Why Mainstream Media is Failing Us with Izabella Kaminska - WBD638

Izabella Kaminska is a journalist and founder and editor of The
Blind Spot. In this interview, we discuss the failure of current
mainstream journalism to cover subjects properly, why the
destruction of the middle class is dangerous for democracy, the
endemic problem of corruption in politics, and the need for an
honest economic orthodoxy.


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In a lot of ways, we are in a gold age of media. There have never
been so many different ways to consume news and opinion. This has
been triggered by many factors: deregulation, technology and the
atomisation of modern society. But, this also creates a
significant number of problems. Principally, whilst there is more
freely accessible information, it is now harder to discern fact
from fake.


The commercialisation of news has resulted in a race for
clickbait: polarising reporting, increasing sensationalism, and
relegating in-depth examination. Conversely, those organisations
seeking to remain impartial such as the BBC, end up getting lost
in a sea of conflicting missions. This has resulted in the BBC
failing in its main mission to inform, educate and entertain.


This is why new media brands are becoming important promulgators
of information, increasingly at the expense of traditional media
organisations. Amongst all the noise, people are looking for
honest and relatable brokers of news. Further, people are craving
more intellectually curious, nuanced and detailed analysis. This
is the demand Izabella Kaminska’s The Blind Spot media venture is
seeking to fill. A demand that mainstream media is unwilling or
unable to satisfy.


It’s hard: building a new brand takes time. But, without such
content, groups on both the left and right will continue to
mischaracterize issues that require understanding, trade-offs and
proportionality. This will exacerbate the problems of
polarisation and the veiled promotion of corporate interests. We
need more journalists like Isabella willing to report the truth.