Most people didn't notice or care that my syndicated newspaper
column has been in decline. If my syndicated column were a stock, I'd have no
hesitation with saying it's been in a long-term bear market!
I've seen it coming for years so it's not surprising that newspapers
here and there have dropped the column. It's not me or my column that's the
"problem" but the impact that the Internet has had on newspapers in general.
Some newspapers have gone under while others have merged. The bottom line is
that there's much less content being produced by daily newspapers.
FCC Commissioner Copps' Comments
On December 1, 2010, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps made
some pointed comments about his perceived decline of the American news media.
And, he tied this supposed decline to concerns about the future of democracy:
"It's a pretty serious situation that we're in. I think
American media has a bad case of substance abuse right now. We are not
producing the body of news and information that democracy needs to conduct its
civic dialogue, we're not producing as much news as we did five years, 10
years, 15 years ago and we have to reverse that trend or I think we are going
to be pretty close to denying our citizens the essential news and information
that they need to have in order to make intelligent decisions about the future
direction of their country."
Could Copps have had my syndicated newspaper column in mind
when he made his comments? I doubt it but his comments could apply to my
column. And, much as I'd like to argue the harm done to Americans' financial
future because fewer folks have access to my column through their local
newspapers, I'm not going to make that argument!
Copps, in my humble opinion, is either clueless about the
world of news or he's a political ideologue who isn't happy with the changing
landscape that he's seeing.
If you read his biography as posted on the FCC web site,
it's pretty clear what his political orientation is. He's clearly a liberal.
Even liberal media outlets confess that.
In a November, 2007 article in the Los Angeles Times, the
paper entitled the piece, "Copps, a liberal voice on the FCC, knows how to get
his message out." In that article, the paper cited Copps as follows:
The public airwaves, he says, are filled with "too much
baloney passed off as news." The Republican-led FCC is so lax that
"unless you're a child abuser or a wife beater, it's a slam-dunk" to
renew a TV station license. "Our country is paying a dreadful cost for
this quarter-century fling with government abdication and media
irresponsibility," he said this year.
Copps doesn't grant many interviews to U.S. media outlets.
He has appeared numerous times, however, on Bill Moyers' PBS program. (It's no
secret that Moyers is far to the left politically.)
Why Copps Is Wrong
When I grew up, the media world was much simpler. Most
Americans got their news through a daily newspaper delivered to their home and
through network news programs on CBS, NBC or ABC. We didn't have the Internet, we
didn't have cable television and we didn't have political talk radio.
When Copps says that less news is being produced, he is
simply wrong. Now, of course, compared to when I grew up, we've got many, many
more news outlets. Fewer people get their news now through traditional outlets
like daily newspapers and the three major broadcast television networks. And,
that's because more people are getting their news online, through the many
cable television stations and through talk radio.
What Copps is really saying but is afraid to say is that he
doesn't like politically flavored news - otherwise known as opinion. The
mainstream media in "the good old days" certainly wasn't non-partisan. It's
been well demonstrated and documented by former CBS executive Bernie Goldberg among
other studies that the traditional media tilts left.
I've argued that "Partisans Are Hazardous to Your Wealth"
and that there's a great danger in getting what you think is news and
information from a program labeled as news that in fact is hosted by a
partisan. There's clearly a market for opinion programs and as long as they are
labeled as such, last I checked we live in America
not Russia
so thank goodness for the First Amendment!
Accessing Financial Content
If I solely focused on the slow demise of my newspaper
column, I could attempt to argue as Copps has that folks are worse off due to
the decline in content. But, that's simply not true when you factor in new
distribution channels and the fact that those channels are helping to reduce
the cost of delivering content. You're reading this column on the Internet
which enables content providers to deliver content quicker and more efficiently
and at less cost.
As consumers, don't we want more choices and lower cost?
That's not to say, of course, that the Internet or any other
medium isn't without its drawbacks. I've warned you in prior columns about the
perils of free content, lack of editorial oversight and kickbacks (affiliate
fees) tainting online recommendations.
More choices and lower costs don't mean that risks and drawbacks have been
eliminated.