A media critic urged ‘not the odds, but the stakes.’ Did it work?

A few weeks ago, I dedicated this newsletter, for the duration of the presidential campaign, to a concept for media coverage embodied in six words: “Not the odds, but the stakes.”

The author of that elegant phrase is preeminent press critic and NYU professor Jay Rosen, who is also a friend of mine and, like me, a Buffalo native. Jay has a knack for such things; he also popularized the media criticism known as “the view from nowhere,” and the better idea of a “citizen’s agenda” for coverage.

“Not the odds, but the stakes” resonated, especially after Oliver Darcy, then of CNN, wrote about it in late 2023. Soon after, it began to be quoted and discussed more widely. Non-journalists found it important — they very much wanted their news sources to make this switch.

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