Is Mass Media Headed Toward Extinction?

Plus: Tucker Carlson's boring interview with Putin; keeping safe in Rafah; and using art works to protect Julian Assange. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, February 10, 2024 In today’s newsletter, The Weekend Essay, and then: • Tucker Carlson’s boring interview with Vladimir Putin • A Palestinian aid worker trying to keep his family safe • The artist holding art hostage to protect Julian Assange Is the Media Prepared for an Extinction-Level Event? Ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out. The future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience. By Clare Malone Illustration by Nicholas Konrad; Source photographs from Alamy / Getty My first job in media was as an assistant at The American Prospect, a small political magazine in Washington, D.C., that offered a promising foothold in journalism. I helped with the print order, mailed checks to writers—after receiving lots of e-mails asking, politely, Where is my money?—and ran the intern program. This last responsibility allowed me a small joy: every couple of weeks, a respected journalist would come into the office for a brown-bag lunch in our conference room, giving our most recent group of twentysomethings a chance to ask for practical advice about “making it.” One man told us to embrace a kind of youthful workaholism, before we became encumbered by kids and families. An investigative reporter implored us to file our taxes and to keep our personal lives in order—never give the rich and powerful a way to undercut your journalism. But perhaps the most memorable piece of advice was from a late-career writer who didn’t mince words. You want to make it in journalism, he said? Marry rich. We laughed. He didn’t. Keep reading From the News Desk News Desk Tucker Carlson Promised an Unedited Putin. The Result Was Boring The Russian President aired well-trod grievances and gave a lecture full of spurious history meant to justify his war in Ukraine. By Masha Gessen Q. & A. Trying to Keep His Family Safe in Rafah A Palestinian aid worker describes his long journey to the city, and how he talks to his kids about air strikes. By Isaac Chotiner The Political Scene Podcast Can Joe Biden Squash Concerns About His Age? A special counsel’s report renews worries about the President’s mental acuity, and Mitch McConnell seemingly loses his grip on his conference. Editor’s Pick Persons of Interest The Artist Holding Valuable Art Hostage to Protect Julian Assange Andrei Molodkin says he will destroy works by Picasso, Rembrandt, and Warhol if the WikiLeaks founder dies in prison. By Nadia Beard Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. You Dreamed of Empires, by Álvaro Enrigue, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Riverhead). This incantatory novel takes place in 1519, on the day when Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors arrived at Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. As they await an audience with the mercurial, mushroom-addled emperor, Moctezuma, the conquistadors navigate his labyrinthine palace, stumble upon sacrificial temples, and tend to their horses, all the while wondering if they are truly guests or, in fact, prisoners. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Last Acts, by Alexander Sammartino (Scribner). The events of this satirical début novel are catalyzed by a nearly fatal opioid overdose suffered by the estranged son of a gun-store proprietor. Together, the father and son embark on a journey across the Arizona desert, endeavoring to save their failing business from bankruptcy, overcome drug addiction, and heal their traumatized relationship. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Dictionary People, by Sarah Ogilvie (Knopf). Unlike previous English dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary aimed to document not how words should be used but how they were actually used. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, thousands of people copied snippets from their reading onto slips of paper and mailed them to Oxford, where they were sorted and analyzed. This eclectic group, whom Ogilvie portrays with humor and affection, included vicars, murderers, Karl Marx’s daughter, and members of Virginia Woolf’s father’s walking club. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Melancholy Wedgwood, by Iris Moon (MIT). In this unorthodox history, Moon, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, casts aside the traditional, heroic portrait of the English ceramicist and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and envisions the potter as a symbol of Britain’s post-colonial melancholia. Touching lightly on the well-trodden terrain of Wedgwood’s biography, Moon focusses on the story’s “leftovers,” among them the amputation of Wedgwood’s leg; his wayward son, Tom; the figure of the Black man in his famous antislavery medallion; and the overworked laborers in his factory. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. More recommendations What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Page-Turner Diary of an Abomination In an illustrated depiction of a young girl’s self-discovery, monstrosity is only skin-deep. By Emil Ferris Fiction “That Girl” Shirlee looked up and caught her gaze. She smiled, took a bite out of her Kool-Aid pickle, and scooted over to give Theo sour, bitter kisses. By Addie Citchens This Week in Fiction Addie Citchens on Love as an Altar The author discusses her story from the latest issue of the magazine. By Dennis Zhou Fun & Games Dept. Shouts & Murmurs My Waiting List’s Waiting List Grounds for automatic expulsion is asking what the waiting list is for. By Jack Handey Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play our trivia game » Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.