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NBC News Veteran Leaves Network, Says Media Have Become "Prisoners of Donald Trump"
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Ubiquitous
Jan 4, 2019, 9:36:28 AM1/4/19
to
NBC News veteran Bill Arkin made a dramatic exit from his network
Wednesday dropping a 2,228-word internal memo to colleagues
criticizing NBC and the broader media landscape. In his lengthy
missive, Arkin said the industry had becomes "hostages" to President
Trump's news cycle.
"The world and the state of journalism [is] in tandem crisis . And I
find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither
a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus," Arkin
wrote. "In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners
of Donald Trump, I think - like everyone else does - that we miss so
much."
Arkin had worked at NBC on-and-off for three decades as a reporter
and military analyst. In his memo, he also spoke about highlights of
that tenure that included covering the Cold War, providing analysis
during the war in Kosovo, and as an on-air analyst after 9/11.
"Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave
began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could
no longer keep up with the world," Arkin said, adding that the media
approach to covering global conflict has resulted in the acceptance
of a state of "perpetual war."
I was "disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news
media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system," he
continued.
The letter also offered praise to various NBC staffers, including
Cynthia McFadden, Kevin Monahan, Noah Oppenheim and the younger
reporters at the network whom he called "universally excellent."
"I'm a difficult guy, not prone to either protocol or procedure and
I give NBC credit that it tolerated me through my various
incarnations," Arkin conceded.
A rep for NBC News declined to comment. You can read the full memo
here.
It's not the first time Arkin has offered public musings after
leaving an employer and has a long reputation as a contrarian. He
penned a similar piece after exiting Gawker back in 2015. He also
wrote a critically about about a New York Times report in which he
himself was listed as a contributor. The Washington Post called him
a "controversial figure" while he was blogging for the paper back in
2007.
--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.
Wednesday dropping a 2,228-word internal memo to colleagues
criticizing NBC and the broader media landscape. In his lengthy
missive, Arkin said the industry had becomes "hostages" to President
Trump's news cycle.
"The world and the state of journalism [is] in tandem crisis . And I
find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither
a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus," Arkin
wrote. "In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners
of Donald Trump, I think - like everyone else does - that we miss so
much."
Arkin had worked at NBC on-and-off for three decades as a reporter
and military analyst. In his memo, he also spoke about highlights of
that tenure that included covering the Cold War, providing analysis
during the war in Kosovo, and as an on-air analyst after 9/11.
"Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave
began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could
no longer keep up with the world," Arkin said, adding that the media
approach to covering global conflict has resulted in the acceptance
of a state of "perpetual war."
I was "disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news
media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system," he
continued.
The letter also offered praise to various NBC staffers, including
Cynthia McFadden, Kevin Monahan, Noah Oppenheim and the younger
reporters at the network whom he called "universally excellent."
"I'm a difficult guy, not prone to either protocol or procedure and
I give NBC credit that it tolerated me through my various
incarnations," Arkin conceded.
A rep for NBC News declined to comment. You can read the full memo
here.
It's not the first time Arkin has offered public musings after
leaving an employer and has a long reputation as a contrarian. He
penned a similar piece after exiting Gawker back in 2015. He also
wrote a critically about about a New York Times report in which he
himself was listed as a contributor. The Washington Post called him
a "controversial figure" while he was blogging for the paper back in
2007.
--
Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.
anim8rfsk
Jan 4, 2019, 9:58:45 AM1/4/19
to
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 18:05:04 -0700 Ubiquitous<web...@polaris.net> wrote:
> NBC News Veteran Leaves Network, Says Media Have Become "Prisoners of Donald
> Trump"
> Ubiquitous<web...@polaris.net>
> January 3, 2019 at 6:05:04 PM MST
--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/
> NBC News Veteran Leaves Network, Says Media Have Become "Prisoners of Donald
> Trump"
> Ubiquitous<web...@polaris.net>
> January 3, 2019 at 6:05:04 PM MST
>
> NBC News veteran Bill Arkin made a dramatic exit from his network
> Wednesday dropping a 2,228-word internal memo to colleagues
> criticizing NBC and the broader media landscape. In his lengthy
> missive, Arkin said the industry had becomes "hostages" to President
> Trump's news cycle.
>
> "The world and the state of journalism [is] in tandem crisis . And I
> find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither
> a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus," Arkin
> wrote. "In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners
> of Donald Trump, I think - like everyone else does - that we miss so
> much."
>
> Arkin had worked at NBC on-and-off for three decades as a reporter
> and military analyst. In his memo, he also spoke about highlights of
> that tenure that included covering the Cold War, providing analysis
> during the war in Kosovo, and as an on-air analyst after 9/11.
>
> "Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave
> began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could
> no longer keep up with the world," Arkin said, adding that the media
> approach to covering global conflict has resulted in the acceptance
> of a state of "perpetual war."
>
> I was "disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news
> media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system," he
> continued.
So he's mentally ill.
> NBC News veteran Bill Arkin made a dramatic exit from his network
> Wednesday dropping a 2,228-word internal memo to colleagues
> criticizing NBC and the broader media landscape. In his lengthy
> missive, Arkin said the industry had becomes "hostages" to President
> Trump's news cycle.
>
> "The world and the state of journalism [is] in tandem crisis . And I
> find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither
> a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus," Arkin
> wrote. "In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners
> of Donald Trump, I think - like everyone else does - that we miss so
> much."
>
> Arkin had worked at NBC on-and-off for three decades as a reporter
> and military analyst. In his memo, he also spoke about highlights of
> that tenure that included covering the Cold War, providing analysis
> during the war in Kosovo, and as an on-air analyst after 9/11.
>
> "Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave
> began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could
> no longer keep up with the world," Arkin said, adding that the media
> approach to covering global conflict has resulted in the acceptance
> of a state of "perpetual war."
>
> I was "disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news
> media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system," he
> continued.
--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/
thinbl...@gmail.com
Jan 4, 2019, 10:21:58 AM1/4/19
to
On Friday, January 4, 2019 at 9:36:28 AM UTC-5, Ubiquitous wrote:
https://www.thewrap.com/nbc-news-veteran-leaves-network-says-media-have-become-prisoners-of-donald-trump/
> NBC News veteran Bill Arkin made a dramatic exit from his network
> Wednesday dropping a 2,228-word internal memo to colleagues
> criticizing NBC and the broader media landscape. In his lengthy
> missive, Arkin said
He Quits NBC Citing Network’s Support For Endless War
https://pastebin.com/HGfyzzJ9
From: William Arkin <w*******@***.***>
Date: January 2, 2019 at 11:32:20 AM PST
To: Bill Arkin <w*****@***.***>
Subject: My goodbye letter to NBC
January 4 is my last day at NBC News and I’d like to say goodbye to my friends, hopefully not for good. This isn’t the first time I’ve left NBC, but this time the parting is more bittersweet, the world and the state of journalism in tandem crisis. My expertise, though seeming to be all the more central to the challenges and dangers we face, also seems to be less valued at the moment. And I find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus.
I first started my association with NBC 30 years ago, feeding Cold War stories to Bob Windrem and Fred Francis at the Pentagon. I became an on-air analyst during the 1999 Kosovo War, continuing to work thereafter with Nightly News, delighting and oftentimes annoying in my peculiar position of being a mere civilian amongst THE GENERALS and former government officials. A scholar at heart, I also found myself an often lone voice that was anti-nuclear and even anti-military, anti-military for me meaning opinionated but also highly knowledgeable, somewhat akin to a movie critic, loving my subject but also not shy about making judgements regarding the flops and the losers.
When the attacks of 9/11 came, I was called back to NBC. I spent weeks on and off the air talking about al Qaeda and the various wars we were rushing into, arguing that airpower and drones would be the centerpiece not troops. In the new martial environment where only one war cry was sanctioned I was out of sync then as well. I retreated somewhat to writing a column for the Los Angeles Times, but even there I had to fight editors who couldn’t believe that there would be a war in Iraq. And I spoke up about the absence of any sort of strategy for actually defeating terrorism, annoying the increasing gaggles of those who seemed to accept that a state of perpetual war was a necessity.
I thought then that there was great danger in the embrace of process and officialdom over values and public longing, and I wrote about the increasing power of the national security community. Long before Trump and “deep state” became an expression, I produced one ginormous investigation – Top Secret America – for the Washington Post and I wrote a nasty book – American Coup – about the creeping fascism of homeland security.
Looking back now they were both harbingers for what President Obama (and then Trump) faced in terms of largely failing to make enduring change.
Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could no longer keep up with the world. Added to that was the intellectual challenge of how to report our new kind of wars when there were no real fronts and no actual measures of success. To me there is also a larger problem: though they produce nothing that resembles actual safety and security, the national security leaders and generals we have are allowed to do their thing unmolested. Despite being at “war,” no great wartime leaders or visionaries are emerging. There is not a soul in Washington who can say that they have won or stopped any conflict. And though there might be the beloved perfumed princes in the form of the Petraeus’ and Wes Clarks’, or the so-called warrior monks like Mattis and McMaster, we’ve had more than a generation of national security leaders who sadly and fraudulently have done little of consequence. And yet we (and others) embrace them, even the highly partisan formers who masquerade as “analysts”. We do so ignoring the empirical truth of what they have wrought: There is not one country in the Middle East that is safer today than it was 18 years ago. Indeed the world becomes ever more polarized and dangerous.
As perpetual war has become accepted as a given in our lives, I’m proud to say that I’ve never deviated in my argument at NBC (or at my newspaper gigs) that terrorists will never bedefeated until we better understand why they are driven to fighting. And I have maintained my central view that airpower (in its broadest sense including space and cyber) is not just the future but the enabler and the tool of war today.
Seeking refuge in its political horse race roots, NBC (and others) meanwhile report the story of war as one of Rumsfeld vs. the Generals, as Wolfowitz vs. Shinseki, as the CIA vs. Cheney, as the bad torturers vs. the more refined, about numbers of troops and number of deaths, and even then Obama vs. the Congress, poor Obama who couldn’t close Guantanamo or reduce nuclear weapons or stand up to Putin because it was just so difficult. We have contributed to turning the world national security into this sort of political story. I find it disheartening that we do not report the failures of the generals and national security leaders. I find it shocking that we essentially condone continued American bumbling in the Middle East and now Africa through our ho-hum reporting.
I’m a difficult guy, not prone to either protocol or procedure and I give NBC credit that it tolerated me through my various incarnations. I hope people will say in the early days that I made Brokaw and company smarter about nuclear weapons, about airpower, and even about al Qaeda. And I’m proud to say that I also was one of the few to report that there weren’t any WMD in Iraq and remember fondly presenting that conclusion to an incredulous NBC editorial board. I argued endlessly with MSNBC about all things national security for years, doing the daily blah, blah, blah in Secaucus, but also poking at the conventional wisdom of everyone from Matthews to Hockenberry. And yet I feel like I’ve failed to convey this larger truth about the hopelessness of our way of doing things, especially disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system.
Windrem again convinced me to return to NBC to join the new investigative unit in the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign. I thought that the mission was to break through the machine of perpetual war acceptance and conventional wisdom to challenge Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness. It was also an interesting moment at NBC because everyone was looking over their shoulder at Vice and other upstarts creeping up on the mainstream. But then Trump got elected and Investigations got sucked into the tweeting vortex, increasingly lost in a directionless adrenaline rush, the national security and political version of leading the broadcast with every snow storm. And I would assert that in many ways NBC just began emulating the national security state itself – busy and profitable. No wars won but the ball is kept in play.
I’d argue that under Trump, the national security establishmentnot only hasn’t missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength. Now it is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism. I’d also argue, ever so gingerly, that NBC has become somewhat lost in its own verve, proxies of boring moderation and conventional wisdom, defender of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtlethreat mongering, in love with procedure and protocol over all else (including results). I accept that there’s a lot to report here, but I’m more worried about how much we are missing. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars.
I know it is characteristic of our overexcited moment to blast away at former employers and mainstream institutions, but all I can say is that despite many frustrations, my time at NBC has been gratifying. Working with Cynthia McFadden has been the experience of a lifetime. I’ve learned a ton about television from her and Kevin Monahan, the secret insider tricks of the trade and the very big picture of what makes for original stories (and how powerful they can be). The young reporters at NBC are also universally excellent. Thanks to Noah Oppenheim for hissupport of my contrarian and disruptive presence. And to Janelle Rodriguez, who supported deep expertise. The Nightly crew has also been a constant fan of my too long stories and a great team. I continue to marvel as Phil Griffin carries out his diabolical plan for the cable network to take over the world.
I’m proud of the work I’ve done with my team and know that there’s more to do. But for now it’s time to take a break. I’m ever so happy to return to writing and thinking without the officiousness of editorial tyrants or corporate standards. And of course I yearn to go back to my first love, which is writing boring reports about secret programs, grateful that the American government so graciously obliges in its constant supply. And I particularly feel like the world is moving so quickly that even in just the little national security world I inhabit, I need more time to sit back and think. And to replenish.
In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners of Donald Trump, I think – like everyone else does – that we miss so much. People who don’t understand the medium, or the pressures, loudly opine that it’s corporate control or even worse, that it’s partisan. Sometimes I quip in response to friends on the outside (and to government sources) that if they mean by the word partisan that it is New Yorkers and Washingtonians against the rest of the country then they are right.
For me I realized how out of step I was when I looked at Trump’s various bumbling intuitions: his desire to improve relations with Russia, to denuclearize North Korea, to get out of the Middle East, to question why we are fighting in Africa, even in his attacks on the intelligence community and the FBI. Of course he is an ignorant and incompetent impostor. And yet I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war. Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?
Even without Trump, our biggest challenge as we move forward is that we have become exhausted parents of our infant (and infantile) social media children. And because of the “cycle,” we at NBC (and all others in the field of journalism) suffer from a really bad case of not being able to ever take a breath. We are a long way from resolving the rules of the road in this age, whether it be with regard to our personal conduct or anything related to hard news. I also don’t think that we are on a straight line towards digital nirvana, that is, that all of this information will democratize and improve society. I sense that there is already smartphone and social media fatigue creeping across the land, and my guess is that nothing we currently see – nothing that is snappy or chatty – will solve our horrific challenges of information overload or the role (and nature) of journalism. AndI am sure that once Trump leaves center stage, society will have a gigantic media hangover. Thus for NBC – and for everyone else – there is challenge and opportunity ahead. I’d particularly like to think and write more about that.
There’s a saying about consultants, that organizations hire them to hear exactly what they want to hear. I’m proud to say that NBC didn’t do that when it came to me. Similarly I can say that I’m proud that I’m not guilty of giving my employers what they wanted. Still, the things this and most organizations fear most – variability, disturbance, difference – those things that are also the primary drivers of creativity – are not really the things that I see valued in the reporting ranks.
I’m happy to go back to writing and commentary. This winter, I’m proud to say that I’ve put the finishing touches on a 9/11 conspiracy novel that I’ve been toiling on for over a decade. It’s a novel, but it meditates on the question of how to understand terrorists in a different way. And I’m undertaking two new book-writing projects, one fiction about a lone reporter and his magical source that hopes to delve into secrecy and the nature of television. And, If you read this far, I am writing a non-fiction book, an extended essay about national security and why we never seem to end our now perpetual state of war. There is lots of media critique out there, tons of analysis of leadership and the Presidency. But on the state of our national security? Not so much. Hopefully I will find myself thinking beyond the current fire and fury and actually suggest a viable alternative. Wish me luck.
https://pastebin.com/HGfyzzJ9
https://www.thewrap.com/nbc-news-veteran-leaves-network-says-media-have-become-prisoners-of-donald-trump/
> NBC News veteran Bill Arkin made a dramatic exit from his network
> Wednesday dropping a 2,228-word internal memo to colleagues
> criticizing NBC and the broader media landscape. In his lengthy
> missive, Arkin said
https://pastebin.com/HGfyzzJ9
From: William Arkin <w*******@***.***>
Date: January 2, 2019 at 11:32:20 AM PST
To: Bill Arkin <w*****@***.***>
Subject: My goodbye letter to NBC
January 4 is my last day at NBC News and I’d like to say goodbye to my friends, hopefully not for good. This isn’t the first time I’ve left NBC, but this time the parting is more bittersweet, the world and the state of journalism in tandem crisis. My expertise, though seeming to be all the more central to the challenges and dangers we face, also seems to be less valued at the moment. And I find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus.
I first started my association with NBC 30 years ago, feeding Cold War stories to Bob Windrem and Fred Francis at the Pentagon. I became an on-air analyst during the 1999 Kosovo War, continuing to work thereafter with Nightly News, delighting and oftentimes annoying in my peculiar position of being a mere civilian amongst THE GENERALS and former government officials. A scholar at heart, I also found myself an often lone voice that was anti-nuclear and even anti-military, anti-military for me meaning opinionated but also highly knowledgeable, somewhat akin to a movie critic, loving my subject but also not shy about making judgements regarding the flops and the losers.
When the attacks of 9/11 came, I was called back to NBC. I spent weeks on and off the air talking about al Qaeda and the various wars we were rushing into, arguing that airpower and drones would be the centerpiece not troops. In the new martial environment where only one war cry was sanctioned I was out of sync then as well. I retreated somewhat to writing a column for the Los Angeles Times, but even there I had to fight editors who couldn’t believe that there would be a war in Iraq. And I spoke up about the absence of any sort of strategy for actually defeating terrorism, annoying the increasing gaggles of those who seemed to accept that a state of perpetual war was a necessity.
I thought then that there was great danger in the embrace of process and officialdom over values and public longing, and I wrote about the increasing power of the national security community. Long before Trump and “deep state” became an expression, I produced one ginormous investigation – Top Secret America – for the Washington Post and I wrote a nasty book – American Coup – about the creeping fascism of homeland security.
Looking back now they were both harbingers for what President Obama (and then Trump) faced in terms of largely failing to make enduring change.
Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could no longer keep up with the world. Added to that was the intellectual challenge of how to report our new kind of wars when there were no real fronts and no actual measures of success. To me there is also a larger problem: though they produce nothing that resembles actual safety and security, the national security leaders and generals we have are allowed to do their thing unmolested. Despite being at “war,” no great wartime leaders or visionaries are emerging. There is not a soul in Washington who can say that they have won or stopped any conflict. And though there might be the beloved perfumed princes in the form of the Petraeus’ and Wes Clarks’, or the so-called warrior monks like Mattis and McMaster, we’ve had more than a generation of national security leaders who sadly and fraudulently have done little of consequence. And yet we (and others) embrace them, even the highly partisan formers who masquerade as “analysts”. We do so ignoring the empirical truth of what they have wrought: There is not one country in the Middle East that is safer today than it was 18 years ago. Indeed the world becomes ever more polarized and dangerous.
As perpetual war has become accepted as a given in our lives, I’m proud to say that I’ve never deviated in my argument at NBC (or at my newspaper gigs) that terrorists will never bedefeated until we better understand why they are driven to fighting. And I have maintained my central view that airpower (in its broadest sense including space and cyber) is not just the future but the enabler and the tool of war today.
Seeking refuge in its political horse race roots, NBC (and others) meanwhile report the story of war as one of Rumsfeld vs. the Generals, as Wolfowitz vs. Shinseki, as the CIA vs. Cheney, as the bad torturers vs. the more refined, about numbers of troops and number of deaths, and even then Obama vs. the Congress, poor Obama who couldn’t close Guantanamo or reduce nuclear weapons or stand up to Putin because it was just so difficult. We have contributed to turning the world national security into this sort of political story. I find it disheartening that we do not report the failures of the generals and national security leaders. I find it shocking that we essentially condone continued American bumbling in the Middle East and now Africa through our ho-hum reporting.
I’m a difficult guy, not prone to either protocol or procedure and I give NBC credit that it tolerated me through my various incarnations. I hope people will say in the early days that I made Brokaw and company smarter about nuclear weapons, about airpower, and even about al Qaeda. And I’m proud to say that I also was one of the few to report that there weren’t any WMD in Iraq and remember fondly presenting that conclusion to an incredulous NBC editorial board. I argued endlessly with MSNBC about all things national security for years, doing the daily blah, blah, blah in Secaucus, but also poking at the conventional wisdom of everyone from Matthews to Hockenberry. And yet I feel like I’ve failed to convey this larger truth about the hopelessness of our way of doing things, especially disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system.
Windrem again convinced me to return to NBC to join the new investigative unit in the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign. I thought that the mission was to break through the machine of perpetual war acceptance and conventional wisdom to challenge Hillary Clinton’s hawkishness. It was also an interesting moment at NBC because everyone was looking over their shoulder at Vice and other upstarts creeping up on the mainstream. But then Trump got elected and Investigations got sucked into the tweeting vortex, increasingly lost in a directionless adrenaline rush, the national security and political version of leading the broadcast with every snow storm. And I would assert that in many ways NBC just began emulating the national security state itself – busy and profitable. No wars won but the ball is kept in play.
I’d argue that under Trump, the national security establishmentnot only hasn’t missed a beat but indeed has gained dangerous strength. Now it is ever more autonomous and practically impervious to criticism. I’d also argue, ever so gingerly, that NBC has become somewhat lost in its own verve, proxies of boring moderation and conventional wisdom, defender of the government against Trump, cheerleader for open and subtlethreat mongering, in love with procedure and protocol over all else (including results). I accept that there’s a lot to report here, but I’m more worried about how much we are missing. Hence my desire to take a step back and think why so little changes with regard to America’s wars.
I know it is characteristic of our overexcited moment to blast away at former employers and mainstream institutions, but all I can say is that despite many frustrations, my time at NBC has been gratifying. Working with Cynthia McFadden has been the experience of a lifetime. I’ve learned a ton about television from her and Kevin Monahan, the secret insider tricks of the trade and the very big picture of what makes for original stories (and how powerful they can be). The young reporters at NBC are also universally excellent. Thanks to Noah Oppenheim for hissupport of my contrarian and disruptive presence. And to Janelle Rodriguez, who supported deep expertise. The Nightly crew has also been a constant fan of my too long stories and a great team. I continue to marvel as Phil Griffin carries out his diabolical plan for the cable network to take over the world.
I’m proud of the work I’ve done with my team and know that there’s more to do. But for now it’s time to take a break. I’m ever so happy to return to writing and thinking without the officiousness of editorial tyrants or corporate standards. And of course I yearn to go back to my first love, which is writing boring reports about secret programs, grateful that the American government so graciously obliges in its constant supply. And I particularly feel like the world is moving so quickly that even in just the little national security world I inhabit, I need more time to sit back and think. And to replenish.
In our day-to-day whirlwind and hostage status as prisoners of Donald Trump, I think – like everyone else does – that we miss so much. People who don’t understand the medium, or the pressures, loudly opine that it’s corporate control or even worse, that it’s partisan. Sometimes I quip in response to friends on the outside (and to government sources) that if they mean by the word partisan that it is New Yorkers and Washingtonians against the rest of the country then they are right.
For me I realized how out of step I was when I looked at Trump’s various bumbling intuitions: his desire to improve relations with Russia, to denuclearize North Korea, to get out of the Middle East, to question why we are fighting in Africa, even in his attacks on the intelligence community and the FBI. Of course he is an ignorant and incompetent impostor. And yet I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war. Really? We shouldn’t get out Syria? We shouldn’t go for the bold move of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula? Even on Russia, though we should be concerned about the brittleness of our democracy that it is so vulnerable to manipulation, do we really yearn for the Cold War? And don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?
Even without Trump, our biggest challenge as we move forward is that we have become exhausted parents of our infant (and infantile) social media children. And because of the “cycle,” we at NBC (and all others in the field of journalism) suffer from a really bad case of not being able to ever take a breath. We are a long way from resolving the rules of the road in this age, whether it be with regard to our personal conduct or anything related to hard news. I also don’t think that we are on a straight line towards digital nirvana, that is, that all of this information will democratize and improve society. I sense that there is already smartphone and social media fatigue creeping across the land, and my guess is that nothing we currently see – nothing that is snappy or chatty – will solve our horrific challenges of information overload or the role (and nature) of journalism. AndI am sure that once Trump leaves center stage, society will have a gigantic media hangover. Thus for NBC – and for everyone else – there is challenge and opportunity ahead. I’d particularly like to think and write more about that.
There’s a saying about consultants, that organizations hire them to hear exactly what they want to hear. I’m proud to say that NBC didn’t do that when it came to me. Similarly I can say that I’m proud that I’m not guilty of giving my employers what they wanted. Still, the things this and most organizations fear most – variability, disturbance, difference – those things that are also the primary drivers of creativity – are not really the things that I see valued in the reporting ranks.
I’m happy to go back to writing and commentary. This winter, I’m proud to say that I’ve put the finishing touches on a 9/11 conspiracy novel that I’ve been toiling on for over a decade. It’s a novel, but it meditates on the question of how to understand terrorists in a different way. And I’m undertaking two new book-writing projects, one fiction about a lone reporter and his magical source that hopes to delve into secrecy and the nature of television. And, If you read this far, I am writing a non-fiction book, an extended essay about national security and why we never seem to end our now perpetual state of war. There is lots of media critique out there, tons of analysis of leadership and the Presidency. But on the state of our national security? Not so much. Hopefully I will find myself thinking beyond the current fire and fury and actually suggest a viable alternative. Wish me luck.
https://pastebin.com/HGfyzzJ9
Rhino
Jan 4, 2019, 11:14:20 AM1/4/19
to
or what he is for or against from this item, just that he isn't happy.
But WHAT is making him unhappy is not remotely clear to me. I thought
journalists were supposed to be one thing above all: articulate (able to
communicate unambiguously).
He seems unhappy that the media is obsessed with Trump but why? Because
they haven't been able to bring Trump down yet? Because he doesn't think
Trump is nearly as important as the rest of his media colleagues do?
Because they aren't reporting developments as quickly as social media does?
Why isn't a career journalist better able to articulate?
--
Rhino
shawn
Jan 4, 2019, 12:53:18 PM1/4/19
to
reporter that likes to do in depth stories that may take some time to
research and verify the various sources. In today's market that
doesn't happen nearly as often as everyone is going after the quick
turn around to get the views. That's also part of the issue with Trump
with news organizations constantly reporting on his latest tweet that
tends to occupy most of the air time. Taking news organizations from
being focused on serious reporting to a more tabloid format.
Ed Stasiak
Jan 4, 2019, 1:42:49 PM1/4/19
to
> Ubiquitous
>
> ”Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave
mainstream media didn’t know WTF was going on and their reports
were vague at best.
Meanwhile on 4chan of all places, I was reading multiple “live threads”
from posters in Istanbul detailing events and posting pics and vids as
as it was all going down, as well as providing their own opinions on the
government and Turkish history leading up to the coup attempt.
But it isn’t just that the MSM is out of touch, more important is the fact
they want to control the flow of information to benefit their Wall Street
masters and they _really_ hate the idea that people are questioning
and discussing events among themselves and coming to their own
conclusions.
The election of Trump sent the MSM into a tailspin, as despite the entire
System ranked against him and the media smugly informing us that Hillary
already had it in the bag, the People simply ignored them and got their
info via social media and made their own decision.
>
> ”Somewhere in all of that, and particularly as the social media wave
> began, it was clear that NBC (like the rest of the news media) could
> no longer keep up with the world," Arkin said
True, for example during the coup attempt in Turkey back in 2016 the
> no longer keep up with the world," Arkin said
mainstream media didn’t know WTF was going on and their reports
were vague at best.
Meanwhile on 4chan of all places, I was reading multiple “live threads”
from posters in Istanbul detailing events and posting pics and vids as
as it was all going down, as well as providing their own opinions on the
government and Turkish history leading up to the coup attempt.
But it isn’t just that the MSM is out of touch, more important is the fact
they want to control the flow of information to benefit their Wall Street
masters and they _really_ hate the idea that people are questioning
and discussing events among themselves and coming to their own
conclusions.
The election of Trump sent the MSM into a tailspin, as despite the entire
System ranked against him and the media smugly informing us that Hillary
already had it in the bag, the People simply ignored them and got their
info via social media and made their own decision.
moviePig
Jan 4, 2019, 2:48:55 PM1/4/19
to
borscht...
Meanwhile, every "expert" (except Michael Moore) said Hillary was a
lock, and that's what the MSM reported -- it's what they *always*
report. And, in retrospect, any of them would've traded their eyeteeth
to be the one who had seen, read, and reported the handwriting on a wall
that nobody was watching. You're barking up the wrong conspiracy.
--
- - - - - - - -
YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com
Ed Stasiak
Jan 4, 2019, 3:44:10 PM1/4/19
to
> moviePig
> > Ed Stasiak
> Meanwhile, every "expert" (except Michael Moore) said Hillary was
> a lock, and that's what the MSM reported -- it's what they *always*
> report. And, in retrospect, any of them would've traded their eyeteeth
> to be the one who had seen, read, and reported the handwriting on a
> wall that nobody was watching. You're barking up the wrong conspiracy.
Are you actually going to claim that the MSM is an innocent bystander?
> > Ed Stasiak
> >
> > the People simply ignored them and got their info via social media
> > and made their own decision.
>
> And never mind that 'their info via social media' came with a side
> of borscht...
https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
> > the People simply ignored them and got their info via social media
> > and made their own decision.
>
> And never mind that 'their info via social media' came with a side
> of borscht...
> Meanwhile, every "expert" (except Michael Moore) said Hillary was
> a lock, and that's what the MSM reported -- it's what they *always*
> report. And, in retrospect, any of them would've traded their eyeteeth
> to be the one who had seen, read, and reported the handwriting on a
> wall that nobody was watching. You're barking up the wrong conspiracy.
moviePig
Jan 4, 2019, 4:18:55 PM1/4/19
to
On 1/4/2019 3:44 PM, Ed Stasiak wrote:
>> moviePig
>>> Ed Stasiak
>>>
>>> the People simply ignored them and got their info via social media
>>> and made their own decision.
>>
>> And never mind that 'their info via social media' came with a side
>> of borscht...
>
> https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
That's merely glib. Unless, of course, you doubt the existence of
>> moviePig
>>> Ed Stasiak
>>>
>>> the People simply ignored them and got their info via social media
>>> and made their own decision.
>>
>> And never mind that 'their info via social media' came with a side
>> of borscht...
>
> https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
massive Russian efforts we've been reading about?
Meanwhile, I'm wondering what "info" the Trump voters got via social
media, other than Trump's daily tweets -- duly repeated in the MSM.
>> Meanwhile, every "expert" (except Michael Moore) said Hillary was
>> a lock, and that's what the MSM reported -- it's what they *always*
>> report. And, in retrospect, any of them would've traded their eyeteeth
>> to be the one who had seen, read, and reported the handwriting on a
>> wall that nobody was watching. You're barking up the wrong conspiracy.
>
> Are you actually going to claim that the MSM is an innocent bystander?
the "bottom line", there nevertheless remain enough truth-crusaders at
all levels throughout to make an overt wholesale conspiracy impossible.
Ubiquitous
Jan 4, 2019, 5:35:31 PM1/4/19
to
esta...@att.net wrote:
>> moviePig
>> > Ed Stasiak
>> > the People simply ignored them and got their info via social media
>> > and made their own decision.
>>
>> And never mind that 'their info via social media' came with a side
>> of borscht...
>
>https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
Is this a comnpanion book, or does it supersedes "Everyone I Don't Like
>> moviePig
>> > Ed Stasiak
>> > the People simply ignored them and got their info via social media
>> > and made their own decision.
>>
>> And never mind that 'their info via social media' came with a side
>> of borscht...
>
>https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
Is Hitler"?
Ed Stasiak
Jan 4, 2019, 7:46:23 PM1/4/19
to
> moviePig
> > Ed Stasiak
countries and corporations and the U.S. does the same thing in
Russia, China and elsewhere.
But I’m also sure that you, me and the American people are perfectly
capable of deciding for themselves what they believe or not and sure
as shit don’t need mass censorship, with Mark fucking Zuckerberg as
the Global Arbiter of Truth.
> > Are you actually going to claim that the MSM is an innocent bystander?
>
> I'll claim that, though the MSM's front office is eternally governed by
> the "bottom line", there nevertheless remain enough truth-crusaders at
> all levels throughout to make an overt wholesale conspiracy impossible.
As in academia, journalists who don’t toe the party line, they find them
selves marginalized or out of a job (assuming they aren’t party loyalists
in the first place).
> > Ed Stasiak
> >
> > https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
>
> That's merely glib. Unless, of course, you doubt the existence
> of massive Russian efforts we've been reading about?
I’m sure they were, as was China and Israel and all kinda other
> > https://i.redd.it/yhllowitnlvx.jpg
>
> That's merely glib. Unless, of course, you doubt the existence
> of massive Russian efforts we've been reading about?
countries and corporations and the U.S. does the same thing in
Russia, China and elsewhere.
But I’m also sure that you, me and the American people are perfectly
capable of deciding for themselves what they believe or not and sure
as shit don’t need mass censorship, with Mark fucking Zuckerberg as
the Global Arbiter of Truth.
> > Are you actually going to claim that the MSM is an innocent bystander?
>
> I'll claim that, though the MSM's front office is eternally governed by
> the "bottom line", there nevertheless remain enough truth-crusaders at
> all levels throughout to make an overt wholesale conspiracy impossible.
selves marginalized or out of a job (assuming they aren’t party loyalists
in the first place).
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