LIARS the News Industry

by Frank B. Thompson III

Nathan Martinez Wins Primary!

  World News Network

  WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today marks a historic day for the Democrat Party with the first person of color becoming the presidential contender knocking off his opponent, Senator Margaret Evenson, by an overwhelming majority. Last night, Senator Nathan Martinez, Jr. marked the occasion by throwing a celebratory gala at his campaign headquarters in Washington.

  Lucy Dietrich sat with a smug look on her face as she pondered the publisher’s reaction in the newly renovated office suite. The newly appointed Senior Editor had gotten everything she wanted: the car, the salary, the bonuses and carte blanche when it came to who she hired and how she ran the show as Senior Editor. The two stipulations were ones the Senior Editor could easily accommodate: one, Magnason Enterprise News Network was to promote a traditionalist agenda and two, she needed to duplicate the success of RHO on cable and make MENN the leading news company in the country. Ms. Dietrich knew she could do both.

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  BERMUDA - Lord of the Rings was tied up at the Royal Yacht Club, a frequent spot this time of year for the World News Network publisher.

  “I don’t give a shit if there are Right to Work Laws, I want that harlot prevented from working for Magnason!”

  Donald was on the phone with an attorney making an effort to head things off at the pass. The publisher put together some of the pieces and was just beginning to grasp what Magnason was building.

  He listened to his attorney a moment before responding. “Look, just tell me what it is you need. I’ll have my people fabricate whatever it is you need to make the threat stick.”

  The attorney’s clarification of the law only upset Donald.

  “I said go ahead sue Lucy Dietrich anyway, damn it!” Donald slammed the receiver down.

  “Is everything all right, Don?” asked the WNN news anchor, Deena Crawford. “Do you need something?”

  This was the price of celebrity in this line of work, the occasional romp between the sheets. In the highest circles of elitism, the norms that governed most did not exist. Marriage, for instance, was something most elitists considered temporary arrangements, to be set aside on just about any pretense. The evidence included four failed marriages for the publisher and the three for the news anchor.

  "Can I get you one more drink?" asked Deena, knowing full well she was playing with fire. The depressant was as much for her own safety as it was for calming down her boss. The anchor recognized firsthand how violent Donald could become following a night out on the town.

  The publisher ignored the question and instead continued to stew in his deep-seated hostility, the thought of Magnason buzzing around in his head. It was naive for him to believe the issue would go away. Donald was, after all, the one man who originally said he was convinced the conservative nut would continue his efforts, not stopping with a simple rebuff. Donald, however, forgot his earlier prediction with time as his hedonistic lifestyle, again, became all-consuming.

  "Get out of here, Deena!" Donald yelled, his anger swelling with each passing moment.

  Recent revelations proved Donald was not the smartest guy in the room and this struck a massive blow to his ego. The competitive threat was not over; a Wall Street insider delivered word Dr. Magnason secretly acquired a daily, Charter News, but it was the acquisition of Argonaut Technologies that was the most telling.

  The Seattle company was an innovator in the emerging industry, internet clouds. Donald’s strategic advisor made the new threat clear. It would be entirely inside Magnason’s capabilities to create a new kind of news company, one that would undermine the pricing model he needed to survive. It would also provide subscribers with many, alluring innovations he could not hope to provide subscribers in the short run. Then there was the likelihood that Magnason’s company would appeal to both traditionalists and moderates leaving him only with the indigent, who could not afford to buy his papers, and the less than twenty percent of Americans who called themselves liberals.

  If Magnason succeeded, it would force him to change, and his problem was the immense debt-load he was carrying on the books for his printing facilities, regional operations and high-rise real estate accumulated by his family over the years. Donald now understood if Magnason succeeded with his intentions, the days of his reign would likely be numbered.

  More bad news had come just days later with the resignation of Washington Bureau Chief, Lucy Dietrich. Normally, Donald wouldn’t have given a thought regarding someone like Ms. Dietrich leaving. There were dozens of Ms. Dietrich's waiting in the wings for just such a plum job. It was only when the publisher discovered that Lucy was heading up Magnason's new enterprise that he hit the roof.

  The piece of the equation Donald recognized Magnason’s new venture was missing was the people who would create the content for his news company. If he were going to have a news company with a right-wing spin, he was going to need reporters he could control. The National Press wouldn’t work. They were all drones in the pockets of the media establishment. Magnason was going to need, at a minimum, moderate reporters and editors he could control, otherwise, his service would be no different from any other. That was the reason he hired Ms. Dietrich; Lucy could get him the one thing he needed to exploit the Internet...content.

  It had become abundantly clear in discussing matters with his attorney, legal actions would not be enough. They would at best delay things and the threats had done nothing to dissuade Ms. Dietrich from making the move. What Lucy knew and her connections were going to be very damaging.

  Donald shook with anger and only regained his composure after pouring, then draining a couple of tumblers of Scotch. The more Donald mulled it over, the more he understood he and his temporary buddies could not tackle this threat alone; it would take everyone’s involvement.

  The publisher picked up the phone and dialed the number for DNC Chairman, Ricardo Adduci.

  Donald had decided to kick things off within the Democrats by approaching the bull in the china shop, the Neanderthal: Ricardo Adduci.

  An obviously drunk woman with slurred speech answered. “Chairman Adduci’s office, can I help you?”

  “This is Donald Abraham, put the Chairperson on the line.”

  There was a momentary pause followed by, “I’m afraid the Chairman is not available right now. Can I take a message?”

  “I know Adduci is there, I can hear him mumbling in the background! Tell him to get on the line!”

  There was some muffled conversation followed by note of the phone being bobbled about. A man’s groggy voice answered, “Don, what the hell is going on, it’s Sunday?”

  Adduci was a thug and former AFL-CIO President who understood he had reached a dead-end with the unions. The heydays had come and gone; the Global Economy had wrecked the labor racket, but his unions still served a purpose for the Democrat Party. It was the reason Adduci had been brought on as Chairperson; he was there to keep the hundreds of millions in membership dues coming in and to occasionally provide coordination between the party with the sign-toting demonstrators the media and party needed when a show of force was needed to cow those on the right.

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  MANHATTAN, NY - Donald's assistant walked in after knocking.

  “Mr. Abraham, Mr. Weisser and Mr. Simon are on the line for you.”

  “About goddamn time.”

  He had flown back to New York the night before, the issue was too pressing to take the ‘planned for’ cruise back.

  Picking up the receiver, Donald immediately began speaking, “Shmuel...Jason, Magnason’s not going away.”

  Donald, at the outset, was convinced Dr. Victor Magnason was going to rely solely upon conservatism to succeed. The publisher had already had his senior editor discuss the situation with the union bosses who agreed to apply financial pressures and delay tactics during any labor negotiations. Every journalist was a card-carrying union member; they would see to it that Magnason’s costs of
doing business would keep him in the red for years. Besides that, the capital required to duplicate an almost identical operation was one more prohibitive barrier that would be extremely difficult to overcome.

  The acquisition of Argonaut Technologies, however, was something of a shock and caught Donald utterly by surprise. Buying the Seattle-based company could only mean Magnason was planning to use the internet in his news company, something that was still a big mystery for the publisher.

  Shmuel responded, “Look, I saw that Magnason acquired Charter News, but I don’t see how that’s a problem. It will take a decade before it becomes any kind of threat. That’s a long time in this business.” Shmuel chuckled. “Anything could happen.”

  Jason now asked, "Isn't Charter that regional news company out of Los Angeles?"

  Donald decided to agree with their train of thought before turning the conversation around to the real issue at hand.

  Shmuel replied, "Yes, it is."

  Jason's responded, "Am I missing something here, isn’t Charter just a big player on the west coast? It has absolutely no presence, or reporting on the national stage, so where does Magnason imagine he’s going to come up with his news, the National Press? That’s the only avenue of the news coverage Magnason has in the short term. If he decides to dismiss the National Press, Magnason will have one of the thinnest and shortest lived news companies in history.”

  The National Press was a cooperative created and maintained by the “Big Three.” It used a ‘fee for use’ arrangement for news coming from freelance and unemployed reporters. It helped fill more than half the otherwise empty space of their tabloids.

  Donald responded to Jason’s supposition. “Look here Jason, Magnason will get his headlines by other means."

  "How can you be so confident?"

  "Because, he's just hired my Washington Bureau Chief, Lucy Dietrich!"

  Shmuel’s voice sounded a little surprised. “Lucy Dietrich!”

  "Yes, none other than Ms. Lucy Dietrich!"

  “That is a disturbing revelation.”

  Lucy Dietrich had worked for all three news concerns at one time or another. Lucy was dangerous in view of the fact she understood how the game was played. Lucy also carried a lot of credibility inside the industry. Many reporters, even some editors would jump at the chance to work for Lucy Dietrich.

  Jason did not know what to think. Lucy had worked for American Tribune when his brother was alive. “What makes Ms. Dietrich a problem?”

  Donald answered, “Jason, Lucy Dietrich is the one person who could give Magnason the two things he needs.”

  Shmuel now added, "Hire her back, throw some money at her. Shit, never mind, I’ll hire her.”

  "Don't you think I've already tried doing that! She's turned my offers down, flat!"

  “I don’t give a crap. She always hated you Don. I’ll make it impossible for Ms. Dietrich to refuse."

  Jason still didn’t understand Lucy's value to Magnason. “Fine, so let’s say Ms. Dietrich does go to work for Magnason and suppose she hires some reporters. What makes you imagine his news people will be given access where it matters?”

  Shmuel responded to Jason's question. “You clearly don’t know Ms. Dietrich. She’s been around a long time. Ms. Dietrich knows where most of the skeletons are buried up in Washington.”

  Donald added, “Jason, Ms. Dietrich will get her journalists the high-level access Magnason needs to succeed.”

  Jason was still not convinced Magnason presented any issues. “Okay, tell me how the million or so subscribers Charter caters to are going to present a problem for us?”

  Donald was tiring of Jason’s line of questioning. Jason was overlooking the main issues: the combination of what the internet and conservatism could do to their monopoly. It was time to cut to the chase.

  “You may be right Jason, but what you're describing will change in time. I agree, Charter News poses no real threat; our problem is Magnason’s acquisition of Argonaut Technologies.”

  Jason responded, “Argonaut Technologies?”

  “Yes, Argonaut Technologies.”

  The line remained quiet.

  “Don’t bother looking them up; I can tell you exactly what they do. Argonaut is a cloud computing innovator and the only reason Magnason would seek to acquire them would be so he could develop his service around the internet.”

  The internet created a special problem for the media establishment. It presented no real barriers to entry. There were no laws to restrict its use and it required very little investment, as evidenced by the success of Timberlake Reports. If a conservative could start an internet aggregation service in a spare room of his home and succeed, it did not take much for Donald to picture what someone with billions behind him could accomplish.

  "If I may be so bold, let me tell you two what I have found. Magnason's company is going to use the internet to keep his operating costs low, so low he will easily undercut our pricing. This guy has a history of using price to break into markets and with his billions, Magnason could practically give his service away until he secures the dominant position he needs."

  Donald was met with silence, then kept talking, "He will get the journalists he needs and his right-wing news will sell; it will sell like wildfire, but I now know his one weakness. His acquisition of the internet company gave it away. We cannot fight fire with fire. We are going to have to shut this guy and his company down before he ever gets started. We're going to have to eliminate the one thing that's critical to his success, the internet.”

  Shmuel's voice came over the box. “You're right about your point on stopping him before he gets going. If the Republicans get wind of one more ROH-like company, they might arrive at the conclusion: their backs are covered. If the Republicans were to wake up, it would screw up everything!”

  All three publishers now shared a similar understanding of the threat Magnason posed. The potential loss of control over the political arena, the politicians, Washington and the nation.

  There were still two trump cards to be played, their puppets in Washington and the activist judiciary.

  A slate of federal laws regulating the internet was just the thing needed to create the barriers they would need to stop MEI dead in its tracks. Some of those IOU’s each publisher carried on both Democrat and Republican politicians were about to be called in.

  After hanging up Donald began thinking about the endgame. Dr. Victor Magnason could not be that naïve. Magnason has to be aware I would throw the weight of the Democrat Party at him, he thought. What else is up his sleeve?

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  WASHINGTON, D.C. - Nelson Frank sat behind his desk after pouring himself one more cup of coffee. No cream, no sugar, just black. Seated in his office at Martinez’ Campaign Headquarters, Nelson compared the latest internal polling results with those of the previous week. Internal poll numbers were not like the polling the public would see in the news. For one, the sampling and questions were not tampered with to attain a desired result. It was therefore, not a fabrication and represented the real-world situation.

  He took his first sip of the hot drink while running over the numbers.

  Yes, he thought, it is working.

  The closed door meeting that occurred between members of the media and Martinez provided the coaching the candidate needed on how to run and win against the Republican. No one from the media would ever admit to attending.

  Now, the results of that discussion were being felt, the trend favored the Democrat candidate. Nelson smiled; again, the avalanche of attacks against the opposition candidate was doing its work.

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  ATLANTA, GEORGIA - The presidential election seemed to be rapidly approaching. The publishers: Abraham, Weisser, Simon, had finally told the CEO and Jack to get lost, in so many words. Jack had not waited for the inevitable; progress from a technical standpoint was also moving along rapidly. The radical news company Victor en
visioned could be as little as six months to a year away, before the presidential election. There were, however, problems that could potentially delay the kickoff. The government agencies IRS, Department of Justice and Department of Commerce had intervened with each, bringing legal suits in opposition to MEI, of course, at the behest of the Democrat leadership. This smelled to the president like the publisher’s work. The lawsuits were not only coming from federal agencies; the attorney generals for California, New York and Washington State had also filed legal actions to halt MEI progress. That was not all; the problems did not just stop with judicial action.

  Jack soon learned that heading up an orthodox threat to the liberal establishment carried with it a price much like having a bulls eye painted on one’s backside. The president expected some harassment, first surfaced with some of the talk show hosts his public relations firm had pushed him into taking. Then, the media at large appeared with near slanderous hit pieces. Jack thought the matter would go away as it always had before with time, but he was wrong. The media reporting was detrimental to the point it incited more than a few dramatic incidents. More than once the executive had been assailed by ginned up agitators, both outside the main entrance to MEI headquarters, then at the front gate of his residence.

  Toting signs, chanting idiotic slogans, shouting ludicrous accusations and behaving like radicals of the sixties, the unruly mobs appeared to be there to stay. Of course, Jack could always see so-called journalists on the periphery of such staged events doing their best to legitimize the aberrant behavior, inciting more to join the fray with the portrayal of events. At first, the demonstrators did in fact, look like longhaired sixties radicals, but over time the overall appearance of the mob changed, looking more like professional protestors. That is when the MEI president heard the unions were now behind the protestors, busing union thugs to the demonstrations. It came as no surprise that the unions would ultimately get involved; they were after all socialist institutions themselves and highly supportive of the most radical elements now running the Democrat Party. Union involvement said something else, that the union bosses had to be afraid, afraid that Magnason Enterprise News Network might succeed. Then there was presidential candidate, Nathan Martinez, who made no qualms with reference to restricting business use of the internet once he won the election. All told, the finances of MEI ultimately began to reflect the impact of the attacks, so much so, the issue had become problematic.

  Siting at his usual place in the executive conference room, the MEI President did not appear his normal, energetic self. He was more sullen, more despondent and exhibiting his nervousness with his unconscious tick interlocking the fingers of his hands. The nervousness did not often happen, but was a sign of the tremendous pressure he now found himself under.

  Jack remained silent as he listened to his council enumerate on the financial projections. The acquisition of Charter News had proven a bigger nut to swallow than expected. The price tag was a great deal more than expected what with the burden of sweetheart deals the unions layered upon the newspaper over the decades. Then, at the CEO’s request, Jack had moved ahead with Magnason Enterprise News Network even though the kinks and lawsuits had not been worked out. As a result, Lucy Dietrich had already staffed up MENN operationally. MENN news copy was just now coming off the presses. The technical snafus could be worked out within a reasonable time. The market research indicated Jack could have a real winner on his hands. The stars seemed to have lined up for Victor, but only if MENN could avail subscribers with an internet-driven service. That was the problem; lawsuits were stymying access to the internet. The internet was the key and ‘Achilles heal’ for Victor’s grand revolution.

  Most of the suits appeared frivolous in nature, but each would require remediation in the courts before MEI could move forward with plans to use the internet. Unfortunately, even the courts where the lawsuits were being filed appeared to be in on conspiracy, never once accepting his attorneys’ requests to expedite rulings on the most trivial of cases. Without the internet, MENN would not be able to compete on the national stage. Without the internet, Magnason Enterprise News Network would very likely remain a small fish in a very big ultraist pond.

  What was now abundantly clear, the president may have moved ahead too rapidly, may have bitten off more than he could chew. The red ink reflected on his books was like blood and was stirring up the sharks.

  Jack gazed out at the panorama of downtown Atlanta listening to more bad news. Several minutes passed when he reached the end of his tether...he had at long last heard enough.

  “Kate, why the hell are most of the lawsuits surfacing in California?”

  “It happens to have one of the most left-leaning judiciaries in the nation. Penalties for frivolous cases are some of the lowest in the country.”

  “What are you hearing about the new internet regulations?”

  “The Democrats are continuing to rush the bill through committee.”

  “What about President McKinley? Does he still stand on the side of ‘free market?’”

  “Yes, word form Senator Burton is he will most certainly veto the legislation if he can. That’s only if Senator Rooney can’t pull together sixty votes.”

  “Well, it is pretty damn clear everything that’s hitting us is designed to delay us up through the presidential election.”

  A thought all of a sudden occurred to the company president, Damn, if the publishers get Martinez into the White House, this game might be over.

  “Kate, have you seen how the election looks to be shaping up?”

  A soft knock came to the conference room door; Jack’s secretary peeked inside the doorway. “Mr. Newman, Senator Burton is on the phone for you. He says he has some urgent news. Would you like for me to transfer the call?”

  “Yes, Ingrid, certainly. Patch the Senator through.”

  A few moments later, the Senator’s voice came over the speaker. “Mr. Newman, this is Senator Burton.”

  Jack's face darkened, becoming graver.

  “Jack, the internet bill is coming up for vote in the senate at the end of this week. Senator Rooney has succeeded in rushing the legislation through committee.”

  “Senator, will Rooney have the votes to overcome McKinley’s veto?”

  “Right now I don’t imagine so."

  Jack breathed a sigh of relief.

  “When Friday will we know the outcome of the vote.”

  “By ten that morning.”

  MARTINEZ WINS!