Title TK - The First One
Hello! I have a newsletter now! As a lapsed writer/reporter/whatever I’ve been feeling the urge to write more, and to give a little more breathing room to some of the ideas that I frantically tweet about from time to time. I’m also very rusty and afraid of getting yelled at, so I figured a newsletter would be the safest and easiest way to do it. I called it Title TK because I used that as a placeholder and then decided that it was good enough for the ten people that are going to read this. If you’re unfamiliar with the abbreviation TK, you can read this.
This newsletter will nominally focus on “media” (ugh, I know, sorry!) specifically the business AND culture of digital media. That’s a roundabout way of saying that I have TAKES but I also know the difference between a DSP and a CPM. Not every one of these will have a theme (this one does). Please subscribe and if you like it, feel free to share it with your friends. If you hate it, send me death threats so that I can feel alive!
Oh no! Politics!
I really wanted the first edition of this newsletter to be relatively politics-free, but it’s hard to deny that this week brought some really interesting examples of the way that our political ecosystem is increasingly intersecting with the world of entertainment media. None of this should come as a surprise. After two decades of Rupert Murdoch pissing upstream with his unique brand if tabloid infotainment it was only a matter of time. Here are some words about that:
The NYT Endorsement
As a living person on the Earth, you are doubtless aware that the New York Times Editorial Board has finally bestowed upon the electorate its endorsement for the 2020 Democratic Primary season. In a tepid departure from tradition, the Times endorsed progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren and moderate Senator Amy Klobuchar. A number of headline writers have floated the adjective “unprecedented”, but it’s really a perfectly Timesian decision that allows the Gray Lady to sidestep the key question of the 2020 primary which is not which candidate, but rather which ideological lane Democrats should pursue on their path back to power.
In any event, it’s worth asking ourselves what the value of the Times’ endorsement is in a world where everyone has already pre-written their tweets of praise or disappointment. Unless the Upper West Side relocates to Iowa overnight, it’s unlikely to move the polls for Warren or Klobuchar. The Times (correctly, in my opinion) identifies the senators as the best possible exponents of their respective lanes within the Democratic Party, but it abstracts the context of the election itself. Warren is the most competent, widely appealing, 2016-baggage-free, progressive candidate in the race. Likewise, Klobuchar is a much more appealing and less problematic avatar of third-way center liberalism than Joe Biden. However, none of that changes the fact that on the ground they continue to be overshadowed by a web of grievances and personalities (in the persons of Biden and Sanders) from the 2016 election.
Ultimately, the most unprecedented aspect of the whole affair was the reality TV packaging the Times used to roll out its decision via it’s recently launched FX show The Weekly. As publishers digital and legacy look for new streams of revenue, they’re increasingly turning to Hollywood to help them mine “franchisable IP” and refine it into more profitable forms. I’m not sure if a quadrennial political endorsement is really a franchisable asset but I’m sure the good people at FX and their new overlords at Disney will explore all possible avenues to find out. It is, however, an indicator of this moment of fusion between entertainment and politics, that a major media conglomerate saw enough potential in what amounts to an Acela corridor thought experiment to turn it into a live reality TV extravaganza.
Super Bowl Political Ad Purgatory
Meanwhile, Fox will enjoy a major pay-day thanks to spend-thrift campaigns of Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump. Both the sitting President and his well-capitalized challenger dropped millions on dueling ads to run during the big game. In a nod to our polarized cultural moment, Fox has reportedly exiled both ads to a special block where they’ll be bookended by Fox house-ads rather than other sponsors to keep brands from being overshadowed by the unraveling of our shared cultural identity.
It’s a move that makes total sense for brand safety-conscious advertisers, but it also presents a larger question. If political advertising is so radioactive that it needs to be quarantined, does it really have any persuasive value? Probably not, but Fox is happy to turn a profit by producing an isolated ideological cage match all the same.
Hillary
"[Bernie] was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it." - Hillary Clinton
Oh boy...Hillary. Why?
Honestly, I have no desire to wade into the morass that is the great Clinton/Sanders contretemps, there’s been too much politics in this “media” newsletter already. Of course, the quote that launched a thousand Bernie fan tantrums didn’t run in Politico, nor was it in the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times. The quote was part of a feature in the Hollywood Reporter because this is, in reality, an entertainment story. Regardless of how it roils lefty Twitter or gets spun on 24-hour cable the quote is a fantastic marketing exercise for Hulu’s four-part series 'Hillary.’ (Set to premiere at Sundance this week)
Notably, ‘Hillary’ is the product of a partnership between Hulu and the Clinton family, will bow without even the ripple of controversy that accompanied the debut of Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions at Sundance last year. There’s nothing inherrently troubling about the fusion of politics and entertainment. Hollywood puts its money wherever our attention is and all eyes are certainly on politics. The trend to be wary of, on full display this week, is the degree to which entertainment companies may have started to get the upper hand. Political moments have always informed entertainment, but entertainment businesses shaping our politics should raise eyebrows.
Links
While reviewing Jane Kleeb’s Harvest the Vote, Ross Benes wrote an especially clear-eyed take on the “win the rural vote” school of punditry that we’re about to be inundated with as we enter the general election.
https://prospect.org/politics/taking-back-rural-america/
If you’re feeling a little low on existential dread, this story will top you off. Excellent reporting from Kashmir Hill who, in a delightful twist, is one of the first journalists to be ousted from Jim Spanfeller’s masterfully mismanaged G/O Media.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html
Allison P. Davis is one of the most gifted writers of celebrity profiles working and this one is no exception.
https://www.thecut.com/2020/01/aidy-bryant-shrill-snl.html
(For good measure you should also read her feature on the tumultuous life and death of the infamous media startup Babe.net)
https://www.thecut.com/2019/06/babe-net-aziz-ansari-date-rise-and-fall.html