Coverage

On the Axios home page this morning, there is a story about Jeffery Epstein; or, more precisely, about a handful of the people whose names are in a set of recently unsealed court documents.

Also on the Axios home page this morning, there is a story about which states have the highest relative rates of homelessness.

So far, so "what else is new?" What struck me as interesting about these two slices of the site were the "Go deeper" links offered for each one. As can be seen in the screenshots, there is an introduction to each story on the home page. The full story, however, resides at its own link, and Axios helpfully notes roughly how long it will take to read that story.

The story about people named in the court documents, from a civil suit filed against Ghislaine Maxwell, is listed as being a 3-minute read. It runs about 890 words. The story about relative rates of homelessness, on the other hand, is listed at less than a minute. Which is reasonable, given that it's less than 170 words.

For critics of the media, this is an example of how the institution cynically directs people's attention away from what's important, giving the plight of the homeless in the United States short shrift while calling attention to a salacious story that, in the end, is mostly pointless unless one assumed that merely having known Jeffery Epstein is proof of some wrongdoing. Take, for instance, the following, which was noted in the Axios piece: "In one instance, one of Epstein's accusers says the financier had remarked that Clinton 'likes them young,' referring to girls." This basically amounts to "someone said that Jeffery Epstein said something about Bill Clinton." Okay... and...? It's basically hearsay. Not to mention the sort of thing that drives conspiracy theories. But it's not really useful information. It simply makes the former president look bad, but without telling the audience anything beyond the fact that someone said something.

Likewise, the story on the highest rates of homelessness simply takes the Department of Housing and Urban Development's estimates of the homeless population of each state as fact, and presents it. Insight into how Mississippi has such a low rate (and absolute number) of homeless residents? Not a bit. Is the state doing something that other states might want to copy? Who knows?

But there is a case to be made for "Who cares?" And for many, the answer to that is "not the public at large." And in this logic, Axios is following, rather than leading, its audience. For all that advocates for social justice and the homeless believe that the public should be better educated about the causes of, and solutions for, homelessness, the public itself has other interests. And Axios, as a business, needs to present stories that will result in people reading them. And people simply aren't interested in reading a thousand words on how and why homelessness varies between states.

I, for my part, suspect primarily the latter. Axios is, after all, a business, and it understands what the majority of its readers want. Sure, I would have rather had a much deeper dive into the homelessness story, but I'm in a fairly small minority; not one that's big enough for Axios to devote resources to. Their job, after all, is to give the people what they want.