Dec 05 2005

Spoiled Brat Journalism

Published by at 1:45 pm under All General Discussions

Ralph Peters has a spot on dissection of the journalism profession (if we can use that word) and where it has become an utter failure. Some great snippets:

“Mainstream” newspapers lost touch with American workers because the new breed of journalists didn’t know any workers.

“Serious” journalists became scandal-mongers in drag.

Celeb journalists love to invoke “freedom of the press,” but dismiss the reality that the exercise of freedom in an open society demands a corresponding sense of responsibility, as well as self-restraint and mature judgment.

After Watergate, patriotism became an embarrassment among journalists. They’re “citizens of the world.

But the killer is when Peters points out that ratings has surpassed loyalty to country and protecting our war fighters:

Yet the quest for headlines-at-any-cost and the sense that evident patriotism is distasteful led a superb paper to shameful decisions. Dana Priest, a journalist with much fine work to her credit, recently broke the story of secret CIA arrangements to hold captured terrorists in Eastern Europe. For the sake of a headline, the paper did severe harm to our counter-terror efforts and our diplomatic relations.

Yes, journalism has fallen very far in the past 30 years. They are in a race with the CIA to see which group we can dump over board first.

We don’t need or deserve this kind of news media. America deserves much better. Hat Tip Real Clear Politics

3 responses so far

3 Responses to “Spoiled Brat Journalism”

  1. axiom says:

    A lot of people point to Bob Woodward as the catalyst of celebrity journalism. Woodward basically made the byline what it is today.

    Read the Economist. None of the stories have a byline. Everything is attributed to the magazine as a whole. Strange as it may seem, the publication of free enterprise and the strength of the individual attributes success and failure on the whole.

    Today’s star journalists are basically columnists. Woodward, Robin Wright, David Sanger, Eric Lichtblau, Susan Schmidt: they’re famous because of the byline.

  2. AJStrata says:

    Axiom,

    Excellent point!

    AJStrata

  3. axiom says:

    AJ: Check out the flick “Green Street Hooligans”. There’s an interesting side story in the film about journalists. Although, some will disagree with my characterization of it as a “side story”.

    Cheers.