ProbitPub

Jim Vandehei, the CEO of subscriber-hemorrhaging Axios, compared himself and other journalists to neurosurgeons in a hilarious (for us, not him), although unsurprising rant. Vandehei summed up the voluntary delusion that he and other broadcast journalism majors have lived in for the past several years. The unearned hubris of legacy media “journalists” has finally now, after decades of artificially being inflated, been popped. However, evidently even the CEO of Axios is unable to see what the TRUE reason is for his business’s inevitable failure (as well as that of all legacy media). Hint, it’s not because of any one person.

For decades, Americans were forced to consume information through one of three legacy media outlets: NBC, ABC, and CBS. These stations would inform Americans of the news, or so they thought. What was really happening was a COUPLED PRODUCT was being sold as a SINGLE PRODUCT to the American people. The news networks would BREAK THE NEWS, but then also then give their OPINIONS on it as if it were part of the news itself. This dual role was intentionally misrepresented as ONE PRODUCT, or ONE ROLE by the legacy media itself. However, technological progress has FORCEFULLY DIVORCED these products. The only sad part is the likes of Vandehei doesn’t seem to realize what’s happening in his own industry, and that more importantly it IS NOT CAUSED BY ANY ONE HUMAN, but rather inevitable progress.

You see, technological progress cannot be negotiated with. It is not an animate phenomenon (yet) that you can reason with. It is inevitable. And when technological progress comes for an industry, there is really only one variable that is taken into consideration, and that is REAL barriers to entry. And this is where Vandehei’s “genius” comparison of journalists to neurosurgeons becomes so pronounced (and hilariously bad). To be a neurosurgeon, there are REAL BARRIERS TO ENTRY. You need to ace college, learn chemistry, biology and advanced anatomy, then get into medical school and excel, then graduate top of your medical school, then ace residency, then take ALL THE KNOWLEDGE that’s taken decades to acquire and expertly deploy it with human judgment and touch (my apologies to neurosurgeons reading this on all the important steps left out, I am not a doctor). THAT IS WHY technology can’t replace a neurosurgeon. And honestly, given all those REAL barriers technology has to learn, (including expert human touch and judgement) I’m not sure if technology will ever fully replace doctors. But you know who I am damn sure they can replace? That’s right Vandehei, JOURNALISTS.

Technology has come for countless redundant middle man jobs. You know what the ultimate useless middle man job is? BREAKING THE NEWS! A thing happened, and now I am telling people it happened. Job done! You really think technology can’t replace that basic function? Guess what? Most people were getting their news on social media platforms since 2010! In fact, if you compare the legacy media’s inability to see this product divorce to ESPN’s (the worldwide leader in sports) ability to adapt WITH IT, you can understand what is happening even better.

ESPN (for all their faults over the years) DID SEE the divorce of BREAKING NEWS and GIVING OPINIONS ON NEWS coming better than most. For most of the late 90s and early 2000s, their flagship program was Sportscenter. A program where people would tune in to and get all the latest scores and updates of what was happening around the sports world. But guess what happened? Increasingly, fans began to get the actual scores on their phone. So what did ESPN do? Did they whine like CNN, MSNBC that people should tune into Sportscenter more? NOPE. In fact, they did the opposite. They ADAPTED and reallocated large portions of their budget to OPINION programs like First Take with Stephen A Smith, who is now by far the biggest personality at ESPN. ESPN did see the divorce of BREAKING NEWS and GIVING OPINIONS ON NEWS coming, and they accordingly adapted their business model to give the viewers what they now tuned in for (because the scores can be found on phones). Now, viewers want either to listen to someone who is CORRECT a lot of the time (as any person who can predict the future would amass a following in any industry) OR, if they are wrong, at least to be wildly entertaining while being wrong. Legacy media journalists are neither. They are not only liars, but they are also exceptionally dull and devoid of any personality whatsoever. Sign me up to invite unattractive, dullard idiots into my living room! (said no one ever).

Whether it was the countless, verifiable lies peddled during the COVID-19 crisis, the collusion between government and media to suppress free speech, or every lie in between, it is safe to say nobody will be tuning into legacy media to listen to what is CORRECT. If the legacy media wants any hope of survival, they MUST ADAPT to sign talent that are VERIFIABLY CORRECT ON ISSUES and/or entertaining to watch. Because, Vandehei & others, you are NOT COMPETING WITH FOX NEWS, OR CNN, OR ROGAN, OR ELON’S TWITTER FOR THAT MATTER. Your competition is now, quite literally, ANY HUMAN who can record on their phone. And therein LIES THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH FOR JOURNALISTS. That, all along, there was no real barrier to entry to doing your jobs. You didn’t need to master partial differential equations, learn about supply and demand, or really do anything that activates your brain even one iota to become a journalist. You quite literally only need to be able to speak without drooling in front of a phone. This is not what a neurosurgeon does.

So, to any journalist still complaining, let me remind you that you are not complaining to any one human, but just yelling into the abyss of inevitable technological progress. You are hasbeens wondering why no one is riding horse and buggies anymore when Henry Ford introduced the Model T. Guess what, Vandehei & other geniuses, if Elon hadn’t bought twitter (Ford inventing the Model T), SOMEONE ELSE WOULD HAVE INVENTED THAT ALTERNATIVE. You are quite literally arguing against technological progress in the form of citizen journalism that is empirically, provably better than your horse and buggy business model. But, for “neurosurgeon adjacent” professionals like Vandehei & others, this is a much harder reality to accept than it is to blame one person. And so they blame Rogan, and Musk, and Trump. But you know how we will know WITHOUT QUESTION they are wrong? Because in 2028, Trump & others will be gone, YET THEIR FAILED BUSINESSES WILL STILL BE FAILED BUSINESSES. Then they will have finally realized it wasn’t a single person or group of people “coming after them” at all, but the sweet beat of that inevitable technological progress drum.