Scheer Robert Scheer its an honor to have you on the show great to be here you are bad i truly legendary career as a journalist ramparts magazine in the l. A. Times the nation true dig radio shows things have changed a lot over the years in some ways theyre actually fewer gate keepers then when you started and you know anyone can post articles online and ostensibly get them seen by the world but on the other hand the Mainstream Media is now owned by just a handful of massive corporations how do you feel journalism and news media have changed over the course of your career is it better or worse. We should not under our underestimate the worse at least there used to be something about attracting eyeballs or having readers and so when i was at the l a times it wasnt easy to fire me because there were lots of people want to read me so there was a marketplace restraint that is gone now they dont need eyeballs would you targeted advertising with the surveillance that is the norm to the inter
Fox 51 and because paul jones radio stations he has been a ground 0 for this economic crash because when people stay home businesses close and they stop advertising so paul take me back to early march when the shutdown 1st hit everybody was told to stay home how suddenly and how severely was local commerce in texas whacked and how close did your business come to the edge of a cliff. Well to get from the top immediately when we got the word essentially that april was going to be canceled. It had an Immediate Impact and a lot of advertiser say well if im going to be closed i cant spend money i cant advertise that which i cant deliver so we took over a raft of cancellations that all came in essentially on the same day and it had a you know very very profound impact immediately. We were fortunate however in that what was a essential business i percentage of our client base at this particular group of radio stations were quote unquote essential and so they got to stay open and they decided
Of the pledge of allegiance but 1st heres my talk with legendary journalist Robert Scheer Robert Scheer its an honor to have you on the show great to be here you are truly legendary career as a journalist ramparts magazine the l. A. Times the nation true dig radio shows things have changed a lot over the years in some ways there are actually fewer gatekeepers then when you started and you know anyone can post articles online and ostensibly get them seen by the world but on the other hand the Mainstream Media is now owned by just a handful of massive corporations how do you feel journalism and news media have changed over the course of your career is it better or worse. We should not under our underestimate the worse at least there used to be something about attracting eyeballs or having readers and so when i was at the l. A. Times it wasnt easy to fire me because there were lots of people want to read me so there was a marketplace restraint that is gone now they dont need eyeballs were
During the war. Two soldiers decided to form the nra. One is to facilitate and grow long range rifle ranges and the other was to assist the state nascars in marksmanship. The nra initially, just so you know, was kind of working to get appropriations from the government and they started off with one organization. The they grew to 1700 by 1929. They also are, just so you know, built on there was an English National rifle association, and they were that was the predecessor in 1859. The franchise model, you could start and build a rifle club locally or statewide and then you were nrr affiliate. Would the early founders of the nra recognize the Organization Today in 2020 . Oh, not at all. The organization was not at all intended to be political in any way. I think you could even say as late as 19 mid 1960s that the heads of that organization could not see what the nra has become today. The nra, it became a Political Organization, not focussed solely on marksmanship. The second thing i would
Advertising with the surveillance that is the norm to the internet they can get all the readers of the New York Times without putting an ad in the New York Times so the Business Model is broken and its just become a playground for the rich or for people who want to influence opinion they can buy the soul trash and newspapers and so thats thats the bad part of it theres absolutely no free market restraint there is nothing of that so on on the other hand as long as we have Net Neutrality the very instrument that killed journalism is a model the internet is also quite liberating and that you know i did have true to guy now i have sure posts and im able to interview you for example at the modern Technology Gives us a lot of voices out there which is why they want to smash Net Neutrality and centrist saying everybody talks about a contest and imus n. B. C. And these i want to ships as if they have no politics but the fact is you know theyre the people who dont want the extra net to be free