Crazy thought: maybe billionaire vanity projects aren't such a great model for essential civic functions.
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@mattblaze If anybody were positioned to take up the banner, he wouldn't have confidently made this latest move.
He's pretty sure that news media is dead.
@mattblaze
Bring back “The Evening Star” 😎
Crazy thought: maybe billionaire vanity projects aren't such a great model for essential civic functions.
@mattblaze In the old days, the wealthy elite would build theatres, schools, hospitals and civic centres. Nowadays, they do everything they can to shut them down. #EatTheRich
@mattblaze but he doesn't seem to be particularly interested in subsidizing it, I assume the layoffs are happening because he wants it to be independently financially viable?
@mattblaze Didn't Athens memorialize rich taxpayers by naming warships or similar after them? (Not saying that's good or bad, but wouldn't it be nice for the ordinary taxpayer to be able to point to a plaque that says that gives their name as having paid the taxes that funded two cubicles in the local DMV's bathroom.)
It's just heartbreaking to see these farewell messages from Post reporters whose bylines I've been reading and who I've been an occasional source for. So much talent squandered.
@mattblaze especially in a moment where billionaires are all in the same groupchat...
@mattblaze yeah, I was on the fence about cancelling my subscription as is, due to the opinion section just becoming utter trash. Looks like they now also decimated their news coverage, so really no reason to subscribe to them anymore.
Not sure what daily newspaper in the US is still worthwhile. For opinion, I've already switched to die Zeit, as a German newspaper with a pretty heavy US bent, but that doesn't exactly work for daily news.
@sophieschmieg WSJ and NYT still have great investigative and national coverage, even if their editorial choices are, um, well, you know.
Guardian and ProPublica are great, but don't have the comprehensive national scope to replace WaPo/NYT/WSJ.
@mattblaze yeah, the nyt's opinion section was the reason I cancelled my subscription there years ago. But now the WaPo's opinion section (and it looks like news coverage) is also trash, so I guess the nyt is back on the menu
@sophieschmieg I take the attitude that the value I want to pay for is the boots on the ground writing the stories and digging out the dirt, and I'm willing to hold my nose to some extent on the editorials as long as the news is trustworthy, significant, and comprehensive
@mattblaze yeah it was "we should sicc the military of protestors" that made the stench impossible to ignore back then
I've long wondered - do the WSJ opinion writers read any of their reporters' articles? (Some of the NYT opinions I can forgive due to their policy of airing a variety of points of view, although I can get those opinions, and attendant ignorance of civics and economics, in a more unfiltered form on Nextdoor.com)
@sophieschmieg @mattblaze I can’t speak to it from experience, but I’ve heard good things about the Philadelphia Inquirer. (Seems to come up every time I see this basic topic)
@darthnull @sophieschmieg Glad to support the Inquirer, which has become great, but they don't quite have comprehensive national scope.
@mattblaze what are the ingredients for that?
a collection of high integrity journalists and...?
@risottobias money plus a sustainable business model, I suppose.