MSNBC producer quits, says job 'forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions

[Ptarmigan]

MSNBC producer quits, says job 'forces skilled journalists to make bad decisions'
https://justthenews.com/accountability/media/msnbc-producer-quits-says-job-forces-skilled-journalists-make-bad-decisions

For the third time in a month, a major news figure has abruptly departed an organization, citing the media's flailing culture. This time it was MSNBC producer Ariana Pekary, who decried the news industry for becoming a "cancer" that "stokes national division."

Pekary on Monday tweeted out news of her departure from MSNBC, where she has produced host Lawrence O'Donnell's show, and directed followers to a personal Web site where she described her reasoning.

Some personal news: why I'm now leaving MSNBC It's not the optimal time for change but the time doesn't feel optional, anymore.https://t.co/HbZo0weiUs— Ariana Pekary (@arianapekary) August 3, 2020

The legacy media is a toxic world.

Pekary said that "behind closed doors, industry leaders will admit the damage that’s being done" and quoted a colleague who declared "wWe are a cancer and there is no cure.”

"As it is, this cancer stokes national division, even in the middle of a civil rights crisis. The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others… all because it pumps up the ratings," she added.

Pekary's sentiments mirror those of two other media figures who quit recently in protest.

Bari Weiss resigned last month as a New York Times opinion editor, saying the paper's liberal bias and obsession with social media clicks led to imbalance and newsroom bullying. "Intellectual curiosity” is “now a liability at The Times,” Weiss wrote. “Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.”

The Twitter mob controls the news media.

[Ptarmigan]

Even Inside MSNBC They Recognize Cable News Is Awful
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2020/08/06/even-inside-msnbc-they-recognize-cable-news-is-awful-n2573806

You know it’s bad in cable news when someone at MSNBC says cable news is no longer news. A woman named Ariana Pekary, who worked as a producer on “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” quit her job recently because she just couldn’t do it anymore. That she managed to stay any length of time working for a prima donna like Larry is a testament to her intestinal fortitude, but even a true believer has their limits. What has happened to cable news in the era of the Trump presidency was even too much for her.

I’ve been sounding this alarm for a few years now and even wrote a best-selling book about it. If you watch a “cable news debate” on any subject, there is a better-than-average chance that you’ll come away dumber. Which network doesn’t really matter. The level of knowledge of the guests is about the same: they’ve read a story about the topic and have an opinion.

You’d think I was joking, and I wish I was, but I’m not. Haven’t you noticed how the same people weigh in on everything? North Korea? Check. Health policy? Check. Taxes? Yep. Education? Same. The pandemic? There they are.

The legacy media is an echo chamber.

A lot of cable news contributors are like actors – they know they don’t have the knowledge, so they have to bring the bombast. They’ll tell you they don’t play a role, but most of them do play a role. Otherwise, their whole real lives would be spent yelling at everyone. The way Ariana put it is that the model “forces” producers “to make bad decisions on a daily basis.”

She continued, “The model blocks diversity of thought and content because the networks have incentive to amplify fringe voices and events, at the expense of others … all because it pumps up the ratings.”

I know this to be true. I’ve been personally told so by people in position to make those decisions. These networks aren’t concerned with conveying information--they check their ratings literally by the minute. What and who “rates well” dictate what is on the next day, not what’s actually newsworthy. That’s the opposite of what you’d expect from an organization with the word “news” right there in their name, but it’s true.

All about ratings. The way they are doing, it is not going to last forever.