Why Journalism Is Like Stinky Cheese
And updates on previous stories
People in the cheese business have a useful motto. It’s simple and easy to remember:
Sell it or smell it.
You ignore that sage advice at great cost. Every cheese turns into blue cheese if you hold on to it too long.
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Many other businesses resemble the cheese trade—especially in the culture economy. Movies lose their drawing power in a few months, or even weeks. The same is true of new music and new books.
But journalism is the worst of all. It starts to smell after a few days. You can even sniff out its pungent aroma over the web.
That’s why most journalists avoid revisiting past stories. They are better buried and forgotten. Yes, there’s a good reason why newspapers call their files the “morgue.”
But we break that rule here at The Honest Broker.
I regularly revisit previous articles. I want to see what I got right and what I missed—but I especially want to learn what happened next. The epilogue is often more interesting than the original story.
Today I revisit some controversial articles from the past, and see how things turned out.
Just when you thought Google couldn’t get worse….
How did the search business turn into a search-and-destroy mission?
I’ve covered the ugly process here in several articles. But it got so bad recently that I made an audacious claim: “The World’s Largest Search Engine Doesn’t Want You to Search.”
Could that really be true?
Last week, Google not only validated my complaint, but went far beyond anything I could anticipate.
Google actually removed all links from its new prototype. We have now arrived at search-free searching:
Instead of serving up a list of links, the new feature uses Google’s massive search index to generate answers to queries in a conversational way that is similar to chatbots like ChatGPT….
Google’s AI features have faced pushback from publishers and other websites, as they are designed to keep users on its own platform through so-called zero-click search.
This feature is currently only available on a limited basis, but according to The Independent, “it will likely follow a similar launch pattern to previous AI tools, which become available more widely if successful.”
What happens if other businesses imitate the search-free search? Will we get the foodless meal? The warm refrigerator? The screenless TV?
I’m worried that John Cage started all this with his silent music. But who could have guessed that the whole tech industry would follow his lead—delivering results built on nothing?
The award for the dumbest rebranding of the year goes to…
I’ve repeatedly mocked the pathetic rebranding efforts of companies in the creative world. (See here and here and here.)
I’ve watched rebranding happen up close and personal, and these experiences taught me that it is usually pursued by failing organizations—who use it as a substitute for real change.
In fact, the result is usually more conformity. Consider the case of these bank rebrandings.
But the logo update below has to be the most ridiculous example of them all. I wonder how much Max spent on this bold move?
If Max really wants a brand boost, it should return to its previous HBO branding (which it abandoned two years ago). Even better, it should restore the core values that once made HBO a leader in smart TV offerings.
That would be something worth bragging about.
The Squeeze just got a new name
I’ve previously warned about streaming price increases—it’s now the only growth strategy for the big platforms. I call it the Squeeze.
But now there’s a new twist.
When Netflix recently demanded more money from reader Bruce Lambert, they wouldn’t even admit that it was a price increase. They said it was just a “price update.”
This kind of doublespeak is always the sign of a bad conscience. And when the corporate HQ is too ashamed to actually admit what they’re actually doing, you should only expect more abuse in the future.
Has the stock market finally wised up about AI?
Back on November 19, I warned that AI euphoria was peaking—and I specifically raised concerns about Nvidia stock. The shares were selling at $147 back then, but I offered lots of evidence that this was far too high.
I got angry responses and cancelled subscriptions in response. An investment manager at a finance firm even lambasted me in multiple emails—telling me that I should stick to music writing. My opinions on Nvidia were stupid and pointless.
But now, just four months later, Nvidia stock has fallen almost 40%. It looks like I called the market at close to the top.
Here’s where I add an important disclaimer: I may call myself the Honest Broker, but I am not a real broker. I do not offer investment advice.
I analyze companies here because of their cultural impact. So I don’t want anybody buying or selling stocks based on my commentary. (But you do have my blessing to invest your spare cash in a premium subscription here.)
Neighborhoods are turning their threatened movie theaters into non-profits
In my article “Why Creatives Will Win by Thinking Small” I shared case studies of filmmakers who were buying their own movie theaters.
I applauded this effort. I’ve benefited in my own career by walking away from big organizations, and am a firm believer in the “small is beautiful” strategy for creatives.
Now the New York Times reports on hundreds of movie theaters that have survived by turning into tiny non-profits.
This is even happening in small towns—where citizens take control and turn old cinemas into full-service community centers. The movie theater becomes a rallying point for locals, who serve as volunteers and run fundraising campaigns.
“In an independent theater, you can show what you want,” said Gail Lansky, vice president of the Triplex’s board. “You can show retrospectives. You can show foreign films. You can do film festivals. Free Saturdays for kids.”
There are now 250 movie theaters in the US operating as non-profits. And even as other cinemas shut down, this new concept is growing.
It’s obviously a strategy that can work in other art forms—for example, live music. Maybe some of the larger non-profits should look at allocating funds for these initiatives.
(Hello Duke Foundation! Hello MacArthur Foundation! Are you listening?)
This might be the most cost-effective way they can find for supporting the arts at a grass roots level.
The music business finally identifies the enemy
I first warned about fake artists in the music business three years ago.
Back then, I looked like a raving wild man. Why was I worrying about musicians who didn’t even exist? There was so much good news around, with song investment funds and music non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and artists gaining fame via TikTok
Guess what happened? The song investment funds collapsed. The NFT business collapsed. And TikTok is fighting for survival (as are many former TikTok stars).
But the fake artist problem just gets worse and worse.
Three years after my warning, Sony Music finally admitted yesterday that fake music is a “serious problem.”
How bad is it?
Consider that just one scammer was able to steal $10 million in royalties with AI-generated songs. He was arrested a few months ago, but other fraudsters are probably still operating undetected.
How many real musicians are able to make $10 million in royalties from Spotify? Even superstars fall far short of that goal. So we have reached the point where it’s easier to succeed as a fake artist than a real one.
Major media outlets are finally waking up to this threat. The Guardian even noticed this week that streaming platforms are pushing bland, generic music—which is a deliberate part of the fake artist strategy. The scam doesn’t work without a culture of passive listening to crappy music.
But we still need more awareness. This is the single biggest threat to culture, and not just music. It goes by many names—stagnation, blandness, slop, fakery. But it’s the biggest force in the culture business.
Eras were once defined by the exciting music they produce. Generations grew up on the energy of the Jazz Age or the Swing Era or the Age of Woodstock.
But what happens when society collapses into an Age of Fakery or youngsters grow to adulthood in the Slop Era?
I fear we may soon find out.
The same thing is happening in publishing
In my article “Help! AI is Stealing My Readers” I shared my own horror story about AI ripoffs and knockoffs.
I’m happy to report that writers are now fighting back, and courts are sympathetic to their plight. Last week, a plagiarism lawsuit against Meta got the go-ahead from a federal judge, who denied the Facebook parent’s attempt to dismiss the case.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria not only admitted that Meta’s copyright infringement was “obviously a concrete injury,” but that the company is open to charges that it “intentionally” worked “to conceal copyright infringement.”
And don’t expect the bots to tell you the sources they plagiarized. Most of the time they will lie about it—as substantiated by this new study from Columbia Journalism Review.
How music therapy helped Joni Mitchell recover from a stroke
Let’s close with a happy update.
I’ve repeatedly praised music therapy here—insisting that people underestimate the healing power of songs. My online book Music to Raise the Dead, published here on Substack, is filled with extreme claims, starting with its bold title.
These transformative powers are sadly ignored by the people running the music economy. At best, the ‘experts’ will acknowledge music as a lifestyle symbol or a mood intensifier.
So I’m happy to share this account of how Joni Mitchell recovered from a stroke—regaining her ability to walk and talk—with a big boost from the healing power of music.
The instigator was neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of the bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music. (I recently connected with Levitin, and we both learned to our surprise that we were college classmates. In fact, I now think I met him even earlier when we were both still in high school in the South Bay of LA. But that’s a story for another. day.)
“Doctors were so pessimistic about her recovery, they hadn’t scheduled any follow-ups,” he reports. But Levitin had worked with Mitchell previously, and knew enough about her musical sensibility to create a customized music therapy playlist—it not only drew on her favorite songs but also reminded her of people and connections from various stages of her career.
Mitchell mounted a surprising recovery in the aftermath, and there’s good reason to believe that this musical intervention played a key role.
“Having that music as a reminder of who she is, who she was, and what she cares about, helped her to do the very difficult job of recovery, and to follow through with the protocols of the therapists.”
Levitin has applied this approach to his own recovery. After undergoing hand surgery to repair an injury, he was sent home with painkillers. But he put them aside, and listened to Bill Evans instead.
I’m fairly certain Evans would be happy to know he convinced somebody to stay away from drugs.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon with more cheese.
Great take on the journalism trade (I used to be one, a television photojournalist). I love cheese, especially cheese made anywhere but the United States. Italian cheese is a great one, but I am also biased. However, I would liken the journalism you describe to "American Cheese," that cheese food that is sold in abundance in U.S. grocery stores: Superficially it looks somewhat palatable, but it has no substance. You could probably say that about a lot of things lately, I suppose.
Fascinating investigative follow up about previous new stories. However, I have to argue that new music made by real artists released these days has a longer shelf life solely because there is so much new music released every day that it takes time for it to find an audience. In the past, there were fewer outlets for new music and there was more of a captive audience. By the way, I have a science fiction joke scenario. If Spotify pushes fake AI music, maybe it'll need an AI audience. Seriously, I hope people wake up and rebel against the slop of AI music and demand music made by real people and appreciate real culture.