Another Iconic Leftist Media Magazine Bites the Dust

The 68-year old Texas Observer joins the list of failing far-left woke media organizations this week.

Observer used red and black on propaganda cover.

Just as many liberal outlets and publications, the Observer has dwindled to only over 3,000 paid subscribers, while being plagued with inner turmoil amongst the woke staff.

“They are victims of their own self-perpetuating wokism,” an Austin based journalism friend told me. “They are at each others throats constantly accusing one another of racism, discrimination and other liberal favorites.”

“Get this,” she continued. “The chairperson of their Texas Democracy Foundation is Laura Hernandez Holmes, the El Paso (now living in Austin) liberal campaign wiz who was instrumental in nut-job Beto O’Rourke’s failed election campaigns and a deputy campaign manager for far-left Austin mayor Steve Alder.”

“Others on the board bask in their own Austin-type glory, proclaiming and identifying themselves as political activists, social responsibilists, or climatists.”

“This tells you everything you need to know about the outlook of the organization. They have lost many of their contributions and supporters. They wagged on the last few years with just a few millionaire liberal philanthropists who remained.”

“In typical liberal fashion, they will blame their demise on everything but themselves,” she said. “Changing demographics, a younger generation, Internet and social media. But they had online presence and that failed too. Fact is, like Trump said, ‘everything woke turns to sh**.'”

“Most liberal UT (University of Texas) and young Austin students are more interested in propaganda and the instant gratification they enjoy from (on-line) gaming, streaming and not working. They’re not going to be buying newspaper or magazine subscriptions.”

‘Journalism Today is Not Journalism…”

“The staff has been basically unstable,” she noted. “Even before the hysteria of Covid hit in 2020, there was inner turmoil with much turnover in editors and leadership. Journalism today is not journalism and has to rely on deep pocket donors to stay alive. They are hurting themselves by believing what they write.”

In October 2022, the Observer felt some relief from a $1 million pledge by the Tejemos Foundation, set up by Greg Wooldridge, and his wife Lynne Dobson, a philanthropist whose family started Whataburger in the 1950s.

According to the Texas Tribune, “The couple disbursed $400,000 of the gift soon after, and later asked the magazine for documentation of matching funds and other efforts in order to receive the remaining $600,000, some of which would have gone to cover public relations, marketing and other vital business operations that had been long neglected.”