from Reinvent the wheel department
Former New York Times reporter Ben Smith and friends have started a new media company named Semafor behind $25 million in donations. You might recall that one of the organization’s launch events didn’t go particularly well: a “trust in the news” event that somehow n did not see the problem of the platform and the amplification millionaire propagandist Tucker Carlson as a respectable voice in the media.
From the start, Semafor tried to portray themselves as a truly unique approach to news, and their introductory post by Smith again takes this approach. Smith walks through what he believes to be the main pitfalls of modern news (too many journalists with opinions! too much media telling people what they want to hear! too much attention in the United States! not enough links to the work of other journalists!).
Many of these issues are real. And Semafor and Smith claim to have a new formula that will solve them all at once. But when you read the paragraph about what Semafor is specifically do differently to restore trust in informationit’s filled with fairly routine observations and insights — presented as if no one on Earth had ever had them before:
Our approach is more literal and is based on the fundamental principles of journalism. We take people seriously when they say they know journalists are human beings – and experts in their pace – who have their own opinions. But they would also like us to separate the facts from our points of view. They would like us to be humble about the possibility of disagreement. And they would like us to distill different points of view and bring together a global perspective.
That’s fine, but again, nothing here is particularly unique. The focus on more international stories is especially welcome in a press naturally obsessed with the United States (especially tech), but again, outlets like Rest of the world have made this observation before and are doing a good job of serving this underserved market (and in a market not particularly different font).
Quite common concepts are described as fundamentally revolutionary:
Some of them think we can do it. Others think we’re a bit nuts. Our approach “goes completely against what most people are doing right now,” Morgan said.
Certainly the work will speak for itself, and many of the reporters they’ve rounded up (including Smith himself) are incredible scoop machines. But the specific claim that you’ll single-handedly restore faith in the news — without actually presenting any original thoughts on it — is bizarre hubris.
The outlet says one of the main ways it differentiates itself is to separate a journalist’s point of view from established facts using what it claims is a revolutionary new design for stories that splits opinion and the analysis of journalists in its own section:
But when you actually read some of the parts in questionthe changes in question aren’t particularly revolutionary, and many journalists (until now) haven’t had enough time to really explore this supposedly newfound freedom:
As Techdirt pointed out on constant opportunitiesone of the biggest problems with American news is the “he said, she said,”view from nowhere” style of reporting that prevails in outlets like Politico, Reuters, Axios and many others. Reporting that takes a pseudo-objective approach to the news, framing everything with a bizarre false symmetry that buries factual reality in a stack of perfectly balanced quotes.
This type of reporting has spent decades burying the truth on topics like racism, climate change and corruption. It has also been ruthlessly exploited by fascist propagandists and white supremacists around the world who are eager to “flood the area with shit‘, degrade trust in established institutions and the press, and confuse the public before introducing their easy solution (hate everyone who is not like them).
Calling a spade a spade (in this case, a massive and effective right-wing conspiracy and propaganda apparatus built over 45 years through old and new media) will cost you readers, so Semafor may literally not be able to fix (let alone honestly identify) a major source of trust in information erosion for which they claim to have a solution. David Roberts came up with this thread which addresses a lot of what frustrates me:
The real money is in sacrificing the truth to appease everyone — especially the American right — for fear of losing conservative viewers. You can see outlets like CNN and SCS embrace this pivot. The result is a sort of soft “both sides” Axios/Politico journalism that re-normalizes fascism because it is financially disadvantageous to honestly and frankly expose conspiratorial authoritarianism for what it is.
You’re just going to make more money placating the authoritarians and sucking up the ad engagement dollars created by the controversial and divisive bile they inject into the discourse.
All of this is underpinned by a myopic institutionalism that thinks journalists should be fired for expressing human opinions on Twitter (or for having done a bit of college activism), but is happy to flatter Amazon during Prime Dayor stay blithely obtuse about how the inherent bias of white, affluent, male editorial leaders has helped normalize everything from climate catastrophe to creeping US authoritarianism.
Again, there is very little indication in Smith’s post that Semafor and its editorial management understand any of this. And again, the media’s first-ever event, specifically focused on ‘rebuilding trust in news’, featured a key far-right propagandist as a legitimate journalist without, at any point, calling a duck a duck or hold his feet to the fire. for a decade of dangerous and ignorant propaganda.
This doesn’t bode much editorially, and while I hope the outlet’s quality reporting really does restore confidence in the press at a very dangerous moment in American politics, there’s also a very real possibility that it’s just Axios in a new font, run by DC access brunchlords trust fund with an overwhelming allergy to upsetting powerful advertisers, event sponsors and sources when it really matters.
Filed under: ben smith, Corruption, editorial, fascism, he said she said, journalism, media, media criticism, reports, semafor, trust in the news, Tucker-Carlson
Companies: semafor
