Until the early 1990s, print journalism had relied on essentially the same technology ever since well before the American Revolution.
Newspapers, broadsheets, magazines, and books had all existed when the Constitution was written and their co-dependence was critical to how democracy in North America evolved.
The Constitution with its First Amendment guaranteeing our rights as the press wasn’t broadcast and it wasn’t posted to the Web. It didn’t get tweeted or followed on Instagram. No one made a YouTube video about it. You couldn’t tell your friends on Facebook or TikTok about it. You also could not scroll through it on your cellphone, send a text about it, or “own” a copy as an NFT.
It’s true that earlier in the 20th century, another form of electronic technology, radio, had disrupted the publishing industry, followed by a few decades its close cousin television, but the federal government had regulated both of those much more tightly than print — largely to minimize the potential for authoritarian abuse.
The initial regulatory structure for the airwaves was established in the 1920s and led by Herbert Hoover, who was the leading voice for how to preserve free speech while managing the anti-democratic threat posed by radio. The Communications Act of 1934 codified these principles and extended them to telecommunications.
But by the time web browsers came along in the last decade of the century, the traditional regulatory structure could not be reasonably extended to the Internet without stifling the growth of a lucrative new industry.
Congress debated what to do and the result was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. That regulation essentially guaranteed the freedom of web-based companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple and (soon) Google, Facebook, and Twitter to host user-generated content without being liable for its accuracy or fairness.
This instantly put both print and broadcast media outlets at a major disadvantage, one from which they have never recovered. What it actually meant in practice is that anyone could now call himself or herself a journalist and attract an audience for their claims, however bizarre and undocumented they might be.
Millions of people quickly took advantage of that opportunity and new websites popped up everywhere. Among them were a handful, like Wired, Salon and Slate in the early years, that attempted to preserve the quality standards of traditional journalism during the transition to this new interactive digital world, with varying degrees of success. (I was at both Salon and Wired during this period.)
But the traditional media and new media alike were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new information sources. Very rapidly, the existing world of media began to crumble into ruins.
Thirty years later, it’s fair to say we are paying the price for what’s been lost.
HEADLINES:
U.S. economy is experiencing ‘death by a thousand cuts’, says Deutsche Bank, as confidence in national debt management erodes (Fortune)
Lawyers accuse Trump administration of deporting Vietnamese and Burmese migrants to South Sudan in violation of court order (CNN)
Majority of US companies say they have to raise prices due to Trump tariffs (Guardian)
New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver faces felony assault charge in conflict at ICE facility, court filing shows (Politico)
This is a fight over Obamacare, again (Axios)
Why Walmart decided to say it would raise prices — and risk Trump’s fury (CNBC)
A maintenance worker was arrested after a New Orleans jailbreak. (NPR)
A family divide shows how the ‘strongest bond’ between US and Canada is being broken (CNN)
Sea level rise will cause ‘catastrophic inland migration’, scientists warn (Guardian)
White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working. (WP)
While Trump overhauls FEMA, Mississippi tornado survivors await assistance (AP)
Trump unveils plans for 'Golden Dome' defence system (BBC)
Iran's Khamenei slams 'outrageous' US demands in nuclear talks (Reuters)
Trump Calls For Investigations of Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah and U2’s Bono for Endorsing Harris (Daily Kos)
New Trump vaccine policy limits access to COVID shots (AP)
Head Start preschool programs for low-income US children are scrambling to cope with funding cuts and delays, as they feel the squeeze of Trump's cost-cutting drive. Meanwhile, Trump's mass layoff threat drives tens of thousands of US government workers to resign. (Reuters)
Trump administration pulls $60M in Harvard grants in third round of cuts (WP)
Israeli air strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians in Gaza, local health authorities said, as Israel continues its bombardment despite mounting international pressure to stop military operations and allow aid into Gaza unimpeded. (Reuters)
How Miami Schools Are Leading 100,000 Students Into the A.I. Future (NYT)
Google will let you ‘try on’ clothes with AI (Verge)
Zero-click searches: Google’s AI tools are the culmination of its hubris (ArsTechnica)
Can AI therapists really be an alternative to human help? (BBC)
I’m a LinkedIn Executive. I See the Bottom Rung of the Career Ladder Breaking. (NYT)
AI Mode is obviously the future of Google Search (Verge)
Artificial intelligence was more persuasive than humans in a new study. (WP)
Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist (404)
Plan To Straighten Out Entire Life During Weeklong Vacation Yields Mixed Results (The Onion)
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