{"id":12141,"date":"2024-02-25T11:56:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/?p=12141"},"modified":"2024-02-25T11:56:14","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T18:56:14","slug":"the-rise-and-fail-of-the-ralston-rag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/the-rise-and-fail-of-the-ralston-rag\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise and Fail of the Ralston Rag"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Chuck Muth)<\/em> \u2013 This isn\u2019t an obituary, but the patient is on life support.<\/p>\n

The patient is the Nevada Independent<\/em>, an online news blog that\u2019s been run into the ground by liberal blubber-blogger Jon Ralston, the poster child for the term \u201cinsufferable ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralston – who\u2019s either quit or been fired from just about every major news organization in the state – is no journalist.\u00a0 He\u2019s a liberal propagandist obsessed with spewing \u201cfake news\u201d against the conservatives he loathes with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns (h\/t Diane Chambers)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Five years ago he hooked up with Elizabeth Thompson to resurrect the Nevada News Bureau<\/em>, which I founded in 2009 and spun off to her two years later. She\u2019d become unhappy with the conservative editorial perspective of the original publication and decided the way to go was \u201cmainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson (then Elizabeth Crum) subsequently lost the financial support of the conservative donors who funded the non-profit news organization\u2019s start-up. The publication ultimately shut down and went into hibernation.<\/p>\n

After Ralston got dumped from his last television gig in 2016, he teamed up with \u201cE!!\u201d to resurrect the publication – with financial support from a number of big liberal donors – and renamed it the Nevada Independent<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ralston portrayed himself as some kind of pioneer in the arena of non-profit journalism, but in reality was just a jonny-come-lately.\u00a0 He was no trail-blazer.\u00a0 He was a self-righteous knock-off artist.<\/p>\n

To the publication\u2019s credit, it did hire some talented reporters \u2013 real journalists \u2013 who endeavored to treat news stories objectively and professionally. But they could never wash off the stink associated with being linked to Ralston\u2019s conservative-hating wokeism.<\/p>\n

Things started out swimmingly.\u00a0 In January 2017, Ralston and E!! \u2013 in P.T. Barnumesque fashion \u2013 relaunched the \u201cIndy,\u201d purportedly as \u201can online news source we hope will forever change how news is delivered in the state and perhaps become a model for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the model is failure, they got their wish.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The failure comes primarily from Ralston\u2019s lack of marketing sense and basic business skills.\u00a0 His sales pitch was that the Indy was going to \u201cchange the face of journalism in Nevada and establish new paradigms for nonprofit, community-supported news organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because who among us hasn\u2019t gone to bed at night praying for someone to establish new paradigms for nonprofit, community-supported news organizations?<\/p>\n

I mean, even kids were writing letters to Santa asking for an online subscription to a blog that would forever change how news is delivered in the state.<\/p>\n

Yawn.<\/p>\n

But like any good snake-oil salesman, Ralston was able to dupe some donors into believing the Indy was the greatest thing since sliced bread and that he was the modern-day incarnation of William Randolf Hearst.<\/p>\n

Then COVID hit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Or, rather, then-Gov. Steve Sisolak hit with his statewide Sisolak Shutdown which dried up the discretionary money of businesses that funded the Indy\u2019s operation \u2013 including Ralston\u2019s and Thompson\u2019s combined salaries of almost $400,000 per YEAR<\/u>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think the two understand the meaning of \u201cnon-profit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, they treated their donors\u2019 money as if it was in a bottomless cookie jar. But after the Sisolak Shutdown did its damage, Ralston\u2019s grubby little fingers could only scrape out crumbs.<\/p>\n

So on March 1, 2021, he published a self-serving woe-is-me blog post where he whimpered that 2020 was supposed to be the Indy\u2019s \u201cbreakout year\u201d in which it would become \u201cfinancially sustainable\u201d but instead became a \u201csurvival year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lamented that he had to borrow money from his bro\u2019 \u201cjust to make payroll\u201d and tell employees he was \u201ccutting their salaries by 25 percent in an effort to stay afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He whipped out the ol\u2019 Thesaurus \u2013 his bible for using big words to prove how much smarter he is than everyone else \u2013 to describe how his staff soldiered on \u201cwhile processing as human beings the impacts on their own lives \u2013 the claustrophobia, the agoraphobia, the ennui. It has been so enervating for so many.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scintillating copy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

He then specifically thanked liberal activist and time-share king Stephen Cloobeck – as well as taxpayers ($200,000 in COVID bailout bucks) – for saving his bacon and allowing the Indy to weather the storm.<\/p>\n

By 2022, everything seemed to be peaches and cream again.\u00a0 According to the Indy\u2019s tax return (the latest available), it raised over $3 million \u2013 including almost $700,000 from a grant by the American Journalism Project.<\/p>\n

But mismanagement and a misreading of the market \u2013 is the public really clamoring for yet another liberal news blog? – has taken its toll on the Indy yet again.<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, Ralston whipped out his Thesaurus and inked a new-and-improved woe-is-me blog post…<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, I had to inform some valuable employees and wonderful people that they were being laid off because of budget concerns. Because of staff members voluntarily departing for a variety of personal reasons and new career opportunities, and a handful of layoffs, our staff page will soon have slightly more than half as many team members as we did at our peak last year.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, Thompson herself \u2013 under suspicious circumstances and probably seeing the writing on the wall \u2013 abandoned this sinking ship several weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Of those still onboard and searching for a lifeboat, Ralston announced that \u201cManagers are taking a 20 percent cut for three months, and staffers are absorbing a 10 percent cut for the quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

To paraphrase the late great economist Milton Friedman, if you put Jon Ralston in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there\u2019d be a shortage of sand.<\/p>\n

Jon Boy went on to note that over the last couple of months he mimicked a Hillary Clinton stunt by going on a \u201cfact-finding tour\u201d around the state \u201ctrying to gauge how people view what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hell, I could have saved him a lot of time and money if he\u2019d just given me a jingle!<\/p>\n

Fact is, aside from his liberal cult followers and DC hero worshippers, nobody gives a rat\u2019s arse.\u00a0 There\u2019s just no market for yet another liberal news blog any more than a market for liberal talk radio.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s trying to sell surfboards to Eskimos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The unfortunate thing is that some of the reporters who work for or have worked for the Indy are truly talented professionals who have hitched their wagons to a falling star.\u00a0 If they\u2019re smart, they\u2019re already looking for an escape pod.<\/p>\n

While the death of the Nevada Independent isn\u2019t imminent, it\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

Critics in the media industry tell me Jonny Jihad\u2019s big mistake has been in over-hiring, over-paying, and over-hyping the Ralston Rag.\u00a0 But Ralston\u2019s main problem is that he suffers from Little Man Disease.<\/p>\n

He honestly believes he was destined for greatness in the Washington, DC or New York media markets and seethes with envy when someone he perceives as his lesser lands a gig in the big show while he remains stuck in this little one-horse Podunk town.<\/p>\n

How DARE<\/u> the gods of mainstream media not bow before his magnificence, acknowledge his superiority, and allow him to fulfill his destiny?<\/p>\n

But do you know what really grates his cheese?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This H.L. Menken wannabe has an Ivy League bachelor\u2019s degree in English from Cornell University and a master\u2019s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan – while I only have a high school diploma.<\/p>\n

Yet I\u2019m a better writer than he is.<\/p>\n

No wonder he looks like he bit into a lemon all the time!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not over for the Indy yet, but the fat lady is clearing her pipes.<\/p>\n

FAMOUS LAST WORDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJon Ralston is known for stirring the pot, so to speak, and he is quite frequently wrong. He has no clue\u2026” \u2013 Democrat Nevada Attorney General A.Ron Ford, Nevada Week, 8\/2\/23<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand much about politics\u2026\u201d \u2013 Liberal blubber-blogger Jon Ralston, 1\/2\/20<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views, and founder of CampaignDoctor.com.\u00a0 You can sign up for his conservative, Nevada-focused e-newsletter at MuthsTruths.com.\u00a0 His views are his own.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Chuck Muth) \u2013 This isn\u2019t an obituary, but the patient is on life support. The patient is the Nevada Independent, an online news blog that\u2019s been run into the ground by liberal blubber-blogger Jon Ralston, the poster child for the term \u201cinsufferable ass.\u201d Ralston – who\u2019s either quit or been fired from just about every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12142,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12141\/revisions\/12142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muthstruths.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}