Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 17, 2022

The network evening news was also 15 minutes until 1963 and only 30 minutes after that.

You have to fill up 24 hours with something, even if it’s crap.

Too true to be funny. Good job, Stephan.

This is a true but sad statement about our modern times. Yes there has always been bias in the news, that is part of human nature. Now adays people make up lies and twist the truth, all in the name of ratings.

As I mentioned once before, 60 Minutes is oddly the one that made that change. They were the first news show to turn a profit.

It has begun to become clear that humans are unable to live (well) with the results of science and engineering. And yes, I’m aware of the irony.

Sadly, none of this is news to me.

That is one wise ass!

That is one wise ass.

Remember the 2016 Michigan primary when they wouldn’t cover Bernie Sanders’ victory speech because they preferred half an hour of dead air while waiting for Donald Trump to speak?

Journalism was once an honorable profession, complete with fact checking. Today it is only for the advertisement clicks, based on knee jerk reactions on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, WhatsApp, TikTok. Cannot do fact checking and be a knee-jerk at the same time, so there is no fact checks.

?

The US is so screwed. And completely self-inflicted.

I get my news from GoComics!

I do wonder what Wise Ass is sitting on. Not saying what my first impression was.

It’s more complicated than that. Yes, corporate execs were pressured to get earnings higher, and that meant being profitable (or at least closer to profitability) on all time segments, news included. But it was no coincidence that all the networks, staffed by producers and reporters from the same schools teaching the same perspective, broadcast the same news duration, albeit with different faces. That continued until an upstart entrepreneur offered a news network with a different perspective that attracted an underserved demographic. Its bias was no worse than the mainstream’s, but it was jarringly different — and jarringly popular, drawing in a lot of viewers and a lot if dollars in advertising. Its success was infuriating to the mainstream, because it clashed so much with what they’d been taught. And the owners were so invested in multiple ways that emulating the competition was problematic. Even so, it became apparent that the best strategy for profits and popularity was to go to extremes in whichever narrative they used — progressive or populist. And the public, at least the public with an interest in current events, were drawn in by the taste of blood. And here we are.

None of the existing economic models for journalism is working well. The two main ones are disaster porn (a la CNN) and disguised propaganda (a la FAUX). Obligatory public service, subscriptions, and advertising were all weak, but the Internet really crushed them.

So I’d like to see a solution-oriented form of journalism. But evidently none of them are desperate enough to try it. Yet?

Once, the networks were all lockstep Leftists. Now there are options, diverse viewpoints, and occasional nuggets of actual truth.

R.I.P. . . . Walter Cronkite. :-(Last of the honest journalists we trusted.

Used to be that there was a part of the news at the end where the anchor had commentary – “may not be the opinion of the network”. Now the entire show is commentary.

When you’re angry, you’re engaged? Well, Pig is never getting married.

It only took one comment for Fox News to be mentioned!!!You know Fox is doing something right when more negative comments appear….than positive. The positive viewers know they do not have to defend Fox, but the anti-Fox, pro Democrat crowd can’t wait to be heard…It’s entertaining to read the Fox is facist, watched by white men only, lying racist station comments by the “I HATE TUCKER” crowd.Have a nice day, haters!!!!!

That’s what he’s not paid for!

The 1976 film “Network” was prophetic.

Sometimes, I think money is the cause of our problems.

I do not watch TV news casts! I prefer to select read and not be beholden to bias sensationalism, sickening commercials! I’m so turned off by the bad news on a daily basis, being repeated over and over…..enough already! This society needs to bitch slapped into reality.

“If it bleeds, it leads” goes back at least fifty years. Stephan is pining for a glory day that never really existed in his life time.

This strip makes me angry. That’s why I keep reading it.

evening news is nothing but one longgggg commercial now

Well, yes.

He sums things up quite accurately.

Broadcastophobia aside, he has a point

Breaking news story just in. This is where everyone voices their view about which news is the best. Stay tuned for all the crap you’re about to read. We now join your regularly scheduled comic.

Some of us are angry for valid reasons. We got angry and tired of hearing uninformed zealots claim the 2020 election was stolen. We got angry and tired of hearing people claim their FREEDOMS! were being abridged because they were asked to wear a mask to prevent the spread of COVID. We are angry and tired of people trying to impose their wills, based on a BS argument about fetus rights being more important than the rights of the woman carrying it, on women and labeling them irresponsible for seeking abortions. We are angry and tired of tyrants like Putin invading sovereign nations and killing innocent people with impunity. We are angry and tired of your thoughts and prayers and failure to do anything substantive about gun violence.

We have a reason to be angry, and it’s not because our favored news outlets are stoking our anger for profit.

As the Eagles sang, “We love dirty laundry”, Hit em when they’re up, kickem when they’re down.

CBS’ 60 Minutes proved news could be profitable. If you want to blame anything, this is where you start.

EXACTLY!

Entertainment. I’ll even read comics about news if it’s entertaining.

Today’s strip is spot on!

Not all stories are there to produce anger. Others are there to produce feelings of smug superiority. These two types of stories are pretty much it, though.

There is a simple and cheap solution to all of this, throw out your TV. I did over 15 years ago and have never looked back.

Nearly every comment proving Pastis’ point.

That said, while I agree with him here, I get tired of how often he repeats this same point.

Money talks, and it talks so loud that the voice of common sense is drowned out by it.

There is also the fact that news media could afford to have loss leaders. They got most of their money from advertising, so they could afford to offend a few subscribers by exposing them occasionally to what they considered ‘misinformation’. Now, they have to get most of their revenues from subscriptions, so they have to assemble a pool of subscribers who all think alike and demand that things be reported in a way that confirms their prejudices.

And don’t forget the ‘two-party system’, or as it is more precisely characterized the oligarchy with two factions that governs our country. The possibility of absolute power corrupts almost as badly as its actual possession, and by disenfranchising a plurality of American voters the parties have made it possible for one of them to take over the federal government with the approval of a minority—provided that minority is sufficiently angry to outshout everyone else and so appear a majority.

I begrudgingly must agree. However, nothing new though, as newspapers have been doing that for years. TV has just refined that goal a little better…..

Seems like people only think “the other side’s channel” is nothing but brainwashing propaganda because “their side’s channel” has brainwashed them its own propaganda. NEWS FLASH: They’re all garbage.

It is profit driven. And advertisers influence what is ‘news’. Will a news outlet do a major story that is negative towards a major advertiser? What do you see mostly in advertising these days? Pharmaceuticals. There have been billions of dollars in fines and lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies in the last few years. Do you hear much, if anything, about that on the news?

LAUGH-IN looks at the news…Here’s Dan!!

Spot on Pastis…seems to be a lot of engaged people in the comments today

This is why I listen to NPR!

I might watch local news for the weather. The best weather coverage was from The Hippy Dippy Weatherman.

Check out BBC or NHK news

This news strip made me angry.

Another example that monetization is the ONLY principle. Responsibility, integrity, things like that don’t make as much money as the opposite.

Get rid of them.

Definitely true.

I kinda think the beginning of the end was the Reagan administration killing the Fairness Doctrine. Then agenda driven media moved in.

Nowadays you don’t even have to be mad at real life anymore, the certain spectrum of right wing “news” will keep you angry and engaged at any ol’ bullshit they make up, it doesn’t even have to make sense, or be consistent with what they told you to be mad about LAST WEEK.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/chart/sotnm-cable-total-profit-for-cable-tv/

Proving once again that many things shouldn’t be privatized because the profit motive gets in the way of doing things properly.

Beware living in an echo chamber

You don’t need weapons to destroy the U.S. Turn people against each other and stand back!

I am so glad that here in Denmark we have a news network, that is funded by every adult paying something like $200 or so per year. For that we get news coverage that isn’t about ratings, but instead will report on even what might be unpopular and do so in a objective way.We also get great entertainment without ads and there programs on for mass audiences, but also programs for narrow target groups which would never be produced by commercial networks.When there is an election the network makes sure all candidates get air time, this helps ensure that money plays only a small role in politics which again means our politicians aren’t for sale.Most European countries have similar systems, one well known example would be the BBC, and a all of them are a real strength to democracy.

“We are now engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” A. Lincoln

I don’t think we needed Wise Ass to tell us that. But if it helps you out, Pig, go for it!

Anger and fear…keeps folks coming back for more.