Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture three times a week. Subscribe and tell me what you want to hear about next! - KP

The Big Story: The Cost of Confusing Content

A fun fact about me is that I growing up I always wanted to be a journalist. I was editor of my high school paper, a news editor for the Notre Dame student paper, and that’s what I thought I wanted to do until I graduated in the middle of a gnarly financial crisis with student loans amounting to more than $1,000/month ($1,500 in 2025 dollars). I had to take whatever job I could, and that’s how I ended up at a marketing agency. The rest is history!

I ended up on a different path, one I love for different reasons, but I still have a soft spot for “the news” — specifically the principles that make journalism so important: verify everything, protect your sources, keep your opinions out of it. I was introduced to journalism as a craft and as a cornerstone of democracy. We used to call it the “Fourth Estate,” though hardly anyone does anymore.

One of the most alarming trends in society, to me at least, has been to watch the steady erosion of trust in journalism. Media literacy is at an all-time low. Many people can’t separate media as a business from journalism as a craft. They don’t know what’s opinion and what’s reporting. So they blindly trust whatever confirms their worldview, or increasingly, they trust nothing at all.

Everything gets lumped under the term “media” — cable news panels, viral tweets, partisan Substacks, deeply reported investigations. But real journalism isn’t just content. At its best, it’s a public service. It exists to inform people, hold power accountable, and give us all a shot at agreeing on a shared reality. Without that, democracy gets wobbly.

The Trust Problem and the Built-In Business Paradox

How did it all get so messy? 

Let’s start with the obvious: most media companies are businesses. Many are owned by corporations. Some are even publicly traded. That means they have one job: maximize shareholder value. These days, that means maximizing attention. More clicks. More views. More ad dollars. Which tends to reward the loudest, hottest takes, and not the slow, careful truth.

In other words, the very thing that makes journalism essential — its commitment to nuance, fairness, and accuracy — isn’t what keeps the lights on. Here’s an example: A reporter has been working on a high-profile story for weeks and is waiting to publish until she verifies the testimony of an anonymous source. Her publication now faces a tough choice: stick to the principle of corroborating an unnamed source and potentially lose the opportunity to publish first, OR rush to push the article live before someone else does. You can see how haste can be at odds with accuracy.

So, how do we get around the free markets being a deterrent to the whole “public service” side of journalism? In some places, you’ve got government-funded media, which comes with its own set of issues. In the U.K., the BBC is indirectly government-funded, as it’s propped up by UK households and businesses required to pay a TV license fee. While the BBC is editorially independent by charter, critics across the political spectrum have occasionally accused it of bias. 

In the U.S., we have NPR and PBS, although the extent of their government funding is much lower. NPR receives less than 1% of its funding directly from the U.S. government, while PBS gets about 15% from federal, state, and local sources, with both relying primarily on donations, sponsorships, and member station support. 

Elsewhere, there’s state-run media, which … yikes. So, unless you’ve got a dictatorial leader, a benevolent billionaire, or a sturdy nonprofit structure footing the bill, there’s a fundamental tension: the role of journalism in society often clashes with the economic incentives of the media companies that house it.

Journalism ≠ Media

It’s worth restating this: journalism and “media” are not synonymous.

Media is a delivery system. Journalism is a discipline. Real journalism relies on sourcing, verification, and accountability. It separates reporting from opinion, and it plays by a strict code of ethics.

Media, on the other hand, includes everything from talk shows to TikToks to your favorite newsletter (hi!). And the more we treat all of it as interchangeable, the more we risk throwing out the good with the garbage.

Why You Should Care

Democracy needs journalism. It’s how we track what’s happening, how we hold powerful people to account, and how we make decisions based on facts. If nobody trusts reporters, or worse, doesn’t even recognize real reporting when they see it, we’re in trouble. In some ways, we already are.

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1787

A lack of understanding of journalism’s role in a functioning democracy leads to things like misinformation spreading faster than the truth and opinions masquerading as facts. Legit investigations get dismissed as biased. And we lose something vital when that happens; mostly, our ability to solve anything collectively.

The system isn’t perfect. Nor can it be! Journalists are human beings, human beings have biases. That’s why there’s a code of ethics, why there are tiers of editorial checks and balances, and why diversity within newsrooms (gender, ethnic, religious, political) is so important.

But there are ways to push it in the right direction:

• Invest in media literacy. Most of us were never taught how to spot a credible source, distinguish fact from opinion, or think critically about the information we consume. We need to fix that. The News Literacy Project is working on it, though this is likely the first you’ve heard of them.

• Support local and nonprofit news. Journalism can’t survive on clicks alone. Subscriptions and philanthropy help fill the gap left by broken ad models. This is especially true at the local news level, where newsroom staffing has dropped by more than 57% since 2008, leaving many communities without coverage of city halls, school boards, and elections — critical watchdog functions that, without reporting, erode transparency and civic engagement.

• Be a better consumer. Ask: Who’s behind this? Is it sourced? Verified? Is it telling me something I want to hear, or something I need to hear?

• Demarcate news from opinion. Ever notice how in a newspaper, the opinion section is clearly marked as such, but not so much on TV and in digital spaces? That’s because there is no such requirement for these more modern media formats. Seems like a simple and logical rule to apply!

• Rethink incentives. Some experts have suggested tax credits, public funding, or new models to support journalism in the public interest. (This is so complex that the Knight Commission has a 160-page report attempting to provide an answer.)

This isn’t about nostalgia for some golden age of news. It’s about protecting the very idea of shared truth. Journalism might not be perfect, but without it? We’ve lost the plot, people.

Daily Rip Live Recap: Trust in Fed Independence is on Shaky Ground, Tesla Reports Q1 Earnings Tomorrow, and SPACs are Back

Every weekday, Shay Boloor and I run down the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live. Here’s what we recently covered:

• 5:00 | Why does the perception of a non-independent Fed rattle trust? For context, countries with non-indy Federal Reserves include Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, and Argentina. 🙃 

• 8:12 | Netflix's big print — their ad-supported biz is growing rapidly: 55% of new sign-ups are opting for ads. The stock was up 4% at market open. $NFLX ( ▲ 0.43% )  

• 13:08 | Tesla earnings predictions: Shay predicts a bloody sales read-out, but focuses on the future in robotics. What's this special announcement coming after meeting? Will Elon return as FT CEO? $TSLA ( ▲ 9.8% )  

• 16:53 | We're in a "compute cold war!” Why it's tough to be a NVIDIA bag-holder right now, although true believers are hanging on for dear life. $NVDA ( ▲ 4.3% )  

• 23:09 | Are we headed toward a "business recession" or an economic recession? And what’s the difference? Biz juggernauts like Meta, Alphabet, Apple all cut a check to Trump's record-breaking $240M inaugural fund, but are currently feeling the heat of tariff pressures. $META ( ▲ 2.65% )  $GOOG ( ▲ 1.47% )  $AAPL ( ▲ 0.44% )  

• 28:00 | More earnings coming up this week, including the “blue chip of SaaS,” ServiceNow $NOW ( ▲ 0.71% ) | I interviewed their CFO last year; watch it here.

• 37:40 | Is Alphabet being disrespected? $GOOG ( ▲ 1.47% )  

• 48:15 | Return of the SPAC? Well I tried to tell you so! IPOs are on ice, and some private co's are looking for other ways out. Plus, Webull stock is slip sliding away. That’s a double music reference for those counting at home!

• 55:40 | As we were wrapping the show, the President called the Fed Chair a “loser” because hey, this is how adults handle disagreements! Buckle up because it's beginning to feel like Maury Povich.

Hear Shay and me yap about the markets every weekday at 9 a.m. ET on X (@stocktwits), YouTube, LinkedIn, or in your Stocktwits app. Follow me there — I’m @stocktwitsKP!

Now Here’s a Chart

Via The Kobeissi Letter on X: In March, the number of Americans holding down multiple jobs increased by 76,000, reaching a new high of 8.94 million. This marks a rise of more than 500,000 compared to the peak in 2019. As a percentage of the workforce, those with multiple jobs now account for 5.5%, the highest level since 2009. Additionally, 28.47 million people are working part-time, the third-largest number recorded.

Reading List

• The Only U.S. Rare Earth Mine May Win Big From Trump’s China Tariffs (Forbes) $MP ( ▼ 6.15% )  

• Papal betting markets put their money on the next Pope (Axios)

• Google says DOJ’s proposal for breakup would harm U.S. in ‘global race with China’ (CNBC) $GOOG ( ▲ 1.47% )  

• Feds accuse Uber of charging customers for subscriptions without consent (TechCrunch) $UBER ( ▼ 0.45% )  

• Kennedy set to announce US ban on artificial food dyes in cereals, snacks and beverages (BBC) $K ( ▼ 0.18% )  $CPB ( ▼ 1.17% )  $MDLZ ( ▲ 0.11% )  

• DHL will now suspend consumer shipments ‘from any origin’ that are over $800 because of a tariff-induced backlog at U.S. customs (Fortune)

• ESPN’s WNBA Coverage Mirrors the League’s Stunning Growth (Front Office Sports) $DIS ( ▲ 0.3% )  

🎧 Now playing: “The Hand that Feeds” - Nine Inch Nails

Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

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Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.