“Is the Media Killing Us with Clicks?”
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Mainstream media killing us with clicks. You know, part of the conventional wisdom for a period of time. And again, this is, you know, when Rush Limbaugh was around, always going after the mainstream media, left, right, whatever it may be. It’s all the same at this point in time. It’s not about delivering news. It’s about trying to get you to click on stories. And I’m here to tell you conservatives out there, it doesn’t matter.
right -wing publication, left -wing publication, it’s all the same bull excrement. Seven years ago, about seven, eight years ago, John Oliver on his program did a great piece on the direction of what was happening with journalism and the media. And they did a parody of the movie. It was, I think it was an Oscar winner, if I’m not mistaken, movie Spotlight talking about the media and what was actually happening with it.
In essence, in this parody, they’ve got this reporter that’s searching for corruption at City Hall and all the powers that be at the newspaper, they’re working on a story about a cat slash raccoon because it’s going to get a lot of clicks. Anyway, National Review did a piece and I’m giving them credit on it. Said I’ll give credit where credit is due. On the Wall Street Journal. Now.
Again, my longtime listeners here, followers know how critical I have been in the direction of the Wall Street Journal. I warned on my program what was going to happen when Rupert Murdoch took the paper over and its decline. It hasn’t been a decline. It hasn’t been like, you know, you think about it in terms of skiing. It hasn’t been a double diamond decline, but you know, maybe a blue square, but it’s on its way down and it’s getting worse.
instead of better. The Wall Street Journal last year brought on a new editor in chief, Emma Tucker. Emma Tucker is from Great Britain. That’s right. She is from Great Britain and basically shouldn’t get it.
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She doesn’t get, well, again, maybe she does get it. Maybe she gets the how newspapers are supposed to be making money at this point in time, but it’s at our expense. You do understand that people, this country is the one that suffers because of a complete, the complete disaster that we have across the board when it comes to journalism. Current.
and former newsroom veterans speaking to National Review, basically saying that she lacks a complete understanding of basic American government politics and culture. They say she seems to be prioritizing less serious lifestyle stories with snappy headlines over hard -hitting accountability journalism. Now, this is prior to her. I’ve seen it going in this direction, but most certainly,
it’s getting worse instead of better. They fired all of their top newsroom employees. You think about that for a second. You’re firing your best. Your best. And again, they’re trying to change the overall direction here. Before she came to the journal, she was at the Sunday Times, again, part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire.
again, brought over all of her, her people, a cast of young deputies, no experience here in the United States, living or working in the United States. Again, this is the wall street journal. during one staff meeting, Tucker brushed off questions about not really knowing how Congress worked. At one point, she was surprised to learn that Congress.
includes two chambers, the House and Senate.
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Had no idea. And then again, you know, doesn’t understand the gun culture here in America, a myriad of things. Again, an English woman in New York, they want to change that stingsong a little bit. Basically, very significant differences between her vision for modernizing the journal and what journalists wanted. She used a lot of digital publishing buzzwords, like thinking of the product of the newspaper as a content.
Delivery vehicle. Yeah, content. Again, journalists don’t like talking about content. They like working on stories. Again, doesn’t have any patience for complex investigative and enterprise stories that require a lot of manpower and take a long time to report. This is right out of that parody done by John Oliver. Again, saw this coming a mile away.
She holds regular all hands meetings where she highlights stories that she values. Staffers say she often praises lifestyle stories. The Wall Street Journal! With snappy headlines that get lots of clicks. Like recent features on polyamory and having great sex on vacation. Again, this is The Wall Street Journal.
former staffer, if you ask me, a lot of them were stupid stories. Hey, if you ask a reader and someone that subscribes, yeah, they’re stupid stories. Again, the meetings were everything about web traffic, audience engagement, less about political fairness, much less stressing on that being important, much more on how many clicks the story will get. Again,
These are all things that we’ve warned you about. We’ve talked about here for a long time on the program and it’s everywhere. And I’ll be honest with you. Is it downright depressing? It is. I have to say it really is. I spend a hell of a lot of money now on, you know, sub stack subscriptions to actual journalists that are actually doing it on their own.
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and putting the work in. And again, I have to incorporate that into my reporting. Yeah, do I still subscribe to the Wall Street Journal? Absolutely. But I see right through the BS, and this is across the board. I’m going to go after, you know what, why not? I’m going to go after the New York Post and I’m going to go after Fox Business right now. They should be ashamed of themselves. Again.
This was the number one story on Fox Business’ website. Was it yesterday? Day before? I can’t remember. New York Post did a story on this. They covered it on air. Top Economist predicts crash of a lifetime worse than 2008 recession.
And again, I’m like, top, I’m like, who could this be? Who could this be? And I thought about Harry Dent.
I was right. I was right. Again, Harry is now coming out saying that the S &P 500 is going to drop by almost 90 % and the NASDAQ is going to be down over 90%. That’s his prediction. Top economist, according to Fox Business, according to the New York Post touted story. I’m like, where the hell are they getting this from? Well,
Let’s, you know, if you’re going to write a story and you’re going to put that out there. Again, what was the point? What was Fox Business’s point? What was the New York Post point? This is Rupert Mudd, same owners here. Same owners. What was their point? To get clicks. To get you worked up. To get you going. So you would click on that story. So that’s how they make money.
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you think I’m wrong? it’s Fox. It’s gotta be good. It’s gotta be Fox. Gotta Rupert Murdoch. Those people should be ashamed of themselves, quite frankly. If you’re gonna write that story, you wanna write a story about Harry Dent, I don’t know, maybe you might wanna take a look at his background. But I’ll go through this. Again, I don’t know how, he came out with a book this past November when he made those predictions.
Or maybe Fox is hurting for, I don’t know, viewers content. I don’t know. I mean, it’s across the board. You know what’s funny? That hello, what was the name there? Roaring Kitty. We made fun of it last week on the program. He had more viewers for his webcast of what he was gonna do than CNBC gets on a regular basis.
This is where we’re at at this point in time when it comes to the media. So, you know, I will take a look at Harry Dent. We’ll go back to 1994 where he published a book, The Great Boom Ahead and the Guide to Personal and Business Profit in the New Era of Prosperity. It was 1994. The market was up by 1 % that year. Obviously, we had the…
the run up with the dot coms after that point in time, but his book had nothing to do with that. In 1999, Harry put out the roaring 2000s, building the wealth and lifestyle you desire in the greatest boom in history. This was in 1999. This is when, hey, hey, we were writing, you can go to our website, you could go take a look at the stories. We were warning you.
about what was going to happen. We were warning about the dot com run up. We were warning you about Enron. So no, in Harry’s book, Harry’s book, yeah, the roaring 2000s, what happened next? Yeah, dot com bubble collapses, market crashes, down in 2000, down in 2001, down in 2000, again, you know, down. So he was completely wrong. Again, this might be useful, little perspective.
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You’re going to write a story about a guy that’s predicting the market’s going to collapse by 90%. But we’ll take a look at his track record. So again, we’ll go back to Harry again. In 2004, his next book, Great Bubble Boom, How to Profit from the Greatest Boom in History, 2005 to 2009.
Yeah, this guy’s that wrong. What happened during that point in time? What were we telling you at that point in time? Then, yeah, what was it again? 2009, Harry publishes a book. 2009, this is after everything fell apart. The Great Depression Ahead.
Now, the markets went up from then, but he didn’t believe that. And then in 2011, another book, The Great Crash Ahead Strategies for a World Turned Upside Down. Yeah, next 10 years, the market tripled in value. Then 2012, How to Prosper in the Global Meltdown. 2014, The Demographic Cliff, How to Survive During the Great Deflation. 2015,
What to do when the bubble pops strategies for the coming economic winter. Ooh, was that like that time of, you know, winter is coming there? Is that what he’s talking about? He’s trying to tie that into Game of Thrones. 2016, the great bubble burst of 2017. Yeah, market was up 22 % that year. I can go on.
I can go on, but this is what you’re buying into, people. Okay?
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They lie to you.
They lie to you again and again and again, looking to get clicks, looking to get you to buy in. I just, you know, be honest with everybody. Okay. The bull excrement is flowing from multiple sources. Watchdog on wallstreet .com.