Transcript: Kimmel Suspension Is Another Shameless Media Capitulation

Bacon: Anna, you mentioned at the beginning, or you mentioned a few minutes ago about smaller outlets and I, and I’m thinking about that myself. It’s like if the New York Times has a big legal team or has a lot of money, has a lot of issue of memory, I think they have a legal team. The Post in theory is backed by a ‘cause, you know, a billionaire.

Uh, so how I am concerned, I mean, are you, I’ll ask you this personally. Are you, are you worried about the outlets you write for that they might, because Gawker they might, they might be sued out of existence. How, how real do you feel about that?

Cox: I think about it when I have to pay my mortgage every month.

I mean, like, these are the institutions, like these are the places that I have worked at. I mean, I’ve also written for all the big places, but it’s been harder to find, you know, work from there. Like one of the things I’ve pointed out to my MSNBC dad is that, don’t you notice that there are fewer contributors that like, there are just like fewer voices on that network.

And I think like that’s something you’re seeing everywhere. And I think unfortunately with the smaller and smaller outlets, one issue is we’re not just, just not prepared to be able to take on the work that a place like the Times can do, right? Like we can do really important stuff and we can help push the conversation, but like where do you go for the really important big investigations, right?

Like I love ProPublica. I think that’s an interesting model, but it has public support, right? Like that is, I think. The future. 

We need, like I just was just writing about this, in some ways we need anti-capitalist models of production. In order to continue to do the work that we have to do, we need cooperatives, we need like some kind of nonprofit funding.

We need to have like the resources to continue be the voice for criticism and dissent and information, right? Like, I love 404 Media. I love Defector. Like those are the places that we have to, like, support. People are, you know, people are listening. Like, I can’t tell people to unsubscribe from the Times because I still think we really need it.

But if you are interested in the future of journalism and sustaining the kind of like really powerful, you know, alternatives that can speak back to places like the Times and Critic. I think one of the roles that we can play, like you and I personally, like can play is to get, is to articulate the criticisms of these larger places, right?

And if support can come from larger bases, from people who can like spare, like something I tell people all the time, like the New Republic subscription is not… it’s a bargain.