You ain’t never had a friend like me
Bookworm
The mainstream American media is in trouble, big trouble. Whether in TV land or in print, the big outlets are seeing their market share dropping and dropping, to the point where it almost looks like free fall. Not only have people stopped watching and reading the news, reporters have dropped dramatically in the public’s estimation. People no longer trust reporters which, in practical terms, means that people no longer trust the news being reported. As conservatives, our first contention would be that people distrust reporters because so many have soft or hard Left-leaning political biases, but that is way too simple an analysis. Reporters have many more problems than just point of view issues.
To begin with, in today’s media world, reporters have little time to polish their stories. In a 24/7 environment, the pressure to publish and control a story is even more intense than that so wonderfully portrayed in His Girl Friday. Nowadays, hours no longer matter for story dominance; instead, minutes or even seconds may determine which outlet gets first bite at publication. This deprives reporters of the chance to look over their facts and really think about them.
It’s also no surprise, given the sorry state of American education, that many reporters are ill-equipped to deal with the information they’re required to regurgitate in their stories. In a nation with a shabby record in teaching math, I suspect that many reporters struggle to understand the numbers behind a polling organization’s far reaching conclusions. They therefore readily fall back on the one liners and conclusions contained in that same organization’s accompanying press release. Because of this easy way out, it often makes no difference to the report that the organization that sponsored or conducted the polling may have its own agenda. ...
The blogosphere has finally created a crucible for the calcified American media. Reporters can no longer rest on their credentials and try pass off as facts unchecked stories, suspect sources, and biased reporting. They now have to go into every story prepared to do their best, because someone is finally watching — and not only watching, but able to react immediately with corrective information.
Given all this, what we in the blogosphere need to do is convince the MSM that we’re actually good for them. We’re not their enemy, we’re their best friend. Before the blogosphere came along, the MSM could print anything and get away with it. In the old days, journalistic ethics demanded a certain effort, but the 24 hour cycle seems to have created a type of carelessness that cleared away the past requirement that news stories actually get checked and rechecked. Even the best, most ethical journalistic working under those circumstances must begin to feel lazy and intellectually cheap. Now that we’re challenging them, though, we’re forcing them to operate with a degree of intellectual honesty and rigor that must elevate them in their own eyes and in the public’s. And that’s why, much as they dislike us, the mainstream journalists should be grateful for the fact that they “ain’t never had a friend like me” — someone who can improve their work, whether they want me to or not! ...
