COULD IT BE TRUE?

I have good news and bad news:

     There are stories going around the internet that 2023 saw a decline in readership of rightwing news sites. I use that term, news site, loosely. Breitbart alone, has seen an 80% decline. I cannot say for sure how credible these sources are but I can take some satisfaction in the thought that altnews is hoping this is altnews. The truth will be known when they have disappeared. And I will not mourn.

     Which brings me to the bad news. Traditional print press has long been in decline. It would not surprise me that conservative media is the culprit. The rise of Foxnews is concurrent with the decline of news some seven or so years after Reagan got rid of the fairness doctrine. So is this digital thing we have with us constantly. I remember back in the days of Air-America radio when there was a successful effort to remove that liberal news-talk station from the air by Sinclair radio, a well-financed conservative media company. It was replaced by religious radio and we learned that there was this thing called, "the tyranny of relativism". There were other conservative activist groups doing the same dirty deeds. Sports radio was another way they attracted listeners away from news and commentary that conservatives were not comfortable with. 

     We could also blame capitalism. There was a time in the 1990s when boards of directors of newspapers were directing newsrooms that the paper must make a profit of 20%. Not just most often 20%, that was the minimum profit they wanted. Of course, we all know that news collection should be governed by profits. What could possibly go wrong? Rupert Murdoch of Foxnews fame and owner of NEWSCORP, is famous for tabloid journalism. Tabloids are sold at the checkout counter to rubes who are easily fooled by fantastic stories, stories not to be believed. Some guy named Pecker, a friend of Trump was one of the so-called publishers. Any connection to real journalism is as awkward as the name. During Murdoch's reign he also purchased The Wall Street Journal, with equally discomfiting results. Alternatively, and I admit being squeamish about admitting this, Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post. He has to date not taken a role in directing its newsroom policies. You know we are on thin ice when Jeff Bezos looks heroic. 

     Since those days in the dimming past, we have seen a reduction of investigative journalism and the journalists we depended on to dig deep into the political and cultural swamp with the creatures therein. More importantly, the small local newspapers have suffered even greater losses. And the swamp creatures are getting elected as Republicans. 

    When a newspaper or magazine goes on the block the vulture capitalists move in. Hedgefunds buy up the outstanding stock, fire the staff, and sell off the assets. Typically the pension funds are part of the bankruptcy. They keep the name and create this new iteration that operates on a skeleton staff. Local news now becomes a profit source dependent on the goodwill of the people the former paper would have exposed. Don't get me wrong, I do not suggest that news should not be profitable, but we're not talking about Big Pharma here. Wages should be rewarding to the reporters. There are costs to remain competitive and keep up with technology. The needs of wealthy investors should be far down the list. And CEO's should take their Golden Parachutes and executive compensation packages and go to work for a fortune 500 company. Maybe there could be a special tax on members of the press who have been reporting misinformation. Or disinformation. Even better, tax the billionaires who seek to control the tone of the reporting. Yes, I know that would upset all those people out there who have turned news reporting into a party organ, but so what. Their money has been supporting a slow descent to kleptocracy. And let us not forget the damage that money has done to the higher courts.

     Is there a solution that allows the greatest spread of information to the greatest number of people? Where the reportage is not in service to either a party organ or a billionaire  consumed with delusions of grandeur? That would be an anomaly of history. But maybe we can use some ideas from our capitalist friends. Why not give taxbreaks for subscriptions. We could have them means-tested as Republicans always insist. Thinktanks could be a source of funding. A tax, or licensing fee could be levied on groups sponsored by billionaires to lower their taxable income and promote their capital interests. Churches are a likely source. They are not taxed, yet they have removed that wall between church and state. Let's say you are Reverend Jim Wallis of the Soujourners, or Reverend William Barber and the thousands like them who practice the teachings of Christ by feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. That money would be a deduction. But if you happen to be one of those "Gospel of Prosperity" types who live in mansions, own executive jets, and drive  Maseratis, all of those things could be taxed at (say) the top tax rate. Or even better, a higher top tax rate, one in the neighborhood of the 90 or so percent that was collected in the time of the last great Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower. Why not fine political speakers when they tell outright lies against their opponent. Like the unknown people who accused Hillary of running a child-sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor that had no basement. Foxnews may, I cautiously say may, have learned a lesson when they claimed that Dominion voting machines rigged the 2020 elections. It's a bit off the subject but what is all of this use of "Dominion". Are they trying to achieve Dominion, in a democracy? Shockingly, yes. Oil and gas drillers have left countless wells capped but leaking methane. They can be measured from space by a spectrometer. Why not quit giving subsidies to the largest corporations on the planet they are destroying. Fine the companies for the leaking wells and use the proceeds to encourage local media. 

     There are people who can afford to pay higher taxes. Coincidentally, they are often deep in the underworld of those who would end the not quite great democracy we grew up in. Their aim is to transition to oligarchy, or kleptocracy, or outright despotism. We should make them pay a penalty for their crimes. They have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes and they will cry to mama if they have to pay a higher tax. We could sell tickets to people who wish to witness their tantrum.