The money quote from Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Excellence in Journalism award winner Michael Cooke, editor of the Toronto Star:
“Is journalism 100 unpaid bloggers all talking and yattering at once, or a city filled with amateur citizen journalists uncoordinated in all their efforts? Those bloggers and citizen reporters are as close to real reporters as karaoke is to Frank Sinatra live and in person.”
What Cooke and many of his colleagues in the MSM fail to recognize or accept is that their “city filled with amateur citizen journalists” is actually a city filled with subject matter experts. In other words, unlike the generalist reporter, the citizen journalist has often spent a lifetime developing expertise in whatever subject he or she is writing about.
I don’t know about you, but when I want to know what’s wrong with my car, I go to a mechanic, not a reporter who happens to be writing about auto repair today.
LOL true
Paul in calgary.
The “Toronto Star” employ journalists?
Personally, I would consider it the ultimate insult to be called a “journalist”. For what is a journalist? They appear to be parasites, with short attention spans,and prone to sensationalism. They seem to find joy in the pain and suffering of others, and even more joy is gossiping about it. They say they know everything and master in nothing, ignorant to a fault and unrepentant when proven wrong. They except no responsibility for their actions. What sort of person would want to be a journalist? They are the dregs of a functioning society as they contribute nothing real.
Chris – I agree. I find them similar to Family Law lawyers.
Some of the best stories out there go un-reported by these ” journalists ” .
let them think they’re still relevant. the toronto star now gives away almost as many newspapers as they actually sell to convince advertisers they are still getting ads to eyeballs. its only a matter of time….
Cooke is really complaining about the lack of control of unpaid bloggers and citizen reporters. If they all agreed with his opinions I’m sure he’d be singing their praises.
Free access to other, and particularly unexpected, opinions must be very upsetting to him.
oh yeah, every time I want to decide what to have for lunch, I just google Jan Wong.
Journalism like Frank Sinatra appears to be…dead. Long live Karaoke-ing bloggers
ROFLMAO! What a self-absorbed nitwit…”real reporters”…these semiliterate gormless smirking talking heads, oh, it’s too funny!
Chris, you nailed it.
What Cooke needs to but never will understand is that today’s aware citizen who make it his or her business to be informed will always go to the vast store of information that is the web.
That person will seek, absorb, digest and ultimately judge for his or her-self what is bullshit and what is fact and do it without the bias of some leftard “journalist”.
That is what Cooke does not get and what is going “to get him and his industry.” It is happening already, every day, and not soon enough as far as I’m concerned.
Preach it, brother!
Key point: subject matter experts. Remember that. A reporter/journalist couldn’t come close to knowing what these people know, in most cases.
Of course, you can’t argue with these people. It’s like teaching a pig to sing.
Bloggers are the people that journalists once used to interview to “get the facts”, and after getting the facts, proceeded to distort and cherry pick. Now we can reach the same audience without the interlopers. Their noses are out of joint and they’re pouting.
Louise has it right, as well as the rest of you. Those people get away with bsing or touting some ideology line passing it off as news. Try that on a blog like this. You better know what you are talking about and have some facts to back it up or you get called on it rather quickly.
Hubris is terminal.
Traditional journos think that what matters is good copy writing skills, decent questioning skills and maybe a bit of research talent. They view topic knowledge and expertise as irrelevant. Thus they are suckers for spin and can beled around by the nose.
“Those bloggers and citizen reporters are as close to real reporters as karaoke is to Frank Sinatra”
The arrogance of pomposity in free-fall.
Someone should inform this “news hawk” that Sinatra is dead.
Nothing better illustrates the cluelessness of the dead tree media than this comment. I no longer read newspapers except for occasional local news and pick up the National Post in the doctors lounge from time to time (they appear to be barely understanding the current situation). The MSM no longer has a monopoly on what the people read see or hear. Anyone with a computer can put their thoughts and observations on the internet. 99% of blogs are crap, but then 99+% of what appears in the MSM is crap and it’s blogs like SDA that find the best material available on the internet on current events and bring it to peoples awareness. Blogs aren’t constrained by article length limitations that newspapers have and the degree of depth that coverage of subjects get on blogs is unmatched by any arm of the MSM. To see how little information TV news presents, look at a transcript of a TV news program and compare it to an in-depth blog article on SDA or WUWT.
The MSM’s Stalingrad was climategate. Within hours of FOI2009.zip appearing on a Russian ftp server, tens of thousands of bloggers were analyzing the contents of this file and the AGW fraud was exposed in minute detail for anyone with an internet connection to see. The deafening silence of the MSM for over a month on this topic after FOI2009.zip flooded the internet probably did more to turn people against the MSM than any other event in history. The depth of analysis of climategate on WUWT, climateaudit and SDA was of higher quality than the “peer reviewed” climate research which was shown to fall apart when objectively reviewed by this army of amateurs. This was a prime example of peer-reviewed scientific journalism and only the National Post appears to have gotten an inkling of how significant this event has been. Just as the Wehrmacht limped along for a few more years after Stalingrad, newspapers will likely be primary providers of birdcage lining material and floor protection during repainting jobs for a similar period of time. What is most desperately needed now is a service which informs journalists how they can best secure jobs at fast food restaurants which, given their skills, are about the best they can hope for once the asteroid hits.
What a snivelling, trumped up, little shit… In one contemptable sentence, Cooke manages to show his arrogant elitist nature, along with a profound insecurity, all at the same time. He refer’s to himself as a “real reporter”, this coming from the guy who gave us the journalistic brilliance of “busty hookers and cocaine”… I can see the smug cloud Cooke’s acceptance speech created now…”Winning an award for being a “journalist” in Canada is the equivalent of winning an award for being the biggest douche-bag at an all douche-bag party.
Like any of you mouth breathers have any expertise on anything, or have actually reported accurately on an event or a subject?
Mother In Labour: What do I do?
Obstetrician: Nothing, dear, you’re not qualified.
Well Fister, we can guess what you’re an expert in.
Some regular, ordinary people can actually know more about a subject that is their passionate hobby or profession than a reporter, can you believe it? Can you imagine somebody who knows more about guns and gun laws than a reporter? Can you imagine somebody who has worked as a petroleum geologist their entire life and knows almost as much about it as a journalist? I certainly can’t but I’m too busy remembering to breathe through my nose.
Journalism isn’t a profession, no matter how many prizes they give each other.
Love the cut and thrust here. Bare knuckles in the corners. You can tell when the MSM types are upset – they go into vapour lock and turn blue from lack of oxygen.
“I don’t know about you, but when I want to know what’s wrong with my car, I go to a mechanic, not a reporter who happens to be writing about auto repair today.”
It’s worse when the reporter typically doesn’t even interview the mechanic ;^)
OK, geniuses, Show me one mechanic’s blog that tells me what’s wrong with my car. There’s a strange whistling on the left side of the engine. Feel free to post a link.
When i want my car fixed, I go to a mechanic. When I want news, I tend to go the media.
Okay Fister, what kind of car is it? Chevrolet? chevytalk.org. Dodge Charger? http://www.chargerforums.com Maybe a 91-96 Impala SS, Caprice or Roadmaster, see impalassforum.com
There is a forum for every car out there, with people who have experienced every problem there can be. You WILL get correct answers there – again from regular car owners, not even necessarily mechanics – far faster than from a general mechanic at a corner shop who has to deal with all types of cars.
I might get right answers. I might get an answer from someone who’s full of sh*t. I might get an answer from someone who’s trying to con me. That’s the problem of the Internet. Some people know what they are talking about. Some don’t. Some are just malevolent.
That’s also the problem with the lefty media. The ‘net is showing now time and time again how blatantly biased and incompetent the MSM are as ‘professional and neutral observers’. They now act brazenly as agents of social change, but continue to deny it.
Well it appears that those filthy bloggers at least partake of due dillegence. I’m sick of professional urnalists citing unnamed sources, anonymous sources, party insiders which translates to me “They made up the source of their articles.” and we use to call their secret sources gossip.
KAte says…
“I don’t know about you, but when I want to know what’s wrong with my car, I go to a mechanic, not a reporter who happens to be writing about auto repair today.”
It’s spooky Kate, the power of your insight is outstanding. No sarcasm at all.
I have worked 17 years in journalism, and now currently enrolled in college for my ticket.
Please tell me what should I do next?
PS…I now have man-hands!
@grok: can I say it, can I?
FISTING! 😀
Unsurprising that a Kinsella fanboi (“mouth breathers”) doesn’t get that he’s in the company of his intellectual betters when he pokes his spotty nose in here…I know for a fact we have engineers andas for me, well shucks, I’m just a lil’ ol’ tech writer for a medical device software company.
In contrast, most of the leftards I meet in this part of the country tend to be welfare recipients hell-bent on partying their way into early death in a welfare hotel.
@Fister: you will never know the true meaning of malevolence until you meet me. Maybe we can arrange that some day.
BTW, anyone want subject matter expertise on reggae? I’m your guy.
Well, gee, Mr. Anderson, I hold three graduate degrees, including a doctorate, I’ve worked in management at a railway and owned a small business (i.e., I’ve met a payroll). And I’ve written ten books and articles for every major paper and magazine in the country. So I am not impressed by the presence of the odd engineer or your self-described expertise in technical writing or reggae. Or by your threats, because, after many years of tough physical labour, I’m not too worried about defending myself.