They're Already Dead, They Just Don't Know it Yet

We are in the post-mainsteam-media era, and everyone knows it but the “mainstream” themselves

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

There’s a great scene in The Wire in which dead-eyed drug lord Marlo Stanfield explains to an underling that they’re finally going to kill a loose-lipped associate whose murder they’ve long planned but had to forestall. “He was a dead man when he opened his mouth,” reflects Marlo. “He’s just walking around not knowing it.” It’s a phrase to consider when we often reflect on the position of the traditional and respectable media post-Trump’s 2nd election. The world is not merely changing but fully changed, and they’re still smugly burning through a credibility they don’t have with an audience that doesn’t exist: they’re already dead, they just don’t know it yet. Every piece of reporting in the old media about what new outlets people really listen to and why seems to confirm this.