{"id":19952,"date":"2016-04-14T13:21:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19952"},"modified":"2016-04-14T13:21:44","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T18:21:44","slug":"when-newspapers-die-and-reporters-go-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19952","title":{"rendered":"When Newspapers Die and Reporters Go Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Newspapers Die and Reporters Go Bad<\/a><\/h3>\n

When right wingers go off on NPR\u00a0and the New York Times for being mouthpieces of\u00a0the Democratic Party or left wingers criticize Fox News\u00a0and PBS\u00a0for\u00a0having too many conservatives on the air, it makes my head spin. Is there no such thing as truth anymore or not a single honest reporter in town?<\/p>\n

\n

No. And we shouldn\u2019t expect there to be. Journalism is one of those bedrock institutions that are critical to a democratic society. Reporters are supposed to inform citizens of things they need to know, to help them navigate the world confidently, effectively,\u00a0to live well and prosper. Such a noble calling reporters have. From the outside journalism looks like public service. Sometimes it is. But from the inside, the news business is like making sausage or\u00a0politics. The average person\u00a0really wouldn\u2019t like\u00a0to watch how the news is actually made. It\u2019s a pretty dirty and disgusting business even if people like\u00a0the news product they consume every day.<\/p>\n

Reporters are supposed to be fair and thorough but they are often fatuous\u00a0and sloppy. In order\u00a0to make their deadlines they\u00a0take short cuts, make deals, trade information, manipulate gate-keepers, misrepresent themselves, snivel, dissemble and act disingenuously or even\u00a0dishonestly. Some are quite vindictive and write\u00a0just enough of the truth to tell a lie or support one. Judith Miller\u2019s shameless reporting about Saddam Hussein\u2019s weapons of mass destruction when he didn\u2019t have any comes to mind. Not exactly the kind of people\u00a0who follow the golden rule in their work life. But theirs is such a noble calling.<\/p>\n

There is a kind of catechism you learn when you go to J-School: get the facts, get the story, get if first, but get it right.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Newspapers Die and Reporters Go Bad When right wingers go off on NPR\u00a0and the New York Times for being mouthpieces of\u00a0the Democratic Party or left wingers criticize Fox News\u00a0and PBS\u00a0for\u00a0having too many conservatives on the air, it makes my head spin. Is there no such thing as truth anymore or not a single honest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[462,2324,927,1921,570,10378,6457,13478,655,13479,13480],"class_list":["post-19952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-journalism","tag-journalists","tag-manipulation","tag-new-york-times","tag-news","tag-newspapers","tag-npr","tag-peter-white","tag-propaganda","tag-public-service","tag-reporters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19953,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19952\/revisions\/19953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}