The Triumph of the Ad-Blockers

About two months ago, I could not access Forbes. I got a message: turn off your ad-blocking software. I didn’t. I notice that Forbes has reverted to its three-second delay strategy.

The Telegraph, a British site, tried the same strategy. That lasted about a month.

I know why. Almost no one turned off the ad-blocking feature. It’s not clear how to do this. I don’t recall. I decided to ignore the problem. There is always some site that offers the same story.

The financial sites, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times still close access. So do the New York Times and the London Times. But revenues keep falling for the two Times’s. No one needs either of these two Establishment outlets. Their information is available elsewhere.

This is bad news for journalists. We are told that we are dependent on these people. We are told that the Web is destroying journalism. So far, I have not been aware of this. The attrition is continual, yet I notice no decline in the quantity or quality of information. I notice an improvement. Open access is working.

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Maybe the doom-sayers are correct. Maybe, someday, there will be a tipping point. The flow of high-quality information will decline exponentially. But if it does, there will be profit-seeking sellers of such information.

We are seeing how the mainstream media are dealing with Trump and Clinton. It’s kid gloves for the stumbling lady.

The pro-Trump people are seeing just how biased the industry is. For millions of Americans, the reality of media bias is now hitting home. They will not forget or forgive. Mainstream journalism is losing legitimacy. This is good. The less legitimacy these vultures have, the better.

I like the phrase “presstitutes.” This well describes the industry as a whole. It is a self-policing, self-screening cartel of liberals and fellow travelers. All cartels break down in the face of price competition. This is what is happening to the cartel of journalism.

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