Why the Conventional Media No Longer Serves Our Wants
The Fact Issues, Chapter 1
Bruce Bartlett
Bartlett’s Notations, Feb 09, 2026
With the decimation of the Washington Submit newsroom by billionaire Jeff Bezos, the disaster of the media appears to have reached an apex. I noticed this coming in 2017 and wrote a e book about it: The Fact Issues. Since I consider that the message of the e book nonetheless resonates, I’ve determined to serialize it right here on Substack. It’s a brief e book so it shouldn’t occupy an excessive amount of of your time. Following is chapter one.
Key factors:
· The equity doctrine was out of date and can’t be revived.
· Conservatives have been underserved for a few years by conventional media.
· Progressives have been gradual to embrace new media reminiscent of speak radio.
Individuals have by no means been proud of the information media, all the time blaming it for mendacity, misinforming and being unfair to 1 aspect or the opposite. Thomas Jefferson expressed views on this topic that many individuals immediately little doubt would share. In an 1807 letter to John Norvell, Jefferson stated,
To your request of my opinion of the way by which a newspaper needs to be performed, in order to be most helpful, I ought to reply, “by restraining it to true details & sound rules solely.” But I concern such a paper would discover few subscribers. It’s a melancholy reality, {that a} suppression of the press may no more utterly deprive the nation of its advantages, than is finished by its deserted prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Fact itself turns into suspicious by being put into that polluted car. The actual extent of this state of misinformation is thought solely to those that are in conditions to confront details inside their information with the lies of the day….
I’ll add, that the person who by no means appears right into a newspaper is healthier knowledgeable than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who is aware of nothing is nearer to reality than he whose thoughts is crammed with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will nonetheless be taught the nice details, and the small print are all false.
The criticism that the information media have a built-in bias is an outdated one and there may be reality in it. The main media have lengthy been based mostly in our main cities the place individuals naturally are typically extra socially liberal. That has been one of many nice sights for residing in cities quite than small cities and rural areas that are typically socially conservative. Moreover, it’s a reality that individuals with a liberal disposition have tended to gravitate towards journalism as a occupation, whereas conservatives gravitate elsewhere.
Media consolidation additionally tended to make it extra liberal. In any city with multiple newspaper, one would normally be conservative if just for aggressive causes. Partisan affiliation and ideological compatibility in editorials, information judgement and amongst columnists was one purpose individuals subscribed to a selected paper. However as newspapers have closed, these with a conservative bent tended to be the primary to go as a result of they have been normally the afternoon papers. These with no competitors have a tendency towards bland mushiness in the case of politics.
Radio and tv have all the time tended to be extra even-handed as a result of information presentation targeted on breaking tales the place audio or video was accessible. It didn’t lend itself to commentary or editorializing. Furthermore, there was a authorities rule referred to as the equity doctrine that required each side to be introduced when political endorsements have been made or opinions expressed. However the principle impact of this rule was to discourage the presentation of any opinions in any respect, quite than waste treasured air time presenting different viewpoints.
In 1987, the equity doctrine was abolished. Many rue today because the one when equity itself started to vanish from the media. However the equity doctrine by no means utilized to the print media and it was already clear by 1987 that cable—CNN went on the air in 1980—was ushering in a brand new period of stories protection. It was untenable to take care of restrictions on over-the-air media that didn’t apply to print publications or cable. It’s seemingly that the equity doctrine would have been struck down by the courts if it wasn’t repealed.
It’s indeniable, nonetheless, that abolition of the equity doctrine gave rise to speak radio. Developments within the radio market have been additionally important; the AM band had been struggling for years because the FM band was higher suited to music. Rush Limbaugh was the primary to acknowledge that the top of the equity doctrine meant that he may do a whole present dedicated to nothing however expressing his opinions, of which he had many, all strongly felt and vigorously expressed. The AM band was well-suited to speak and was cheaper than using disk jockeys to curate music alternatives.
It’s maybe an accident of historical past {that a} robust conservative like Limbaugh was first to acknowledge the political potential of speak radio. It was in all probability additionally true that conservatives have been underserved by the liberal sameness of typical journalism on the time. At the least in his early years, Limbaugh was a real information supply, giving nationwide consideration to tales, analysis and viewpoints that have been onerous to seek out elsewhere. Earlier than him, the one nationwide publications with a broad attain that mirrored a conservative bent have been the Wall Road Journal and Reader’s Digest.
Limbaugh’s success led to the creation of Fox Information by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, based mostly on a imaginative and prescient lengthy nurtured by Republican media guru Roger Ailes. With most tv tilting a bit to the left, they cleverly positioned Fox in the course of the political spectrum, which made it barely to the appropriate of its opponents.
The large monetary success of conservative speak radio and Fox Information stimulated progress of an enormous conservative media community. In the meantime, efforts to repeat its success by progressives have uniformly failed. Nobody is sort of positive why; it could be that these on the left are inclined to be glad with the normal mainstream media. The issue is that it’s dying a gradual dying. One thing will exchange it, we don’t know what simply but. Many analysts consider that just about all print publications will disappear in a number of years.
It could be that progressives have extra to achieve from growing new strategies of buying information and data than conservatives, who appear very glad with the provision of appropriate information and views on Fox, speak radio and the web. However conservatives ought to keep away from complacency. By having a closed-loop of stories sources, they’re extra liable to deception by charlatans peddling conspiracy theories, faux information and excessive views far outdoors the mainstream. These are more likely to be political albatrosses sooner or later.
In the long term, political events and actions are finest served by reality, accuracy and accountable information reporting. It could be that this must be sponsored in a roundabout way. The federal authorities has lengthy executed this by giving newspapers and magazines sponsored mailing charges; and radio and tv stations got extraordinarily precious spectrum for actually nothing. Authorized necessities that sure public notices be printed in native newspapers is one other type of authorities subsidy. Given the significance of a well-informed voters to the functioning of democracy, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that market forces alone could also be insufficient to the job.
One concept I’ve had is to permit foundations and different teams to endow reporting positions at information organizations as has lengthy been frequent for college professorships. One thing like that is already being executed on the Boston Globe, the place native nonprofits are subsidizing the price of using a music critic, with the paper retaining full editorial management over the critic’s work.
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