Wonder if it\u2019s possible to merge the left-journo \u201conline journalism is in dire straits because it\u2019s all ultimately run for the personal gain of oligarchs\u201d with the right-journocritic \u201conline journalism is in dire straits because no one wants all this leftist pap\u201d
Into like, \u201ca central purpose of journalism is manufacturing consent to the regimes its owners are aligned with and online journalism is failing at that role because it lost the social technology of balancing \u2018afflict the comfortable\u2019 idealism with grizzled veteran editors who internalize the money\u2019s interests and keep the kids in line accordingly\u201d
(Remember the dawn of online-first journalism was like, Bill Gates pouring money into Slate in the \u201890s so it could hire experienced editors from like the explicitly-for-its-owners-whimsy TNR to make a publication that assured us that dispassionate, clever white Gen X men had everything under control)
And maybe under current conditions they can\u2019t rediscover it; with institutions shrinking there\u2019s no room to rise the ranks and promotion is by lateral transfer, add in Twitter\u2019s \u201cnational newsroom\u201d and attention economy and workers at other pubs have a greater influence over your career course than managers at your own
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