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I'm not sure journalists deserve the benefit of the doubt. The press in the United States over the last 15 years has anemically covered two wars, the burst of t

I'm not sure journalists deserve the benefit of the doubt. The press in the United States over the last 15 years has anemically covered two wars, the burst of the housing and related securities bubbles, the crippling government corruption associated with said bubbles, warrant-less wire-tapping, executive orders to assassinate US citizens, and the US military playing hopscotch with international boundaries. All while creating an atmosphere of fear that empowers government to go further when the role of the press is supposed to hold government in check. I'll admit that journalists are human when someone can show me a journalist. It's been a long time since I've seen one doing the job.

CWIZO 14y ago
>>I'll admit that journalists are human when someone can show me a journalist. It's been a long time since I've seen one doing the job. A thousand times this. Recently one of our news organizations published an article (on their online edition) about how Samsung paid Apple the 1 billion in coins delivered with 30 trucks. That tells you every god damned thing about so called journalists today. Fuck those guys.
pstuart 14y ago
But what good is journalism if people don't read it or believe it? Did you catch the game last night? Dancing with the Stars? American Idol? My cat pix on Facebook? Who wants boring bad news where there are so many distractions to be had? Probably the best "mainstream" journalism is coming from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and they're already preaching to the choir. It makes me so sad.
- 0003 14y ago
  I would disagree that DS and CR are journalists. They are smart, discuss political and socio-economic events, and while they do partake in investigative reporting, they are not in the same league of hard-reporting by as performed by the AP, propublica and other foundations, and local big city papers.
  - pstuart 14y ago
    Agreed, not in the proper context of research or depth of the parties you cited. If journalism is considered to be "making people aware of what is going on", then I believe my contention has merit, especially when it comes to the distasteful arena of politics.
mpclark 14y ago
Journalists are human, of course. They are also employees, and like employees everywhere they face an immense amount of pressure from above to produce more, in less time, for less cost. I sat in a large newspaper newsroom and watched it happen around me a few years ago, when the internet tourniquet started tightening. The journalists, subs and everyone else involved in producing a quality product were at their wits end as the management tried to take us ever closer to the minimal viable product they could put advertising around. A team of 14 running five weekly papers was fired and replaced by existing labour cut'n'pasting articles from the main daily paper produced at the site. Believe me, journalists know that their once respected profession is going to hell in a handcart. But it's not their fault, and largely there's not much they can do about it. It's also hard for normal folk to see this because a very, very few writers get larded with resources, oodles of time to investigate stories, and big salaries, and these are the ones that are talked about. It is like assuming all CEOs are dishonest, earn a few million a year and fly everywhere by private jet.

CWIZO 14y ago

>>I'll admit that journalists are human when someone can show me a journalist. It's been a long time since I've seen one doing the job. A thousand times this. Recently one of our news organizations published an article (on their online edition) about how Samsung paid Apple the 1 billion in coins delivered with 30 trucks. That tells you every god damned thing about so called journalists today. Fuck those guys.

pstuart 14y ago

But what good is journalism if people don't read it or believe it? Did you catch the game last night? Dancing with the Stars? American Idol? My cat pix on Facebook? Who wants boring bad news where there are so many distractions to be had? Probably the best "mainstream" journalism is coming from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and they're already preaching to the choir. It makes me so sad.

0003 14y ago
I would disagree that DS and CR are journalists. They are smart, discuss political and socio-economic events, and while they do partake in investigative reporting, they are not in the same league of hard-reporting by as performed by the AP, propublica and other foundations, and local big city papers.
- pstuart 14y ago
  Agreed, not in the proper context of research or depth of the parties you cited. If journalism is considered to be "making people aware of what is going on", then I believe my contention has merit, especially when it comes to the distasteful arena of politics.

mpclark 14y ago

Journalists are human, of course. They are also employees, and like employees everywhere they face an immense amount of pressure from above to produce more, in less time, for less cost. I sat in a large newspaper newsroom and watched it happen around me a few years ago, when the internet tourniquet started tightening. The journalists, subs and everyone else involved in producing a quality product were at their wits end as the management tried to take us ever closer to the minimal viable product they could put advertising around. A team of 14 running five weekly papers was fired and replaced by existing labour cut'n'pasting articles from the main daily paper produced at the site. Believe me, journalists know that their once respected profession is going to hell in a handcart. But it's not their fault, and largely there's not much they can do about it. It's also hard for normal folk to see this because a very, very few writers get larded with resources, oodles of time to investigate stories, and big salaries, and these are the ones that are talked about. It is like assuming all CEOs are dishonest, earn a few million a year and fly everywhere by private jet.