3 ms·

i first heard this as "journalism is what somebody doesn't want you to print, the rest is PR" which rings a bit truer. somebody's success that they desperately

i first heard this as "journalism is what somebody doesn't want you to print, the rest is PR" which rings a bit truer. somebody's success that they desperately want you to report on (like a shuttle launch or election win) can be news, but it's not actually journalism until you start reading beyond the press release and finding additional context.

jfengel 4y ago
It's truer because it's tautological. Either somebody wants you to print it or someone does not. I suppose the middle case is "nobody cares one way or the other", and it's true that if nobody cares then it's not news. That is at least a definition rather than a tautology.