The New York Times recently published an expose on the struggles of many mid-size “mainstream” newspapers. The headline: “A West Virginia Newspaper Won Journalism’s Top Award. Now It’s Filed for Bankruptcy.”
The story details the struggles of the “Charleston Gazette-Mail,” a typical “mainstream” rag whose reporter Eric Eyre won the Pulitzer Prize last year for “his reporting on the state’s [West Virginia’s] opioid crisis.” (Mr. Eyre “exposed drug companies that had flooded West Virginia with painkillers while flouting state laws.”)
Much of the Times story repeats the myth that “mainstream” news sources are some necessary foil against “corruption.”
But the “corruption” “exposed” by such mainstream journalists invariably points in only one direction: away from the most powerful governmental offices and in the direction of poorer, less-powerful businesses or private actors.
Only occasionally do “mainstream” journalists pursue government officials; generally when those officials are anti-socialist or otherwise oppose central planning or the “progressive agenda.”
The Charleston Gazette-Mail, like so many others, is unable to attract paying readers to its stale, pro-government news and commentary.
The most dangerous occupation in the world is anti-government journalism; the safest in the world is pro-government journalism.
