Idea I'm workshopping: one of the failures of our elites, and especially of elite media, is that consequences come slowly, if at all. Obviously there's the much-delayed legal system (even more so for the wealthy), but things like reputational damage take time to show up. 1/
This might be survivable if leadership was trained and attuned to long-term thinking. But since the mid-80s, the focus has been on quarterly earnings report and maximizing shareholder value 2/
This gives us organizations and outlets that are 1) uniquely bad at judging medium- and long-term risks, 2) do not receive enough "consequence" inputs to make effective short-term decisions. Everything will just continue along as it is, forever! (This is all propped up with infinite tech money.) 3/
But when things do start going bad––enrollment or subscription figures drop, tech money dries up due to an AI-bubble bursting, the lawsuits finally end up in court dates, etc––it's way, way too late. The reputation is catastrophically damaged, the subscriber base has moved elsewhere. 4/