As if the U.S. news business needed any more beating about the head and the shoulders, a leading Israeli economics columnist has now taken his turn. On Apr. 28, Sever Plocker (pronounced Plotzker), economics columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth (Israel’s largest daily) devoted an entire column to explaining the reasons for the decline of the U.S. newspaper industry.
“America’s print journalism is losing readers and advertising, because business-wise, politically, and culturally it is stuck in the 1960s,” Plocker wrote. “It is overly serious, its stories are too long, its style is patronizing, and it avoids essential geographical reorganization.”
Plocker wonders, for example why the Boston Globe even bothers staying in business: “Who needs the Boston Globe, a newspaper published by the Times group while sustaining heavy losses? …The media distance between Boston and New York does not justify the newspaper’s existence.” (Don’t take it personally, Bostonians — He also questions the raison d’etre of the local dailies in Philadelphia and Baltimore.) He suggests strong national papers with local editions.
Plocker critiques the media’s handling of the Iraq War (first as blind obedience to the White House line and now as blind obedience to the opposite line), and coverage of Barack Obama. He also describes a recent Time magazine piece about Obama’s mother as containing “expressions that are reminiscent of the fantastic childhood tales of communist leaders as presented by the Soviet press.”
Plocker continues, “The combination of a geographical split, subjugation to political correctness, and an elitist discourse has made the American press boring and unreliable, and has resulted in declining readership.”
While there is a kernel of truth in Plocker’s analysis, I had a difficult time keeping a straight face while reading it.
U.S. news stories are too long? Plocker’s own paper routinely runs weekend section articles that run on for 4,000 words or more.
Elitist discourse? Israeli media outlets are full of ennui and weariness. Media celebrities, draft evaders, and Israelis living outside the country are lauded as being the only true Israelis — despite evidence that the vast majority of Israelis serve in the army, are happy with their lives, and believe in Israel on the eve of its 60th anniversary celebrations. Read Is Israel really that bad? by media superstar Yair Lapid to get a sense of that side of the country.
Patronizing style? Anyone living outside the Tel Aviv metropolitan area is either dismissed by the Israeli media as quaint rustics, arriviste immigrants who will never understand or appreciate secular Hebrew culture, or wild-eyed ideological (i.e., religious) fanatics.
However, Plocker does redeem himself a bit toward the end with a bit of advice that he should apply at home, as well: “Print journalism should be helping its readers understand the drama of the highly complex life in the early 21st century, without simplifying it too much.”
(Disclosure: I was the founding editor of Ynetnews, the English-language site of Yedioth Ahronoth, and while there I brought Plocker’s columns into English for the first time.)
