Ink by the Barrel?

In an old reality, politicos warned against crossing a newspaperman. “Never pick a fight with a man who buys ink by the barrel,” the saying went. It’s often credited to Mark Twain, though it likely came from Indiana editor William Greener. Still, it stuck because it rang true: when newspapers ruled the narrative, they could ruin you.

But that world? It’s gone.

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Today, we’re deluged—tweets, livestream rants, podcasts, memes, dopamine grenades of outrage—and endless interruptions. The feed never stops. Neither does the bullshit.

And those interruptions? They’re everywhere. iPhone. Android. Laptop. Tablet. Smartwatch. Another smartwatch. Maybe your fridge. Every screen flashes, pings, vibrates—each one yanking your attention by the collar. Concentration shatters, and your focus dissolves into static.

We don’t follow news anymore. We follow narratives. And what gets rewarded isn’t accuracy—it’s engagement. The faster it triggers, the better.

Trump understood this before most. If he’s proven anything—and he’s proven plenty about the frailty of our institutions—it’s this: you can flip off the media, the courts, the rule of law, basic decency, democratic norms—and still have a decent shot at the White House.
You can be a convicted felon. A court-recognized sex offender. And be elected.

That should have been a wake-up call. Instead, in 2024, Kamala Harris earned over 80 newspaper endorsements. Three-quarters of the rest? They stayed silent. No endorsement, no stand—just a shrug from the press corps.

And that—let’s not be delicate—is a quiet betrayal.

Because not endorsing isn’t neutrality. It’s abdication. It’s a journalist saying, “I know how bad this is, but I’m afraid to say it out loud.” It’s an abuse of the very freedom they claim to defend. The First Amendment doesn’t promise safety. It promises speech. And when speech is needed most, silence becomes complicity.

Complicity, unfortunately, is built into the modern media economy. Much of what we now see as “news” hasn’t undergone consultation, review, or verification. (I know this for a fact and I write one) We’re left guessing—trying to discern fact from friction. Headlines are crafted for clicks. Truth gets contorted for traction. The algorithm favors fury. However, I’ll always tell you the truth (say them all).

As Twain (this time, actually Twain) said:
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.
That was true even in the age of telegraphs.

Now? Lies get a marketing budget. They're engineered to spread—targeted, boosted, monetized. The truth doesn’t just lag behind; it gets throttled, demonetized, or drowned out.

And while the lies fly, truth itself is eroding—along with our ability to recognize it.
Our attention spans aren't just shrinking. They're being hollowed out—leaving us less equipped to tell real from fake, fact from friction.

The lack of attention span isn’t a bug—it’s the product. The system encourages distraction. Headlines are designed to provoke, not inform. Rage is profitable. Confusion is sticky. And facts don’t get beaten by better arguments—they get buried under faster bullshit.

We’re being trained to click, because that’s where the money is. The algorithm doesn’t care what’s true. It cares what spreads. And rage spreads fastest.

Trump doesn’t need truth. He needs traction. He’s not fighting the press—he is the press. His media empire runs from Fox to Truth Social, from TikTok conspiracies to Facebook echo chambers.

And he “floods the zone with shit.”
That’s not an accusation—it’s a strategy, spelled out by Steve Bannon himself: “The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

The point isn’t to convince. It’s to confuse. To bury. To exhaust. If everything is a lie, then nothing matters—and that’s the point.

The man with the ink barrel? He’s on Substack now, hoping someone still reads or he hides.

So maybe it’s time we updated the old saying:
Never fight a man who owns the algorithm and rents the audience by the minute.

And yet, there are still journalists out there doing the work—digging deep, risking backlash, telling hard truths. But these days, truth has to scream just to be heard above the half-witted noise machine. Spectacle always wins the first round. And now, that’s the only round anyone watches.

The press warned us—some of them, anyway. Others flinched. They didn’t want to lose subscribers, sponsors, or their precious centrism. So they stayed quiet, even as the house burned.

And Trump? He walked through the smoke, waving a flag and cashing checks.

Footnote: Bannon’s quote comes from an interview with The Guardian:
"Trump’s administration is a daily crisis – and that’s the plan", by Michael Lewis, January 2018.

Thanks for reading Burnt Groundwork. I write about politics, power, the economy, and the absurdities of modern life. If this hit a nerve (or a funny bone), consider subscribing or sharing it with someone who still thinks newspapers matter.

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Thanks for reading Burnt Ground! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.