Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times guest columnist Stacy Schiff laments the sad state of today's news media:
The news has slipped its moorings. It is no longer held captive by two-inch columns of type or a sonorous 6 p.m. baritone. It has gone on the lam. Anyone can be a reporter — or a book reviewer, TV star, museum guide, podcaster or pundit.Schiff's revelation is shocking and sad, yet undeniably true.
Gone are the days when the news came to us solely via approved professionals, like Times reporter Walter Duranty, who covered up Stalin's famines, or Jason Blair, who fabricated sources and quotations out of whole cloth. No longer is the "sonorous baritone" of, say, a Dan Rather taken as the final word on the authenticity of obviously fraudulent documents. And, most important of all, no longer is the fundamental question of what stories are deemed newsworthy answered by a select few.
I just can't figure out why Schiff seems to think that's a bad thing.
1 comments:
An entire profession has slipped from being ultra-connected -- having everyone talking to it, and in turn talking to everyone -- to being isolated -- the public no longer cares and those who care are hostile and able to communicate with each other on their own.
Anyone who cares first about the profession must be feeling gloomy. Anyone who cares first about the democratization of communication must be feeling giddy.
Count me giddy.
Posted by Dan
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