Don't kid yourself, daily newspaper journalism cannot be replaced(BARF)

Island Packet.com ^ | 6-22-12 | LEONARD PITTS JR.

[radioone]

All of which lends a certain pungency to something Sarah Palin said recently at a conference of conservative activists in Las Vegas.

"Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be," she said.

According to Politico, she was quoting Matt Drudge. Ordinarily, you would dismiss it as just another silly thing Sarah Palin said. There is no shortage of those.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Jack Kelly

People who work at journalism full time ought to be able to do a better job of it than people for whom it is a hobby. But that's not going to happen as long as we "professional" journalists ignore stories we don't like and try to hide our mistakes. We think of ourselves as "gatekeepers."

But there is not much future in being a gatekeeper when the walls are down.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I lament the death of investigative journalism and a press that sought objectivity and critical analysis.

For myself, I lament the death of skepticism, which should have informed our grandparents that we cannot implicitly trust anyone to be objective.

The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing . . .

It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity,
and they very seldom teach it enough.   - Adam Smith

[Lancey Howard]

The death of professional journalism is at the hand of unprofessional journalists.

Dan Rather comes to mind first, thanks to his getting nailed and fired for the fake National Guard memo. People can only wonder how many times the Democrat newsrooms got away with fraudulent smears over the decades before the new media emerged to begin to hold them in check. Dan Rather has certainly not been alone in his dishonest attempt to smear conservatives and Republicans. Far, far from it. It is arguably worse now than ever.

So, surprise, surprise... Pitts got something right, here - - it has indeed been the Democrat newsrooms themselves, with their populations of dishonest Democrat "journalists" (and "journ-O-listers"), who have undermined professional journalism. This recent (2008) quote from the former editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times says a lot:

"I accept my share of the responsibility for placing the Times in this predicament," Martinez wrote. "But I will not be lectured on ethics by some ostensibly objective news reporters and editors who lobby for editorials to be written on certain subjects or who have suggested that our editorial page coordinate more closely with the newsroom's agenda ..."

Andres Martinez (former editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

A few years ago, our newspaper was crowing about how good they were doing. They declared bankruptcy a couple of years ago. I sent them an e-mail asking why they didn’t do any follow-up on our Democrat candidate for Lieutenant Governor seeing as his department in our state government somehow lost $23 million of taxpayer money. No response. They’re just shills for the Democrat party. They have a complete inability for self-examination..

In an ironic way, they even advertise it - if you understand what they are saying. The only way to attempt objectivity is to begin with self-examination, and self-examination is incompatible with claiming actually to be objective. So if they claim to be objective, they actually aren’t even trying to be objective.

The wisest and most cautious of us all frequently gives credit to stories which he himself is afterwards both ashamed and astonished that he could possibly think of believing . . .

It is acquired wisdom and experience only that teach incredulity,
and they very seldom teach it enough.   - Adam Smith

[JCBreckenridge]

Yeah Lifesite opened my eyes. Since then I’ve never bought a paper again.

[M Kehoe]

I just checked, and Pitts is still banned from FR. Well, after this piece of nonsense, "Don't kid yourself, daily newspaper journalism cannot be replaced," you can see he is still delusional.

Hey Leonard, you Delta Bravo, check out the price of NYT stock. Or any other paper (or their parent company) that is publicly traded.

No wonder you are still banned from FR.

5.56mm

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Why would we want to replace it?

We just want it to go away.

[Safetgiver]

They still print newspapers? Why?.... A few years ago I wrote to one of my congresscritters that we need to impose a %20 tax on newspapers because they fill up landfills killing the environment. His answer? ‘No, no, no. The recyclers you pay for would go out of business!’

[driftless2]

The almost total lack of coverage of the gunwalker scandal by Big Lib Media is one huge example of why they need to be stepped on. Does anyone with half a brain think that if this were a Republican admin, we wouldn’t have it blared into our mugs on an hourly basis the dastardly deeds of the president and his minions? But since this is a Dem admin...hey, what scandal? Instead, let’s talk about how Mitt Romney hates minorities. We don’t have any proof of that, but that hasn’t stopped us in the past.

[driftless2]

Losing Pitts would be like losing the potato bugs I just squished in my wife’s garden. Pitts and others like him are termites in the foundation of America. Ants at the picnic of western civilization. Hat tip to National Lampoon for those analogies.

[trisham]

We canceled our subscription to the Boston Globe in late 2002 or early 2003. They stopped delivering to us, and then sent our account to a collection agency about four or five months later.

Once my husband spoke to the collection agency, the Globe began attempting to entice us back.

[RichInOC]

Well then, Len, daily newspapers had better get their act together in a hurry, because gone is where they’re headed if they don’t.

And yeah, I know, Sarah’s stupid. Even some folks on FR believe that. But when she criticizes journalism, it’s from the point of view of somebody who’s trained and worked as a journalist.

[DuncanWaring]

Also from the comments at the original site:

When you tools ignored the 2,000th soldier to die in Afghanistan, claim the Muslim Brotherhood and Taliban are moderates, ignore the "silly" things Obama says, ignore the failed European green model Obama follows, ignore the billions lost, gambled on "silly" green jobs. You ignore Fast and Furious, or just claim Bush started it. You shouldn't be surprised when we ignore your newspapers, cable news and websites

[Jack Hydrazine]

“Unnecessary Force”
by JibJab
starring Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Tina Fey, Jay Leno, and David Letterman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=AmRZIJ3Q7CQ