Hedge funds Heisted Jewel—Journalism

Jim Boren Advises News Consumers

News and information are concentrated in a few.  The world's media masters are:

• Bertelsmann, National Amusements (ViacomCBS)
• Sony Corporation
• News Corp, Comcast, 
• The Walt Disney Company
• AT&T Inc
• Fox Corporation
• Hearst Communications
• MGM Holdings Inc
• Grupo Globo (South America)
• Lagardère Group.
  
  
  Concentration of media ownership—consolidation or convergence—is the process whereby fewer individuals or organizations gradually and insidiously assume control or increasing shares of the mass media—the quality, quantity, degree, distribution, framing of information, content, imaging, presentation. 

In terms of market share or revenue, “the largest media conglomerates” at the start of 2020 were

• Comcast

• The Walt Disney Company

• AT&T

• ViacomCBS

N

ews sources in the United States have been reduced to 3

1. Gannett Co., Inc. (headquartered in metropolitan Washington, DC), already among the Big Three, in November 2019, merged with GateHouse Media creating the largest newspaper publisher in the United States

2. McClatchy Company (headquartered in Sacramento, California) since February 2020, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, to be taken over by hedge fund group Chatham Asset Management, LLC owner of American Media, Inc

3. Hearst Communications, the Hearst Family (headquartered in New York) owner of newspapers, magazines, television channels, and television stations including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan and Esquire; in partnership with the Walt Disney Company, 50 percent of the A&E Networks cable network group and 20 percent of the sports cable network group ESPN; in addition to several business-information companies including Fitch Ratings and First Databank.

W

ashington Post and Newsweek GONE

Bezos owned Washington Post

Washington Post (since 2013) owner Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen aka Jeffrey Preston Bezos: New Mexico-born son of a 17-year-old and a bicycle shop owner, a hustling retailer with a bank account, and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science; no education or experience in newspaper business.

Uzac, Davis own (previously Washington Post-owned) Newsweek

IBT Media founders [of unclear origins and funders] Etienne Uzac, Johnathan Davis—with “no background in news, media or publishing,” and links to “Korean religious leader David Jang, Olivet University (a private Christian institution of biblical higher education), and the World Evangelical Alliance”— bought Newsweek from the Washington Post in 2013 (price secret); and, in 2016, hired computer systems and electronics degree-holding Dev Pragad as Newsweek’s CEO. Pragad’s only prior job reportedly had been a Europe Middle East Asia (EMEA) “managing director” at the global digital news organization, IBT Media.

T

ribune, McClatchy GONE

Cost Cutting Hard News Cutter— a “vulture capitalist” categorized by some journalists among “the most ruthless” “corporate strip-miners,” bent on “destroying local journalism.”

Manhattan-based Alden Global Capital hedge fund, owner of owns 50.1 percent Digital First Media which in turn owns more than 50 US daily newspapers—including Denver Post, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Boston Herald, The Mercury News of San Jose, the East Bay Times, and The Orange County Register.

In December 2019, Alden Global Capital acquired a 32 percent of shares in Tribune Publishing Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune.

The Alden reportedly had spent years buying local and regional newspapers— from New York to New Jersey to California; Massachusetts to Pennsylvania to Ohio; from Dearborn, Michigan, to Denver, Colorado, to St. Paul, Minnesota—“bleeding dollars out of them”

The turn of 2020 saw scores more newspapers offloaded to Alden—among them thirty-one newspapers owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (the Buffalo News, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Omaha World-Herald).

American Media, Inc. owner Chatham Asset Management, LLC (and Omega Charitable Partnership, L.P. hedge funds), owner of National Enquirer and other supermarket scandal sheets, targeted the respected, centuries old McClatchy whose portfolio included the Miami Herald, the Sacramento Bee, and the Kansas City Star.

M

cClatchy reporting for itself July 2020

Citing problems of “debt from the 2006 purchase of Knight Ridder chain” and “legacy pension obligations,” McClatchy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

 July 17, 2020

“McClatchy submits new sale timeline to court as negotiations with Chatham continue.” Since 2009, Chatham “has invested in McClatchy” and is “majority owner of Canada’s largest news chain, Ottawa-based Postmedia Network Canada Corp.”

Headquartered in Sacramento, California, McClatchy Company was founded in February 3, 1857 (163 years ago) by James McClatchy. In addition to its operation of 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states, an average weekday circulation of 1.6 million, and Sunday circulation of 2.4 million, McClatchy also operates several websites and community papers; and the McClatchyDC news agency focused on political news from Washington, DC.

“We don’t know what they’re up to, and that’s an ominous feeling,’” Miami Herald-Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas was quoted at The Hour Insider.

“‘We fear that they’re efficiency experts, not journalists, and that’s a daunting prospect if you care about reporting the news. There’s a lot of uncertainty.’”

W

hat to do?

Jim Boren instructs

Boren is a retired editor of The Fresno Bee and a longtime political journalist who has transitioned from the newsroom to academia. He is currently Executive Director of the Fresno State Institute for Media and Public Trust at California State University; and member of the Department of Media, Communications and Journalism faculty.

The Institute for Media and Public Trust publishes its mission as increasing media literacy, developing strategies to identify fake news, and finding solutions to bridge the trust gap between media outlets and news consumers; as well as helping prepare journalists to better cover local communities. The institute covers traditional media as well as digital sites, social media and other outlets that offer news content.

Established in 2018, the Institute has held programs on free speech on college campuses, the five freedoms contained in the First Amendment, ethics for reporters, the challenges covering science issues in an era of mistrust and other journalism-related programs. It has also worked with middle schools and high schools on ways to improve news literacy among young people.

V

igilance always

“We all lose when politicians think no one is looking closely at what they are doing with taxpayer dollars.”

 “Watchdog reporting brings transparency to government, and that gives members of the public the chance to say whether they approve of how their elected officials are conducting themselves. But if no one is reporting on these issues, the public does not have the opportunity to weigh in.

“As the reporting environment changes, other media outlets must do deeper coverage of government issues.”

C

urrent crisis: Mindful Snake oil, and its pushers

Boren wrote [minor edits mine]

• Do not fall victim to misinformation and distorted content about COVID-19

• Be skeptical and check out information from multiple sources before [daring] to pass it along on social media sites.

• Some misinformation is not only false, it can be dangerous— phony “home remedies” (“friends” swearing by these remedies) pushed on the Internet … should not replace medical advice and CDC guidance.

• You cannot rely on Facebook to police misinformation, despite its claims of vigilance against deceptive content.

• Conspiracy theories about the pandemic— ranging from ideas that “COVID-19 is a hoax” to the 5G network caused the coronavirus— are very dangerous.

• Do not get your medical advice from stage or screen actors or the “real story” based only on Google searches about the virus

• Do not throw up your hands and say you “don’t know who to believe”—use critical thinking skills.

Early in the pandemic many people and some politicians were hears saying it was a media-manufactured “emergency”; some even suggested that it was a crisis aimed at President Trump to “impeach” him with negative media reports. However, most people finally realized that “we are in a serious disaster” requiring us to “come together to defeat COVID-19.”

C

ritical thinking

Use of sound judgment, especially regarding online “news”

Boren offers important advice

• Look past your personal biases.

We often believe the worst about people or politicians we despise.

Those biases can blind us to what we are sharing on social media—even when red flags suggest the stories may be false.

• Recognize the source of the news item.

Be skeptical if the content comes from a source that you’ve never heard of, which doesn’t mean it’s false; it could come from an obscure, but legitimate news outlet.

Nevertheless, take some time to verify facts on sites you may not recognize.

Use search engines to see if anyone else is reporting a particular story. If it is as big a story as is being promoted in a headline, or on a social media “share”; surely other news outlets, at some point, will have printed or published a version of that story.

• Check the link in your browser.

Many fake news sites try to mimic actual news sites. The link might have a slight variation from the legitimate news site. If the link looks odd, that’s another red flag.

• Look at other stories on the website.

Does the content pass the “smell test?” Check out the writing style. Do the stories on the site have excessive capital letters, exclamation points, obvious grammatical errors, or other oddities that suggest the content may be unreliable?

• Read the “Contact Us” and “About Us” links.

Are they working, and do they give information that is helpful? Can you email the story’s author?

• Go to fact-checking sites.

Use them to see what they say about a news story before you post it on social media. Try factcheck.org, snopes.com, politifact.com, or other fact-checking sites.

If you have questions about the quality of a particular fact-checking site, use multiple fact-checking sites to verify the information.

• Be skeptical.

Being skeptical helps create smart consumers of news.

Sources

News organizations, concentrations, ownerships

Jim Boren

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos

Business Insider “One chart explains Jeff Bezos’ sprawling empire Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist, June 21, 2017 ttps://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-sprawling-empire-in-one-chart-2017-6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsweek

Forbes “Meet The Mysterious Duo Who Just Bought Newsweek” Jeff Bercovici August 5, 2013 https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/08/05/meet-the-mysterious-duo-who-just-bought-newsweek/#555687d56836

King’s College London https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/leading-in-media-transforming-newsweek

Biography of Dev Pragad https://www.crunchbase.com/person/dev-pragad#section-jobs

The Official Board “Dev Pragad” last update January 21, 2020 https://www.theofficialboard.com/biography/dev-pragad-d3593

IBT Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBT_Media

Ad Age “IBT Media, Following Layoffs, Announces New Leadership Structure: Co-Founder and CEO Etienne Uzac Is Stepping Back, Will Serve as Chairman” [“As part of the editorial restructuring, IBT Media announced that Newsweek ‘will split off into a separate operational entity,’ which formalized an already-existing division between the newsmagazine and IBT Media’s other editorial brands”] Jeremy Barr July 18, 2016. https://adage.com/article/media/ibt-media-layoffs-announces-leadership-team/305002

Vanity Fair “The Hedge Fund Vampire That Bleeds Newspapers Dry Now Has the Chicago Tribune by the Throat” Joe Pompeo February 5, 2020 https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/02/hedge-fund-vampire-alden-global-capital-that-bleeds-newspapers-dry-has-chicago-tribune-by-the-throat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alden_Global_Capital

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Media,_Inc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Cooperman

McClatchy “McClatchy’s bankruptcy auction held after judge denies Alden challenge to bid process” Kevin G. Hall July 9, 2020 [Editor’s note: This report was updated July 10, to reflect completion of Friday’s auction and to add McClatchy’s statement] https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article244107822.html

McClatchy “McClatchy submits new sale timeline to court as negotiations with Chatham continue” Kevin G. Hall July 17, 2020 https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article244313562.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClatchy

Hour Insider [Connecticut-based Hour Insider] “Staffers at renowned McClatchy newspapers mull bankruptcy sale to tabloid-owning hedge fund” Paul Farhi (Washington Post) July 14, 2020 https://www.thehour.com/business/article/Staffers-at-renowned-McClatchy-newspapers-mull-15407025.php

Jim Boren posts

https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2020/03/03/use-these-tips-and-you-wont-be-caught-sharing-fake-news-on-social-media/

https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2020/01/18/boot-camp-for-journalists-offers-intensive-training-on-california-water-issues/

Jim Boren “Use these tips and you’ll reduce your chances of passing on ‘fake news’ July 2, 2018

https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2018/07/02/tips-on-identifying-fake-news/

Jim Boren “As newspapers shrink, other media outlets must spend more time doing watchdog reporting in their communities” November 27, 2019 https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2019/11/27/as-newspapers-shrink-other-local-media-outlets-must-spend-more-time-in-their-communities-doing-watchdog-reporting/

Jim Boren “Don’t be misled by those who are pushing dangerous misinformation about coronavirus pandemic” April 8, 2020 https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2020/04/08/dont-be-mislead-by-those-pushing-dangerous-misinformation-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

Jim Boren “In times of crisis, we need journalists giving us facts and guiding us to resources that will help us cope” March 17, 2020 https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2020/03/17/in-times-of-crisis-we-need-journalists-giving-us-facts-and-guiding-us-to-resources-that-will-help-us-cope/

Jim Boren “Use these tips and you won’t be caught sharing ‘fake news’ on social media” : March 3, 2020 https://mediaandpublictrust.com/2020/03/03/use-these-tips-and-you-wont-be-caught-sharing-fake-news-on-social-media/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspapers_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gannett

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClatchy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_Communications

 

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