By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--March 2, 2023
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Failing Papers: Mainstream newspapers have lost readers for years, but NOW blame failure, not on relentless mediocrity, but Facebook. Yet, anyone with the cast-iron stomach to consume our literary equivalent of frozen salisbury steak will assert there's no intellectual, spiritual or emotional content. Yet, what else would possibly better pique the interests of average Americans?
Gov't News? But now, inveterate leftists demand the government to underwrite our papers, despite them failing for good cause. See Feb 21, 2023: “US local news outlets need tax breaks to save democracy, says advocate” from Rebuild Local News, claims they will save hundreds of outlets decimated by changes across America, by requesting tax credits of $3.5 Billion. Now, is there any better evidence of a failed idea than needing billions to resurrect?
Rats w/ Plague: In fact, like brown rats carrying the plague, the only reason for current newspapers to publish is as a vector for Marxist fables. But one can’t avoid the absolutely dreadful quality of progressive American newspapers, which used to be the best in the world. The chronic flaw is the default Socialist foundation as presuppositional metaphysics for every more, religious and debatable issue in each tale. Add to this inevitable story lines, poor plotting, and typical misspellings. It’s the modern variation of Woke Wakefield Mystery Plays.
Bad to Worse? But does the government paying for news just make a bad thing worse? Q: So, what’s worse than being propagandized all day? Answer: To have to pay others to do it for you! See: Government funding for journalism: necessary evil or just evil? And Turning the Watchdog into a Lapdog: Why the Proposed Newspaper Bailout is the Wrong Solution for a Failing Industry.
What can be done? Actually, the necessary “survival of the fittest” gyrations are occuring now as all these lock-step socialist influenced newspapers now die on the vine. See, Two local newspapers close a week in the US. See, Expanding News Deserts & Vanishing Newspapers, from 2020: Since 2004, USA lost 25%, or 2,100, of its newspapers, including 70 dailies & 2,000+ weeklies/ non-dailies. By 2000, America had 6,700 newspapers, down from 9,000 in 2004. Today, 200+ of USA’s 3,143 counties have no newspaper or alternative source of reliable info on critical issues. 50% of the USA has only 1 newspaper, while 2/3rds have no daily newspapers.
Gaslighting: But the reason US newspapers have deflated for decades is they've joined forces together to resist capitalism & republicanism. Now they serve just one purpose – PROPAGANDA. The downside is obvious and dreadful. First, there's only one story extolled by most news outlets, much like the one-party system idea. So the diversity of details shrivels up as an information drought and intellectual malnutrition sets in. And then the angry critics launch against the holdouts. For example, how all phenomena are explained by one “fact,” such as the statement all weather anomalies result from…Global Warming. Now just try demanding proof!
Truth is Found!: Second, there's no longer a search for the truth in news, because as we now see, the Truth Has Already Arrived! Of course, this means new is no longer fresh facts which smart professionals try to offer in an understandable manner, but simply refried hash and leftist trash. This bores the average person and leads to suspicions over the quality of reporting. Third, writers now regularly talk down to those who dare disagree and treat them like mentally diminished Americans, despite being themselves of diminished capacity.
Refried Baloney: Fourth, genuine information which used to be discussed in newspapers, adding meat and potatoes to stories is now boiled down spam, ignored or jettisoned. But the main issue is when these stories get posted in mainstream news organizations, any serious person must find other sources to fact-find to see if the information is correct. It's maddening.
No Passion or Freshness: Fifth, the spiritual aspects of these stories are treated as an absolute joke and ignored. Missing out on opportunities to enrich and fortify topics. Sixth, since these stories lack passion and freshness, and they're composed so haphazardly, the “journalists” often struggle with such basics as spelling, fact checks and reading for basic tone.
Death of 5 W’s: Finally, and sadly, most modern new stories flunk the “Five W’s” test of journalism, where a report is only considered complete after answering the famed “5 W” interrogative questions: Who, What, When, Where & Why. So our essays are now the modern equivalent of ancient Greek Fables. It's inevitable the news industry’s diminishing popularity and underinsured readers, while those abandoning are insulted by the very newspapers failing.
Mainstream News Alternative: The alternative to the diseased old news is what we currently see now suddenly arising & thriving across America. Podcasts, personal newsletters, and safe places to essay, like Substack – refusing to censor. During this period of transition you still have Google and YouTube and other vast corporate underlings. Those who’ve decided that it's safest to err on the leftist model because, as knowing that it's only really leftism in human history which killed business outright and slaughtered hundreds of millions of people, too.
Bottom Line: If traditional media had not adopted itself for the role of feeding propaganda into every story as if their lives depended upon it, to spread Marxism, we wouldn’t be in this tight place today. The constant flow of false facts and contrived narrative eventually convinced the credulous that reality was socialist. And so as this leftist religion grew, we eventually reached the place where one writer claims the journalist war against Trump ended in our current massive propaganda system. See, How Trump Derangement Gave Birth To The Censorship-Industrial Complex. But now things are starting to ebb.
Friends, let’s take a brief moment to salute the death of traditional newspapers. Now, Long Live REAL Journalism – Like Canada Free Press!!
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.