And now for something completely different. It’s a point of view you probably haven’t been seeing since the Great NonEndorsement Debacle at the LA Times and Washington Post.
Tanzina Vega (Journalist/Host/Educator: Boston Globe, NYU, The New York Times, CNN, WNYC and more)
Telling subscribers not to vote with their subscriptions is wild to me. So you want them to ignore what just happened, cancel their *entire* Amazon account for you but not pull a subscription...! love journalism but this is asking a lot. People are angry that Bezos has influence.
This resentment has been boiling among news consumers for a while now. So they are taking action in the way they know how.
News consumers have choices today that they didn't have before. They can choose where to spend their money and they are doing that. That's the part of the equation folks aren't considering. They can take their $ elsewhere.
That's capitalism folks.
I don't want to see anyone lose their jobs but that's the organization’s issue to figure out, not readers. This is a Bezos problem and he doesn't seem to care.
It also assumes that subscribers haven't considered any of these issues and aren't smart enough to decide when they've had enough.
So what happens when you cancel that subscription and choose to put that money somewhere else? You will be helping to grow something better.
(Elie Mystal is Justice Correspondent: @thenation. Alfred Knobler Fellow: @typemediacenter
Author: Allow Me To Retort)
Which brings us to Baltimore.
In light of
last Friday’s post concerning cuts to humanities programs nationwide, this action by Sun/Sinclair owner feels painfully apropos.
Studying topics within the humanities (this includes the arts, remember) provides us with the tools to think creatively and critically, to reason, and ask questions. Additionally, it fosters the ability to look at things from different points of view, which, in turn, develops empathy. All of these things are crucial in becoming active and informed in civic engagement. They contribute to building better informed and more consistent voters plus they are strong motivators for community engagement and volunteering. F ³: The Numbers Will Shock You, Village Green/Town²
Removing arts and culture coverage from the Sun is more than sneering at their importance or an arrogant dig that Baltimore doesn’t have any culture worth covering.
Until now, I had assumed that Smith’s goal was to shape the Sun into a media outlet that would appeal to low-information voters. With this week’s action it becomes apparent that it’s far more than that. He’s attempting to grow low-information voters. To create them. How do you do that? A quick and dirty way would be to take away their access to information, most especially: the tools to think creatively and critically, to reason, and ask questions.
Taking away the parts of the newspaper that remind us that Baltimore is a place worth loving and caring about, the stories that show how much Baltimore has to be proud of - - that’s a crucial strategy if you want to create a demoralized and fearful electorate.* Those are the people who will reliably support the kind of ballot initiatives that Smith has been backing to change how Baltimore governs (and taxes) itself.
This is more than distasteful. This calls for more than a wistful sigh about how far local journalism has fallen. If you don’t like what the Sun ownership is selling, you do not have to buy their product. You absolutely have the right to take your money and invest it in the local journalism you believe in.
May I recommend
Baltimore Beat. They are writing the stories that no one else is covering in Baltimore and they are empowering the writers that no one else platforms in Baltimore. What’s more, they are a true nonprofit with absolutely no paywall
plus they distribute free paper copies throughout the community.
I also subscribe to the
Baltimore Banner and find myself enjoying a lot of what they are doing these days. But, if you already subscribe to the Banner and want to find a place where your Baltimore Sun dollars will do the most good, it is absolutely Baltimore Beat.
It’s your money. What do you want to grow?
*Absolutely a page right out of the Fox News playbook.
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