That title is a paraphrasing of one important statement out of many in this Skeptic’s Society article by Steve Salerno. Click the link below for the article.
Journalist-Bites-Reality!
Though the article is lengthy, it points out so many things wrong with the state of journalism today that it is a very important read. Since we get so much of our information from the sources discussed in this article and rely on this information for our daily lives, I found it definitely worth the time to read to its conclusion. My personal favorite sections were the sentence paraphrased in my title and the capsule summary near the end.
I choose to believe (i.e. possibly delude myself) that some sources of information are more real than the ones discussed in this article. Mother Jones and The Atlantic come to mind as examples of better reporting. Your mileage may vary.
March 5, 2008 at 05:34 |
Good article and something I have been complaining about for years. HOWEVER, I know what will get my attention. The article may have also overstated the facts.
In war, there may be skirmishing up and down the line. A hundred soldiers could be killed every night in the skirmishes. Yet if there is a battle where that same number is killed, again, it gets our attention.
That doesn’t diminish the loss of the individuals. When the specific loss is magnified though, it does become noticeable in its impact. Shock is more thrilling and noteworthy to the masses than is vanilla pudding. Stephan King and company will always be more popular than Dr. Seuss and company. The National Enquirer will sell more than will The Hill.
When the news media give what we want to know, they are only doing so in order to please their audience. Numbers mean profits. We don’t have a non-profit news gathering organization that can spend the money to truly investigate newsworthy happenings. Even PBS relies on other news gatherers for their feeds while most of their news consists of discussion by opposing experts.
This is not a sudden new development in journalism. Geeze, advocacy by newspapers has been the primary focus since their inception. Today we live in an era of the most neutral media of all times. In my own personal opinion though, I don’t think it may ever become more neutral or less competitive.