This Week in the Mercury
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Media The Story Behind the Story
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 1:50 PM
The Atlantic has a great little piece on its website about political activists filling the information void left by laid-off journalists. I tend to agree with Philadephia Inquirer owner Brian Tierney, who thinks newspapers should break the self-flagellating habit of sharing too much bad news about themselves (says Tierney: “The audience for TV news is tanking, but do you ever hear them talk about that?”) but reporter Mark Bowden's Atlantic's story is more of a smart analysis of the changing times than just boo-hooing over the facts. Bowden worked at the Inquirer for 25 years, so maybe that paper puts something in their water cooler...
From Bowden's piece:
In our exhausting 24/7 news cycle, demand for timely information and analysis is greater than ever. With journalists being laid off in droves, savvy political operatives have stepped eagerly into the breach. What’s most troubling is not that TV-news producers mistake their work for journalism, which is bad enough, but that young people drawn to journalism increasingly see no distinction between disinterested reporting and hit-jobbery.
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