Let Seth Meyers' Daddy Voice Explain Troubling Trends In Journalism

By Andrew Sanford | TV | January 31, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | January 31, 2024 |

“Democracy Dies In Darkness.” It’s a good slogan adopted by a newspaper bought and paid for by one of the world’s wealthiest divorcees. The Washington Post’s troubling ownership aside, a free press is needed for Democracy to survive and flourish. People need to stay informed, even when they don’t want to. As newspapers and other publications face uncertainty, that may get harder.

Seth Meyers recently laid out all the current controversies and uncertainty surrounding print publications. Places like the New York Times manage to weather the storms by leaning on non-news-related features like Wordle and Connections. Others, like the LA Times, are committing to layoffs. Then you have Sports Illustrated, which switched to AI and laid off most (if not all) of its workforce.

Things are bleak! There’s hardly a joke in this piece (which I appreciate). It feels more like a wake-up call to people who may not be aware of the dire situation. Some incredible journalists currently work and previously worked at this site over the years and will often share their expert opinions. Even with that resource, I was not aware of just how desperate this situation had gotten.

Newspapers are vital to our society, print or online. It only makes sense that people who want to exert more control, like David Smith, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos, are trying to give people less access to information. They want people’s heads so firmly in the darkness that they won’t believe events happening before their very eyes. At least Seth Meyers is here to break it all down. Still, even his smooth daddy voice won’t be enough to put me at ease this time.