I grew up in a newspaper family, and my first three jobs were for newspapers. For 12 years, I was very proud to call myself a journalist. However, in the early 90s, I saw where the craft was going and I simply could not bring myself to become what passes for a journalist today.
Just because there are fewer reporters and there is a thirst for constant news, it does not follow that we throw out the ethics book and scramble willy-nilly for every scrap of information we can scrape out of the gutter. In fact, it demands that we hold higher due dilligence and take greater care to see that our sacrosanct duty to The Public is done.
But a major problem is that the journalistic ethics of which we speak is, quite honestly, rarely taught anymore. Just as the proper use of the language and silly things like grammar and syntax and spelling, ethics simply has no place in today's journalism courses. It's all about how to make the story "lively" and how to "control the interview."
Personally, I never wanted to control the interview; I preferred to go in with a short list of questions and, during the interview, develop those lines further, letting the source -- who, unlike today's "media stars," was the actual expert -- tell me what the story was about. That way, I could go back to my desk and write the story so that a person who never heard of the subject before would walk away knowing as much as I could fit into the hole.
As for agenda -- the only agenda a true journalist needs was put very accurately in the old Dragnet series: "Just the facts, ma'am; just the facts."
As I write this, I remember that Daniel Schoor died last week and with him perhaps the very last of what I call the "true Journalists."
It's a sad, sad time for those of us who cherish what was once a noble, if unappreciated, craft. How far it has fallen.
Media is a business. Businesses are in business to stay in business. To stay in business, you have to sell a product that your customers want. The media gives the public (customers) what we want...ENTERTAINMENT.
For those who may long for 'the good old days', Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow were no different. If they did not produce something that sold, they would have found themselves looking for other employment.
What has changed is us. We ALL need to look in the mirror and take personal responsibility instead of trying to impose it on others. Be an individual and stand for your beliefs!
BTW, all the networks carried the story with the same slant, so don't think 'your network' did a better job than 'their' network on this one.
I love the post.. Many people in our area are struggling as manufacturing jobs have nearly dried up. The Pew Research Panels finding don't surprise me. We see it everyday. Too bad Washington doesn't.
I can't disagree more with this piece. In a very rare occurrence, I actually quite agree with something a Republican said. By ramping up troops, dramatically increasing military spending, initiating drone attacks (that kill mostly civilians) on a scale never before seen, and funneling more business to private military contractors than Bush did in Iraq, the Obama Administration has absolutely owned the war in Afghanistan. This is Obama's war every bit as much as Vietnam was Lyndon Johnson's war, and the Obama Administration should be made to answer for the war crimes committed in it every bit as much as Bush should be for Iraq. Otherwise you are committing a painfully obvious double-standard favoring one of the two parties of big business.
John Stauber is going to need all the help he can get. While Alice Waters has the reputation of being gentle and kind and a friend to all who favor wholesome organic food production--the current controversy is beyond those plebian concerns. Her wealthy friends have been attacked, and if nothing else, Alice knows which side her organic, wholegrain bread is buttered on!
She could care less that people may suffer harm from the distribution of toxic sludge--her well-heeled friends must be protected at all cost, even, it seems, if that calls for outright lies to do so. Shame on you, Alice! Maybe we should call her bluff--let's insist that ALL food served at Chez Panisse from now on be grown in toxic sludge. Let's see what her wealthy customers have to say about that! Well, Alice, what do you say?
I grew up in a newspaper family, and my first three jobs were for newspapers. For 12 years, I was very proud to call myself a journalist. However, in the early 90s, I saw where the craft was going and I simply could not bring myself to become what passes for a journalist today.
Just because there are fewer reporters and there is a thirst for constant news, it does not follow that we throw out the ethics book and scramble willy-nilly for every scrap of information we can scrape out of the gutter. In fact, it demands that we hold higher due dilligence and take greater care to see that our sacrosanct duty to The Public is done.
But a major problem is that the journalistic ethics of which we speak is, quite honestly, rarely taught anymore. Just as the proper use of the language and silly things like grammar and syntax and spelling, ethics simply has no place in today's journalism courses. It's all about how to make the story "lively" and how to "control the interview."
Personally, I never wanted to control the interview; I preferred to go in with a short list of questions and, during the interview, develop those lines further, letting the source -- who, unlike today's "media stars," was the actual expert -- tell me what the story was about. That way, I could go back to my desk and write the story so that a person who never heard of the subject before would walk away knowing as much as I could fit into the hole.
As for agenda -- the only agenda a true journalist needs was put very accurately in the old Dragnet series: "Just the facts, ma'am; just the facts."
As I write this, I remember that Daniel Schoor died last week and with him perhaps the very last of what I call the "true Journalists."
It's a sad, sad time for those of us who cherish what was once a noble, if unappreciated, craft. How far it has fallen.
Media is a business. Businesses are in business to stay in business. To stay in business, you have to sell a product that your customers want. The media gives the public (customers) what we want...ENTERTAINMENT.
For those who may long for 'the good old days', Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow were no different. If they did not produce something that sold, they would have found themselves looking for other employment.
What has changed is us. We ALL need to look in the mirror and take personal responsibility instead of trying to impose it on others. Be an individual and stand for your beliefs!
BTW, all the networks carried the story with the same slant, so don't think 'your network' did a better job than 'their' network on this one.
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