I've been sounding the alarm that the corporate world's literal skin-deep focus on "diversity" was ultimately a way to box yourself in ideologically. If the only thing you can say is that we have a diversity of skin color and gender, but ultimately no diversity of though, then you're not really getting different perspectives, just different ways of seeing the same thing.
At the end of the day, that kind of diversity isn't really any kind of diversity at all.
That's exactly the issue the corporate media has faced for some time now, and it's one of the bigger reasons it's so wildly unloved. They told themselves stories they wanted to hear until they began only telling stories that fit their world view, causing them to disconnect from reality and flat-out lie to keep their worldview intact.
One thing that shouldn't go overlooked about Kamala Harris's loss is that this was a mighty rebuke of the corporate media complex, as Harris was an entirely media-generated candidate. She had no real leadership qualities. She could hardly lead a rally, much less a nation. So the media had to work overtime in order to create a Harris that was. Her inability to be appealing certainly was an issue, but what really hurt the campaign is that the damage the media had done to itself made it impossible to make Harris a candidate worth voting for.
Now that Donald Trump won, the media only seems to be recognizing its folly and, according to some reports, is finally willing to diversify its writers and talking heads.
There were reports that "The View," that vaunted home of intellectuals and logical thinking, is now scrambling for people to be on the show that are Trump supporters.
According to the New York Post, ABC is in "panic mode" and are on the hunt for "conservative voices to balance the rabid anti-Trump rhetoric spewed by the hosts on “The View,” as well as those on other shows":
ABC News Group President Debra OConnell and her recently elevated boss of ABC News Almin Karamehmedovic held the intense sit-downs with executive producers of the network’s various shows and other senior editorial leaders, sources said.
First on the agenda, according to one insider, is finding a pro-Trump panelist for its top-ranked daytime talk show, co-hosted by ultra-liberals Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines, as well as Republican Trump-bashers Ana Navarro and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
“The View is facing pressure from higher-ups,” the source said. “Viewers can expect some major changes including bringing in new panelists that can bring in a pro-Trump perspective.”
To be honest, this feels a lot like ABC is attempting to get some of their more rabid panelists to quit on their own. "Rabid" was a good word to describe them, and the inclusion of a pro-Trump voice on the panel will likely be too much for some of the hosts, like Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar.
The only people who would miss them are conservative writers and commentators like myself, who get an endless supply of commentary to post about, but I imagine ABC is beginning to see them as dead weight. That's just my speculation, but Goldberg and Behar's attitudes are exactly the kind of elitist thinking that the American people rejected outright with the election of Trump.
But ABC isn't the only one. Los Angeles Times owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, also said he's going to include more conservative voices as well, stating that it's important that all of California's diverse political opinions, and indeed, the nation's, are represented at his paper.
Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong vows to chart a new course and ensure "all voices" are heard.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 15, 2024
A very promising development. pic.twitter.com/arpVbPAZri
To be clear, neither one of these networks are suddenly realizing that conservatism is valid. This is merely corporations moving with the market. However, I would say that it was pretty clear the market was pretty diverse long ago, but they'd convinced themselves it wasn't.
Again, a sign of just how damaging an ideological bubble can be, and a good lesson for anyone paying attention.
That said, when it comes to news, this turnaround might come too late. The news landscape has changed. The number one place to stay up-to-date now is X, which sports a lot of different voices from a lot of different places, giving you the news as it happens. Corporate news is a slow, lumbering beast where updates and reports have to go through channels before it's put on the air.
By the time Fox News or CNN, and especially ABC reports on news, a great deal of America already knows about it. In fact, often, the news ABC reports is out-of-date by a few hours.
Corporate media's relevancy will, for the time being, rely mostly on its commentary shows when it comes to news. The View will likely remain popular, especially if it begins including pro-Trump voices, because it will be fun to see sparks fly. CNN panels will be fun to watch because Jennings is a blast when he's taking down an entire room of his colleagues... that's if he's not selected as Press Secretary.
But for the most part, the news now belongs to the people, and that's a good thing. You can still find a cast of characters on television and online that you can support from the corporate world, but for now, the corporate world's hold on the news is an atrophied mess.
