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JOE MANDESE

Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.

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  • Then They Came For The Late Night Hosts And I Did Not Speak Out... by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/17/2025)

    @Mark Sutton from NHR: One of your recent comments has been removed, because you continue violating our comment moderation policies, including personal attacks, uncivil language and unsolicited invocations of violence. Please don't do so again.

  • Then They Came For The Late Night Hosts And I Did Not Speak Out... by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/17/2025)

    @Brian Bieron from Bieron Communications: Actually, the early history of American late night talk shows were remarkably political for their times, including the first one, Steve Allen's "The Tonight Show," and his successor Jack Parr and it wasn't until Johnny Carson's reign that political satire was tamped down to bland, generic punchlines. So John Stewart, and Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" were merely picking up the mantle of pointed political satire that has been at the heart of American media. You know, the kind of free speech parody that made America great in the first place.I understand that there is a revisionist view among the MAGA wing of politics, but other Americans don't believe even the current generation of late night hosts are being politically partisan, though they routinely skewer Trump for undermining Constitional and democratic norms, and for being a vindictive, stochastic, mean-spirited, vengeful abuser of power.John Stewart observed this early on in his great "gratuitous dickishness" monologue, which I think is more relevant today than it was when he first delivered it on Colbert's show during the earliest days of Trump 1.0. I highly recommend you watch it:https://youtu.be/PYCPZrOkZx0?si=D6DvrRlryvUN-HeWI think the problem is MAGA has distorted the historic American values of what constitutes partisan vs. simply making fun of bad person. I've never been anti-Republican and as an independent moderate voter, I've frequently caucused with Republicans and their politics when they met my personal standard of American values. Democrats too.MAGAs may dismiss criticism and poking fun at Trump as some form of derangement, but Americans on the other side believe they are the deranged ones for backing someone who is so aggressively -- and cruelly -- trying to undermine American values, the Constitution and democratic norms.It's remarkable how after years of kvetching about "the Left's" cancel culture, MAGAs have now embraced it. That's no way to honor the legacy of Charlie Kirk.Meanwhile, here's an example of comedic free speech being exercised on our earliest late night talk show: https://youtu.be/G3QgxmiBfNY?si=NyVvVPWZnRkHX-Qk

  • Then They Came For The Late Night Hosts And I Did Not Speak Out... by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/17/2025)

    @Patrick M from Media: Your dismissiveness taken. I recommend you exercise your freedom of reading rights and unsubscribe. I mean, why in the world are you reading it if you feel that way?

  • Then They Came For The Late Night Hosts And I Did Not Speak Out... by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/17/2025)

    Journalists are used to being attacked for their reporting -- and their commentary -- but they signed up for that job. Comedians just signed up to be heckled, and if they truly are not funny, the invisible one-clapping hand of the marketplace sorts that out for society.As someone who has covered the late night TV marketplace closely for nearly half a century, I don't think that's the case for Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, or whomever Trump goes after next. I think the economics of media are changing radically, but I guarantee you, Collbert and possibly Kimmel, will create tremendous media value if they choose to bypass the conventional network/affiliate distribution model and go D2C, because there is a huge audience for what they do. Heck, I'd pay. (Actually, I already do because they are big reasons I subscribe to a vMVPD each month in order to get access to their humor, which helps keep me sane through this dark period.)If you've been a closer reader of "Red, White Blog," you already know how sarcastic it can be, that it's not always being literal, and occasionally tries to inject some humor into our political debate.Unlike your comments which go straight to DEFCON 1. You are entitled to infer anything you want, but try to tone down the violent rhetoric and personal attacks.Despite the fine line of some of your recent comments, we have always welcomed you opposing views for the reasons I've always articulated.But I personally believe they represent a minority of Americans -- maybe +/- 39% or another number -- as well as the readers of MediaPost in general and "Red, White & Blog" in particular. If not, why do you keep reading if it ticks you off so much. (I even put a "sensitive content" warning label on this one.)It may not be stated in the Constitution the way speech is, but I believe we all have the right of "free listening"  and you can simply opt out.I'm getting the feeling you probably just wait to pounce on things when they trigger your own political rage, and it seems like you're getting triggered more often and more frequently.What I'd really like to know is how other MediaPost readers -- the silent majority of you out there -- really think. If enough of you don't like the way I comment on political media and marketing, I'm happy to put this one aside. I've got plenty of other functional media and marketing news to cover.Regarding the last -- bated -- comment, I never called Trump and Republicans Nazis (on second thought, I take back my offer to put you on our copydesk, because you apparently cannot read), I do think Trump, much of his administration, and a minority of Republicans (perhaps 39%) increasingly are acting that way.I mean, read the poem, guy.If you think that's invoking violence against anyone, you should try looking in the mirror. Because those are your words, not mine.

  • Then They Came For The Late Night Hosts And I Did Not Speak Out... by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/17/2025)

    @Mark Sutton from NHR: Relax, guy.https://youtu.be/Q1xR3Xidq84?si=p--ZA2qnUhbjhF0yI'm okay with adding the "devil" back into today's post, and I'm not afraid of anything I publish, because I believe we still live in a country that has a Constitution that protects that speech. But if readers don't know the diffrence between Trump "selling his soul" and "selling his soul to the devil," I'm probably not the one to teach them theology at this point.I edit things all the time -- especially my own copy -- based on taste, sense and sensibility, but thank you for paying such close attention to MediaPost's line editing. We could use you on our copy desk.One of the weirdest parts about this particular story is that it demonstrates that  39% of the country doesn't even have a sense of humor anymore. Not just this post, but the fact that they celebrate Trump's attacks on comedians who poke fun at him. If you read my post today, you already know that I think that's even more dangerous than attacking actual journalists, which is to be expected and not a political first. (Continued...)

  • A Word About Charlie Kirk by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/16/2025)

    @Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Apologies, the references to my mother were posted by another commenter I've been replying to and I inadvertently transposed it to you. I retract that allegation and apologize for that error.That said, our comments moderation policies conerning personal attacks and hate speech stand and apply to everyone.And to your last point, the fact that you can continue to express your voice here in this comments well is proof that MP is a voice for all sides, so long as they are civil ones in keeping with our policies.And for the record, we do have staff writers -- as well as regular contributors -- who consider themselves conservatives who regularly express that point-of-view.As for me, I don't claim any political or party labels. I'm an independent voter and I'd consider my personal politics centrist, but occasionally falling right and left depending on the policy or issue.I'm just anti-Trump, but it's for reasons that have nothing to do with political affiliations or idealogies. I think he's bad for America. And for the Republican Party too.I believe his only allegience is to himself. He is, and has always been, an opportunist.

  • A Word About Charlie Kirk by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/16/2025)

    @Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Actually, I didn't say any of those things, but it's a free commentary well, so you can fabricate anything you want, so long as you don't violate our moderation rules. In terms of personal attacks, you can disparage me all you want, because I'm editor-in-chief and that comes with the job. But please leave others -- including my mother -- out of your personal attacks, because that IS over the line.

  • A Free Press Vs. 'The Free Press' by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/15/2025)

    @Dan C. from MS Entertainment (continued):It's complicated. And we do our best to focus on what we think is most relevant to our readers. Some of them grouse, because much of what we publish is not relevant to them. But its really up to them to determine what they read or do not read. And I'd recommend everyone exercise their right to unsubscribe to things that are not relevant to them.Lastly, I'm struck by your comment that we don't cover new and emerging media, because MediaPost was the first-mover among U.S. trade publications to focus on that. It actually took me a while after joining as editor-in-chief to balance out our digital media news bias and get us to cover the industry more broadly. Again, based on the weight and relevance for our overall reader community.But if you really want to focus on new and emerging media, I would suggest you begin subscribeing to "Media 3.0," because it's way beyond what the stuff you cited as the cutting edge of digital media.But that's just my opinion.

  • A Free Press Vs. 'The Free Press' by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/15/2025)

    @Dan C. from MS Entertainment: Thank you for being a long-time reader. Just to clarify something a lot of people may not understand about MediaPost -- It is not a publication, but a publishing company that publishes a number of discrete publications about a variety of subjects related to advertising, media and marketing, including one (this one) that happens to be commentary about Political media and marketing. It's not supposed to be objective, because it represents the explicit point-of-view of the author (primarily me, though we've had some guests from time to time and would welcome more on different POVs).We've tried to frame what "Red, White & Blog's" mission is, including its subhead: "Truth, Mud & The American Media." And for the past couple of years, I've gone to extra lengths to actually publishing "sensitive content" warnings on some of them so readers had an opportunity to be forewarned.All that said, "Red, White & Blog" is a tiny piece of what MediaPost regularly publishes, and it's up to each reader to decide what mix is relevant to them by opting in or out or unsubscribing.I admit our system can be clunky, but that's the way we roll.I don't want to debate you on the overall merits of MediaPost's content, because you already indicated you're a long-time reader, so there's something there.But when you harp on us still covering "legacy" media and not covering new and emerging media, I think you don't understand what our overall mission actually is. Our goal is to cover any and all media that are relevant to advertising and media trade pros who buy and sell media. And for the past quarter century nobody has covered the share shift of that mix closer than me.But legacy media still are at least a third of total ad spending (and I'd argue more if you included unmeasured media, but that's another story), and for some big brands and agencies, the share is significantly heavier with legacy media.We try to be media neutral in terms of the weight we give to various ad-supported -- as well as non-ad-supported -- mediums, and mainly try to follow the numbers. But based on our internal data, a lot of our readers still like reading news about TV, print, out-of-home, radio, etc., and the truth is those very same legacy media are continuously evolving and morphing into new forms of digital media too. Continued...

  • A Free Press Vs. 'The Free Press' by Joe Mandese (Red, White & Blog on 09/15/2025)

    @Dan C. from MS Entertainment: In that case, I'm surprised you're still reading MediaPost. And commenting on it.

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