Thread by @PalmerReport

What you must understand is that ratings have collapsed so badly post-Trump, reporters at major news outlets are all now worried about layoffs. They’re so desperate, they’re willing to manufacture phony controversy and ratings, for fear they won’t be able to pay their rent.

This is nothing new. This is the same American media that spent every day of the 2016 election hyping an email scandal that it knew was imaginary.

But this is different in 2021. Ratings grew during the Trump era. The media added people. Now, with ratings drop, people have to go.

In 2021 there have already been layoffs, consolidations, buyouts. Highly paid people not getting their contracts renewed. And so the product you’re seeing from the media each day is a result of a desperate desire to get more of you to tune in, even at the expense of credibility.

The media knew Trump would lose. But they weren’t counting on him getting banned from Twitter and mostly disappearing from the public. They thought Trump, post-loss, would keep spoon feeding them ratings-friendly narratives. Instead he’s vanished, and they’ve got nothing.

So in Trump’s absence, the media has settled on a fake narrative about him making a magic comeback in 2024. But audiences are starting to see through that, given that Trump has been AWOL all year, his people are now being arrested, and he’s still AWOL.

This leaves the media with NOTHING to work with for ratings. So now they’re stuck ramping up their phony Biden scandals, creating totally whacked out fake Kamala scandals, anything to stave off the layoffs they know are coming.

The media has artificially driven down Biden’s approval rating in the hope the Republicans win the midterms, so it can get ratings out of the face-offs between Biden and McCarthy, Biden and McConnell. But that’s not a given, and it’s a year off, so it’s not helping ratings now.

What’s going to give? The January 6th Committee’s public hearings at the start of 2022 should bring more audiences back to politics. Contempt indictments against big name Trump aides will help. And Trump’s own arrest in NY and GA will bring eyeballs back. But not enough.

The only way this gets fixed is when the inevitably large scale layoffs finally happen. Not rooting for people to lose their jobs. But the long reduced ratings this year dictate that it’s GOING to happen, so perhaps better sooner rather than later.

Once the media industry shrinks down to the size it should be, the size it was before the Trump boom, perhaps the remaining reporters and surviving media outlets will be more comfortable just doing their jobs. At that point the ratings will be enough to cover the reduced payroll.

Then again Huff Post laid off good people and kept bad people. Politico got bought out by a propaganda outfit. MSNBC let go of Brian Williams but kept Chuck Todd. The danger is, we end up with just the worst people, because they're good at manufacturing phony stuff for ratings.

Whatever the solution is for the media's descent into villainy in 2021, one key component is all for you to accept that the media is a FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS that exists to achieve ratings, pay its bills, and keep the lights on. Informing the public is a secondary goal if at all.

Yet we still very much need the mainstream media. We just need it to be good and be honest. Major newspapers manage to dig up scandals that no one else can. MSNBC and CNN provide real time coverage no one else can. We don't want to destroy these outlets; we want to reform them.

Keep in mind that the media is beholden to its audience. If not one watches or reads, that media outlet can't exist. And you, the people reading this, are the most important audience members that most major news outlets have – because your words influence other would-be viewers.

So whatever the solution is for forcing the media to get back on track, it involves YOU holding the media accountable. Call it out for its fake stories, so it can see it can't get ratings this way. Reward the media for its legitimate reporting. Your eyeballs are the reward.