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MSNBC Producer Resigns and Reports the Truth
You may have seen some commentary on the internet about the resignation of Ariana Pekary, a producer from MSNBC. She wrote a cogent summary of her dissatisfaction with televised news on her personal blog.
Much of her frustration revolves around the financial motivation that drives the media. You will enjoy reading her analysis but I want to quote one short section that struck me as insightful:
“Due to the simple structure of the industry – the desire to charge more money for commercials, as well as the ratings bonuses that top-tier decision-makers earn – they always relapse into their old profitable programming habits.
I understand that the journalistic process is largely subjective and any group of individuals may justify a different set of priorities on any given day. Therefore, it’s particularly notable to me, for one, that nearly every rundown at the network basically is the same, hour after hour. And two, they use this subjective nature of the news to justify economically beneficial decisions. I’ve even heard producers deny their role as journalists. A very capable senior producer once said: “Our viewers don’t really consider us the news. They come to us for comfort.”
They come to us for comfort. That is more truthful than most of us would want to admit.
Published in General
Anyone who goes to MSNBC for comfort should seek professional help.
I can’t fight the nagging thought that instead of “unexpectedly”, it was really “mistakenly”. Just my suspicious mind, I suppose.
No, I think it is true that televised news is deliberately presented as fulfilling what the producers see as the confirmation bias of their viewers. Avoiding confirmation bias in evaluating anything is really hard.
“They come to us for comfort.”
No, they come to MSNBC for validation of their outrage. Absolutely not to feel better.
Even when venting her spleen, Pekary can’t see it.
Because the network carries the legacy and history of NBC, meaning “news” is authoritative speech, this also makes them enablers. More to the point, it is codependency.
“Grrr….Orange Man Bad…Grrrr…..Larry and Mr. & Mrs. Joe really can’t stand OMB, so I’ll watch them….Grrrrr.”
If they actually spoke truth they would burst into flame. It makes life tricky for them. Give Pekary time, she is making her way from a place of deep, dark confoundment.
This is not a person who has been red-pilled. Perkary, having come from NPR, is far more upset about the commercialism that leads to the hype for MSNBC segments and the obsessiveness on certain subjects (Trump being No. 1, of course). She’s not objecting to the direction of the choice of topics. It’s the equivalent of being upset that the Dean Baquet-led New York Times of 2020 isn’t the Howell Raines-led New York Times of 15-20 years ago, where the progressive bias was obvious, but the staff simply hadn’t downed cases of Red Bull before writing their stories and opinion pieces.
It anything it’s an argument that there’s too much national media on the left, in that in order to attract viewers or readers in a hyper-fractured market outlets like MSNBC or The New York Times can no longer present restrained stories with progressive bias; they have to present hyperbolic stories with progressive bias or their customers will go elsewhere for their hyperbolic stories with progressive bias.
Both sides have online niche sites that provide that type of tone, but on the mainstream/old-style media options, the only thing close to the hyperbole of the left here is some talk radio outlets on the right, and they mainly gained those spots because AM radio was already in its downward spiral by the 1980s and stations needed some type of format to regain listeners, since the left already had the NPR that Perkary came from. Fox News’ success hasn’t caused any of the other old-line media outlets to try and take market share from them, while cancel culture is trying to make sure OAN never gets a foothold as a Fox competitor, as Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy will tell you (try to imagine anyone having to issue a public apology for wearing an MSNBC shirt….).
Or maybe it was a confession to cleanse her soul . . .
You could be right. However, the mere fact that she was affiliated with Lawrence O’Donnell should merit so many Hail Marys and Our Fathers (as part of her penance) she may as well enter a convent.
It is must watch if you are a conservative. You have to know, and try to understand, what non conservatives are being told.