Not Just CNN: Mainstream Media Is on the Ropes

The stage during a walk-through before a Democratic presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas on Oct. 13, 2015. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Commentary

I’m beginning to sense something that many of us have dreamed about since the beginning of this century—the serious decline of the mainstream media.

Dare I say that a tipping point has come, that the witch is dead? Not quite, but she’s clearly stumbling around on her broomstick, wondering what to do next.

I’m not just talking about NBC’s pathetic coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games that nobody is watching, though that’s an indication. Nor am I talking about the well-known polling that rates the media’s popularity somewhere below Congress, if such a thing were possible. That’s been going on for a while.

It’s more.

Let’s take a tour d’horizon—but first, CNN.

“The collapse of CNN is now complete: 9 out of 10 viewers, gone. Its top-rated anchor, Chris Cuomo, gone. Its network president, gone. Its integrity in shambles," media critic Joe Concha wrote in a widely discussed article.

“Oh, and new management coming in that is signaling big-time changes ... changes that may bring CNN back to the proud network it once was before [network President] Jeff Zucker destroyed it.”

True enough, but should CNN be brought back? A company that deliberately downplayed the atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime (they even admitted it) in order to maintain their exclusive access to that same regime should have vanished years ago. We would have been spared all of the endless Trump–Russia lies.

Actually, it doesn’t matter who replaces management at CNN, because the real ownership hasn’t changed—WarnerMedia, and above that group, AT&T.

And above AT&T, as with the other two giant corporations who control the vast majority of the mainstream media landscape, The Walt Disney Co. and Comcast, their true capo di tutti capi is China—because the communist-controlled nation is the one with the mammoth audience they crave.

That’s the bad news, but the good news is that those same corporations are increasingly behind the times.

You’re here reading this and not listening to their canned propaganda. And not just here, of course. You’re reading blogs and alternative media, as well as listening to podcasts. Who has more influence these days, The New York Times or Joe Rogan? Well, it’s a toss-up, and that’s just one guy.

You’re also surfing the internet for other information, making up your own mind. The possibilities for gaining that information are growing in number and in strength by the day.

What intelligent person watches the traditional evening network news anymore? Who believes that the aforementioned NY Times is the “newspaper of record”? That’s basically a joke now to vast numbers of people.

Donald Trump has been using the mainstream/legacy media (call them what you will) as a fall guy for some time now. It’s almost beginning to sound dated, all of this talk about “fake news.”

The real news is being created before your eyes. And the more outlets, the merrier, because the chances of finding the truth will only increase. The chances of their being canceled will also decrease.

What I would say in terms of news and a lot of things is this: Learn from the Canadian truckers! (In other words, do it on your own.)

Yes, it’s a bit self-serving, but as a subscriber or a reader of The Epoch Times, you’re participating in this ongoing media revolution that’s truly picking up steam after more than a decade.

I think back now to the days when we started Pajamas Media (2004) and how we were accused of being “amateurs in our pajamas” by a CBS executive for daring to question their anchor Dan Rather’s lies about George W. Bush’s National Guard papers. (We couldn’t have been more correct and Rather was gone shortly after.)

In the parlance of another day, “We’ve come a long way, baby.”

Pretty soon, we may have a different problem. What happens when you become “the man”? Let’s hope we handle it better. We should.