But something interesting happened I’d say back in the 1960’s.
Journalism was no longer viewed by those who wished to participate in it as a:
vital and important piece of society that guarantees, protects, and defends freedom,
but as an
easy job, that avoided rigor, only required writing, but then also gave you the ego-boost that you were some kind of crusader, some kind of hero. It is why I hate journalism majors more than any other bar political science.
This ease and “glory” of the journalism field attracted not only the weakest of minds, but the most power hungry as well. People who didn’t care so much about intellectual honesty, intellectual temerity, or protecting freedom, but hacks, quasi-politicians, and egomaniacs who put their egos, careers, and pride above the American people.
It’s the startling homogeneity of journalism that really annoys me, the seeming lack of any real spectrum of political opinion from right to left upon which build a perspective.
Interesting this should come up just now.
Having just read the front page headline of the National Post: “Stephen Harper Speech heckled during historic speech to Israeli legislature”, I sent the following to both the article writer and to major newspaper editors right across Canada.
We really need to push back against this crap and the best way to do so may be to PUBLICALLY question their professionalism.
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Dear Mr. Kennedy;
As part of a large discussion group, I’ve sent the following as a topic we will be discussing. It has long bothered me that reporters in newspapers and television have abdicated their responsibility to provide factual and unbaised news on a consistent basis. Local reports such as accidents or shootings may be sensationalized from time to time, but are largely based on the traditional five ‘W’s. Political events however, too often reflect the biases of either the writer or editor in an attempt to shape the public narrative.
Your article in today’s Natonal Post is a case in point. Were I the parliamentary bureau chief and superviser of the national bureau’s political coverage I would be ashamed of this professional lapse of judgement. What can be said of making this the front page headline, seen in newstands across the nation – unrelated to the content of not only the Prime Minister’s speech, but of the content of your own reporting? This is irresponsible journalism and a glaring example of why people are turning away from mainstream news organizations.
Respectfully,
Nanaimo, B.C.
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Good morning, discussion group members;
Being tasked with formulating topics for next months meeting, it occured to me that media – both technologically and materially – have extensively changed over the last decade.
Print is becoming less viable and members of the media themselves seem to have changed from ‘news gatherers’ to opinon shapers. Witness the headline in today’s National Post – once considered the ‘conservative’ alternative to the Globe and Mail. The headline clearly ‘shapes opinion’ or sets a tone, yet in the body of the text there is not a single – I repeat, not a single reference – to what is contained in the headline.
Yet this visit and speech is historic and unique in both Canadian and international politics.
Is the prevelant media, electronic or otherwise, a reliable and trustworthy source today? Let’s discuss.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/20/stephen-harper-heckled-during-historic-speech-to-israeli-legislature/
*** I note that the author, Mark Kennedy is: “currently deputy editor and parliamentary bureau chief at Postmedia News and supervises the national bureau’s political coverage.”
The period of time that Newspapers and journalist were considered respectable, occupied a very brief moment in time, perhaps 4-5 decades. throughout that time many papers were considered sleazy and only a few were treated as being worthy of respect.
Fred Reed wrote, on or about the sixteenth day of January, year of our Lord 2014:
There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.’ ~ John Swinton, former Chief of Staff, The New York Times, 1953
That’s pretty much it.
No curiosity, no drive, no independence.
Journalist: old Cree word for “dink who copy and send other guy’s smoke signals”
Blaming the media is a serious mistake. Yes, they are biased and dishonest. I have worked inside and outside the media, and studied their history. They have always been biased and dishonest.
Just few examples: *False and slanderous disinformation was among the first things to come off Gutenberg’s printing press. *Captain Kidd was not a pirate, in spite of what the media said. * Captain Bly was a fair-minded and able captain who was over-run by mutineers who wanted to go back to Tahiti and spend their lives having sex with Tahitian women. *Much of the US civil war was wrongly reported. *The American wild west was mainly a newspaper fiction. Most of it was just honest hard-working agricultural labor. *Mark Twain bragged about the amazing and bizarre lies he published as a journalist. *Yellow Journalism was a period of pugnacious, slanderous, muck-raking garbage that many journalists consider a golden age. *The Pearl Harbor attack is clearly known to have been orchestrated by Roosevelt, and the media still won’t admit it. *The Nazis were left-wing socialist-communists. They wanted power for Germany, not Moscow, and Nazi stood for national socialists. *McCarthy was right about everyone he accused. The media, including Time magazine was full of communists. *General Patton was assassinated. *John Kennedy had cheated on the elections and was legally removed from office.
Had enough? Internet conservatives are like a movie character who awakens in the middle of a bar fight and jumps in before finding out what’s going on. This fight has been going on for a very long time. Do you remember when you used to watch the TV news and you believed what it said? Well, we all did.
In November 1963, Walter Cronkite interrupted an afternoon TV soap opera and said John Kennedy had been shot, and right-wing extremists had been seen in the area. People believed him, then and now.
Blaming the media for bias and dishonesty is like blaming a duck for being a duck. We can’t negotiate them out of their ducky nature, but we can always eat them. And that’s just what we’ll do.
Journalists in general are a few notches lower on the integrity scale from used car salesman (and that’s not meant as an insult toward car salesmen)
Journalism was an honorable profession BEFORE it became a dumping ground for the useless children of the rich.. Send them off to University and your no longer burdened to even provide employment for your own offspring..
Piffle. Journalism has always attracted the same kinds of people. For ever. What happened in the 60s is that newspaper reporting picked up the cachet of something honorable and noble. It became (declared itself) a profession: journalism.
The press created their own myth and sold it to us.
Part of it was true.
Then they stopped doing that part.
When politicians, business and the media are marching in lockstep the herd is endangered.
Presstitutes are one step beyond, they are smugly proud of their personal corruption.
How may we spin the facts for you Master…
Thank you, No Guff, I really hope you did send your wonderful letter to the Post. Should you set up such a discussion group, I would love to join.
Cap’n Capitalism’s article was excellent tho a little man-centric. Women are as frustrated with journalists as men are. I had a hard time reading the précis for this thread since Robert Fyfe’s image kept blurring my vision.