Messenger Implosion Shows Journalism Lead by Visionless, Fail-Upward Brunchlords

Almost as if a for-profit model isn’t a great fit for journalism… especially on the internet.

Examples in there of employee healthcare woes... sure with we just had universal healthcare.

Kissinger's death was where I really started detaching myself from news media entirely. It was extremely hard to find an article or video that didn't say the exact same thing in almost identical wording: "was kissinger a war criminal? well he was certainly controversial but his influence stood large". No, objectively, he was a war criminal. Bombing Cambodia and several other actions were, factually, legally, war crimes. There's no way to two sides it.

Even though I'd firmly disagree with it, I'd much rather read an article that says "yeah, he was a war criminal, but war crimes are okay when America does them because America good." Instead you get this washed out nothingness where we as a society can't reflect on anything.

It Reminds me of the scene in the Big Short where they're trying to convince the reporter to run the story on the obvious pump And dump, and the guys like "hey I've got a family to feed."

What a callous article. It seems the author is angry that a bunch of people came together to fund a company that failed in the end...well, most startups fail anyway.

> Such journalism is a direct reflection of millionaire or billionaire media owners who don’t want to offend sources, advertisers, or event sponsors with bold, truth-telling journalism that has actual teeth. So what you get instead is a sort of journalism simulacrum that fails to critique wealth, corruption, or power with any real consistency, since the wealthy and powerful owners very obviously don’t want that.

If you want to start an activist site, go start one and solicit donations from your rage-baited audience (that's what Techdirt is afterall). The Messenger didn't claim and never wanted to be an investigative news outlet. It was a simple news outlet that churned out everyday news without giving opinions..I actually loved it!

The sheer arrogance of some journalists...and they wonder why their industry is on a massive decline.

Absolutely, it is great that the article writer is no longer employed as a journalist