“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of September 16, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Not The End
One of my favorite songs by R.E.M. is “It’s The End of The World.” It was back in mind following the passage of a new copyright law in the European Union. Lots of people are declaring the end of the internet world because of the “Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market”, which most people shorten to the EU Copyright Directive.
The goal of this new piece of legislation is not without merit. It is part of an ongoing attempt by many countries to have copyright law catch up with the realities of the digital age. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, the people making the law don’t understand what they are doing. There are two portions of the new law that are particularly problematic, Articles 11 and 13.
Article 11 is called the “link tax”. It’s intent is to give publishers of all kinds a way to make money from links through platforms like Google. In simplest form, it’s a license. Article 13 is called the “upload filter” and it is designed to stop people from sharing copyrighted materials without a license to do so.
The problems with these articles are found on several levels. Article 13 will shut down a vast swathe of YouTube users. Things like letsplay videos, where you watch YouTube stars like Markiplier playing video games, would have to come down unless a license was obtained for every single game played. It is the platform that would be responsible for catching the offenses and liable for the ensuing fines. The potential effect on YouTube and Facebook among others could be devastating. The impact on smaller platforms who would have to try and watch every single post, at a cost that would likely be unsustainable.
Advocates of the new directive maintain that all of this is hyperbole of the major Silicon Valley companies who fear they are losing control of the internet. The other side of the coin is that there is still a lot left undescribed in the legislation. At what point does a link to a story cross the threshold for the tax? That’s unclear. The track record for similar kinds of law at the national level have been total failures, including attempts in both Germany and Spain. Meanwhile the “upload filter” opens new avenues of abuse for copyright trolls.
The law still faces final approval in January of next year, which is expected. It may not result in the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to do much to clarify the situation either.
A Question of Fairness
Earlier this year, the Harris Poll and the folks at the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University did a survey of the American public’s view of the mainstream media and President Trump. The results were unsurprising for the most part.
Fifty-nine percent said that the President treats the media unfairly. Meanwhile, 54 percent said that the media treats the President fairly. The real non-surprise is that while 80 percent of Republicans say the media is unfair, 84 percent of Democrats think the media is right on target. Independents do what independents do, which is split down the middle. Fifty-five percent said that the treatment is fair.
All of this plays into the ongoing issue of the public’s trust of the media. While the survey showed that a growing percentage feel the President is going to far. As the media attempts to rebuild trust, that would seem to be an indication that they might be turning a corner.
Then someone at NBC decided to try and reverse the trend. On September 13, as Hurricane Florence was coming ashore, NBC News posted the following on their Twitter feed:
“President Trump says that “we are completely ready for Hurricane Florence, as the storm gets even larger and more powerful.”
“President Trump says that “we are completely ready for Hurricane Florence, as the storm gets even larger and more powerful.”
NHC says Florence has been downgraded to Cat. 2, and little change in strength is expected before landfall.”
NHC is the National Hurricane Center. While the President got his fact wrong, I contended at the time that NBC inserted the political context unnecessarily. The story is about the hurricane, not the latest in a long line of misstatements by the President. But by putting the President’s statement first, the context of the story changes. Now it’s about the President and not the storm. And that just gives credence to the argument that the media is “out to get him”.
Now here’s the other thing. It’s a Twitter feed. So I doubt that a senior staff member is doing the posting. But I have to wonder if there isn’t some kind of editorial oversight over what goes up on the News feed. If there isn’t there should be. Maybe the feeling is that it’s Twitter and people will be distracted by whatever the next item up on their feed is.
That’s a pretty shallow way to approach the output of what is supposed to be a major news outlet. And it will do nothing to improve the overall approval numbers for the mainstream media in America today.
Time Marches On
An icon is a symbol for a larger concept, trend or group. In the media of the 2oth century, there are only a handful of organizations that can stand in the same spotlight as Time magazine. At the beginning of the 21st century, that icon is undergoing a great change.
Time magazine was founded in 1923 as the first weekly news magazine in the United States. At its height, it had the highest circulation for its category in the world with 26 million readers. Time has its own style, focusing on the stories of the people in the news. From the beginning, it also made room for more lighthearted topics like celebrities and the entertainment world. It also has a distinctive look, with the red bordered images on the cover becoming an icon of its own. Since its introduction in 1927, that cover style has only been changed on five occasions. There’s even a particular writing style that has been a part of the magazine since the beginning. The Time “Person of the Year” (originally the “Man of the Year”) adds yet another icon to the mantelpiece of the revered magazine. The person who had the greatest impact during the year, for good or evil, has been awarded a cover appearance every year since 1927.
Yet none of that history has spared the magazine the trials and tribulations of all print media today. Paid circulation has slid over the last decade, and last year Time, Inc., the parent company of a wide range of magazines, including Time, Sports Illustrated, Money, and Fortune among others, was sold for 1.85 billion dollars less than a year ago.
This week saw the news that the flagship magazine, Time, was being sold to billionaire couple Marc and Lynne Benioff. Mr. Benioff is co-founder the customer relationship management company Salesforce. The new owners dropped 190 million dollars, cash, to jump into the print business.
So what does this really mean? An owner with deep pockets who is dedicated to turning the magazine around, a la Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post, has to bring some feelings of stability to the staff. Like Bezos, the Benioffs have stated that they will leave the journalism to the journalists, which is a win for everyone who cares about quality reporting. They appear to believe that there is something worth saving.
Here’s hoping that a bold new future can be built on Time’s iconic past.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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