Here are the SEC filings for Warner Music. Note that the recent 10-Q filing mentions a LOT of factors other than “digital piracy.”

You don’t see them complaining much then…..

It does demonstrate one of the items that I mention from time to time about the public media no longer being the sole source of information. Also that those information sites are extremely bias with an eye towards their own self interest and bottom line protection. In the last 6 or 7 years I’ve become particurally senstive to this information filter that doesn’t allow us to read the real story, straight from the horse’s mouth (so to say) with the bias missing. To quote an old movie line, “just the facts” without a strong leaning towards coloring the story not as it is but rather as it is wished to be presented and with what favored opinion the source wishes to impart.

Because of that, there is not much I get from the public media anymore. Simply their self-interest overpowers their being a source of straight, unvarnished, and revalent news. I don’t care what Paris Hilton did or what the latest antics of Britney might be. They don’t affect my world, my need to know, nor do they peek my interest beyond a minimum passing fancy.

What I do care about is what’s happening in the world today that will affect my life in the next few years. Be that laws, be that political actions, or maybe why the cost of products go up while my income does not attempt to match the same pace as the economy around me that increases its rate of inflation as examples. Little of those I see little in the public media gets down to the nitty gritty revalent information that I can use anymore. It was at one time that reporter investigations of behind closed door events were exposures of what you needed to know. If anyone has taken notice, those special investigations are all but gone with the few remaining done with very little attempt to hide the bias. Now you see the recopy and regurgitation of syndicated articles presented as news. Mostly they are corporate news releases, feel good stories with little to do with anyone’s life, or blatent attempts at influancing and altering public opinion in favor of what ever stance the sponsors of these media deem important to their own financial well being but of no interest to the public at large.

I notice that I am not the only one forming this opinion if the surveys from advertisement houses are a guide. They use those surveys to determine where they will invest there annual budget for the coming year. For the last few years TV, commercial radio, newspapers, and printed magazines are all taking losses as they lose readership and subscription base. People are leaving their offered products for something else. The advertising budgets are taking note of this and shifting their areas of investment as well. It all looks to be headed for the new field of the internet and leaving traditional media behind.

So one must ask why this is happening.

I suggest to you there are several reasons, that it isn’t just one thing that is leading people to abandon the traditional in favor of the internet. One I’ve already mentioned above. Others are that information you seek can be found, unlike browsing a newspaper where all you read is what is in print for the day. Another is that there are sources of information far beyond what traditional media can muster. A reporter of current news, as it happens, can only do so from the scene. Someone must be physically present to get the story as it happens. There is only one reporter per event and without advance notice to get all the equipment in place, a live feed necessary for a TV broadcast isn’t possible as a “currently happening” event. But people are everywhere. No matter what is happening, no matter where in the world the event is taking place, no matter what the subject, someone is near by even if they are not a reporter. These show up on the net as first hand, on the spot, informed people who know what they see. While it is true you get tons of BS in the process, there are just as many you would never have known happened without these reports.

The movie The Fight Club pretty much expressed it in the idea we are your servants, your delievery men, or insert whatever title you wish in there. Because of this, the cartels are having a hard time covering up their dirty tactics without it becoming known to every man, woman, and child that has interest in the subject. So no longer can they hide the news from the public. The best they can hope for is spin that makes it look good or maybe damage control after the fact of the dirty deal becoming public. It’s not a matter of if but of when.

The public that these cartels depend on for their livelyhood are getting an eyeful as well as an earful. They are forming their own opinions and it doesn’t look good for the cartels. Even with their paid trolls out trying to recoup some of the damage of all sorts of news being exposed, it is very little they can say that speaks for those actions with any justification whatever. The typical responce is an attack of some nature on the poster or reprint but not being able to really defend those actions is evident by their tactics, which are for the most part, hit and run because they can’t stand the heat of the kitchen. Don’t think it isn’t seen for just what it is. Nor believe for a moment that the opinions formed by these methods are not further reinforced by such tactics.

It has certianly been an eyeopener for me. I now spend with these informed opinions. I know as well I’m not the only one. So continue to blame it all on piracy as the cartels continue to sail down the whirlpool of the toilet. Blaming the wrong thing won’t fix the problem. More and more of the public are as content to see it the same way. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.