Au contraire, the fact that news is no longer news is the biggest news there is.
Sure, the mere fact that the news is no longer news, is old news. But how and why it is happening is big and un-reported news.
When six companies control 90% of the news outlets, that is unprecedented concentration and loss of the diverse viewpoints necessary for a robust society.
When those corporations which normally sell-off any lossmaking division instead hold loss-making 'news' divisions in a now-chronically lossmaking industry, the payoff is not some potential future profits; the payoff is in influencing public opinion to favor policies advantageous to your larger corporation.
So, of course the how and why it is happening is unreported by the organizations that are making it happen.
> loss of the diverse viewpoints necessary for a robust society
This isn’t wrong but let me put a finer point on it: when BigCompany Inc starts dumping sludge into your town’s lake, you need independent journalists to figure that out. Corporate talking heads aren’t going to do that. And certainly not the people running a link farm.
What news is reported is as important as whether the facts are true. The easiest path to propaganda is to simply report other, more convenient, facts.
The news industry was always a low profit business even in the best times, so one should ask why it is so interesting for powerful people. The answer is the same in the past as it is today, it just takes a little of critical thinking to understand.
Yeah, a lot of people pay for deeper content. I basically hang out on yahoo finance all day (crazy awesome site), and they make a lot of news feeds available to their subscribers. But it takes quite a big commitment to subscribe at a level where you get all the news and analyst reports in a timely fashion. Google News feeds have been declining in quality and don't find them valuable anymore. Hacker News is one of the sites I scan for news. I check it all, and I belong to Ground News as well.
Sure, the mere fact that the news is no longer news, is old news. But how and why it is happening is big and un-reported news.
When six companies control 90% of the news outlets, that is unprecedented concentration and loss of the diverse viewpoints necessary for a robust society.
When those corporations which normally sell-off any lossmaking division instead hold loss-making 'news' divisions in a now-chronically lossmaking industry, the payoff is not some potential future profits; the payoff is in influencing public opinion to favor policies advantageous to your larger corporation.
So, of course the how and why it is happening is unreported by the organizations that are making it happen.