01-21-2019, 06:02 PM
(01-21-2019, 05:39 PM)Nately120 Wrote: You gotta give the people what they want. The demand for crap journalism is what drives the market. It's america, we want Bud Light, Bic Macs, and toilet-bowl journalism. Are those appealing things? I wouldn't think so, but I'm weird.
To be fair, we're no different than any people in this regard. We consume different things, but the bread and circuses is a universal constant.
(01-21-2019, 05:39 PM)treee Wrote: We gotta figure out a way to fix it. Journalism is a necessity for a democracy to function correctly.
I completely agree. A good way to start would be to enact what I've suggested before on this board, eliminate the editorial section from hard news locations. Also, eliminate editorialism from hard news stories. Opinion and fact are not interchangeable, however in the current news format they are inextricably linked. Another way to do this would be to be more concerned with being correct than being first. We've discussed this here before as well, but the proliferation of "news" options has damaged the journalism profession. As ad revenue falls they are desperate to generate money, and their reporting has suffered commensurately. Even formerly prestigious, and borderline unimpeachable, sources such as the NYT have fallen prey to this.
Perhaps the most damage was inflicted by how the news media responds to Trump. He lambasted them and they took it personally. It shows in the stories they run on him and the tone they are presented. Ironically, they've become much more as Trump portrays them in their reaction to him then they ever did prior.
