In 1993, novelist Michael Crichton wrote an article that really ticked off the media types. He predicted their impending demise. Of course, the downward spiral doesn't follow the timeframe he set forth, but it's rather typical of visionaries. George Orwell wrote a book titled "1984", but his prophetic perspectives didn't really start to gain much traction in the USA until the late 1990's. The strictures that he warned of arrived; it just took a bit longer than he had anticipated. The important thing, in both cases, is that they came to pass.
Orwell defined a world in which history was constantly revised, and in which "newspeak" was the norm. Video surveillance was inescapable. And we have it today, although "newspeak" isn't referred to by that name. We call it "political correctness".
Similarly, Crichton's article was ahead of its time, but nonetheless correctly predicted the fall of lamestream media. "[T]he American media produce a product of very poor quality," he lectured. "Its information is not reliable, it has too much chrome and glitz, its doors rattle, it breaks down almost immediately, and it's sold without warranty. It's flashy but it's basically junk."
Today, The Oregonian sheds subscriptions at roughly the rate of one percent per month: death by a thousand cuts. The New York Times, former monarch of American media, is cutting jobs as circulation drops - and ad revenue along with it. Dominated by strident Leftists, substituting opinion for actual reporting, the media giants in America are suddenly finding that people are increasingly ignoring them.
Given the incredible (editor-supported) ploys that have occurred at The New York Times and the "big three" broadcast television networks, consumers recognize that these sources cannot be trusted to do responsible journalism; most people recognize that the dominant figures in lamestream American media have no clue as to what actual journalism is supposed to be about. Crichton had it right in 1993.
At this point, there is nothing that these companies can do to repair the damage. They've worked so long to "position" their institutions that they have managed to effectively eliminate any ability to respond to changing conditions. They're so indoctrinated that they can't even recognize that conditions have changed.
Their answer to the rise of talk radio (and the abject failure of Leftist talk radio): "let's pass a law; we'll call it the 'fairness doctrine'. Because those conservatives have no business on our airwaves."
They just don't get it. Their failure is always the fault of somebody else. They're completely unable to grasp the fact that their failures are their own. Opinion and guesses presented as "news" just doesn't sell today. Reporting from reality, I'm Tim Day, for Channel X news. Back to you, Laura.