Santos Scandal Shows Deficiency in Local News

THE LEDE

By now, you’ve heard of the many fabrications of “Representative” George Santos of New York. His resume was filled with lies and half-truths, and he repeatedly fibbed about his background while on the campaign trail. It’s the job of local news to interview and vet these candidates. But the dearth of news reporters allowed news of the Santos scam to slip through the cracks.

It should be noted that a local newspaper broke the story about Santos’ fabrications in September. Long Island-based?The North Shore Leader?asked pointed questions. According to the?Washington Post, the Leader carried the story…

… when few others were covering Santos, about his “inexplicable rise” in reported net worth, from essentially nothing in 2020 to as much as $11 million two years later.

The story noted other oddities about the self-described gay Trump supporter with Jewish heritage, who would go on to flip New York’s 3rd Congressional District from blue to red…

Normally, other regional newspapers would pick up the story and run with it. But these are not normal times in journalism. With massive layoffs in journalism, the system that would have amplified the story is no longer in place. Santos opponent, Robert Zimmerman, told the Washington Post:

… there were “many red flags that were brought to the attention of many folks in the media” but that “frankly, a lot of folks in the media are saying they didn’t have the personnel, time or money to delve further” into the story. “This experience has shown me just how important it is for everyone to support local media.”

Zimmerman makes a good point. A robust local news system would have almost certainly made a bigger deal of this story. But, since 2005, the number of journalists has dropped by 60 percent. Santos’ election is what happens when there aren’t enough people in local news to vet candidates properly.

NEWS AND NOTES

E.U. FINES META FOR ADVERTISING PRACTICES: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been fined more than $400 million by European Union regulators. According to the New York Times, the issue hinges on the advertising section of the company’s terms-of-services (TOS) agreement which “includes language that effectively means users must either allow their data to be used for personalized ads or stop using Meta’s social media services altogether.”

E.U. authorities had determined that placing the legal consent within the terms of service essentially forced users to accept personalized ads, violating the European law known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or G.D.P.R.

This is a big deal. A securities analyst told the Times the decision could cut as much as seven percent of Meta’s overall ad revenue

MICROSOFT BING SEARCH MAKES BILLIONS: If you’ve ever used Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, you know it’s perfectly good, but unremarkable. Bing is the butt of a lot of jokes, and some write themselves. (The top search on Bing is “Google.” Really.) But you might be surprised to know Bing brought in $8.5 billion in 2021. That’s almost as much as Twitter and Snap combined. Here’s a graph from?chartr:

Now, $8.5 billion is a lot less than Google’s $256 billion take, but it’s something. Microsoft’s total revenue in 2022 was almost $200 billion, and Bing is profitable and growing.

DISNEY+ GROWS TO SECOND-BIGGEST STREAMER: Here’s a great chart from?Adweek, which shows the state of streaming right now:

Disney+ is growing rapidly, seeing an increase from 118 million subscribers in 2021 to 165 million subs at the end of 2022. But the news isn’t all good for the OTT channel. Adweek notes that Disney lost $4 billion in 2022, with most of the losses coming from Disney+.

LINKS AND LIKES

“KHAN” RETURNS IN “STAR TREK” PODCAST:?The memorable villain from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” is returning to Trek, this time in podcast format. “Khan,” originally played by “Rich, Corinthian Leather” aficionado) Ricardo Montalban, will be the subject of the podcast “Star Trek: Khan — Ceti Alpha V,”?according to Looper.

The podcast will take place before the events of “Star Trek II” as “Khan” and his team are in exile. There aren’t a lot of details yet, but, as Spock would say: “Fascinating.”

I’M ON A PODCAST!:?I got a chance to be on the other side of the microphone and was a guest on The Boston Podcast, produced by Pod617. Host David Yas and I talked about TV shows on streaming that people may have missed. If you’re interested,?give us a listen.

BEYOND THE REMOTE

I turned 55 this past Tuesday and wrote a piece I posted on Facebook and LinkedIn called “25 Pieces of Advice for 25 Year-Olds From a 55 Year-Old.” Here it is:

1. Experiences are better than things

2. Pay extra for the better seats

3. Listening is as important a skill as speaking

4. Vote

5. Salary is important, but how you’re treated is more important

6. Network

7. Don’t confuse a sense of humor with a lack of seriousness

8. Travel is the best learning experience

9. If you don’t know how, ask

10. Find a mentor

11. Eat healthily and exercise

12. Give credit to others

13. Admit when you’re wrong

14. Visit friends

15. The shortest distance between two points is the way you know

16. If you get sick, advocate for yourself. Doctors are busy.

17. Everyone can benefit from talking to a mental health specialist

18. Never “ghost” people

19. Men: Buy a tux. They’re not that pricey, and you’ll be going to a lot of weddings.

20. Carry a notebook with you

21. Listen to music every day

22. Have a hobby

23. Self-check for breast/testicular cancer regularly

24. Do silly things

25. Buy, don’t lease

I got good feedback on this, and it led me to add:

26: Start saving for retirement.

27: Have a friend with whom you disagree politically. You will learn from them.

28. Read.

What advice would you add? Let me know in the comments.

Oh - and Happy New Year!

Newsletter #36

Founder/Writer: Steve Safran

Editor: John Cockrell

Copyright 2023

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