I don’t plan to carry out a mass shooting anytime soon, but I did just publish a “manifesto” against podcasts at Compact Magazine, which you can find here — complete with amusing original illustration.
Back when most journalism was supported by advertisers and most journalists were staff employees not directly concerned with the day-to-day preferences of their organizations' subscribers and mostly concerned with the overall reputation of the company they worked for, it was a point of professional pride for reporters and editors to ignore the demands of advertisers and avoid cheap sensationalism pandering to the ignorance or prejudice of their audience. This system had significant flaws and lapses, but the new system of unmediated and algorithmically enforced subservience to the constantly measured preferences of online audiences provides no space for coherent professional or ethical standards aimed. Those are now unaffordable luxuries.
If I wasn't so lazy, I would start a conspiracy theory about Rogan. This is what I came up with: UFC Freedom 250 was rigged for Gaethje and Rogan was in on it and so was fat Daniel Cormier.
Notice how Rogan was calling the whole event a gimmick in the beginning; then he got possibly paid $$, now he calls it the greatest sporting event of all time and says that critics should stfu. And 37 year old fighter with a weak af suspect chin all of a sudden beats up a in-his-prime undefeated fighter who was arguably pound for pound #1 and a knockout artist, in an event to celebrate American greatness? with Eric Trump making huge bets in the background? Coincidence?? I'm just asking questions. Bret Weinstein's Game theory says this is absolutely possible. Rogan's meathead UFC fans would eat this right up as long as you mention all this detail confidently. and Rogan would never be able to brush this off. I feel like this would teach him about why conspiracy thinking is bad far more effectively than 1000 lectures from cnn.
There's a lot of great, informative normie news, entertainment and history podcasts out there. Stuff that's way better put together than what remains of legacy media, but it's nowhere near as popular as the intentionally provocative stuff that rules the podcast charts. Drama, yelling over each other and conspiracy sells. Sensible discussion doesn't. Those same issues are prevalent in legacy media: partisan yell fests, constant spin and pure unadulterated stupidity. It's worse in many ways, and is still taken more seriously unfortunately.
Choosing a healthy media diet, or pick your poison. Junk food sells more than real food. There's way better stuff in the podcast space than in legacy media, but the crazy garbage sells. The "mass" part of mass media is dead and buried, and there is no unifying narrative left. We're deep into the era of feudal media, and we can only hope that trustworthy, large-scale voices emerge.
I don’t disagree that there is some good material out there that gets presented in podcast form. Again, my criticism is against the structures of the modern podcasting industry, not so much podcasts as a format, which are fundamentally content-neutral. But especially for “normie news” and genres like history and whatnot, I’ve yet to come across a podcast that is informationally superior to reading the primary source material. Often these podcasts are just people re-packaging written articles for people who lack the attention span to read.
So, it's better to read Heather Cox Richardson than to listen to her on a podcast, or maybe watch MSNOW repeat her one-sided paranoid nonsense all day?
Podcasts, YouTube shows, Netflix slop and truth-free, propagandized TikTok news vids are just how people consume information now, for better or worse. Some is good, some is very bad.
The written word isn't necessarily in better shape. I follow or subscribe to hundreds of writers I like, though it's impossible to keep up with it all. There's a lot of great current books on politics and history, and a lot of pure. Besides the aforementioned Richardson, Substack's zone got flooded with shit from cable news refugees, happy to give news-deranged boomers with disposable income plenty to dispose of their income on.
Trying to get a rounded perspective on any story now requires going to aggregators like Ground News, All Sides and Real Clear Politics, and checking in on the disparate partisan newspaper sites on top of it. Every single hour in this era is pumping out more writing than the entire printed history of humankind before the internet, and most of it is uselessly partisan, lying-by-omission, or just plain lying.
Older books and journals are great, and we've got thousands and thousands of them (and records in movies in various physical media formats) in our little New York living pod, threatening to crush us, but most people are staring at their phones and consuming short form content for hours upon hours a day. I certainly don't disagree that the parasocial talking head podcast format isn't the best form of getting information, but let's be honest about the era we're in. There's some good stuff out there, and hopefully the good stuff eventually rises to the top, or keeps at least a plurality of people (somewhat) sane.
I have been blessed with the fact that a hearing impairment prevents me from listening profitably to any podcast, and the auto-generated transcripts are abominable.
So I just read. It keeps my brain so much clearer, and cleaner of garbage.
Good article. What's so troubling to me is the truth of Epstein's ability to gather intelligence from these horny numskulls and turn it into cash is hiding in plain sight, yet no one, other than Mike Benz, really wants to explore the real story. I suspect if you look behind the financial curtain of dark money funding weapons sales - think Nicaraguan contras, Iran-contra, and an assortment of other weapons funding to help out, on the down low, the US's overthrow of governments or just general unrest - because it's profitable, you might just find Mr. Epstein's name. Oh, and let's not forget Epstein's ability to evade taxation. I think that's what Lutnick and Chomsky really liked about Epstein - he was like a 'duty free' shop to them.
I don’t really buy that Mike Benz is the “only one who wants to explore the real story.” He’s put out an avalanche of faultily-predicated bullshit, from what I’ve been able to glean.
Ok, I accept that but where’s your research? Both Benz and Cooper detail the money laundering and tax evasion. I, as an accountant, think thats where the real story lies. If i understand correctly, a lot of girls signed NDAs and received money during the 2008 arrest/conviction of Epstein in Florida. So, whats left? 2008 - 2019? I don’t know anything about those times, other than more of
The same. Provide minors to people in power with kink and get intel. Are you aware of any person under the age of 13 that was exploited? Ive seen emails discussing a 9 yr old but i haven’t validated them.
Austin would get you to the biggest bang for your buck but you’d have to face an armed and drugged population.
On the other hand, Patrick Bet-David’s “Valuetainment” production is run out of Florida. I doubt anybody would notice any commotion in Florida and he’s an easy target to ambush due to the massive amount of time he spends meditating on world issues in his “thinking room.”
There is definitely a lot of Trump effect stuff. Didn't he run circles around anyone and everyone the TV mass media and even TV debates back in 2016 - at least that's what the execs at these mass TV media channels seemed to be going for - giving Donald Trump full broadcast priorities over anyone else running for President that year? Weren't and aren't TV channels part of the US propaganda system. The podcasts aren't this, and Trump will go on the podcasts he will look/sound better on - so yes, I guess a bit in that sense podcasts have gotten out of hand. What would Bret Weinstein be doing if podcasts had much lower priority like let's say back in 2013? Who has an agenda here? Is he a salesman?? What is he selling? Can an opportunity be created for someone to sell his/her product?
How can middle-aged people(and older) continuously read online articles in the vein of FOMO? How do I listen to most podcasts? By playing board games online - suduku, chess, mahjong, jigsaw puzzle, cryptograms and so on? Where do most people listen to a podcast? At home, perhaps but also in disco-almost dance-morning coffee shops?
So the attentions are shifting. No one has a focused attention. You could call it a Delocalizing Attention Span(DAS) - the whole world moved from DOS(Disk Operating System) to DAS. We were going in that direction anyway. The podcasts was one futuristic path to DAS; it's possible a different futuristic path might have occured - but we still would have wound up with DAS!
Just finished and enjoyed it very much. Well done sir!
Back when most journalism was supported by advertisers and most journalists were staff employees not directly concerned with the day-to-day preferences of their organizations' subscribers and mostly concerned with the overall reputation of the company they worked for, it was a point of professional pride for reporters and editors to ignore the demands of advertisers and avoid cheap sensationalism pandering to the ignorance or prejudice of their audience. This system had significant flaws and lapses, but the new system of unmediated and algorithmically enforced subservience to the constantly measured preferences of online audiences provides no space for coherent professional or ethical standards aimed. Those are now unaffordable luxuries.
So how do we get to something that isn’t as stifled and corrupt as mainstream media yet supports a higher level of research and interrogation?
That’s a good question. But I doubt A.I. is going to be the solution. More likely it will be part of the problem.
Thank you Michel.
I just finished reading the Compact article.
It's terrific; I recommend it to everyone.
If I wasn't so lazy, I would start a conspiracy theory about Rogan. This is what I came up with: UFC Freedom 250 was rigged for Gaethje and Rogan was in on it and so was fat Daniel Cormier.
Notice how Rogan was calling the whole event a gimmick in the beginning; then he got possibly paid $$, now he calls it the greatest sporting event of all time and says that critics should stfu. And 37 year old fighter with a weak af suspect chin all of a sudden beats up a in-his-prime undefeated fighter who was arguably pound for pound #1 and a knockout artist, in an event to celebrate American greatness? with Eric Trump making huge bets in the background? Coincidence?? I'm just asking questions. Bret Weinstein's Game theory says this is absolutely possible. Rogan's meathead UFC fans would eat this right up as long as you mention all this detail confidently. and Rogan would never be able to brush this off. I feel like this would teach him about why conspiracy thinking is bad far more effectively than 1000 lectures from cnn.
There's a lot of great, informative normie news, entertainment and history podcasts out there. Stuff that's way better put together than what remains of legacy media, but it's nowhere near as popular as the intentionally provocative stuff that rules the podcast charts. Drama, yelling over each other and conspiracy sells. Sensible discussion doesn't. Those same issues are prevalent in legacy media: partisan yell fests, constant spin and pure unadulterated stupidity. It's worse in many ways, and is still taken more seriously unfortunately.
Choosing a healthy media diet, or pick your poison. Junk food sells more than real food. There's way better stuff in the podcast space than in legacy media, but the crazy garbage sells. The "mass" part of mass media is dead and buried, and there is no unifying narrative left. We're deep into the era of feudal media, and we can only hope that trustworthy, large-scale voices emerge.
I don’t disagree that there is some good material out there that gets presented in podcast form. Again, my criticism is against the structures of the modern podcasting industry, not so much podcasts as a format, which are fundamentally content-neutral. But especially for “normie news” and genres like history and whatnot, I’ve yet to come across a podcast that is informationally superior to reading the primary source material. Often these podcasts are just people re-packaging written articles for people who lack the attention span to read.
So, it's better to read Heather Cox Richardson than to listen to her on a podcast, or maybe watch MSNOW repeat her one-sided paranoid nonsense all day?
Podcasts, YouTube shows, Netflix slop and truth-free, propagandized TikTok news vids are just how people consume information now, for better or worse. Some is good, some is very bad.
The written word isn't necessarily in better shape. I follow or subscribe to hundreds of writers I like, though it's impossible to keep up with it all. There's a lot of great current books on politics and history, and a lot of pure. Besides the aforementioned Richardson, Substack's zone got flooded with shit from cable news refugees, happy to give news-deranged boomers with disposable income plenty to dispose of their income on.
Trying to get a rounded perspective on any story now requires going to aggregators like Ground News, All Sides and Real Clear Politics, and checking in on the disparate partisan newspaper sites on top of it. Every single hour in this era is pumping out more writing than the entire printed history of humankind before the internet, and most of it is uselessly partisan, lying-by-omission, or just plain lying.
Older books and journals are great, and we've got thousands and thousands of them (and records in movies in various physical media formats) in our little New York living pod, threatening to crush us, but most people are staring at their phones and consuming short form content for hours upon hours a day. I certainly don't disagree that the parasocial talking head podcast format isn't the best form of getting information, but let's be honest about the era we're in. There's some good stuff out there, and hopefully the good stuff eventually rises to the top, or keeps at least a plurality of people (somewhat) sane.
Yes on every single line.
I have been blessed with the fact that a hearing impairment prevents me from listening profitably to any podcast, and the auto-generated transcripts are abominable.
So I just read. It keeps my brain so much clearer, and cleaner of garbage.
@Lura Forcum
Manifesto spotted!
That was great, thanks.
Thanks
Go on a mass brooding
Don't forget the feds have had their senses of humor surgically removed.
Perfect. Also very funny
Good article. What's so troubling to me is the truth of Epstein's ability to gather intelligence from these horny numskulls and turn it into cash is hiding in plain sight, yet no one, other than Mike Benz, really wants to explore the real story. I suspect if you look behind the financial curtain of dark money funding weapons sales - think Nicaraguan contras, Iran-contra, and an assortment of other weapons funding to help out, on the down low, the US's overthrow of governments or just general unrest - because it's profitable, you might just find Mr. Epstein's name. Oh, and let's not forget Epstein's ability to evade taxation. I think that's what Lutnick and Chomsky really liked about Epstein - he was like a 'duty free' shop to them.
I don’t really buy that Mike Benz is the “only one who wants to explore the real story.” He’s put out an avalanche of faultily-predicated bullshit, from what I’ve been able to glean.
Ok, I accept that but where’s your research? Both Benz and Cooper detail the money laundering and tax evasion. I, as an accountant, think thats where the real story lies. If i understand correctly, a lot of girls signed NDAs and received money during the 2008 arrest/conviction of Epstein in Florida. So, whats left? 2008 - 2019? I don’t know anything about those times, other than more of
The same. Provide minors to people in power with kink and get intel. Are you aware of any person under the age of 13 that was exploited? Ive seen emails discussing a 9 yr old but i haven’t validated them.
Austin would get you to the biggest bang for your buck but you’d have to face an armed and drugged population.
On the other hand, Patrick Bet-David’s “Valuetainment” production is run out of Florida. I doubt anybody would notice any commotion in Florida and he’s an easy target to ambush due to the massive amount of time he spends meditating on world issues in his “thinking room.”
There is definitely a lot of Trump effect stuff. Didn't he run circles around anyone and everyone the TV mass media and even TV debates back in 2016 - at least that's what the execs at these mass TV media channels seemed to be going for - giving Donald Trump full broadcast priorities over anyone else running for President that year? Weren't and aren't TV channels part of the US propaganda system. The podcasts aren't this, and Trump will go on the podcasts he will look/sound better on - so yes, I guess a bit in that sense podcasts have gotten out of hand. What would Bret Weinstein be doing if podcasts had much lower priority like let's say back in 2013? Who has an agenda here? Is he a salesman?? What is he selling? Can an opportunity be created for someone to sell his/her product?
How can middle-aged people(and older) continuously read online articles in the vein of FOMO? How do I listen to most podcasts? By playing board games online - suduku, chess, mahjong, jigsaw puzzle, cryptograms and so on? Where do most people listen to a podcast? At home, perhaps but also in disco-almost dance-morning coffee shops?
So the attentions are shifting. No one has a focused attention. You could call it a Delocalizing Attention Span(DAS) - the whole world moved from DOS(Disk Operating System) to DAS. We were going in that direction anyway. The podcasts was one futuristic path to DAS; it's possible a different futuristic path might have occured - but we still would have wound up with DAS!