A.G.’s Media Diet
It’s been over seven years since I last wrote about which media I regularly consume. In that post, titled “Rachel Maddow: Journalist First,” I recounted how my wife constantly cajoled me to consider the other side of the mediaverse. My default response: no thanks. I prefer actual journalism, not both-sides commentary or so-called news reports of dubious origin or questionable accuracy, e.g., CNN and Fox News, respectively.
It was therefore edifying to plug into Peter Kafka’s latest “Channels” podcast for a timely and provocative conversation with the publisher of The New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, whom Peter last interviewed at the Code Conference in January 2019. The video link to that convo is here.
My personal interest in the “newspaper-of-record” started in high school after reading Gay Talese’s seminal tome, “The Kingdom and the Power.” Many years later, I found myself actually representing that very paper at pivotal moments in its nearly 175-year history.
My work included supporting the 100th anniversary of the Ochs-Sulzberger family’s ownership of the paper, the transition of “The Gray Lady” to a full-color broadsheet, the launches of “New York Times of the Web” and “New Yortk Today,” and The Times’s first attempt to erect a paywall at a time when digital eyeballs were thought to be monetizable. That last effort, TimesSelect, was premature (and prescient), but ultimately failed. Today, paying Times subscribers comprise the bulk of The Times’s revenue base.
As a regular visitor to West 43rd Street and then Eighth Avenue, I developed a deep, biding appreciation for the practice and principles of journalism “without fear or favor.” I remember one incident involving the renaming of West 43rd Street to Adolph S. Ochs St. to mark the family’s 100th anniversary as owners. We gathered early that morning in front of The Times’s iconic headquarters for an on-the-street presser to unveil the new sign. A.G.’s father, grandfather, and Mayor Giuliani were slated to speak.
Giuliani’s advance person soon approached me to say he did not like the angle of the sign in relation to the press riser and asked that we reposition it for the media photo-op. For any other client, I might have acquiesced, but not for this one. No fakery here. The sign stood firm. I recall a similar incident in which a late-arriving news photographer asked the president of The Associated Press (another past client), at a 150th anniversary presser, to re-take the podium for photos. That did not go over too well, nor did Lou Boccardi acquiesce.
During Peter Kafka’s latest podcast, there was one particular exchange, of many, that resonated for me:
A.G. Sulzberger: “The news source that is worthy of your trust should be challenging you on some regular basis. And if you find yourself just nodding along with your news source, I would recommend expanding your news diet.”
(I suppose this is what my wife was trying to convey.)
Peter Kafka: “What news source are you consuming that would surprise people listening to this conversation? Are you a Steve Bannon ‘War Room’ fan?”
A.G. Sulzberger: “I’m less interested in the so-called talk ecosystem, you know, the pundit ecosystem…I’m looking into the reporting ecosystem. I’m less drawn to cable. I basically watch no cable, and I’m less drawn to the podcast ecosystem.
The folks I read most closely, after The Times: The Journal, The Post, The FT, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, New York Magazine…so that ecosystem. And then a bunch of digital media…Substacks and newsletters that find their way to me.”
A.G.’s media ecosystem uncannily aligns with my own, but without the journals and reporters who cover my clients and their industries. I also follow many influential, digitally native outlets like The Information, Axios, Puck, Semafor, and Pro Publica, plus various newsletters and podcasts.
Yet you might ask: how is this an “expansion” of your “news diet?” Why isn’t Fox News, the Daily Caller, or Newsmax in the mix? The answer is simple: these outlets do not practice journalism. The media I consume offer fastidious reporting that is rich in quality and varied by topic, not solely created through a political or cultural lens.
Furthermore, the notion that the news media is “liberally biased” is a political talking point fabricated to undermine the Fourth Estate’s constitutionally protected power to hold wrongdoers to account for their malfeasance. (Gay Talese didn’t choose the title of his book by accident.) In fact, liberal dominance of today’s media ecosystem is a fallacy, according to a recent study by Media Matters for America, which found that:
“Right-leaning online shows had at least 480.6 million total followers and subscribers — nearly five times as many as left-leaning. Nine out of the 10 online shows with the largest followings across platforms were right-leaning, with a total following of more than 197 million
Sadly, the years-long campaign to quash quality journalism has gone into overdrive with the second Trump Administration’s quest to adopt Putin, Orban, and Modi’s model for news reporting, i.e., state-controlled. Saner minds hope that the First Amendment will ultimately prevail.
A.G.Sulzberger: “The model of journalism that I’m talking about is about following the facts where they lead….My great-grandfather had a line: ‘I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out.’ Being independent doesn't mean both sides where you create some sort of false equivalency so you could never be accused of bias by one side or another.”
As for the aforementioned Rachel Maddow, I would describe her nightly reporting on the “first 100 days” of Trump’s second term as both revelatory and well within the parameters of fact-based journalism. While we all know on which side of the political aisle she resides, nothing leaves her lips that hasn’t first been verified by her team of researchers. Same goes for John Oliver, btw. This cannot be said of Fox News.
I encourage you to listen to Peter and A.G.’s conversation here. Finally, I really hope MSNBC submits TRM‘s “First 100 days” for a 2026 duPont-Columbia Award. The deadline for submissions is fast approaching.
