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Out of Time
We are now living in a time of half-truths and a looming information crisis. The main strength of old media companies is their name and role as arbiters of truth and facts. This means they must avoid acts that harm their name and trust. Sadly, fewer and fewer media firms grasp this idea.
The New York Times risks alienating its core “blue state” audience by publishing provocative headlines aimed at generating traffic, potentially jeopardizing long-term loyalty. This approach may cheapen the newspaper’s brand. A recent example of a publication losing sight of its identity is Time magazine, which is backed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The magazine recently published an issue called Time 100/AI. It is simply awful — don’t take my word for it, just see for yourself.
They put SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son on the AI leaders list. That alone should be a warning. And there’s FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan on the “innovators” list. If there were an AI haters list, I wouldn’t be surprised. And while we’re at it, put California State Senator Scott Wiener on that list too!
“These editorialized lists that aren’t based on actual data are riddled with bias,” Cyan Banister said on Twitter. “The bias is for ignoring the largest innovators and why?”
These lists are created to generate cheap traffic to the website, potentially sell reprints and tickets to special events, and possibly create viral controversy. While this short-term dopamine hit doesn’t pay off in the long term, Time has devalued its brand. I wish benefactor Marc Benioff would use his billions to free the publication from “cheap tricks” and make its brand stand for trust and value — the only thing that would matter in the post-destination internet, of which ChatGPT is just an opening salvo.
September 5, 2024. San Francisco
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Legacy Media Legitimacy? From ‘Remember The Maine!’ to Judith Miller and the war crime of Yellow Cake. The domino that has lead us irrevocably to the present. When hasn’t Legacy Media not been handmaiden to wealth and power by any means? Magical thinking& willful delusion, suffuse the national pysche. We should all be learning the hokey or the ghost dance. And certainly not assume reason,logic, scientific thinking and cogent argument define our species let alone national political discourse in the circus sideshow bagatelle of media. A free press should be free of money and it’s distortive fun house mirror of popular appeal. Until then mad midway barkers and network CEO’s who decry candidates as harmful to the country yet profitable to the network will determine selection of candidates. The first domino was 9/11. The subsequent ones, our defining institutions, all toppled by our own doing. Blowback, like end of empire, is a b****. Hold on because it’s going to be a blown doorplug white knuckle scream of a ride.