Posted on 11/27/2007 4:47:10 AM PST by abb
Aboard the crowded D train, rumbling into Brooklyn on the Manhattan Bridge, the inevitable rant explodes. A rant courtesy of Faye Anderson, whom we'll call Ms. CJ, a.k.a. Citizen Journalist. A rant directed at us, Mr. MSM, a.k.a. Mainstream Media, for all our perceived faults.
"It's not you, the journalist, it's the institution," Ms. CJ tells Mr. MSM. "You're not telling the whole story. . . . You've lost your credibility."
We listen, take notes, check if the tape recorder's working. No telling what Anderson might do if she's misquoted.
She's saying anyone can be a journalist, at least anyone with an Internet connection. Start a blog, she says, that's easy. (Hers is called Anderson at Large, nearly three years old and one of the more prominent blogs in the growing Afrosphere, the African American online political sphere, where Field Negro, Jack and Jill Politics and African American Political Pundit also are must-go-to sites.) Learn how to record a podcast, no sweat. (A few weeks ago she attended a podcasting camp in Boston.)
We wanted to say, hey, it's not that simple, this journalism thing, but we hold our tongue and keep listening. Fact is, independent of the candidates, voters -- you -- are interacting with the 2008 presidential election at an unprecedented level because of the Internet, YouTubing, Facebooking, Wikipedia-ing, et al. So why not call yourself a journalist and cover the campaign, too? Whether or not we MSMers like it, the loose, undefined, evolving cadre of CJs are here to stay.
They're blogging up a storm over at Huffington Post, on the liberal site's CJ-centric Off the Bus section. High school and college students are writing for Scoop08, where relatively experienced student journalists are guiding inexperienced student CJs.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping
A perfect description of Main Stream Media
This dipsh*t author needs to realize that yes, anyone can be a journalist!
Really...objectivity rules you say...you mean the rule that if a democRAT is in legal hot water you don't mention that he a demopcRAT until the end of you article if at all, or the same rule that states if that, if it is a republican in hot water, his party affiliation is stated within the first three words and us used repeatedly throughout.
Writing “truthies,” or “false but accurate,” or “feelings” make a journalist?
Major stories on misdeeds(R) but next to nothing in misdeeds(D).
Put (R) in headline but put (D) in last paragraph, if at all.
Mr. Vargas is sooo smart and hip that he doesn’t even understand that his use of the word “gatekeepers” gives the game away.
The arrogance this idiot reveals is the very reason that the newsmedia is on life support. “Journalists” have the attitude that they control the news, not just report it.
And, based on any number of “articles” I have read in recent years, most aren’t any good at reporting the news!!
Actually it IS the journalist. The Interweb makes them more archaic every day.
Journalism, as political MSMers in Washington practice it, is too inside-the-Beltway, too beholden to sources, Ms. CJ says, all about the horse race, the money haul, the strategists, the pollsters, all about ensuring that official Washington and its political class stay employed.
But modern journalism has hopped this fence by tending to side with the government establishment, often protecting it from people and corporations. Jon Ham notes that newspapers typically feature government as an enlightened class and make use of a “standard journalism template that the private sector has questionable motives, i.e., profit, whereas the public sector’s motives are pure, i.e., altruistic.” PBS’ Bill Moyers now tours the country lashing out against the dangers of too much corporate control over the news media, while singing the virtues of government-controlled NPR and PBS. This anti-corporate attitude has its roots in Marxist, not Jeffersonian thought. As ABC’s John Stossel points out, corporations do not have nearly the same power as government entities, which are “coercive monopolies that spend other people’s money taken by force.”
I am becoming increasingly convinced that the wealthy, powerful, and somewhat archaic media conglomerates that have controlled the messaging to America for so long are beginning to crumble. As they begin to deteriorate under the weight of a more democratic media system, opportunities to infiltrate the pervasive and corrupt lies and spread truth in love are becoming abundant. As America continues to grow fatigued and sluggish from decades of the mainstream media's preaching of godlessness, bright lights are beginning to shine in the most unlikely media places. And like any small light in a pitch black room, the effect will be unmistakable. - Brian Fisher, Coral Ridge Ministries
I’d say the comet has already hit.
Famed journalist Howard K. Smith was speaking to students who wanted to become journalists about 30 years ago and was asked "what journalism school would you recommend we go to"?
His response: "You don't need to go to a journalism school to become a journalist. Just get a good general education in science, history, literature etc." The mechanics of the news business is easy.
FWIW I was a journalism major until I switched to engineering.
His response: "You don't need to go to a journalism school to become a journalist. Just get a good general education in science, history, literature etc. The mechanics of the news business is easy."
The Rep = Representative, but the casual reader would think he's a Pubbie. The DBM does this on TV all the time.
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