Denying the Market

As I read and discuss the most recent development significant to Duluth, the sale and impending re-sale of the Duluth News Tribune, I thought it might be time to reflect on a few things. First and foremost is Duluth's longstanding failure to embrace and recognize the importance of market economics. To put it in a very simplistic way it all boils down to supply and demand. In the case of the Tribune, the supply is ample and the demand dropping. In many senses, the demise of the Tribune has been brought about by their own brand of "journalism".

Any "news" entity that embraces the politics of personal destruction, vindictive targeting of individuals and organizations and a selective approach to subject matter to promote an agenda damages not only their credibility, but those they seek to serve. The consumers of news want balance. People want to make informed decisions and generally, people thirst for accurate and unbiased information. If you are making judgements and decisions based on lies, misconceptions or misinformation, your judgement is ultimately, based on ignorance. When a "news" outlet chooses to promote an agenda, rather than simply and objectively report the news, and subsequently damage their own credibility, the consumers of that "news" will dismiss that "news" more and more and ultimately will turn to other sources of information.

Recently, the bias of the Tribune has been so evident, even the least discriminating reader has begun to turn to other sources to corroborate or verify the content. When that becomes too troublesome, or in the case of the Tribune, preferable to reading the "paper", readership declines. Further, the Tribune has been a willing accomplice to the local labor unions and left of center organizations and agendas. What this has lead to is a general approach to governing Duluth and a philosophy among Duluthians of denying market forces.

This is the greatest damage done by the Tribune. Refusing to recognize that market forces will eventually kick in, thwarting those forces at every opportunty and promoting anti-market practices and policies can only lead to unfavorable long term economic impact. It is worth saying at this point that the Tribune has done so many things to cause long term damage to Duluth, it is hard to quantify it all on one blog entry. It is poetic justice then that they are now suffering the fate of so many years of liberal, anti-market practices and policies. The population of Duluth has declined, the remaining population has become very skeptical about the content of the Tribune and are therefore, dropping their Tribune subscriptions.

Accurate, unbiased sources of information are available with the touch of a button. The Tribune has stubbornly refused to recognize and adjust to the reality that promotion of an agenda will not be tolerated by the news consumer. Does this spell the end of the Tribune? Only if they are purchased by an organization that will tolerate continued blatant promotion of a social agenda that is counterproductive to the community. Unless the new owners of the Tribune do some house-cleaning from the top down, they will be purchasing their own ruin.

The internet is not to blame for the plight of the Tribune. The Tribune must recognize and embrace the notion that mainstream America is not left of center and is in-fact right leaning and leaning farther that way. They must further recognize that the Unions, especially the public employee unions do not have the best interests of the community at heart. Their's is a single-minded, self-promotion at all costs approach, whether or not they have bankrupted the City of Duluth.

Bottom line; Duluth is on the shakiest financial grounds it has ever seen. The Tribune has been a huge contributor through it's denial of the Market and promotion of it's leftist agenda. Duluthians have been making terribly irresponsible decisions for decades due to the spin and misinformation promoted by the Tribune. This poetic justice will be meted out without regard to those who promoted it, fought it, or are currently suffering. This should be a lesson to Duluth and Duluthians. In today's America, the market will adjust and if you don't embrace the market, it will backfire. The backlash is occuring.