For the Mainstream Media, the news is not good.  A new Pew Research Center study is out today as part of its ongoing Project for Excellence in Journalism.  Here’s the headline:

NEWS EXECUTIVES, SKEPTICAL OF GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES, SEE OPPORTUNITY IN TECHNOLOGY BUT ARE UNSURE ABOUT REVENUE AND THE FUTURE

Just about nothing is going right.  Things are so bad, in fact, that after years of denial, editors are now wondering openly whether their publications are going to survive, especially in an age of widespread cutbacks and trying to do more with less.  Ad revenues are down, circulation is off, newspapers are filing for bankruptcy and, for some cable networks, ratings are plummeting. The good news is that the execs are “openly skeptical” about the prospect of government support; the bad news is that they basically have no idea what to do.  From the Pew study:

America’s news executives are hesitant about many of the alternative funding ideas being discussed for journalism today and are overwhelmingly skeptical about the prospect of government financing, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism in association with the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).

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It can be a powerful drug. I’ve seen many of my media friends swept off their feet by its incredible power and influence. Hopeium. Oh, the mere sight or sound of the junk can cause the most callous and caustic reporter to wither and melt like Nancy Pelosi during a free Botox party.

The first time the media heard Barack Obama use the phrase “Hope”, they were hooked.

It explains what caused NBC’s Chris Matthews to get the “thrill up going up my leg”, as Barack Obama spoke. It explains why ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and his wife cried on Inauguration Day. Maybe it explains what Evan Thomas of Newsweek was thinking when he proclaimed Obama is, “sort of god.” Here’s the full quote so you have the context:

I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God.

Timothy Leary would love this. That’s some powerful stuff. High on hopeium.

The first step towards rehab is recognition. If you don’t KNOW you have a problem, how can you begin to solve it? This is where Scott Brown comes in. The new Senator from Massachusetts might have caused a few media people to drop the needle, flush the pills, or at least think about it. Paul Krugman, lib writer at the New York Times even said the other day, “I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama.” Wooooah! Calm down Paul, don’t go cold turkey on us! (more…)

Did you believe in “Hope?”  Millions of American obviously did, including 99 percent of the media, as they elected Barack Hussein Obama II the 44th President of the United States in the fall of 2008.

Despite the loss of “Teddy Kennedy’s seat” in Massachusetts, the collapse of “health-care reform” and really ugly poll numbers, some members of the official Media Cheerleading Squad apparently still do, and nothing to the contrary is going to convince them otherwise.  Here’s Frank Rich over the weekend in the New York Times, head still firmly in the sand:

It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America. It was not a rejection of universal health care, which Massachusetts mandated (with Scott Brown’s State Senate vote) in 2006. It was not a harbinger of a resurgent G.O.P., whose numbers remain in the toilet. Brown had the good sense not to identify himself as a Republican in either his campaign advertising or his victory speech. (more…)