I devoured newspapers from about age 12 until early middle age. I quit watching any TV news by 1990. It wasn’t a liberal/conservative thing. It was a reporting/hype thing. Too much idle speculation and opinion. Too little reporting.
My news for the past many years has been carefully curated RSS feeds plus two relatively new email sources—Axios and Morning Brew.
Last night, my evening edition of Axios entered my inbox. In it, Axios co-founder and publisher Jim VandeHei expanded upon remarks he had earlier made to the National Press Club. I support his point of view. I’ve occasionally written to him about a rare click-bait headline.
Read his entire essay here. I’ve included a snip to give you the flavor.
Trust in journalism fell far and fast. Elon Musk and millions more argue it is — and should be — buried forever, Jim writes.
They say anyone with unrestrained speech — anyone on X — can easily replace a discredited media. “You are the media now,” Musk repeatedly tells his 206 million followers.
Why it matters: My response, in a speech at the National Press Club that went shockingly viral, was: “Bullshit!” I argued that an America without clinical, fair, deep and fearless reporting will perish.
Absent reporting, which I define as the pursuit of fact-based truth without fear or favoritism, you’d have: more opioid deaths … more kids sexually abused in churches … more welfare fraud in Mississippi … more lawlessness in rural Alaska … more Harvey Weinsteins preying on young women … more corruption … more misinformation.
Reality check: You’re right to dunk on biased, sloppy, lazy coverage. I hate it, too: It undercuts the hard work of every on-the-level reporter working their beats — whether at the White House or in my hometown of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
But we need to distinguish between “the media” and honest reporting. I try to avoid junk food — not all food. I’d starve.
📖 The backstory: Angry emails I received after the speech show how many lump all parts of “the media” together, sweeping in anyone who’s paid to talk or type or report. I read every one. To say a lot of people on X hate “the media” is a gross understatement. My inbox confirms this emphatically.
Axios is very much not the legacy media, which has done plenty to undermine its own credibility. I have helped build two media companies — Politico and Axios — based on my own frustrations with legacy media. Journalists too often write for each other or awards committees. They’re too slow to own up to mistakes, and too quick to pop off on social media in ways that betray bias or righteousness.
So 18 years ago, I left The Washington Post to help start Politico — aiming to build a more direct, authentic relationship between readers and reporters. Eight years ago, I left Politico to help start Axios, grounded in an “audience first” mentality. We’ll never have an opinion section. And our audience “Bill of Rights” promises: “We will go the extra mile to earn your trust. All employees are asked to refrain from taking/advocating for public positions on political topics.”
