By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgann.bsky.social
It is becoming clear what a bizarre time we find ourselves living in: an unelected billionaire rooting through much of our private data for no particular reason, ICE (and fake ICE) agents roaming the Chester County looking for undocumented aliens and just a general state of chaos and Constitution-busting.
In a few short weeks, the United States has threatened Canada, Mexico, Panama, China and Denmark for reasons that make little sense (we’re not getting the Panama Canal back, nor are we buying Greenland). TV networks are cowering in fear (shocking) and it seems like a lot of people don’t know what to think (not helped by a lack of reporting and a lot of fake information circulating on social media).
Look, it’s going to be ugly for a while. If Donald Trump and Co-President Elon Musk go after Social Security and Medicare, the country will melt down (that fact that these two alleged “geniuses” don’t see that is even more startling).
I don’t know that we’re going to have a good outcome — or that this republic will survive. All we can do is pay attention, keep reaching out to our elected officials and be vigilant about preserving our rights.
I do think we might reach a tipping point sooner rather than later — Musk is slightly less popular than herpes right now and I suspect Trump will dump him overboard in the coming weeks and blame him for the chaos and any wildly unpopular moves.
It seems like Trump fatigue will kick in faster the second time around and the 2026 elections — assuming that those elections are held — will not go well for Congressional Republicans. But, again, a lot of variables are at play.
We are in uncharted times.
Pay attention, because your future and that of your family may well depend upon it.
***
While it wasn’t a surprise, it still felt a bit like a gut punch: The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.) printed its final edition last Sunday.
If you grew up in North Jersey, this paper was the powerhouse — whether it was sports, local news or state politics, The Ledger was the top of the game and where so many of us aspiring journalists wanted to work one day.
For local folks, it would be a bit like The Inquirer ending its print edition.
What this says about the future of journalism is not good: even the big guys are having trouble making it work. There’s a ton of reasons why, from dwindling advertising to anti-trust issues, but mostly, it was The Internet that killed local news — ironic, since it should have made it easier for small, local operations to start (and prior to 2015 that was largely true) and keep on running.
The Internet — thanks to Amazon and such — led to the death of a lot of retail, which had been the bread and butter advertisers of newspapers. Craigslist killed off most classified sections. It didn’t help when Google bought up all of the digital ad marketplaces and dramatically lowered ad pricing — great for advertisers, but lousy for the publications trying to make payroll. I’m not suggesting that the media played no role in this: a lot of mistakes were made, but it was going to be tough even if the industry got it right.
So here we are — your local publications can no longer afford the staffing to cover local town meetings or school boards, meaning most folks have little or no idea of what is going in their towns or counties.
And it could get worse, quickly.
Should Donald Trump’s tariff war with Canada happen (thankfully, delayed for a month), it would mean newsprint, virtually all of which comes from Canada, will go up at least 25% (and likely more) — further strangling those print publications barely hanging on. Big papers have enough muscle to have negotiated long-term paper deals, but it is the smaller groups and owners that will likely face big cost increases, increases that might spell the end of the print version of their newspaper.
We didn’t get here quickly and the fix won’t be rapid — if there is one.
***
Although I grew up in North Jersey, rooting for the sad NY Giants, I genuinely hope the Eagles win tonight — with a spouse and many friends and family members rooting hard for their Birds, I’m rooting for them to win the whole darn thing. And yes, I’ll be wearing a Saquon Barkley jersey today, just one slightly bluer than most of you might wear today. Prediction: Eagles 34, Chiefs 21.
