Yup, It's Spring Break

I've developed a theory that from the first of the year to Presidents' Day, the media, legacy and alt, simply continues the break it's been on since maybe Columbus Day. Then it's several weeks of desultory effort until a break for Mardis Gras, followed by more desultory effort until a few weeks before Easter and spring break, then desultory effort until Memorial Day, at which time everything more or less shuts down for summer, after which there's desultory effort between Labor Day and Columbus Day, when the goof-off cycle restarts.

Let's look at the current news of the Iran war. Trump says he's having productive negotiations with Iran, right?

President Donald Trump announced Monday he is postponing planned U.S. military strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure for five days after what he described as "very good and productive" talks with Tehran.

But what, exactly, is going on?

President Trump said Monday he has not been in contact with Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during ongoing negotiations with the country.

“We’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Fla.

“We have not heard from the son,” he said, referring to Khamenei.

“Every once in a while, you’ll see a statement made [from Khamenei] but we don’t know if he’s living,” Trump said.

“But the people that seem to be running it, and they seem that based on really fact, because things they’ve said have taken place,” he continued.

Except, well, maybe not:

Mojtaba Khamenei approved talks with the US to quickly end the war on Iranian terms. Trump postponed strikes and expects an agreement within five days.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi secretly informed US envoy Steve Witkoff that Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei had approved negotiations to reach a potential agreement, Al Arabiya reported on Tuesday, citing Israeli media, UNN writes.

Sources told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that Iran's supreme leader, who was appointed after his father Ali Khamenei died during the first strike of the US-Israeli war against Iran last month, agreed to quickly end the war under Iran's terms.

As ynet writes, after Trump announced a channel for negotiations that could lead to an agreement, Aragchi's secret message to Witkoff: "We have received Mojtaba's consent and blessing." "Iran quickly denied this. But a phone call between the Iranian foreign minister and Witkoff, with Kushner's participation, shows a different picture. The Iranian official confirmed that Khamenei Jr. had taken his murdered father's place and made it clear that the heir 'approved closing the story as soon as possible if our conditions are met.'" Israel, the publication writes, remained outside the negotiations and accidentally learned of their existence.

But if Israel is outside the negotiations, this appears to be news to Netanyahu:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday evening that any deal to end the hostilities between the US, Israel, and Iran would protect Jerusalem’s “vital interests,” in his first comments since US President Donald Trump announced earlier in the day that he was holding talks with Tehran about ending the war.

In an upbeat video statement, Netanyahu said he spoke with “our friend” Trump in a phone call on Monday, and that the two discussed the president’s desire to end the fighting with Iran through a deal.

So I'm nothing near a capital-J Journalist, just an old retired guy with time to check the news after breakfast, and all I can get about the top story for the past month has been vague stuff containing contradiction after contradiction. Trump isn't negotiating with the dead or comatose gayatollah. Yes he is. The dead or comatose gayatollah has even blessed negotiations, but Iran has denied this, but the gayatollah will approve an agreement provided his conditions are met, except that Netanyahu, who is outside the negotiations, has talked to Trump and is convinced there will be a deal to protect Israel's vital interests.

But on PJ Media yesterday:

On Friday evening, President Donald Trump issued Iran’s mullahs a 48-hour deadline: Open the Strait of Hormuz or say goodbye to your power plants.

And then, this morning — just 12 hours before the deadline ended — the president abruptly pulled the plug[.]

But did you notice the timing?

Trump delivered the ultimatum on Friday evening, after the U.S. markets had closed for the week. And he canceled his ultimatum on Monday morning, just before the U.S. markets reopened.

And the new five-day deadline? Why, it conveniently begins after the U.S. markets close on Friday!

None of this was coincidental.

. . . Had Trump stuck to his 48-hour deadline — which would’ve elapsed AFTER the close of U.S. markets on Monday evening — panicked investors would’ve braced for the worst when trading began at 9:30 a.m., triggering a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic Armageddon. They would’ve anticipated oil shortages, starving civilians, mass migrations, and global chaos, because that’s what investors do: They overreact to good news — and they overreact to bad news.

Which is why Trump is mitigating the financial cost by ratcheting up tensions when the markets are closed — and lowering the temperature when they reopen.

In other words, it doesn't matter what Trump is doing, because it's all 4D chess. But this does nothing to help anyone understand what's going on. Don Surber has an essay comparing TV news coverage of the 1991 Gulf War to coverage of the current Iran War:

35 years ago, when the Persian Gulf War began, ABC alone drew 13 million viewers.

In all, the big three networks drew more than 32 million viewers with CNN adding another 10.8 million viewers.

43 million viewers then.

25.429 million now in the opening week.

That is a 42% drop in their audiences.

When you consider the USA’s population is 38% larger today that shows just how far television news has fallen. It took a long time for ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC to establish themselves as reliable sources for objective information. All that collapsed with the deification of Obama and the demonization of Trump.

It is not as if people are uninterested in the war. A March 16 Economist/YouGov poll showed 41% say they are seeking out the news more than usual. They just didn’t go to TV news for their information.

Surber limits the problem to television news, but he himself can see the problem is biggerL

On his show on Friday, Bill Maher said, “During most primetime nights, less than 1% of the country is watching Fox News, CNN, and MS NOW, combined. A guy on TikTok pressure washing his driveway gets bigger ratings.

“76% of Americans watch less than 1 hour of any cable news in a month.”

So where are they going? One place is certainly the web, and alt sources are certainly available there -- but the alt sources, like Salem Media, are just as lazy and complacent as legacy, and right now, all the alt guys are at the beach with their legacy colleagues. They'll be back a week or so after Easter and go through the motions until Memorial Day, when they'll check out again for the beach until fall. Surber says, "It is not that the television shows today are terribly bad. They are horribly bad. Especially the news."

But it's not just TV, most of what's on the web is horribly bad as well.