Spiked- Journalism vs the people
The result is a socially and culturally homogenous media elite. An elite dominated by credentialed, largely upper-middle-class people who share more in common with journalists in other countries than they do with vast swathes of the public in their own countries.
The collective media are no different than pollsters. They do not collect and report information … but they PUSH their preferred opinion … disguised in terms of “integrity” and “accuracy”. And they dismiss all divergent reports as … “misinformation”.
They’re useless. They’re dangerous.
The legacy media live in an echo chamber of progressive narratives while bemoaning the evolution of technology that has eliminated their monopoly over the masses that existed a generation ago. The notion that anyone can start up their own information, commentary, and political discourse available to the world when they spent years and tens of thousands of dollars on getting credentialed to the gilded in-crowd likely makes them resentful and bitter as the world passes them by. No wonder they now advocate for censorship of the plebs with thinly disguised platitudes such as “disinformation”. The free market isn’t buying what they’re selling and they’re blaming in on the market. It’s an old story that keeps repeating.
Epoch Times had a great article on “journalism” back in 2017. Paraphrasing somewhat….
This should surprise no one. The editing of “news” is standard procedure for “media” outlets and it stems from the book “Interpretative Reporting” by Curtis MacDougall in which it was said that the goal of journalism was not to accurately report the news, but to shape history. “Good journalism” must give the reader the “appropriate” context by which the “correct” opinions could be formed.
This was the birth of what we now call “advocacy journalism.” Idealist young journalism students lapped it up. Making history was going to be far more exciting than merely reporting facts. MacDougall’s philosophy now seems to be the accepted “norm” in every major journalism school in the country.
Curtis MacDougall was Illinois state supervisor of the heavily Communist Party-infiltrated Federal Writers Project from 1939 to 1942, going on to teach journalism in Northwestern University until his retirement in 1971.
So when you hear about the “unbiased” media, give some thought to that.
Journalistic rot really set in post-watergate. Instead of striving for accuracy and objectivity, fame and sensationalism became the goal; everyone wants to be Bernstein and Woodward. And if a real shit-storm story doesn’t come your way, well, you just exaggerate and make shit up.
So Pee-Pee becomes far-right;, peacefully protesting truckers are militant; ordinary weather events are unprecedented; and Trump is Hitler.
Silly, strutting fools.
“Journalistic rot really set in post-watergate.”
Journalism has always been yesterday’s lawn clippings, raked and composted
The 24 hour rule used to be a 7 day rule, with daily updates.
Now that headspace X has launched, we are all AI.