Gannett, America’s largest newspaper chain, is cutting back on telling its readers what to think due to what must be an alarming number of subscription cancellations.
“Readers don’t want us to tell them what to think,” said the Gannett editors, according to the far-left Washington Post (an outlet that knows all about telling its readers what to think). “They don’t believe we have the expertise to tell anyone what to think on most issues. They perceive us as having a biased agenda.”
Not only are editorials and opinion columns “among our least read content,” the editorial committee noted, but these editorials are “frequently cited” as the reason for subscription cancellations.
Gannett publishes the far-left USA Today along with 250-plus local papers.
According to the Post, Gannett lost $135 million last year.
Tee hee.
Get this: this editorial committee blamed the readers for not knowing the difference between the editorial and news sections:
“Today’s contemporary audiences frequently are unable to distinguish between objective news reporting and Opinion content,” the editorial committee wrote in an earlier iteration of its recommendations in 2018. “In the old days, content appearing on print pages that were clearly labeled helped alleviate those concerns, along with a society that possessed a higher news literacy. But in today’s digital/social environment, we as an industry have been challenged to make these differences clear.”
What is this objective news they speak of?
Trust in the corporate media is at an all-time low. That’s the bottom line here. That’s the only thing anyone needs to know. The media have been wrong about pretty much everything for years, so I can certainly understand subscribers not wanting to pay to be serially misled by whatever Gannett’s “experts” are telling them. Remember “inflation is transitory,” “Trump colluded with Russia,” “Manhattan will be underwater by 2017,” “Jussie Smollett is a victim,” Trump will never be president,” “Biden is a moderate,” and “things will go back to normal with Trump gone and the adults back in charge?”
It isn’t just that these so-called media experts get everything wrong; it’s that when they are wrong, they are so sure of themselves. What’s more, they know no humility. After reality exposes their “expertise” as a joke, they just keep on arrogantly keeping on.
Why would anyone want to pay for that?
It’s also laughable to blame the readers for confusing the news and editorial sections. Does anyone believe that in this day and age, these newspapers have a CLEAR-CUT RED LINE between opinion and editorial? Come on. What you have here is a newspaper service whistling past the graveyard, still unable to admit its news coverage is just as full of left-wing opinion and propaganda as its editorial pages.
That’s what people are angry about. The truth is that Americans are more news savvy than ever before. We are on to these liars and how they rig the game. Gannett trying to claim the opposite is just more propaganda.
Just look at how USA Today covers climate change (which is a hoax) in its “news” section. Bill Nye, really?
I’ll say again, who wants to pay for that?
My favorite part is Gannett urging its papers to stop endorsing national candidates. Local candidates are fine, they say, but no more endorsements for president, the House, or U.S. Senate. Of course they want that to stop, because those endorsements expose the leftists in charge of all those newsrooms. It is also fodder for people such as me who love to publish stories about how the corrupt Hillary Clinton won 197 percent of newspaper endorsements to Donald Trump’s big fat zero.
Here are my business suggestions for Gannett: Be a better newspaper. Report news. Bring back Bothsideism. Give your readers all the information and points of view, and allow them to make up their own minds. Stop lying. Stop pretending you don’t get things wrong. Hire professionals who respect the public rather than look down on them as children. Stop sucking.
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