday because he resigned from the Intercept, an online publication he co-founded. The rabid suppression and overt censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal, the validity of which HAS NOT BEEN DENIED by Biden’s campaign, was the final straw, said Greenwald.
Greenwald’s resignation can be read at substack, an increasingly popular subscription model for writers and creatives. It was even mentioned in a comment on my post announcing this Skink ink ownership opportunity.
I appreciate the comment and already know a book of poems is probably one of the least likely forms of creative output likely to garner much financial support from RD readers, so it’s a good thing poetry isn’t the only thing I got cooking.
In thinking about Greenwald’s move to substack, I’ll drop a big hint and say I’m enjoying LISTENING to Greenwald on Joe Rogan much more than reading his well-structured language-punches on substack.
Rogan is dealing with his own cancel-culture outrage storm after Alex Jones returned to his podcast a few days ago.
I recommend listening to all of it–Jones, Greenwald, even Kanye, and perhaps the most interesting podcast conversation of them all: Brian Muraresku talking about the religion with no name.
That link goes to Youtube, a despicable platform that should be avoided, if possible. That said, I strongly encourage anyone reading this to check out Muraresku’s work. It’s a fascinating, scholarly look at the use of mind-altering substances going back possibly as far as recorded history.
That conversation (joined by Graham Hancock) is a delightful contrast to the toxic garbage spewing geysers of bullshit in these final days of America’s democratic death watch.
Unfiltered conversations that go for an hour or two seems to be a popular way to go. I wonder if pairing that with a weekly review of RD headlines might be something RD readers would listen to?
Thoughts?
JC
One thing I think that many of us need to be open to is investing in taking our message to where people are listening. When I worked with Mediatrackers in 2013 I attended an event here in Missoula where the head of local NBC station was talking. She remarked that she would love to do more in depth coverage of issues, but her viewers complain if stories are more than 1-3 minutes long. Even the Missoulian limits writers to 200 words.
Can the problems that we need to explore to improve society really be properly understood in 2 minutes or 200 words? Joe Rogan is a millionaire now because he saw people doing something he really liked (at that time XM radio), learned some technology to do it (Youtube/video/audio), got people who were worth talking to and gave them the form and space to form cohesive ideas. If this wasn’t something people wanted, he would never have an audience.
This is really the challenge of traditional media. If they are only wiling to invest in information packages that fit in 700 words or 2 minutes, their only audience is really going to be people getting basic or surface level information or preaching to the left wing choir.
I’ve really wanted to find some locals who would put the work into establishing something like the Current or the Indy to at least shine a light on local issues like you’re doing with this blog. My challenge is that people like you me and Greg are all men of a certain age, meaning we all came up when blogs were new and cool and exciting. However, now the technology has moved past what I learned in my teenager and 20s, so the investment to even learn how to podcast, how to edit video etc is so large it seems insurmountable to do alone. Maybe it’s time we got interested parties around a table with cups of coffee discussing collaboration. I have extra money and time and have researched some of the platforms and things to adopt, but like I said, its too much to alone. I wanted to look into things like MCAT to at least get equipment access and learn the skills I currently don’t possess, but then this Covid happened.
I’d like to know your thoughts because it’s clear the Missoulian is not only disinterested in providing actual news, but probably now prohibited from doing it if their remaining subscribers will openly revolt if they print anything even mildly controversial to the Democrats and local business. The Current will at least publish some of this out of principle, but still probably doesn’t have the interest in pursuing this more objectively and critically of all government regardless of ideology.
I mean fuck. Sally Mauk retired from NPR 4 years ago but still has the keys to go record a bullshit podcast with best friend Gwenny and we all get to pay for that privilege!