MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary: July 24th was my last day at MSNBC. I don’t know what I’m going to do next exactly but I simply couldn’t stay there anymore. My colleagues are very smart people with good intentions. The problem is the job itself. It forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions on a daily basis.
You may not watch MSNBC but just know that this problem still affects you, too. All the commercial networks function the same – and no doubt that content seeps into your social media feed, one way or the other.
It’s possible that I’m more sensitive to the editorial process due to my background in public radio, where no decision I ever witnessed was predicated on how a topic or guest would “rate.” The longer I was at MSNBC, the more I saw such choices — it’s practically baked in to the editorial process – and those decisions affect news content every day. Likewise, it’s taboo to discuss how the ratings scheme distorts content, or it’s simply taken for granted, because everyone in the commercial broadcast news industry is doing the exact same thing.
But behind closed doors, industry leaders will admit the damage that’s being done.
“We are a cancer and there is no cure,” a successful and insightful TV veteran said to me. “But if you could find a cure, it would change the world.”
As it is, this cancer stokes national division, even in the middle of a civil rights crisis. The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others… all because it pumps up the ratings.
Read the complete article here.
“My colleagues are very smart people with good intentions. ”
—bless your little head…
“We are a cancer and there is no cure,” a successful and insightful TV veteran said to me. “But if you could find a cure, it would change the world.”
— even a benign tumor gets excised. And if it has first metastasized, the accessory lesions are irradiated, killed off with chemo, or also rooted out and excised.
Why not switch to knitting or gardening? Quit victimizing your fellow man with your dishonesty for profit. No one needs a liar.
What was yesterday’s MSNBC line? That Kamala Harris needs to engage in a “de-Ba’athification” of Trump appointments from government.
They say this not thinking that it could be used against them, aside from their dehumanizing, war criminal rhetoric.
De-Obamify the government. If they are suspected Obama/Clinton supporters, fire them immediately. And then double the size of the Supreme Court with only Federalist Society approved judges. No one from Harvard or Yale allowed.
Yeah, I find these fake mea culpas not at all convincing. It would take an alien who just landed on our planet about 2 minutes to know exactly what MSNBC is all about. They make no pretense what their agenda is. This woman knew what she was getting herself into when she signed on. Unless she was just hired yesterday and lived in a forest all her prior life, her Captain Obvious moment now reveals that she, like all of the others there, never really set journalism as a goal in the first place.
And as far as them all being smart with good intentions, please, this is the network of Al Sharpton, Larry Odonnell, Chris Hayes, and Brian Williams, empty suits the whole lot.
Even the owners of the network lack rudimentary economic skills, at the bottom of the ratings year after year and too stupid to change course.
Just remember, when NBC flushes, Al Sharpton, Larry Odonnell, Chris Hayes, and Brian Williams all get a solid meal!
I’m becoming quite fond of the idea of multi-caliber cures…
And I call ‘BULLSHIT’ on “My colleagues are very smart people with good intentions” too.
“It would take an alien who just landed on our planet about 2 minutes to know exactly what MSNBC is all about”
Amen RT
She worked at NPR before MSNBC, she knew what she was getting into. As I said before, there’s something else going on with this.
Except there is a picture of her on the net with a Che Poster in the background.
What did she think she was doing for all those years and none of this means she is not more totalitarian in thought than the Democrats.
Ariana Pekary {peccary} what a pig.
I remember when this first came out a few weeks ago. My thoughts roughly followed @Oh its coming earlier in this thread. My difference was in the “if you find a cure” section – the cure is easy and obvious. Talk to your friends and others that “might” believe the way you do and say something.
Quitting might make you feel better for having taken such a principled stand (sorry, give me a second to stop laughing), but you lived with it for years and did nothing, in fact, you promoted the behavior.
is it pekary, or pessary ?? (look that up)
“if you could find a cure, it would change the world.”
I have an idea that if news was presented in a timeline format – with links to older related stories – so that
people could do their own fact checking to see which news sources are more prone to fake news.
Considering that much news has subjective elements, and needs to be viewed in context, and bias – I think the way to find the truth is to pay close attention to the news over a long period of time, with a goal of learning which news sources aren’t worth the bother.
Problem is, most voters (especially the “moderates” that decide most elections) aren’t willing to put in the effort – and I can’t blame them, except to say that ignorant votes decided on lying soundbites in the last month before the election are less than worthless.