Wilson's Wisdom

The people telling us to give Trump a chance are the same overpaid wankers who missed the tsunami that got him elected.

The most educated person I've ever known was Tony Wilson, majordomo of Factory Records. Want to know more? Pull up "24 Hour Party People," the movie they made about his life. You'll learn about the Hacienda, Happy Mondays and the genesis of dance music culture, it will not be a wasted two hours.

And being with Anthony H. Wilson was never a waste of time.

Tony's dead now. The Big C got him back in 2007. He was fine just the fall before, when I was in Manchester, he had a conference there called "In The City," and although it never made much money, it was a fountain of stimulation. Tony dug down deep into the music archives and extracted such people as Hank Shocklee, the legendary hip-hop producer, as well as attracting luminaries like Matthew Knowles and seemingly everybody who was anybody in the English music business. That's where I met Richard Russell, the most successful A&R man working today, with a track record almost as good as Pixar's, as well as coming face to face with Chris Blackwell and so many other famous names.

I always flew in the day before so Tony and I could hang. We'd catch up on our personal lives, the state of the music business, and then Tony would teach me history, give me a tour of the landmarks, take me to Liverpool to see the Mersey... He once took me to Town Hall and told me the backstory of paintings that went back hundreds of years, each and every one of them.

And he also told me about his first job out of Cambridge, at Granada Television, being the man behind the scenes at the TV news.

Now Tony's version of the story was that the anchor screwed up. The anchor blamed the problem on Tony.

And what was the problem?

The European football scores were reversed. This was the late night Saturday news, and the anchor said the winner was the loser and the loser was the winner and...

On Monday morning the big boss called Tony into his office and said he was going to fire him.

Tony was aghast. He believed it wasn't his fault and this was a bad beginning and who cared about these foreign scores anyway?

Which is exactly what the big boss said. That no one cared about the European football scores on the late night telecast. But if they couldn't even get that right, the viewers would wonder what else were they getting wrong!

This story always stuck with me. It's the tells that make you suspicious. The guy who brags he's so rich and then shows up in a Ford Fiesta. The one who mispronounces the name of the club. Who cares what kind of car someone drives, who cares whether the pronunciation is right, but if he's lying about this, WHAT ELSE IS HE LYING ABOUT?

I can't read the newspaper. Never mind watch television. Donald Trump ran for President in plain sight and these people missed it, all of them. What else are they missing?

I know, I know, everybody's talking about fake news and how you should buy and trust your local newspaper but I'm not so sure anymore. Especially after reading that "Bloomberg Businessweek" story about the nitwit who bought Tribune and turned it into tronc. Rupert Murdoch is not the only one who purveys biased news.

It's bad folks, it's very bad. And for those of you who voted for Trump who wanted change?

Get back to me when your daughter can't get an abortion. He's already gone on record he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade.

And if you're counting on a social safety net if you lose your job, or for protection from the crowd, good luck. It was open season on black people when Obama was in office. Now?

The newspaper was the ultimate filter, the curator. Then we found out the media missed so many stories. It's the web that surfaces the non-mainstream stuff. As for Trump... Anybody who interacted online could gauge his support. Hell, I'm gonna get hate mail for writing this!

We've got to push back. We've got to take over the Democratic Party from its present ruling faction, which is so deep in the bubble it can't see the exit. Kind of like SNL. I've got to hear every week how great it is, but then I pull up the clips AND THEY'RE NOT FUNNY!

I'm reeling. I used to trust the institutions, now I no longer do.

This is not about the "lamestream media," that's just Sarah Palin and the rest of the right wingers working the refs. But the truth is the left wing is afraid of the refs, it won't push back.

So I'm pushing back.

Someone needs to lose their job over this. Not only Billy Bush, but the person in charge of the polling for the "New York Times," that person has got to go, the whole team has to go. Actions have consequences, and these people threw the election, believe me, if the numbers showed Trump ahead Democrats would have gotten out and voted, not been complacent. Judith Miller got us into Iraq, she got booted. Boot a few more!

But no, the "New York Times" is paying fealty to the Rust Belt, saying it will do better, which is kind of like a serial rapist saying he'll keep his pants zipped up from here on out, huh?

If you're making seven figures a year at the TV station your life is good. You can wait for change. You've got a contract, you believe you'll adjust.

If you're working for the paper, you think daddy will protect you. You're not like the rest of us, who gave up full employment and are now independent contractors trying to put food on the table as we pay for rent, never mind health insurance.

As for reporters... With their inane "who, what, why, where and when," never mind "how," that's not the era we live in any more. There's an expert in every field and he or she is testifying online and let's amplify their voices instead of the words of these know-nothings.

That's right, I was at lunch Friday with a heavy hitter, the toppermost of the entertainment world, and I asked him if reporters ever called him... He said ALL THE TIME! Did they know anything? NOTHING! And was the article ever right? NEVER!

This happens to me on a regular basis. Some of the most trusted news outlets extant will call me for a quote. The reporter knows nothing about the subject, I take half an hour to explain it and they still get it wrong. Even worse, some of these ignoramuses argue with me because what I'm saying doesn't fit their narrative.

Once again, if they can't get entertainment reporting right, what are the odds they're getting it right on the big issues, like politics?

And politics is the big issue right now, it's everything.

Be very afraid. This is not business as usual. We're down for the count and they're playing with brass knuckles. An anti-Semite in the cabinet? What's next, expelling Muslims?

You bet. No one is safe. And if you think I'm being histrionic you never grew up in a family, where the parents have absolute power.

The Republicans have absolute power. They control each and every branch of the government. And if you're expecting the media to protect us...

As Judas Priest so eloquently put it...

You've got another thing comin'.

"Tronc If You Want to Save Journalism": https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-tronc/?utm_source=phplist5636&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Wilson%27s+Wisdom


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