After 25 years in the newspaper business, I had to take early retirement in 2009 to look after my mother in her last years.
So, I have no recent experience of the state of the newspaper industry.
But I can tell you that, during my career, professional standards were definitely higher in the hometown press.
For example, none of the managing editors I worked under would allow unnamed sources except under the most exceptional of circumstances. And usually we’d have our lawyers look over those stories before publication.
Even a lot of the liberal journalists I worked with would complain that us local yokels would get besmirched by the shenanigans of the big-time media.
Still, the industry as a whole has betrayed the American people by not taking a decisive stand against Leftism. A lot of rank-and-file reporters and editors are suffering.
I have some sympathy for them — but not a lot.
I’m only 62 and writing as well as ever, at least I think. It would be a joy and a blessing to be back in the biz, if ever the media culture changed back to something that put facts before narratives.
An old man — well, late middle-aged — can dream can’t he?
Absolutely, and you do not need permission. Well said.
I would definitely think so. In a big organization like the lettered news media entities, they are so big and run by Leftists, that there would be less ownership and responsibility. In a smaller, regional press, the decisions on what to print and how to say it or slant it rest in the hands of more accessible people, I would think. At places like NBC, they have people up the chain who are largely immune and insulated from the ramifications of their Leftist proclivities.