A unique view of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., July 7, 2018: Glynn Wilson

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Please forgive us if we do not pander to our audience by writing and publishing what we think people want to hear, like Tucker Carlson at Fox News.

It would be nice to think people appreciate this. But I’m not so sure they do anymore. How can they when in the social mediasphere in these strange times everybody else seems to be doing it?

Long has there existed a cynicism about the news “business” going back to newspapers in the mid-20th century, when I can’t tell you how many letters to the editor I read with readers claiming we report what we do “to sell newspapers.”

Certain politicians like to make that claim on the campaign trail to serve their own financial and political interests.

In the era of television news, it was no longer about selling newspapers but became all about the ratings. From broadcast to cable, and then the web, many people believe what passes for news is more about selling widgets and making money for the corporate owners than informing the public in a democracy.

Sadly, in many cases they are right.

Sensational headlines that used to be the stock in trade of grocery store checkout line tabloids made it into mainstream print back in the 1980s when I was new to newspaper reporting. I remember the exact time when the Associated Press (AP) gave in and started covering celebrity news. They developed a series of daily celebrity briefs all their member papers could print on page two.

I worked for a competing wire service back in those days called United Press International (UPI), on and off on a free-lance basis for about nine years. There was a time when we would not even name the hotel when we covered a political conference. That was considered free advertising. Now every sports stadium in the country has a corporate name. It’s now impossible to avoid blatant corporate capitalism in America.

Going back to the trial of O.J. Simpson in the early 1990s, which played out as the so-called “trial of the century” in the early days of 24-hour cable news, the news business was revealed as the capitalist tool it is. Keep viewers tuned in with the constant churn, showing the same images over and over again all day long.

Through the Bush years and then the Obama years, online sensationalism moved over to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Some people lapped it up like rats going for the cocaine instead of the food in a psychological experiment. People get addicted to the action. That’s why we call them “news junkies.”

Many people are so turned off by it they stopped paying attention to news at all. Many just tuned into channels where they found commentators willing to kowtow to their preconceived ideological biases. This became acceptable in the Trump years on Fox News, Breitbart News and Newsmax for conservatives, MSNBC and now liberal podcasts and YouTube videos for Democrats.

WP: Rather than truth, give me ratings

I can’t tell you how many people are always urging me to check out one new redneck comic or other on YouTube. Sorry, that’s not my thing.

I still read The New York Times and Washington Post online every morning, and receive other news links via email. I share the most important news stories on my Facebook page, even though I know Facebook hates external links and most people refuse to pony up for the paywalls to read them anyway.

Meanwhile, in the post-Trump era, the so-called mainstream media just keeps trying to woo viewers from all sides with sensational headlines about UFOs, dramatic crimes, and the ridiculous and often false statements of people on both sides of the political aisle to try to convince people they are still committed to being “fair and balanced.”

Some days now CBS News looks a lot like Fox News, as if the executive producer in New York really expects to draw in those viewers. Sorry. That’s not going to happen.

Even National Public Radio (NPR) seems to think they can get part of that audience too these days. Sorry. Right-wing Republican racist Christians have plenty of conservative talk radio to turn their attention to, even if Rush Limbaugh is dead. There’s always Sean Hannity.

Is it working for the MSM?

I don’t think so.

The Web

For the past 18 years, we’ve had an incredible run being the ones to simply “tell it like it is” on the web. We don’t have the pressure to fill the space around the ads like print newspapers, or to fill an exact time slot like they do on TV.

But even our tenuous bargain appears to be getting old for some people, even as social media becomes more boring by the day.

Liberals and Democrats seem to want to suspend disbelief and think somehow that our system of justice is going to go back to being fair and blind again, as if it ever was fair to the poor, and didn’t always favor the rich.

But that is the state of affairs we find ourselves in, as we celebrate nine years of publishing the New American Journal online this month. We published under a different name for the nine years before that, The Locust Fork News-Journal.

It started as an experiment in 2005 as the newspapers started struggling and dying at a record pace. We perfected it to some extent in 2014 — nine years ago this February. Yet now I get the feeling this is falling apart, maybe because people don’t want to read at all anymore, or maybe they just want a lapdog cable talking head to feed them what they want to hear and nothing else.

Maybe part of the problem is that people are so sick of being solicited for mandatory subscription fees and popup ads that they think we’re all the same. Or, maybe they are so entertained by memes on social media that they don’t think they need any more information than that.

If you have thoughts about this, we would love to hear them.

Whatever it is, I’m sick and tired of trying to help people understand what’s going on for FREE. And I refuse to give up and just charge for my columns by publishing them on Substack. If this is going to be the way of the future, fuck it. I quit.

I’ll just retire and watch the damn world blow up and come to an end while sipping a fine IPA in a comfortable camp chair somewhere in a mountain campground.

If you want me to keep trying to help you, there are numerous ways to contribute here. Thanks from the bottom of my heart to those who still seem interested enough to contribute. I’m going to try to keep going for a little while longer.

There are still things I want to do before I give up the ghost. If I had the budget, I could blow Facebook away by creating a social media platform that works for people who are still interested in salient, factual news, something that could also be a tool for activists that actually works.

If I had the money and the contacts, there are films I would like to create as a writer and producer.

I still haven’t visited Yosemite or seen redwood trees or giant sequoias in California.

I’ve never been to France either. And I would kind of like to visit the Matterhorn between Italy and Switzerland in the Alps.

But those are the stuff of dreams for us mortals to see on travel shows on the tube, I guess.

If you are a rich widow looking for interesting company to travel the world with, get in touch. Some tell me I am more fun to hang out with than anyone else they know. Send me a private message.

Otherwise stay safe and sane out there, dear hobbits, and let us hear from you. See you out there on the trails — when I can muster up the energy to get out of my camp chair and go for a hike.

A Few of my Favorite Pics From the Past Nine Years

A night shot of the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

A night shot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

Marine One flying past the Washington Monument with President Barack Obama onboard on his way back to the White House from the Pentagon on 9-11-2015: Glynn Wilson

Washington cherry blossoms in full bloom framing the Washington Monument: Glynn Wilson

Washington cherry blossoms in full bloom framing the Jefferson Memorial: Glynn Wilson

An Autumn view of the Jefferson Memorial on The Mall in Washington, D.C., with my loyal dog Jefferson posing for the camera: Glynn Wilson

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