This episode of the Gillmor Gang comes way too close to being the last. In this day of “owning your subscribers” newsletter economy, it’s not enough for me to invest in partisan gotcha back and forth. In fact, I don’t think the value of drama in a podcast or streaming vehicle is worth supporting by the listeners or the producers. Mainstream media is awash with the non-story as story. Yesterday’s analysis of why the Supreme Court has not reached a verdict on Trump’s immunity deal stretched for hours, filling up Nicolle Wallace and her dancing former Republican greek chorus while Nothing Happened. Who cares who owns the audience?
If you think this is a failure of the user generated media, sure it is. I’m ready to stop producing shows in this format, where the rule of law is that anybody is empowered to inject controversy and debating energy at any moment. If the moderator gives up on the refereeing, then what is the plan? If the Republicans think they can win the election by these tactics, then it’s time to let them win. Instead, I’d rather invest in making trouble with a series of conversations that have a chance of illuminating a better outcome than this stale tit-for-tat tap dance. As Lennon said, “Can’t get much worse.”
About an hour in, Denis says he doesn’t understand what I think is going to dominate the election. He says he understands what I think is not going to happen but not what I think will. I’m OK with this. Keith gets into a lockdown political pitch that Trump uses to counter his flailing during the million deaths of his bleach strategy. Apparently it’s more about what works politically than what saves lives. I’m not ok with this.
Meanwhile, what Apple Intelligence proposes is a strategy to map AI to practical outcomes given the current customer needs. Improving Siri to access the internals of the app universe and provide a safe place in the SaaS enterprise is something investors can sink their teeth into, Google has tremendous resources and tons of data, but difficulty in bringing that power to market. Microsoft has played the early innings to its advantage, but I wouldn’t bet on their hardware play upending Apple’s lead. It’s not likely that the main or newsletter ecosystem is going to get a foothold on talking directly to the big vendors, but the truth is the Big Three need that help. Ben Thompson’s Stratechery is over performing, but this is not a job for superheroes. but rather CostCo power. If the election goes belly up, people will invest the next time in impact for their dollars.
As I said before, I’m OK with changing the format. Sometimes losing the war is the only way to win the battle. More and more I find myself wishing I could be heard talking back to the TV. I think it’s OK to have all sides open to the discussion. Even in democracy everyone needs to win at least some of the time. That’s the rule of law I need. I’m not optimistic, but I’m OK with that.
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