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Not sure what makes me more sad, the idea that you think journalists are in some way involved in the task of "finding out the truth" or that you are surprised b
by evgen 12y ago
Not sure what makes me more sad, the idea that you think journalists are in some way involved in the task of "finding out the truth" or that you are surprised by the ratios. Journalism has been on its death bed for at least a decade with the number of people working in that field dropping every year, while marketing and advertising have continued to grow in a world where the standard user expectation is to not pay for online content and where they instead expect to be surrounded by advertising as the price of admission.
- bostik 12y agoIt is subtler than that, but I am surprised by the ratios. Journalists do not themselves uncover truths. They uncover material and details that can point to a truth. And the core of the problem is that journalism is slow. In the time it takes to fact-check an investigative article, the spinmeisters have had ample time to do what they do best. Namely, set up smoke and mirrors. The power asymmetry is painful, and I have no doubt about this being even a recent thing. There's a quote attributed to Mark Twain on the subject: “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”