Specific debates about problems in US journalism — everything from faux ‘both sides’ balance to laments about the destruction of local outlets — all serve, in their own way, to mask another, larger problem: its seemingly sensible focus on what has happened means that it’s reactive rather than speculative. We’ll soon begin to see how catastrophic this back-footed disposition is when it becomes clearer that lots of those jobs aren’t coming back. Think about it: no income for June. Or July. Or August. Or September, October, November, December, January. No savings, no safety net, and above all no leadership at any level with coherent plans. The US press is stuck in a loop, running the same stories over and over, like an endless glitch in the matrix. That repetition is a perfect mirror of the almost complete dereliction of government at every level to seriously plan and build ahead — not just stockpile PPE etc but lay the basis to care for surging populations of the penniless. Stories like this were obvious months ago: I have mails going back to the beginning of February talking about mass homelessness. Yet here we are, at the end of May, and the NYT — which endlessly hectors the administration for pissing away the pivotal first weeks of the pandemic — is just now twigging that, yes, the rent will be due each and every month until something changes. We need the press to assert its right to speculate about the future rather than wobble around in endless circles dissecting the past.
(NYT)